Today we’d like to introduce you to Catherine Boswell and Victoria Jones.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Catherine and Victoria. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
We met in 2003 at a year-long Intensive Trauma Training Fellowship Program. We were both former artists, and were in weekly client consultations and classes as we launched our second careers.
Our clinical strengths and challenges were very different (lighting new neural pathways) yet complimentary.
Once licensed, Catherine went to work in Chronic Pain Clinics and Victoria began Private Practice. Without Catherine’s encouragement, referrals, psychological research, on-call consultation and a constant exchange of psych articles (on dissociation, neuroplasticity, existentialism, physical health, relentless hope, working with resistance, and couples therapy, and more couples therapy) Victoria would not have succeeded.
When Catherine opened her Practice a year later, Victoria was able to return the favor.
Fifteen years later, they have successful and exciting careers because of that support.
The next frontier. Psynergy!
Has it been a smooth road?
We would like to say it has all been smooth, but as with any start-up there has been a learning curve. It took us both years of hard work to build up our practices, and switching from being solo practitioners to running a group practice is a major transition.
As seasoned therapists, we are nicely prepared to deal with many of the growing pains and gains we are experiencing: training and supervising our interns, consulting with our experienced therapists, networking in the community, marketing, tracking and implementing referrals, all the while providing good solid therapeutic care to our clients.
We continue to be hopeful as we watch psychotherapy move into the mainstream of personal and health care – we know that the mind-body connection is not a connection but rather an interactive whole. Societally we are more accepting and encouraging of seeking therapy – considering it a class in ourselves, and in relationships – how they work, and how and why they don’t. As one client stated, “We are educated in so many subjects other than ourselves, when, in fact, we are more complex than any of them!”
We are dedicated to psychological education and healing, and while at times, minds are resistant to change, so much is possible with reliable and appropriate guidance.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Psynergy is a group psychotherapy practice. We provide whole-person, strength-based, and neurologically-informed care to adults, couples, families, adolescents, children, and groups. We exchange resources, share areas of expertise, and supervise interns who are able to offer therapy on a sliding fee scale.
We are most proud of the level of care and expertise that we bring to our clients. Victoria and Catherine have extensive trauma training and a deep understanding of the many different, sometimes subtle experiences and interactions that can cause people to develop symptoms that are problematic in their daily lives and relationships.
Our former lives as artists sets apart and informs the Creative ways we approach therapy. Victoria has a masters degree from Houston’s premier Creative Writing Program, and was the founding director of Writers in the Schools. Through foundation support, she was able to raise $1 million a year in our fair city. After completing a fine arts degree Catherine became a sculptor and metal worker and for 25 years she made her living making functional art, some of which can still be seen around town. While she absolutely loved this work, she followed her passion for learning and for helping people to graduate school and a doctoral degree in psychology.
We are story tellers and metaphor makers, creativity is inherent in all of us, though our culture may not always reflect this. Healing is a very visual and interactive process: E. M. Forster summed this up perfectly: “How can I know what I think until I see what I say?” We encourage people to map mental constructs, to write through thought loops; to draw and describe internal self states that are in conflict or stuck – creating collaborative catalysts for change.
Our most recent idea is to be proactive in providing a foundation of knowledge and psychological awareness to our youngest Houstonians to help them navigate a world in which perfectionism and competition are often favored over real learning – through a series of summer workshops and our hope to work in the schools with teachers and parents.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Houston is a fantastic place for our business, and a great place to live and work.
Catherine is a native Houstonian and still believes that Houstonians are our greatest asset/resource. Houston, as large as it is, has a sense and feel of community, and we are culturally diverse, which is wonderful and enriching. There is an entrepreneurial spirit here, and plenty of opportunity for start-ups, pop-ups, and well-established businesses. The cost of living is relatively low when compared to other major metropolitan areas, we have great food, art, entertainment, nature, and educational opportunities. We love it here!
As a major metropolitan city, we face all the opportunities and challenges facing our country. We hope we are helping resolve these issues one person, one couple or family, one group at time. In addition to personal work, we help people tolerate differences — racial, political, cultural; helping people understand that judgement is essentially either fear or envy; helping people lean into resistance and conflict — use it creatively –rather than shy away from it.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1712 Sunset Blvd.,
Houston, TX 77005 - Website: www.psynergypsych.com
- Phone: 713 724 7050
- Email: contact@psynergypsych.com
Getting in touch: VoyageHouston is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
