Meet Bethany Raab of Raab Counseling & Consulting Services in South Denver

Bethany, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Figuring out how to start my story was a challenge. I decided to talk to the people I trust the most to help me. I asked them to share three words that describe me, good or bad.

Here is what I received: Advocate, ambitious, brilliant, caring, dedicated, driven, fierce, loyal, motivated, outgoing, passionate, personable, self-reliant, stubborn, tender-hearted, warm-hearted, and welcoming.

These people know me. These words fit. And they always have. From the time I was an elementary school student, through high school, college, graduate school and now 13 years into my professional career. I’m still the stubborn, determined and caring woman my friends and family have always known.

I hope that my clients see these characteristics shine through, too. Tender-hearted because I care so deeply for the people who walk into my office. Determined (and stubborn) because I’m willing to fight hard with clients against injustices at all levels. Being an outgoing extrovert ensures that I have no shortage of energy to talk to people day-in and day-out. Fierce because I strive to be a tireless and outspoken advocate for my clients and my profession. By accepting and nourishing these parts of me, I found my calling.

Early in life, I knew I wanted to help people. My interests and academic strengths have always been in the social sciences. (Let’s be honest, I was never going to be a doctor.) I considered being a lawyer, a police officer, a missionary. Running for office has been of interest to me since I was young, and it remains an interest. Ultimately, these paths all led to one place.

Social work. My undergraduate and graduate degrees are both in social work. For many years, I thought I’d work in what is called “macro” social work. Community organizing, policy work, managing organizations and so forth. Working on the ‘big picture’ to help people and society.

Then I finished school and realized that the macro world wasn’t where I belonged. I was lonely and a little bored. I wanted to talk to people. To build long-term relationships. To hear their most painful stories. To help them heal. But not at the community level. Instead, I found my place working at the individual and family level. In 2006, I accepted my first “real” job as a therapist at a non-profit organization in west Denver. My work at this organization was HARD and immensely rewarding. The hours and hours I spent at work each week were draining and inspiring all at once. It was in this job that I found my path in social work. Teens, families and other social workers. These are the people I love to help and work within my company.

I’ll say more: Teens. The stubborn part of me likes the challenge. But really, teens are so fun to work with in therapy. They have real challenges coupled with an alternately refreshing and infuriating world view. They aren’t adults but they aren’t little kids. They’re in a frustratingly wonderful middle ground between being dependent and independent. I learn something new every day from my teen clients. It has been suggested to me more than once that many social workers start their careers working with teens, but ultimately move on to more “mature” clients. To that I say, “no thanks!” I’m happy right where I am.

The teens I work with are typically struggling with mental health challenges, family or peer relationships and are seeking a place of belonging in the world. Additionally, I specialize in working with youth who have a sexual boundary and acting out problems. Talking about sex is a normal activity in my sessions and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Families. You can’t work with teenagers without also working with families. Social work helps develop you into an expert problem solver. The best part of family therapy is joining with the family members to examine the difficulties they are having and find solutions together. Seeing families go from significant conflict to enjoying each other is an amazing thing and something I’ll never grow tired of witnessing.

Other social workers. The supervision of new social workers is one of my most loved parts of my practice. Not only because social workers are my favorite people – though this is true! Also because it helps me stay up-to-date on the building blocks of social work. The theories, the skills, the interventions, the ethics. Seeing my professional world through the eyes of new social workers is invaluable to me. I’m proud to help train the next generations of social workers.

A few other items that may be of interest: I’m a mom to the sweetest eight-month old baby boy. My spouse and I have been married for six years and we live in west Denver. My best furry companion is an 11 year old tuxedo cat. I am a Colorado native but also spent part of my childhood in Iowa. Being with my family, reading, baking, gardening, nurturing my houseplants, watching baseball and traveling are a few of my favorite things.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No. Social work by its nature is not a smooth road. We choose to do work that we know is undervalued. Often our clients are people who society rejects and ignores. We choose to tackle problems that are deep and ingrained, both at individual levels and at the broader societal level. Year after year, social work tops lists of “Most Stressful Professions.” Great.

Some of the specific challenges I have faced… Jobs that ask too much and pay too little. Supervisors who were not interested or able to help me develop as a social worker. (To be fair, not all of my supervision was this way. Hats off to the supervisors who challenged me and helped me take care of myself.) A political and social support system that often leaves people to fend for themselves (at best) and ignores them or seeks to harm them (at worst).

This is where the list of personal characteristics comes into play. It is safe to say that my social work colleagues as a whole share many of these qualities with me. Especially being stubborn, driven, determined and fierce. Our profession requires this of us. Thankfully, our profession also allows us to be kind, compassionate, warm and authentic. These help us recover from times when we must fight for our clients, our profession and ourselves.

Raab Counseling & Consulting Services, Social Work Supervision with Bethany Raab, LCSW – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
My business is built around providing two specific types of services: Therapy for teens and families. Supervision and ongoing education for social workers. Accessibility is important to me. As a result, I have chosen to accept insurance in my practice. I do my own billing and am proud that I’m able to offer services that are covered by insurance for my clients.

I have also ignored advice that suggested one must charge $100+ for social work supervision in order to be taken seriously. If this was the way everyone practiced, I may not have been able to get my license because I could very well have been priced out.

As you can see, I do things my way. All within the bounds of the National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics and state and federal law, of course. Doing so has allowed me to create a business that meets my clients’ and my community’s needs head on. This is something I know I can feel proud of.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
There are so many to choose from! Many proud moments can’t be shared here because they are related to client successes. Just know that my career is filled with these type of memories. Otherwise, I think my proudest moment was leaving my last job in order to take my business to a full-time level. I worked part-time for an agency and part-time in my practice for nearly four years. Having built my own practice to a point where it could support my family without additional work is an accomplishment about which I am very proud.