Meet Buffalo Roam Therapy Group (Valerie Guile, Aubree Ridley, and Katherine Brethower)

Today we’d like to introduce you to Buffalo Roam Therapy Group (Valerie Guile, Aubree Ridley, and Katherine Brethower).

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Dreaming of opening our own mental health private practice, we decided there was no better time to make our dreams a reality than when the world was already upside down during a worldwide pandemic. Having worked together as therapists at a non-profit agency in Johnson County, Kansas, we (Katherine Brethower, Valerie Guile, and Aubree Ridley) knew our commitment to ethical and high-quality client care aligned and we wanted to continue to serve our community together. As COVID-19 continued to worsen, we could clearly see the overwhelming need for mental health support. We began to pour our hearts into creating Buffalo Roam Therapy Group, our dream come true with a name inspired by the story of resiliency and bravery of the American buffalo.

As the story goes, American buffalo (bison) and cows share the same environment, experiencing all the seasons nature has to offer, including the infamous storms of the Great Plains in the Midwest. While the cow’s natural instinct is to run from the storms as they sense them approaching, they’re unable to escape the inevitable and prolong their exposure to the storm.

In contrast, the buffalo’s instinct leads them to charge the storm head-on, minimizing the amount of time they experience the storm.

We developed a deep connection with the buffalo’s response to adversity and felt that this story served as a powerful metaphor for the importance of prioritizing mental health and facing life’s challenges. Often, it feels easier to push down and ignore uncomfortable feelings and traumatic events in the moment. However, many people later realize that those same experiences can start to have a negative impact on their mental health, relationships and ability to function at work and home. We knew we wanted to help others “Be the Buffalo” by facing challenges in therapy so that they could heal, feel empowered, and discover life’s beauty after the storm.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Creating a private practice during a worldwide pandemic presented its share of challenges. Like many business owners, we worked to balance the health and safety of those we are committed to serving while also keeping our families and selves as safe as possible. For us, that meant opening the doors to our virtual offices for teletherapy in January 2021 and our physical office doors for in-person sessions in May.

As we supported our clients, we began to notice how living in a pandemic was not only impacting their mental health but our own, as well. We quickly adjusted to holding space for clients who were experiencing feelings of isolation, anxiety, grief, and other emotions related to the pandemic, while also learning to navigate our own lives in this new and unexpected world. We knew we weren’t alone in this feeling, fueling our desire to support other essential workers who were navigating the layer of pandemic-related trauma that had been added onto their already-challenging professions.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
As mental health therapists, we provide confidential therapy to adults and adolescents through individual, family, and couples therapy. We offer support for those experiencing a variety of life’s storms and specialize in working with those who experience (or have experienced) work-related traumas or stressors, including (but not limited to) healthcare workers, teachers, first responders, and mental health professionals.

We’re most proud of the authentic connections we have the honor to make with our clients, communities, and colleagues across the Kansas City Metro and throughout the country. We’re able to make these invaluable connections by providing a safe environment for our clients to process their experiences during their therapy sessions, sharing relevant tips and information on our social media pages, and collaborating with and learning from our colleagues through continuing education and professional trainings.

One of the unique elements of our practice is that we each come from different educational backgrounds, holding master’s degrees in Science of Family Therapy (Aubree Ridley, LCMFT), Science of Counseling Psychology (Katherine Brethower, LPC), and Social Work (Valerie Guile, LMSW). Our diverse educational backgrounds and areas of expertise allow us to collaborate and thoughtfully pair our clients with the therapist best suited to support their needs. We each have years of experience in the field and are trained in a variety of therapeutic techniques, including Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing (EMDR), a psychotherapy approach developed to help individuals overcome the effects of trauma. Regardless of what brings our clients to therapy, we always use a client-centered approach, seeing each person, family, and couple as unique. We customize our therapy approach specifically for each person’s needs, rather than simply checking off boxes or meeting quotas. Our goal is to always ensure that no one has to weather the storm alone.

We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
We want to highlight two things we’ve learned during the COVID-19 pandemic that resonate with us, both professionally and personally:

The first is the reminder that while we are all currently experiencing the same storm, we are experiencing it through different circumstances, have varying degrees of coping skills and resources, and it’s important to remember we don’t know what each person is carrying. What may feel overwhelming, scary, or easily manageable to one person may not feel the same to another, and treating others with kindness and compassion can make all the difference in the world.

The second is that our resilience and adaptability as humans are simply remarkable. We’ve remained in awe at the way our communities have charged this storm head-on by discovering new ways to stay connected and get their jobs done, all while caring for each other and themselves. And can we just take a second to give a shout out to all the kids who have had their childhoods turned upside down by this pandemic and have made the best out of masks, distanced learning, virtual playdates, and so many other changes? These little buffaloes are truly amazing!

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.buffaloroamtherapy.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/buffaloroamtherapygroup
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/Buffaloroamtherapygroup

Image Credits
Cassandra Joy Photography https://www.cassandrajoyphotography.com/