Awaken to Your Best Self: The Origin Story of Bodhi

Though Bodhi was officially established in July of 2011 and opened its doors to clients in January of 2012, it had been formulating for quite some time. Jesse Fairchild, the founder of Bodhi, was working in a well-established practice in Harford County, carrying a large caseload and building a strong reputation in the community. She noticed that many of her clients were driving up to an hour to see her from Cecil County. Many of these clients were school-aged and had to be pulled from school to attend appointments. Given that most of them were also struggling in school, in part due to their mental health concerns, it perplexed Jesse that they would come so far. When she asked why parents/guardians would drive so far and pull their children out of school, the answer was always, “there’s no one up there providing services.” Jesse lived in Cecil County and knew that there were services being offered but that the providers were overloaded with the need. Jesse began to consider what a practice might look like in Cecil County, if she were to bring together her skills, experience, and worldview. She researched what was available, considered the clients with whom she worked best, and thought about what she wanted counseling to look like in general. From this, Bodhi was born. Jesse spent years carving out a practice that offered something different. Bodhi represented the ideal that many clinicians head into the field wanting to offer.

What we do….

Bodhi’s guiding principles are compassion, knowledge, and efficiency. Coming from an administrative background prior to her clinical work, Jesse believed that there is room in the mental health field for a profitable, well-run, but still compassionate business. Bodhi’s mission is to provide mental health counseling and supportive services while keeping their eye on their vision of empowering people on their journey of wellness and self-discovery. As practitioners have joined the practice, they have each incorporated their own personal take on this mission. Our clinicians attempt to slow down the therapy process for our clients. This allows them to take the time necessary to allow clients to work through their experiences and understandings on a timeline that works for them.

Why we do it…

Because at Bodhi we believe:

1. Every person can awaken to their best self if given the space to do so.
2. Goodness and a desire to be whole exists in all of us.
3. We forget our deepest goodness in our interactions with the world.
4. We are traumatized, to some extent or another, by our relationships and experiences along the way.
5. These interactions, relationships, and resultant beliefs about ourselves create internal darkness, brokenness, and a feeling of separateness.
6. Our darkest moments are opportunities for great growth and compassion, both internally and externally.

How we do it….

First, we slow down the process of bringing clients into the practice. We don’t just assign new clients to the first available clinician. While each clinician at Bodhi is well equipped to handle almost any mental health need that arises, we have specialties, expertise, and specialized training in various areas making us each experts on certain topics. We take the time to match clinicians with clients to ensure the best fit. The research shows that the best predictor of positive outcomes in therapy is the fit between client and clinician, so we strive to make that happen from the initial intake screening. All of our clinicians and office staff are well trained in providing supportive services. From the initial phone call or email, we are interested in providing compassionate, knowledgeable, and efficient services. We understand that the entire experience from initial call, to the waiting room, to the first appointment, to billing may be stressful and anxiety-provoking for clients, and we attempt to minimize this as best we can. In addition to our intake procedures, our office is set up to provide relaxation and calmness for the spirit. We utilize our space to engage all five senses in an effort to support the goals of healing and integration of difficult experiences into a more cohesive and transformative narrative. Our goal is to create a refuge from the outside world that encourages calm and peaceful attention to the internal needs that bring clients in the door. We strive to create refined attunement between clinician and client as we build the client’s ability to become attentive to their own internal workings. In this way, we provide accompaniment on each client’s journey of awakening to their best self.

Where and when we do it…

The easiest piece of this is knowing that while we offer healing, growth, and supportive counseling in our offices at Bodhi during our scheduled hours, we also offer it in our daily lives outside of the office striving to be good members of the community by carrying our knowledge and compassion with us wherever we go.  

~ The Bodhi Team