Meet Jennifer Teplin, LCSW | Founder & Psychotherapist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jennifer Teplin, LCSW and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jennifer, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
For many years I was working as a psychotherapist in a private practice in Manhattan. While I felt that I was serving my clients the best I could I often found myself reflecting on how the service and experience could be optimized. Most private practices service a general population for example many practices will work with adolescence or adults but this didn’t feel like a true ‘specialty to me’. I know to be the best at anything you have to get your reps in and I felt the same could be applied to individual therapy. This was the moment I realized I needed to create my own private practice – different than what else I was seeing in my area. When I began sharing the idea for Manhattan Wellness, a boutique psychotherapy practice specializing in supporting young professional women, I started sharing my idea with those around me. Most individuals in the field told me I was getting too specific and that I was going to limit my client base. That only inspired me to take it as step further and get clear on the specific issues for young professional women that I saw most often – self-esteem, body image, dating and eating disorders.

I told myself that I would honor my vision of the practice for a year and if my idea for a highly specialized psychotherapy practice was not what the population wanted I would go back to being a generalist……we’ve had a waitlist ever since.

What should our readers know about your business?
Manhattan Wellness is a boutique psychotherapy practice in Manhattan, specializing in supporting young professional women. We are committed to collaborating with our clients to massively raise their confidence and upgrade their life. We believe in getting real, getting to the root of the issue, and taking action in order to make the changes they want to see in their life. We have found therapy to be most effective when founded on understanding, collaboration and motivation. We take the time to fully understand our client’s experiences, challenges and motivations in order to create techniques tailored to the individual.

The largest lesson I’ve learned in building out Manhattan Wellness was to stay grounding in what our clients were looking for. When someone would request a particular service whether it be a therapist specialty, appointment time or if they asked me something I’ve never been asked before I used this as my compass for the next problem to solve. I think the most powerful response to a challenge is I’m not sure but I will get back to you with a creative solution – admitting you’re human and have room to grow is the best form of authenticity around.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Throughout my entire life I have been an avid reader of all genres. Three years into being a psychotherapist my mother-in-law, a true foodie, recommended I check out Danny Meyer’s book Setting the Table. While the book is focused around hospitality I could not help but apply all of his theories and strategies to what I thought could be an unbelievable boutique psychotherapy practice. He shares a question that he often asks himself before deciding if an idea is worth pursuing “who made the rule that……” and you fill in the blank. I found myself constantly repeating ‘who made the rule that a therapy practice could not be specialized for an exact individual and exact problem’ and from there the idea grew.

Website: www.manhattanwellness.org

Instagram: @Manhattan.wellness