Business Spotlight: A Personalized Path

Counseling Solutions of the Ozarks LLC started as one provider and a single therapy room two decades ago and has since grown into a network of 40 licensed professional counselors working across three locations as independent contractors. These providers share resources to provide personalized private counseling services, says owner Brian Vega.

Prior to his counseling career, Vega taught English at Parkview High School from 1997 to 2000.

“Kids would come in before school, during lunch, after school, and would just talk to me about life,” he says. “And one day one of the school counselors said, ‘You should be a school counselor.’”

Vega says he’d never considered the idea but quickly found himself open to it. His favorite part of teaching was just talking with students. By 2001, Vega completed a master’s degree in counseling and took on a counseling role at Parkview.

In 2005, Vega completed the requirements to become a licensed professional counselor when he decided to launch Counseling Solutions. As he did so, he continued juggling school counselor roles until 2020. While focusing on his own business, Vega says he chose a personalized approach to therapy, mindful that he had wished for more one-on-one counseling opportunities with students.

Each Counseling Solutions provider is a licensed professional counselor who owns their own LLC. Rather than limiting services according to factors prioritized by insurance companies, like frequency of visits or allowable treatment methods, Counseling Solutions providers operate their own schedules, with flexibility offered to clients.

“They don’t have to follow a format that’s being imposed on them that may not meet their clients’ needs,” says Vega.

Margaret Skidmore has been working with Vega for roughly 16 years via her practice, Skidmore Counseling LLC. Skidmore says the dynamic at Counseling Solutions is a resource.

“It provides the opportunity to consult with other counselors when needed,” Skidmore says. “I can get to know them and their areas of expertise, which is helpful in referring clients to the proper person to help with their issues.”

Vega says this dynamic also offers more freedom for clients. They’re not limited to just a few counselors in an insurance agency’s network. They don’t have to worry about having a diagnosis on file, having a preexisting condition on their health record or being waitlisted for long amounts of time. Meanwhile, Counseling Solutions providers are self-pay practices – meaning they don’t accept insurance. Clients pay out of pocket.

This doesn’t mean that insurance has no role. Vega explains that some Counseling Solutions clients have insurance, and those individuals may choose to submit a receipt to their agency for reimbursement.

Meanwhile, each provider earns his or her own revenue, paying Vega for monthly lease costs along with overhead expenses such as phone, internet and advertising.

Client-counselor connection
Vega emphasizes that the first step in helping a client is establishing a relationship.

“You have to meet the client before you meet the crisis,” he says. “The No. 1 predictor of success for therapy is client-counselor connection. And that trumps their gender, that trumps their age, that trumps their experience, that trumps their training.”

One client of Vega’s is Brandy Harris, CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of Springfield Inc. She says having a therapist meet her where she is has been life-changing.

“Brian is patient,” says Harris, “but he also knows when to push me a little further. He adjusts his approach based on what I need in the moment.”

A perfect fit
Vega says his work doesn’t feel like a job.

“I get to sit down with people and help them see the things that they can’t see,” says Vega. “It’s just the perfect fit for me.”

He says that growing up in a family where emotions and feelings were not valued or addressed is what motivates him in his line of work, adding that having a place to talk about tough emotions could have made such a difference in his life.

“It comes from a place of being able to give (my clients) what I needed when I was younger,” he says.

Numerous clients are looking for that kind of help: Vega says he currently works with roughly 70 patients – some weekly, biweekly, monthly or on an as-needed basis. He estimates that between Counseling Solutions’ three locations, practitioners in his network see roughly 500 clients per week.

Vega has a five-year lease on suite W-29 of the Doctors Building at 1531 E. Sunshine St., where he has nine therapy rooms. Vega exclusively works from this location.

Vega additionally rents his second location, More Counseling Solutions at 1771 S. Fremont Ave. He owns his third location at 1630 S. Enterprise Ave. through Los Vegas Vacations LLC, registered to Vega and Dewayne Vega. Among the three locations, Vega says Counseling Solutions has 20 therapy rooms.

Services vary per practice. Vega offers individual, couples and group counseling. His individual, couples and family services range from $110 to $190 per session, while Vega’s group services are $40 per session. Counseling Solutions also supervises interns and provisional licensed professional counselors. Intern services range from $20-$40, and provisional licensed professional counselor services range from $30-$120.

Embracing mental health care
Vega says that when he first opened, clients would ask if there was parking in the back of the building in case they were seen. He now sees the stigma around therapy dissolving. He says he really saw a shift in stigma surrounding therapy after the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I think everything got pushed to the surface for a lot of people,” he says of the perception of therapy during the pandemic. Now he’s seen the idea of therapy being embraced.

“I’m just so passionate about it,” Vega says, adding that seeing the progress in his clients is the most rewarding part.