We were lucky to catch up with Doreen Upshaw recently and have shared our conversation below.
Doreen, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
In my first award winning book, “Amos And I (The Unique Contributions of a Father)”
*Contribution 5 -Creativity- “Take everything that is a part of you and all that’s been given you and use it!” Amos Upshaw
I wrote, “Our parents fostered a creative environment for us. They were creative, so we learned creativity as well. The truism that “More is caught then taught” has been around for years. I’m not sure who said it, but I know it to be true. I learned more watching my father (and mother) than I did from talking to him…I learned the ethics of hard work and sacrifice.” After watching him run a small in-house store in the community, “As an adult, I opened and directed a licensed childcare facility in our home. I remember the exact moment I realized that my entrepreneurial desires (work ethic) were a direct reflection of my father.” (pg-39)
Inspirational chapter end quote: “My father didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.” -Clarence Budington Kelland.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Doreen L. Upshaw is a talented, artistic, and progressive leader in Pittsburgh since her first volunteer opportunity at 14 years of age. She is a pastoral candidate serving in ministry with the Allegheny Center Alliance Church. She is a vocalist, professional counselor, speaker, an award-winning author, innovator, and advocate for healthy family relationships. Doreen is a fifteen-year Army Veteran and sergeant. She holds three degrees; a BS in Community Ministry, an MS in Counseling, and an MA in Biblical Exposition as an alumna of Carlow University, Geneva College, and Liberty University, and is currently pursuing her Doctorate in Pastoral Counseling at Liberty University.
Her 1st book, “Amos and I, The Unique Contributions of a Father” (written in 2018) won 1st place in the self-help and inspiration genre with The Author Zone’s “TAZ Award” in 2020. With a passion for fatherhood, Doreen established a social media platform called, “Fathers Matter.” The platform has more than 2400 members from all over the world who post words of encouragement and questions to positively promote healthy fatherhood and support fathers through court proceedings and other parenting-related topics. From this platform, a city-wide fathering group was developed entitled, “The Father Forum.” After the pandemic and a transition into full-time counseling, much of the work with fathers has transitioned primarily to discounted co-parenting sessions, family and individual support counseling with fathers. In 2023, Doreen finished her first fiction novel and will publish in the near future.
Currently, as Founder, CEO, and Lead Counselor of Compass Counseling & Support Services, PLLC, (CCSS) “Let us help you navigate life” with a therapy concentration in child and family counseling. Since 2017 Doreen has provided play, art, gaming and other therapy in the Pittsburgh area in an in-office space. At the wake of the 2020 Pandemic, her counseling practice lost many of its youth clients due to the shift to telehealth, which prevented play and art therapy for younger children. As an innovator, Doreen had a dream (literally) and moved swiftly to bring the dream to fruition. She created and holds a U.S. patent for a Mobile Counseling Service entitled: CCSS-Mobile (public patent ,319).
This new service allows Compass Counseling to bring its counseling services to children and youth ages 4-18 at their home, school, after-school program, or a preferred location. Doreen is passionate in her endeavors to make child mental health a priority all over the world. Statistics prove there is a decline in child mental health since the pandemic (see: https://www.cdc.gov/ and https://www.cdc.gov/childrensmentalhealth/data). Priority is a must.
Compass Counseling wants to take the added stress of parents to get their child to counseling. Doreen has experienced the testimonies of parents sharing the stress of coming home after a long day of work, getting the children home, feeding them, and trying to get them to counseling as a major burden. Parents knew counseling was a needed service for their child, they saw the benefits, they wanted them to continue, but often it was too much to make it work in the family schedule on a weekly basis. When the demand became to much it often lead to cancellation of services. With this in mind, CCSS-Mobile was created to contract with schools and afterschool programs to see students during those hours, on school and program grounds. It as imperative that the service could come to them.
CCSS is seeking opportunities to meet with funders to create 2 additional mobile service vehicles to service a broader client base of middle & high school students, and eventually adults. Her mobile service idea has caught on in other states and has led to licensing negotiations under her patent. Compass has since secured contracts to provide services in Pittsburgh Public and Beaver County Schools. She is now in a collaborative partnership for mobile services in Mercer County and Wheatland, PA.
The business goal for growth and expansion is to hold exclusive rights for mobile services in Pittsburgh. To eventually produce a fleet of therapy vehicles that will service multiple school systems. The goal is to create jobs in Pittsburgh, and purchase real estate that will house our in office services, service the vehicles, and hold family events surrounding mental health and self care. The boarder goal is to offer surrounding counties in PA and other states in the U.S. the opportunity to develop mobile counseling services for children and youth throughout the U.S.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
First, my Faith is foundational to all of life. I stand on nothing else. Wisdom is innate quality in me. Not just wisdom through experience along the journey, but most often through watching, listening, and discerning. Lastly, I am a impulsively propelled innovator. It sounds reckless, and at times it has been, but we grow into our gifts. Rather I experienced failure or success, I would not change this part of me for anything. I get the idea and I go! I’ve always been this way. A friend of mine still tells me, “Doreen, you have such reckless faith.” The definition of “reckless” includes words like; “without thinking or caring about consequences.” I needed to put her words in perspective for myself or this would have offended me. As I considered it, I didn’t care about the consequences of failure. I was willing to take the chance!
I would rather have the faith and “assumed” foolishness and LEAP and do a thing, than to have all these innovative ideas and be crippled by fear and never move. I know people like that and I love talking with them and inspiring their dreams. That would be my advice to anyone on their early life journey. Don’t be afraid to fail. My faith, wisdom, and impulse innovation was developed along the journey. Let life develop and improve you. If it fails, you learned. If it succeeds, you learned. You can’t be hard on yourself for being where you are in life. As you grow, mature, triumph, and fail, you’ll realize, with everything you’ve learned along the way, there is still more to learn. Along the journey, both failure and triumph are the ways we develop and improve. It’s ALL encompassing of life. Your life.
Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?
My adult daughters were and are the best! They are closet to me are the true “who” in this response. . They knew more than anyone regarding my business journey and yet they don’t know all. Their love for me through this journey helped me understand the true power of presence. There were times they just sat with me, shared their networking resources, encouraged, smiled, prayed, made laugh, and made their belief in me evident. I do what I do for future generations of my family. They can be confident that I did not do it without them.
Secondly, the encouragement of the women closest to me and my Church means everything. In the beginning, I shared some of the vision with them. I did the open house, ribbon cuttings, and asked for prayer as I started the business. However, there were long periods of time over the years that there was no deep follow-up with those close to me. I experienced many challenges, but because of them, I was never alone. It was the impromptu phone calls, text messages, words of encouragement, laughs, and prayers that supported me most. Starting, growing, and maintaining a business is hard work. Statically, the first 5 years can be a business beast! I can remember getting a call from someone to share a resource for something I needed that they didn’t know I needed, or someone sending an email connecting me to someone in their network to develop my skills, and allowed me to sit with experts I may not have had opportunity to speak with on my own. I have been introduced to numerous organizations that provide workshops, free consultations, grant writing services, and my Church and a community nonprofit organization were my first contract to service children, which was a big challenge in launching the brand. The “Village” showed up for me and I will always be thankful for the help and support.
Thank you.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.compasscounseling1on1.com
- Instagram: @ccssllc
- Facebook: Compass Counseling and Support Services, PLLC.
- Linkedin: compasscounseling1on1@gmail.com
Image Credits
Emmai Alaquiva
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