ELEANOR McALPINE: HOW FOLLOWING YOUR VALUES CAN SHAPE YOUR CAREER | EP 206
Who you are as a person does not easily stay outside of the work that you do. Your values and principles tend to come into play when you are trying to do your best work, and my guest today recommends that you intentionally bring them in!
Eleanor is curious and compassionate. She always wants to know more, and this has led her to discover her favorite niches in clients to work with as a therapist. It also helps her network well, build resilient referral sources, and shows people that she truly cares about who they are, not just what they can do for her or her business.
In this episode, Eleanor and I talk about incorporating your values into your career, and how you can unite your past experiences into the work that you currently do. Join us for a great discussion and enjoy her creative insights!
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MEET ELEANOR
Eleanor, RCC and CCC, began her career in the 80s with an Undergrad with a counselling psychology major and then worked in every imaginable setting from corrections-adjacent secure care to high medical group homes. In 2024, she graduated from Kairos University with a MAC and began this phase of a people-helper life. She has augmented her caregiving roles with professional photography and compares being a team player in a large multisite practice to the coordination and wrap-around care that happens for a wedding couple. These collaborative instincts, humility, and raccoon-like curiosity make her a vibrant part of a group practice.
Learn more about Eleanor on her website, Instagram, and Psychology Today accounts.
In This Episode
- Why Eleanor became a therapist
- Eleanor’s niching pattern
- Effective values-informed marketing
- Starting a private practice in the future
- Tailor-made marketing approaches
- Eleanor’s advice to private practitioners
Why Eleanor became a therapist
Eleanor explains that being a therapist is something she’s always wanted to do, and yet it has come far down the line of her career.
This, she explains, was understandable once she received her ADHD diagnosis, which helped make sense of why Eleanor kept starting and stopping and starting various Master’s degrees, careers, or roles throughout her life. She was interested in so much that choosing one path felt nearly impossible.
The real progress and pivot came when Eleanor was encouraged to stop following her interests and start following her values.
‘With being interested in everything, following my interests was not the best advice. What my coach got me to do was to follow my values … “What are my main values? Communication, helping people, lifting people up.” Those are really my main values, and I thought, “The way that I could do this best and to take the tools I’ve gathered throughout my life is really in a counselling role.”’ – Eleanor McAlpine
Now, Eleanor is really happy to be starting her journey as a practitioner at this stage in her life. She can gather up all of her life experience, lessons learned, and work done into an approach that can help guide other people in a way that only she can.
‘I think it is a real benefit, for myself and my clients, because I bring a lifetime of different experiences into this, and different training, and I have developed humility … because you don’t get to be 60 and not have failed a few times! … Letting that be tuition rather than penalty, the failures, and … [getting] going!’ – Eleanor McAlpine
Eleanor’s niching pattern
For Eleanor, the niching pattern that connects her with her best-fit clients is hourglass-shaped: it starts broad, then narrows down into the specific person or issue, but then widens again as she goes deeper into that niche.
Eleanor works with ADHD and autism, especially late-diagnosis, and niches further into couples and marriage therapy, focusing particularly on couples that have someone who shows behaviors and patterns of ADHD and autism.
‘I’m leaning heavily into EFT in couples work and taking extra training and certification there … Early developmental trauma in people’s lives … All of those things coming back out again, forming the bottom half of this hourglass … and now I need a bigger toolbox because my niche has a lot of embedded needs, which is great for me because I am always curious!’ – Eleanor McAlpine
Effective values-informed marketing
The more you blend your values with your professional conduct, the more you receive in return. This is what Eleanor has discovered in her professional experience as a therapist.
For example, Eleanor explains that when she conducts referral meetings or tries to build rapport with a new referral contact, she always leads with curiosity.
‘Pretty much everybody in this room also doesn’t want to be here! So you can bring that compassion and curiosity as you’re circulating around, and instead of thinking, “How can I sell this thing that I am selling? How can I get you to buy into my plan?” I can switch mindset and go, “How can I serve and be curious about them and their business?” It’s amazing what a good reputation you can develop as somebody who’s interested in other people.’ – Eleanor McAlpine
Curiosity and compassion as the foundation beneath your professional approach shines that warm all the way through, connecting you with potential clients and referral sources alike.
Starting a private practice in the future
So far, Eleanor is considering starting a private practice as one of her retirement plans.
‘I don’t see myself as somebody who can retire and drift away on a sailboat; I can’t do that! … But I do like the idea of flexibility and … autonomy in there … So my dream for retirement is private practice.’ – Eleanor McAlpine
Right now, Eleanor enjoys working in another private practice because it provides her with administrative support while she develops her career as a therapist. In time, however, she has her sights set on opening her own practice one day.
Tailor-made marketing approaches
Since most of Eleanor’s clients are older, she knows they prefer physical media. So, she launched a visually-driven marketing campaign that included printed media.
Purposefully, she also incorporated visual language: she shows herself holding her glasses, not wearing them, in the photograph to show her clients that she’s established and clever and still approachable.
‘I wanted to try something different with my visual communication, and [for it to] say, “Warm, soft, authentic, approachable” … but I kept the glasses in the frame to say, “I’m also smart!”’ – Eleanor McAlpine
Eleanor’s advice to private practitioners
Life tends to integrate your experiences in a way that you can use them and share them with others, something Eleanor shares.
‘Anything that you learn is never wasted. I think that’s one of the best pieces of advice I have ever gotten … And keep curious!’ – Eleanor McAlpine
Connect With Me
Resources Mentioned and Useful Links:
Eleanor McAlpine: How Following Your Values Can Shape Your Career | EP 206
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Learn more about Eleanor on her website, Instagram, and Psychology Today accounts
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About Jules Smith
Jules Smith, MEd, RCT, CCC is a registered Counselling Therapist who owns a group private practice in Halifax, Nova Scotia. They are also the owner of Fearless Practice Consulting and hosts the Fearless Practice podcast. Through the Fearless Practice podcast, they provide invaluable insights and practical advice on starting and growing a successful Canadian private practice.
Jules also has written articles for the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy association. You can learn more at www.ccpa-accp.ca/blog/.
