Alex Shink
August 21, 2023

Antoinette Bogan, M.S., LBS, LPC.

1. What's your practice focus and what kind of clients knock on your door ?

Gentle Force Counseling Services is a state-licensed facility providing services to individuals needing substance use intensive outpatient services (IOP), intensive behavioral health services (IBHS), and biopsychosocial assessments. We also offer the following services

• family support services
• including support groups
• family therapy
• individual therapy
• couples therapy

2. Tell us about yourself. 

From a young age, helping people find their purpose through developing self-love became my passion. I have since obtained two master’s degrees, one in criminal justice and the other in clinical & counseling psychology, specializing in diverse and underserved communities. I developed my private practice to provide mental health services in a GENTLE way that promotes people becoming a positive leading FORCE in their mental health recovery journey.

3. Tell us the story of a patient who you are most proud of helping.

A patient processing childhood trauma and emotional hardship shared that it was a complicated but rewarding life-changing journey. He explained that focusing on himself during our weekly therapy sessions helped him “see himself for the first time.” He explained that the internal self-love he developed helped add value and positivity to every aspect of his life, a life that he later shared might have ended the day of our first session because he was sure that therapy would not and could not work.

4. What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a practitioner in private practice?

For me, the most challenging thing is serving multiple business roles (owner, biller, scheduler, social media manager, etc.), decreasing the time I can function in my uniquely qualified role as a practitioner/therapist.

5. What are the top 3 tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a private practice today?\

Top 3 tips I would give someone getting into private practice is:


  1. Fully believe in yourself and your vision. Create the ideal structure of your practice and daily operations mentally, and write down your vision as you see it.
  2. Replace working towards perfection with working towards consistency. Develop ways to master time management and be kind to yourself.
  3. Most notably, increase your positive self-talk and remind yourself constantly that YOU CAN DO IT!

6. Where can people find you?

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