Q&A talks with Dr. Dori Gatter, owner and founder of West Hartford Holistic Counseling.
Can you describe your business?
WHHC is a holistic counseling and mental health center. We look at the whole person and not just a diagnosis. Our clinicians offer many different modalities to help our patients with their mental, emotional, physical and spiritual health.
We serve many different populations of adults, children, couples and families. We also have a holistic APRN on staff. A few of our specialties include eating disorders, relationships, parenting, addictions, anxiety, depression, grief and loss, health coaching, neurodivergent, trauma, art therapy, technology dependence, LGBTQ, infertility, business coaching and life transitions.
How did you get into this business?
I have been a therapist for over 25 years and opened the group practice 11 years ago. What motivated me originally 25 years ago to become a therapist was having a difficult childhood myself and having such a healing experience in my own therapy. It motivated me to want to help others in the same way I was supported in therapy.
Being in therapy really saved my life and helped me to be the person I am today. I have a very close connection and relationship with my aunt and uncle who are therapists and have been my mentors.
What motivated me to open a group practice is that I had other therapists in my community who were coming to me asking for coaching on how to get into private practice. I had an overflow of new client calls that I could not take. I put $20,000 on a credit card as I did not have the funds at the time to start a business. I hired two therapists and took a huge leap of faith in myself that I could create a community of caring therapists.
Today we have an amazing group.
Check out the other 2024 SBA Award winners
How has your business grown in the past year?
We have grown exponentially this past year. We grew 63% in 2023 compared to 2022, and for the first quarter of 2024, we are 20% ahead of 2023.
One of our biggest accomplishments I believe is growing our community of clinicians, and now APRNs, to work with our clients on their physical health and wellness as well as prescribing medications when needed.
What’s a major challenge your business has overcome in the past year?
The big challenge we had to overcome this past year was the frustratingly long wait times to get our clinicians credentialed with insurance companies. Some took up to three to four months. This past year was the longest wait times we have ever experienced, and it affected us being able to help more clients get the help they needed and also affected our clinicians being able to work.
What major strategic plans do you have in the next few years?
We plan to keep growing our team so we can help more clients. We will be hiring more clinicians as well as more APRNs. We are looking to hopefully purchase a building for our practice in the next few years.