• Peanut Butter + Jelly
• Macaroni + Cheese
• Thelma + Louise
• Mickie + Minnie
• Lucy + Ethel

All the greatest dynamic duos have a backstory…here are the highlighted parts of ours.

A partially cloudy day in front of a well know residential treatment center in the valley back in 2014, I (Seema) walked into a meeting for a new client unknowing that the therapist transferring the case would end up being my business partner 4 years later! After this initial exchange of words, nods, and hellos, we transitioned back to living our separate lives with some occasional but brief interaction over the years, unaware of what the future would hold.

Fast forward a bit to 2018, still wading the waters of community mental health, a mutual friend of ours developed a monthly consult group to share a sense of understanding with other clinicians in the field inviting both of us to attend. The first few times we gathered as a group, Megan and I exchanged niceties, slowly getting to know more about each other’s clinical and personal lives. As we gained more comfort and ease with each other, Megan turned to me after one of our groups and asked me to consider partnering in the private practice world. Taken off guard and having momentary split attention, I said ‘SURE, why not?’, not giving another thought until Megan approached me again a few months later asking if I was serious. Deep breath, this time I took what she was asking seriously… ‘For real this time.’

Being open to thinking ahead, we planned for what the coming year or two would look like… Six months later, our timeline sped up considerably. Megan was pregnant and our choices were limited: 1) move our timeline up drastically to get things started before the due date or 2) delay until after and risk things not coming together. For us the decision was simple but the execution complex as neither of us had navigated this private practice/business ownership world before.

Knowing that everything starts with a business name, we met me at a restaurant to brainstorm a name that would embody our vision. We knew we wanted growth and nature, trees and a foundation, built off roots and a regenerative system. Throwing out name after name, laughing after some time as the names that came to mind were starting to become more comical than therapeutic. We needed to take a break from the name game. Few days later coming back together. Megan found the definition of a taproot, a primary root that grows vertically downward and branches off into smaller lateral roots. One that is responsible for the growth and development of the plant it hosts… This was what we were searching for; a foundation, a system, growth, healing… it was our vision… Taproot, it was us! Our timeline of opening the doors of Taproot Therapy April 2019 quickly transitioned to October 2018.

In a matter of just a few weeks, we were able to find and apply for a rental space. Budgets being tight, both of us working full time, and Megan pregnant on top of it all, we huffed and puffed as together we chose our first one room office space. The square footage was perhaps the size of a walk-in closet. Completely unaware of our right to negotiate for tenant improvements we accepted this space with tobacco colored paint knowing it needed a makeover. Painting in our sweats we tried our darndest to get 1 gallon of leftover paint to spread farther than we have ever imagined. Remember as you read on, we were on a tight budget with little income coming in at the time. Countless minutes passed by before we sprawled out in exhaustion, noticing few spots that with the right lighting definitely showed flaws within our painting. ‘Personality’ paint spots where both Megan’s and my eyes gravitated to while in the room. If anyone else noticed the ‘personality’ spots in the room, they never mentioned it. And as it turns out it wasn’t the small room, or the rushed timeline, or the less than adequate paint job that mattered…. It was the passion for supporting, validating, and being present with clients that led to Taproot thriving.

A very short time later, we upgraded across the walkway, within the same building, to a three-office suite, this time with ‘roomier’ square footage of about 1000 sq ft. We each had our own office and now had a small shoe closet office. It was in this office, that barely was big enough to hold two chairs and a very small table, that we hired our first therapist, Stephanie Miller who is still with us today. Hiring Stephanie helped us build confidence as she was clinically strong, passionate about her work, and overall enjoyable to work with. We followed her onboarding up a few months later by hiring four new therapists at once… we once again needed more space!

Not really knowing much of the ins and outs of running a private therapy practice to start, we found we learned quick, and grew just as fast. We made mistakes along the way but recovered (mostly) with grace and never made the same mistake twice. We slowly moved to another building completely, one that had more space, was on the second floor, and were grateful for a new place to call home the beginning of 2020. We continued to have an extensive waitlist and slowly started to bring on clinicians with unique and individualized skills sets, adding a little bit of quirkiness and flavor (Megan: bold + sleek and Seema: warm + colorful) to our group therapy practice! While the packaging has changed a bit over the years, the heart remains the same with Taproot embodying the same core values that brought us together. We have brought on new faces and lost some along the way; We navigated covid and maintained a thriving business in unfamiliar territory; We have learned things about business management we never thought we’d need to know; and We have provided clinical care to thousands of individuals and families based on the belief that people start to heal the moment they feel heard.

Thank you for sharing in our story. We look forward to the journeys ahead.

Seema Bacon + (Megan Stanek)