Small Business Finalist Spotlight: Insight Into Action Therapy
Thank you Cyndi Turner and Craig James, co-owners of Insight Into Action Therapy! Congratulations.
Register here for the Small Business Awards on November 2, 2017.
- Tell us your story of how your company got to where it is today?
Cyndi: The founding of Insight Into Action Therapy was a journey over twenty years rather than a single event. Craig and I both worked in other settings and paid attention to what did and did not work for our clients. It is one thing to have poor service in a restaurant, but is potentially life threatening when poor service occurs when you are dealing with someone’s mental health or addiction.
Together, we wanted to correct some of the challenges that Northern Virginians face with a fragmented behavioral health care system. We saw that residents in the community were in need but did not have appropriate resources. People were dealing with waitlists, well meaning but untrained providers for addiction treatment, and having to go to multiple locations for services while the opiate and suicide epidemics raged in Loudoun County.
We wanted to offer licensed and credentialed experts in their field who could respond quickly and compassionately, in one location for their mental health and substance use needs. So, we put our Leesburg houses up as collateral and gathered a team of six other therapists with well over a hundred years’ experience between us.
We opened our doors to clients on July 13, 2015 with the mission of setting the standard to which other dual diagnosis practices would be compared. Insight offers the Dual Diagnosis Recovery Program© with onsite drug and alcohol testing, individual, family, group, play, and couples therapy, psychological and psychiatric evaluations, and medication monitoring with evening and weekend sessions available—all in one location with appointments within 48 hours.
- What would it mean to you and your company to win a Small Business Award?
Cyndi: Winning a Small Business Award would be an amazing accomplishment and validation for Insight Into Action Therapy. Craig and I have worked so hard these last three years getting the business up and running. We are looking forward to catching our breaths, reflecting on how far our business has come, and celebrating it with our peers.
Craig: It would mean that part of our dream would be realized. One of the missions was to make IIAT the standard by which all other practices were compared. To have an office location with a home like and relaxed décor, a collection of clinicians who enjoyed one another’s company and their ‘calling’ of helping people. It would mean that we were helping the community and that the community to notice. Whether we win or not the sacrifice has been worth it, the win would be validation or the icing on the cake.
- If you weren’t running your own business/working at this business, what would you be doing?
Cyndi: I can’t imagine not being a therapist and business owner. I love what I do and feel it is a calling. To me, there is nothing better than getting to help people. Wait—is there such a thing as being a paid beach reviewer? Maybe I could do that…
Craig: I have often answered this question. I would either have some role in professional sports, specifically basketball or football, either as a referee, in the league office, or as player representative. I enjoy sports from developmental level to a competitive level to championships. Ironically the clients who have had some prior sports related interest can apply that experience to their presenting challenges. The other profession would have been some form of residential or commercial construction. Possibly as a general contractor or project manager.
- What book are you reading right now? / What is your favorite book?
Cyndi: No way—that’s like asking me to pick my favorite child! Right now I am reading five: the last chapter of Pride and Prejudice, The Book that Matters Most for book club, Outliers for self improvement, and The Fountainhead and The Effective Entrepreneur because they were on the Top 25 List of books every entrepreneur should read.
Craig: My favorite book to date was Malcolm Gladwells’ Tipping Point.
- If you have 24-hours off, and your family was out of town, what would you do?
Cyndi: I would be sitting outside in the sun reading a book.
Craig: Of all the questions this is the easiest. I would play as many rounds of golf as possible. Eighteen holes at 1757 followed by 18 and Lansdowne and finish up the evening at Raspberry Falls of Bull Run.
- What is the smallest thing that has made the largest impact on your business?
Cyndi: I was meeting with a client who was talking about the positive changes he was making regarding his drinking. He pulled out my book and referenced several lines that made him want to change for the better. I was so excited for him but it was also this weird feeling hearing him quote me. I was like: “Whoa, that’s right, I did publish a book.” It was such a long term goal that I forget sometimes that is actually out there impacting real people on an international scale. That’s kind of freaky!
Craig: Collaboration. I always had confidence in what IIAT has become. I learned to trust the process and not feel like I had to do it all (boy that was hard) and in doing so other’s abilities excelled and I saw different ways to achieve.
- What did you want to be when you grew up as a child?
Cyndi: I did a guided imagery exercise in school that asked me to imagine this. What I came up with was being a professional in a beautiful office, wearing heels (this is a big deal for any tall woman!) It’s crazy that this has actually happened and that I get paid to help people.
Craig: Growing up my mom was a head cardiac nurse and so I spent a lot of time around open-heart surgeon, nurse, etc. As result I want to be a perfusionist, a specialist who uses the heart–lung machine during cardiac surgery and other surgeries that require cardiopulmonary bypass to manage the patient’s physiological status. I was headed into the profession until I took Organic Chemistry in college, I didn’t fair that well.
- Who is the one person that has influenced you the most in your career?
Cyndi: The person who influenced me the most has been my business partner and best friend of over 15 years, Craig James. He has always given me support, saying, “Go for it” when I had the bold ideas to write a book and open up our own practice. I have the big ideas and he puts them into action. We are a great team. And he always fixes the technology that I can never seem to get to work right.
Craig: Definitely my business partner and friend, Cyndi Turner. We truly have a complementary relationship. If I have a vision, dream, or idea, she will do the leg work and research and help that dream become a reality. We allow or play off of one another’s strengths – she is the detailed one and I am either the big picture guy or day to day operations.
- What is your favorite thing about running a business in Loudoun County?
Cyndi: Some therapists prefer to work outside of the area where they practice for their own privacy. I actually love that I get the help the people in my own community. It’s natural to feel helpless when you hear about an overdose or suicide, but I get to do something about it.
Also, I let my clients know that what we do is confidential and I won’t acknowledge them if I see them out in public. I’m thrilled that more often than not, if our paths cross at the grocery store or a school event, they come up, hug me, and introduce me to whomever they are with.
Craig: It’s where I live. The growth, opportunity, and diversity that is offered is tremendous. It’s never mundane or boring. There is consistently something new to do to try from activities to restaurants.
- If you’re not in the office where can we find you?
Cyndi: At the gym. My first clients of the day know that I am going to have wet hair because I just showered after my workout. I try to practice what I preach.
Craig: During the work week, I might be at the gym or at meeting or heading to the office.
- What is your favorite weekend activity in Loudoun County?
Cyndi: I love watching my two daughters find their self-confidence and friends in their sports. So you will either find me at a field hockey game or on deck at a swim meet.
Craig: If I’m not at home manicuring my lawn or some house project, I’m on a golf courses, playing lacrosse with my son, or somewhere with my family and/or relatives.
Thank you Cyndi Turner and Craig James, co-owners at Insight Into Action Therapy! Congratulations.
Register here for the Small Business Awards on November 2, 2017.