Today we’d like to introduce you to Luna Medina-Wolf.
Hi Luna, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I am honored to be featured again on Voyage Miami. Since the last time, a lot happened in our business.
Due to COVID we had to close our physical locations in November 2020, and we have been operating fully virtually across all the state of Florida. My husband and I are still running the company together. He is the business mind and I am the clinical mind. We have an amazing clinical director to support the team. Her name is Nina Barela. We also have a psychiatric nurse practitioner on the team to meet our client’s psychiatric needs. We have 4 student interns who can offer low to no-cost services for those who do not have insurance or can not afford self-pay.
We have 7 registered interns working under me and Nina for their licensure. They were all student interns at Helping Moon before being hired so they have done an amazing journey of growth we got to observe firsthand. The rest of the team are 15 licensed therapists with a variety of specialties and trainings. Therefore, we can serve all ages and all presenting issues. Michell, our office manager and Jenifer our billing manager are there to support the clients and the team. We want to offer a place anyone can easily seek help and get all the support needed throughout the process.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I do not believe running a business can be fully smooth if you want to grow. There are always growing pains. I believe one of the most difficult parts is hiring.
It took us a really long time to find a good admin for the office. We needed someone kind, compassionate, and patient. We feel now we have it with Michell. Hiring therapists can be challenging at times too. We want the team members to fit our model of taking care of the person as a whole. We believe in a team approach, where our clients can transfer to a new therapist if they feel the one they work with is not a good fit for their personality.
After all, having a good connection to your therapist is a big part of the work. Going through COVID and having to close our physical location was super challenging and required a huge adjustment. Now, that everyone got used to it, they do not really want to go back to our physical location. We feel that at this point we have such a great team and our processes are so well-researched and practiced that things go much smoother and we can count on things to work easier.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
We are a group private practice for counseling. We offer individual, family, couples, and group counseling services for all ages. My own specialty is trauma work through EMDR. I am a facilitator for training and am working toward becoming a trainer. I offer consultation for people who want to get certified. The majority of the team at Helping Moon is also EMDR trained.
Research and my experience both show that EMDR is one of the best ways to treat trauma and PTSD, along with other derivatives of it, such as anxiety, depression, etc. Since the beginning of COVID, our team has been offering FREE support groups to the community, based on the needs we observed. Our team is dedicated and motivated to help others in their healing journey. We participate in community events and volunteer as much as we can. I, myself, volunteer both with Professionals United for Parkland and the EMDR Humanitarian Assistance Programs (HAP).
What would you say has been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
I think the most important lesson we learned as a team was how resilient and adjustable we were. With a good support system and open channels of communication, we were able to support our team even through a worldwide pandemic.
My motto in life was always to be kind and help others and the universe will be kind to you back. The way our business developed and grew, we got to see this happen in such a magnitude, that I never planned or anticipated.
Being able to help others is such a rewarding job that I cannot dream of anything else better than this.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://helpingmoon.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/helpingmooncounseling/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/helpingmoon
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luna-medina-wolf-6008b03a/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwhKcKhum94ANA3VuOqfsMw
Image Credits
Alexandria from Fried Media Agency
