Hidden Gems: Meet Emily Sterk of Healing Towards Wellness

Today we’d like to introduce you to Emily Sterk. 

Hi Emily, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?

I grew up in Overland and lived here until college and then moved back for graduate school. I had a dream of moving to Boston, which developed when I was in high school and I spent a day there on my way to working at a summer camp. I moved there in 2014, and absolutely loved my time in such a wonderful and culturally diverse city. 

While in Boston I grew into what I wanted to be as a therapist and overall mental health provider. Being able to complete my post graduate work for licensure in Boston was exactly the experience I needed to grow into my craft as a marriage and family therapist.  

When I made the tough choice to move back home, I wanted to be mindful that where I lived in Massachusetts could not be more different from Overland Park. I reached out to friends, other therapists and old classmates to learn how the mental health world had changed in the five years I had been gone. I learned there was an oversaturation of private practices and even a few mental health hospitals but not many, if any, mental health agencies. Agencies are where I spent all of my time in Boston and really grew to love that space. 

With services available only for those in dire need or those with incredible amounts of expendable income, I realized there was a core demographic unaware or unable to utilize services. I saw a need for more accessible and affordable mental health care in Kansas City and surrounding areas. I knew the only way to achieve this mission was to start a nonprofit vs a for-profit private practice. 

How I got started was by creating a business plan and reaching out to anyone who would listen. I was introduced to SCORE which assigned me a mentor and he was amazing. He helped in sharpening my plan, mission, and goals. I was introduced to women within the Nonprofit world who really took a chance on me and helped me put together a budget, and plug in with entrepreneurs and foundations within the area. Most of 2018-2019 was meeting for coffee, asking questions, developing a plan, learning how to create a company, and understanding the legal steps! 

The number one question I got and honestly still do is; “Why a nonprofit.” I love the idea of having a board of directors and being able to remove the financial burden. Being a nonprofit achieves both of these because we are able to have an affordable sliding scale for services, take in donations and apply for grants. I like the idea of having a team and bringing a group of people who are experts in their field to start a mental health agency and support mental health efforts in our area. 

As 2019 continued I was able to finalize legal paperwork, find an office, and start seeing clients but it was a stagnant start. The end of 2019 consisted of continued networking, learning how nonprofit vs for-profit works, and participating in a UMKC program that helps get nonprofits off the ground. 

As 2020 started, I was still moving at a fairly slow rate and trying to find board members. I had some fun plans earlier that year that had to be canceled. When the pandemic hit, I had a hard choice to make, I knew closing down wasn’t an option, and I had to switch everything to virtual as so many did. I knew I needed to make a big move to stay afloat so I kept everything the same but heavily pushed social media, which I hadn’t been doing because I was afraid of the cost. 

I reached out to a women’s entrepreneur group on and connected with my friend Lyndsey. She took a leap of faith in stepping up and helping me navigate how to market a nonprofit right when a global pandemic was starting and shutting everything down. I had to pause for most of April and starting in May I began seeing clients again either virtually or in-person while following all CDC and safety guidelines. 

June of 2020 is when things started taking a turn for the better. Our social media game was getting better, my clients were building and I was starting to get board member interest. August 2020 was a serious and positive turning point; I signed on our first two board members and had a tug to make another big move and do something for our one-year anniversary in October. 

Throughout the pandemic, I had been paying attention to what was going on with schools and I saw a significant problem surrounding adequate mental health care for our teachers. I reached out to Lyndsey three days before September and shared the idea of offering free therapy to teachers for this school year. She loved the idea and we put a plan in place. I reached out to some teacher friends, got their blessing, and started sending emails to schools. My first free teacher session was September 4th, 2020 and we provided free services up until March 2021. 

None of us, myself, the board, or Lyndsey were aware of what we just achieved. Since that first session, I have met with over 50 teachers and continue to see a majority of them today. 98% of them chose to stay on and pay for services. We now hold five pro Bono slots for teachers and they continue to be filled.  

The end of 2020 and the start of 2021 were extremely busy. The teacher program was the main focus along with my other paying clients, we had a few board meetings under our belt and continued to try and navigate how to build our foundation. 

Since the start of this year, Lyndsey had to step away so we hired a new social media manager and added a third board member. We have been able to make steady, organic strides in our goals which has been an incredible feeling. We are consistently full with clients, receive consistent donations, referrals, and shout-outs from the community. 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?

Yes and no. It’s been smoother than I expected which is a huge blessing. Being able to connect and learn from others who saw potential in our mission and have guided me along the way is one of the reasons growth has been smoother. 

My absolute number one goal for this nonprofit is trusting the process and moving at a pace where decisions feel steady and organic. The two big moves we made last year were gut instincts that happened to work out and gave us momentum. 

We have had other ideas and plans that didn’t come to fruition and that’s okay. We wanted to start a therapy group for teachers that didn’t get off the ground and it’s reminding ourselves that if it doesn’t happen it isn’t meant to be right now and it is okay. We couldn’t attend certain events or partner with a few companies because of Covid restrictions, it’s okay. We hope we can achieve these goals in the future. 

One of our board members, Jennie, spoke about how there has been a struggle to find board members, particularly during Covid. Though there has been substantial growth for Healing Towards Wellness and noticeably more awareness of mental health issues, finding people to join the team has sometimes been a barrier. It’s also been tough to fundraise, being a new nonprofit that took flight during the pandemic and essentially being a grassroots effort, it’s been tough to raise enough awareness to help bring in funds. 

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?

I am a licensed clinical marriage and family therapist and I specialize in self-injury/suicide prevention and recovery. I also specialize in disordered eating issues and enjoy working with whole families and couples. I am known for working from a dialectical behavioral model of therapy. DBT is an effective model when clients struggle with higher crisis levels such as suicide or self-injury. DBT helps clients feel more empowered over their situations, set intentional boundaries with themselves and others, and supports their healing process. It has been humbling when people ask for anyone who specializes in DBT and I see my name be mentioned. On the business end, we are slowly becoming known as the place that is affordable, which again is such a blessing that we are thought of so quickly. 

On the side of being a therapist, the needs of my clients will always come first. I also network and collaborate with other mental health professionals often as a source for referrals but more importantly self-care and having a sense of community. 

On the nonprofit side, we continue to build our foundation of being known as an affordable and accessible mental health care option. Jenny, our social media manager is a rockstar in stabilizing and growing our social media presence and our board is full of creative, innovative, and intelligent people who really believe in our mission. 

Since the beginning, we connect with and shout out to local businesses because we are believers in supporting our local community. Bringing money directly to the community lowers mental health crisis and suicide rates. 

The past two years our focus has been client acquisition, business stabilization, and making small steps in growth. 

I believe what sets us apart is simply being a nonprofit and working from a different business model. Nonprofits succeed because people see the value and needs being met in the community, if not for that, the nonprofit is going to struggle. We focus on affordability, connect with the community, and want to grow into an agency, which simply isn’t here in Kansas City. I have yet to find what we are doing or plan to do in our area and I believe what will set us apart has yet to come. 

What we want people to know about us is we are here to help, be a voice for those who normally wouldn’t seek out support. We want to tackle mental health differently and go beyond the therapy room. 

What’s next?

Healing Towards Wellness chose to be a nonprofit/charity because we believe in the wrap-around model of care. What this means is, clients not only have a team supporting them, we are all in the same location. Clients will have a therapist, dietician, and personal trainer available to them depending on what they are needing. With my background in agency, crisis, foster care, and child welfare work, I’ve learned mental health care is beyond the therapy room and has to be a community effort. We’ve tackled the affordable part with our sliding scale and having our charity status. The second part involves our services being accessible; being in the same building and having offices for individual, group therapy, nutritional support, and a gym is how we achieve this goal. 

The long-term goal that we are putting into place next year is bringing on dieticians and personal trainers so we can start building those partnerships. We may not all be in the same building, but it’s a wonderful step for our third year. 

We have a ten-year, three-phase plan and when I start talking about it, it is incredible how far we have come and we can start putting these long-term steps into place! All of these goals will contribute to our wraparound, whole body approach to wellness. 

Our first phase has already been in place, providing mental health services at an affordable cost in an accessible area. 

Our second phase is creating the wrap-around service and bringing other professionals on board to support our clients. 

Our third phase is probably the most ambitious and drives the idea home that mental health care looks different for everyone. Not everyone needs therapy, not everyone needs or wants to go to the gym, what they may need is community. By our tenth year, we are going to have an intentional living space where people can have affordable and community living. Intentional living spaces involve residents having their lofts for sleeping but the living room and kitchen spaces are for all residents. Having these spaces encourages relationship building, lowers the loneliness epidemic we are currently in, helps the environment, and can support keeping costs low for services. 

We have tons to look forward to and where we are right before our two-year anniversary is right on track with hitting our projected timeline.

Pricing:

• Mental health services $40-$75 per session
• Board membership $300 per year of membership

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: healingtowardswellness.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/healingtowardswellness/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/healingtowardswellness

Image Credits:
Brad Bozarth