My LiveWell Story
If you’re new here, I’m Morgan Hastings, a clinical social worker and founder of LiveWell Counseling Services serving clients across Minnesota and North Dakota.
Recently I had the opportunity to be interviewed by Voyage Minnesota about my work and the story behind LiveWell Counseling Services.
You can read the full interview here.
The piece came out well and I’m grateful they featured my practice, but if I’m being honest, the published version felt a little more polished and technical than how I actually talk about my work.
Interviews tend to compress things. You answer questions, someone edits them for clarity and length, and what you end up with is the highlight reel.
So I thought it might be helpful (and maybe more honest) to share a few things that didn’t quite make it into the article.
The Truth About Getting Into This Field
When people read the interview, it probably sounds like a very straightforward professional path:
Bachelor’s degree → social services → addiction counseling → master’s degree → private practice.
Which is technically true, but there is so much behind the season of each of those steps. The reason I love this field has always been much more personal than professional.
I moved out at age 17, so I had already been pretty exposed to the realities of how complicated life could be. In a strange way, that experience gave me an advantage in the work I was doing later in child protection, the court systems, and addiction treatment centers.
When you work in those environments, you see very quickly how trauma, family dynamics, addiction, mental health, and social systems all intersect. There is something incredibly humbling about sitting with someone during what might be the lowest point of their life.
What people need more than pity is empowerment.
What do you need?
How do we get you there?
How can I best support you?
Early in my career I often did that work at the expense of myself. Meaning late nights, long drives, constantly going above and beyond and burning myself out. At times I wasn’t helping as much as I thought I was, I was really enabling in some cases.
Eventually through my own work, I learned better boundaries and what it actually means to help someone in a way that promotes real healing. That experience shaped how I practice today.
I care deeply about evidence-based work, ethics, and clinical standards but I also believe therapy has to translate into real life. Insight without change doesn’t help anyone, and neither does doing the work for someone else.
Starting a Private Practice Was Not the Original Plan
One thing the interview touches on but doesn’t fully capture is that I did not grow up thinking I would be a business owner. It honestly wasn’t even a thought.
I very much liked the security of getting a regular paycheck and the benefits that came with it. After growing up without that kind of stability, security meant everything to me.
When I graduated with my master’s degree, I started looking at different group therapy practices and the pay structures that came with them. This is the “normal” path for many clinicians right out of graduate school because you don’t yet have the caseload or resources to start completely on your own. There are also supervision and licensure requirements that need to be met.
When I looked closely at what was being offered, I felt like things weren’t adding up. That switched on my analytical brain (I love numbers and love me a good spreadsheet), so I started writing everything out and comparing the options.
By the end of it, I realized something:
I could do this on my own.
That realization came with a lot of uncertainty. I didn’t have a business degree or grew up in that environment, so I set out to learn everything I could about business. Hours of YouTube, podcasts, and trips to the library to check out every book I could on the topic. It absolutely consumed me (hyperfixation at it’s finest) but I loved it. I remember talking with another local clinician who had gone into private practice just to understand the logistics (shoutout Victoria), and after that conversation I was set on doing it myself.
If you know me, once I make my mind up there’s really no stopping me.
Big dog energy was ON.
The Reality of Building Something From Scratch
From the outside, private practice can look like a flexible or easy path. I should say any business looks like things are easy on the surface, but underneath you’re usually swimming like hell.
I started running the business part time, and within about six months I left my full-time position. When you’re the only one supporting yourself, there’s no room to coast. There’s no paid time off, no one to step in for you. For me, there wasn’t a partner or family member acting as a financial safety net either.
There were definitely moments early on where I thought:
What the hell did I just sign up for?
Can I actually do this?
Should I just go back to my normal job?
There were a lot of moments of doubt but there was also something deeply motivating about knowing I was betting on myself.
The reality is that the early stages require a lot of risk, patience, and long hours. I’m talking 50–60+ hour workweeks for a long time. I had I lot of fire in me and that kept me going.
There were months where income fluctuated, expenses popped up unexpectedly, and I had to reinvest heavily into the business before it could comfortably support me. Some fun examples include:
Furnishing an entire office within two weeks
Replacing my very first expensive laptop after water damage
When a client ghosted with a $1,000+ invoice (never recovered that one & learned my lesson)
For a while I was technically stable, but I didn’t feel comfortable yet. I was still operating with the same survival-mode drive that had pushed me to build everything in the first place.
Eventually I realized something important:
I wasn’t in survival mode anymore, and it was hurting me more by staying there.
What helped most during that time was learning to think long-term and trusting myself. I had already put myself through school, navigated some major life changes and hard personal decisions, and figured out plenty of difficult things before.
Why would this be any different?
Why I’m Expanding Into Commercial Space
The interview briefly mentions my move into commercial real estate, which might seem like a random pivot from the outside. For me, it’s connected to the same core goal.
Mental health and wellness professionals often struggle to find office environments that are stable, well-maintained, and supportive of their work. Many clinicians end up piecing together space wherever they can find it.
Purchasing and managing office space allows me to create environments intentionally designed for therapists, wellness professionals, and small businesses. It also allows me to continue expanding LiveWell in a thoughtful and sustainable way.
Part of learning everything I could about business sparked something new in me, an entrepreneurial fire that makes me want to keep building and exploring new ventures.
At the core of it is still the same mission: creating systems that support the people doing this work (and their clients) without doing it in a financially exploitative way. I hope to continue to build HPM into just that.
What Actually Makes Me Happy
The interview asked what makes me happy and the answer I gave was true, but I’d add one more layer. After growing up around instability, I value something simple that many people overlook:
Freedom.
One of my favorite quotes comes from Jocko Willink (a hard ass Navy Seal), who says:
“Discipline equals freedom.”
The discipline to have hard conversations gives you freedom from anxious thoughts.
The discipline of taking care of your body gives you freedom to move and feel strong.
The discipline of managing money well creates freedom in the choices you can make for things that actually make you happy.
The discipline of boundaries gives you freedom from unhealthy relationships & builds your self worth.
Like I mentioned in the interview, happiness for me doesn’t come with status or titles. Happiness is the freedom to have a quiet morning, with some good coffee, and sitting with my doggo to watch the birds. It looks like working out or moving my body, and challenging it in fun ways (like climbing big rocks). It looks like having the ability to travel to places I never had the opportunity to growing up. It looks like building a life that reflects my values and not sacrificing them for success.
Final Thoughts
If you’re someone who is thinking about starting a business, changing careers, or building something of your own, the biggest thing I’ve learned is this:
If you don’t bet on yourself, who will?
Growth almost always feels uncertain while you’re in it.
If you stay disciplined, keep learning, and make decisions based on the long-term goals you have rather than short-term pressure or immediate gratification, things start to compound in so many ways you can’t predict.
I’m grateful for the opportunity to do this work and for the clients, colleagues, and community that make it meaningful.
your “bet on yourself” therapist,
Morgan
