Today we’d like to introduce you to Cara Gruhala.
Hi Cara, 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 worked in a completely different industry for nearly the first 10 years of my career, deciding to return to graduate school in my late 20s. I made a career jump from HR to counseling because in my role as an HR employee I loved talking with so many people and learning about their stories. Initially I said I only wanted to work in private practice with adults. As I pursued my degree at the University of Central Missouri I was highly encouraged to take play therapy, and did so a little hesitantly. I thought I was never going to work with kids! Dr. Janelle Cowles was a life changer in that regard because play therapy changed the projected course of my career. My first job as a counselor was at a charter elementary school, Hope Leadership Academy, in Kansas City and I have worked with children, parents, and educators in some capacity ever since.
My career path eventually led me to several great years as a school counselor at Longview Farm Elementary in Lee’s Summit. It was there that I had the space, resources, and support to start to dive deeper with kids, and in counseling leadership. These were wonderful years with the best team I could have imagined. To keep expanding my work and have more flexibility for my family I made the difficult but important decision to move into private practice in 2019.
From there, and as a result of some of my own life experiences and client experiences, I began getting more specialized training in several areas. I began working with adults in addition to children and ended up with a large amount of clients wanting to explore the possibilities of being neurodivergent. At the same time I was learning about my own late diagnosed neurodivergence and a passion was born.
At this point in my career I love variability in the types of goals my clients bring. I work with clients ages four through adulthood. I love the variety involved in working across the lifespan. I can’t say that I only serve one population, however some of my favorite areas to work in are supporting individuals or families through exploring neurodivergence, the transition to parenthood, and helping people make sense and meaning out of challenging life circumstances. I love treating my clients as experts in their own life experiences and I also enjoy helping clients get to know themselves more deeply through Internal Family Systems (IFS), and helping clients explore and reprocess difficult circumstances through Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). I love using play therapy with my child clients. I also hold a perinatal certification (PMH-C) through Postpartum International with additional training to support clients on their journey to becoming a parent, during pregnancy, and during the postpartum period. I will be a lifetime learner because I love continuing to add to my therapy toolbox to support clients in their work.
Today my practice, Seeds of Change Counseling and Consulting, LLC, has five employees, and we get so serve around 200 individuals and families annually. I also love my work as an Adjunct Instructor for the counseling department at the University of Central Missouri, and as an approved clinical supervisor for provisionally licensed counselors in Missouri. My students, my current team, and my clients are all major contributors to my continued and ever evolving curiosity about new and different aspect of the field of counseling.
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?
I value every role I have played in the counseling field to date. Each one has helped add to my bank of knowledge and experiences. Leaving the two counseling roles I held before private practice were both very hard for me. I didn’t take these decisions lightly. I consider myself very relational, and leaving the daily interactions with past coworkers and students was a tough transition, but worth it for the work/life balance it brought. I have had the privilege to work with so many different populations of people and am eternally grateful for the impact each has played in my own life and career development.
Being a small business owner during pregnancy, a pandemic, and a variety of political and financial climates has been a wild ride! I know other small business owners can relate. Being a counselor and so deeply in touch with client’s personal experiences of all of these situations adds another level of complexity to these factors. It takes time and intential effort to try to balance all of this with personal and family life.
I am also always trying to be intentional and calculated about my business progress and growth. Being in the “right” location, in the “right” space that supports the future evolution and growth of my business and employees, and the continued evolution of healthy business culture at my practice is something that takes of a lot of brain space for me.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am so thankful for all of my mentors and their investment into my professional growth. It brings me great joy at this phase of my career to be a clinical supervisor and adjunct professor and to be able to give back to the profession in this way. One particularly cool aspect of this is getting to provide clinical supervision to some of my former students and see their growth in the profession continue.
I love that I get to prioritize a neurodivergence affirming lens in my practice, and value that I can work from a place of lived experience in this area. So many neurodivergent individuals have experienced shame in their interactions with, or treatment by others due to the unique ways, and even some strengths of how their brain works. We aim to be a place where clients can experience unconditional positive regard, feel affirmed and not shamed in their personal experiences, and to learn more about how to capitalize on the unique and often powerful ways that their brains work. The instance of increased later diagnosed Autism and ADHD in particular is not evidence that we are overdiagnosing. It’s evidence that our diagnostic processes are finally moving closer to accurately identifying people with these neurotypes.
Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
Thinking about therapy? Taking the first step can be nervewracking. We are here to provide person-centered, humanity affirming counseling across the lifespan. Potential clients, clinicians or families looking for collaboration or consultation, and those looking for clinical supervision can contact cara@seedsofchangecc.com or www.seedsofchangecc.com.
Cara has also done corporate and group trainings on neurodivergence, communication, burnout, mental health first aid, and trauma informed care and is open to opportunities for collaborating with organizations and businesses to better serve the wellness needs of their staff or stakeholders.
Pricing:
- Individual sessions with Cara: $125
- Individual sessions with other SOC employees: $100 – $105
- Contact for pricing for trainings as these can vary and are dependent on many factors
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.seedsofchangecc.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seedsofchangekc/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seedsofchangecc
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/seedsofchangecc
