All Things Private Practice Podcast Episode 236: Navigating the Messy Middle: Liminal Spaces in Private Practice [featuring Imani Harrison]
What Liminal Spaces Actually Feel Like
- Liminal spaces feel like endings without beginnings and create a foggy, vibrating nothingness that is both blank and full.
- Imani compares it to Marvel's Ghost phasing and describes bodily vibration and fog that produce restlessness and anxiety.
Investor Backed Vision Derailed By A Starbucks
- Imani recounts pitching a big investor-backed vision for a holistic practice that fell through when the investor chose to buy a Starbucks instead.
- She describes the grief, anger, and how the vision still provided a useful foundation despite the collapse.
Caseload Collapse Forced Releasing Interns
- Imani describes 2025 as a downturn: caseload dropped, a major insurer exited, and planned interns had to be released due to lack of clients.
- She shares the shame and uncertainty of releasing interns and how personal life liminality compounded the professional collapse.
Navigating the in-between phases of life isn’t easy—especially for private practice owners, leaders, and entrepreneurs pivoting in uncertain times. In this episode, Patrick Casale and Imani Harrison talk about liminal spaces—those in-between moments when something has ended but the next phase hasn’t yet begun—offering valuable insight for anyone building something new, feeling stuck, or doubting what comes next.
3 Key Takeaways:
- Growth Always Involves Endings: Every transition—whether chosen or forced—brings grief and discomfort. Each ending has valuable information, and sometimes things have to crumble for us to rebuild better.
- Get Comfortable with Discomfort (and Unlearning): Our capitalistic upbringings push constant productivity. Unlearning this—embracing stillness, floating in liminal spaces, and slowing down—is not easy, but often necessary for realignment.
- Zoom Out for Perspective: When you’re in a low or uncertain place, zoom out. Are you trending upward over time? Are you being intentional about your next steps? Sometimes you just need to trust the cycles, embrace the messy parts, and anchor into your resilience.
If you’re in the “messy middle” right now—personally or professionally—know you’re not alone. There’s beauty (and opportunity!) in the uncertainty.
More about Imani:
Imani Harrison, LCPC, MA is a therapist, facilitator, entrepreneur, and emerging speaker based in Champaign, IL. She is known for warmth that steadies and wit that keeps things honest — especially when people are in the in-between and scared AF. Her work is clinically grounded, shaped by lived experience, and deeply human. As a neurodivergent entrepreneur, she brings both structure and creative disruption to the spaces she leads.
Imani is the founder of Sankofa Healing & Wellness, where she provides therapy centered on reclamation, identity transformation, and the power of a healing relationship. She is also the co-founder of The Vitality Center, where she expands that support through teaching, facilitation, consultation, and coaching for clinicians, leaders, entrepreneurs, and organizations. Her work especially resonates with Black women leaders and neurodivergent creatives who are building lives and businesses that actually fit who they are becoming.
She blends clinical wisdom with intuitive insight — where depth, symbolism, and embodied awareness meet — helping people take aligned steps without contorting themselves into Westernized molds of what healing or success “should” look like. An idea midwife by nature, she helps people generate bold, purpose-filled possibilities and shape them into next steps that will actually be exciting about pursuing.
- Instagram: instagram.com/thevitality.center
- Linktree: linktr.ee/thevitalitycenter
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Thanks to Our Sponsors: The Receptionist for iPad, Alma, & Portland, Maine, Summit 2026!
Thanks to The Receptionist for iPad for sponsoring this episode.
The Receptionist for iPad is a HIPAA-ready digital check-in system that eliminates the need to walk back and forth from your office to the waiting room to see if your next appointment has arrived. Clients or patients can check in for their appointments, and you'll be immediately notified by text, email, or your preferred channel. Break free from interruptions and make the most of your time, because it is valuable. Start a free 14-day trial of the Receptionist for iPad by going to thereceptionist.com/privatepractice. Make sure to start your trial with that link to get your first month free if you decide to sign up.
✨ Alma
Thanks to Alma for sponsoring this episode.
Alma empowers you to confidently accept insurance backed by an all-in-one EHR that simplifies scheduling, documentation, and day-to-day practice operations. With a network of engaged providers and free CE courses, Alma makes it easy for you to build the practice of your dreams on your terms. Alma believes that when therapists get the support they need, mental healthcare gets better for everyone. Learn more at helloalma.com/ATPP.
✨ Portland, Maine, Summit 2026
The 2026 Doubt Yourself Do It Anyway Summit is happening for the first time in the United States in beautiful Portland, Maine, on September 1st–3rd, 2026. Portland, Maine, is a beautiful coastal city in the Atlantic Ocean. There's a lot of history there, and it's a very funky, creative, safe, walkable, diverse, and progressive city. You will get 9 NBCC CEs. We have ASWB pending—we'll make an announcement when that's finalized—and have 13 prolific industry leaders. This summit has always been about showing that our skills are applicable in so many different ways, and to motivate you to think bigger, grow in this profession, take more risks, work through self-doubt, and really embrace the doubt-yourself-do-it-anyway mentality. Spots are limited. Reserve your spot here: empoweredescapes.com/portland-maine-summit
Doubt yourself. Do it anyway. See you in Maine.
Free Gifts for Our Listeners
Get a practical podcasting workbook for therapists considering starting a podcast, created by Patrick Casale, host of the podcasts All Things Private Practice and Divergent Conversations.
You'll get a practical structure for therapists who want to start a podcast but don’t want to rush, perform, or build something they can’t sustain.
Grab your free copy of the Podcasting Workbook: atppod.com/free-podcasting-workbook
✨ Move Beyond Private Practice As A Neurodivergent Entrepreneur
Move Beyond Private Practice As A Neurodivergent Entrepreneur is a FREE 5-part mini-course designed for therapists who want sustainable financial independence beyond one-on-one work.
Access your free mini-course here: atppod.com/move-beyond-private-practice-free
Mentioned in this episode:
Alma
Thanks to Alma for sponsoring this episode. Alma empowers you to confidently accept insurance backed by an all-in-one EHR that simplifies scheduling, documentation, and day-to-day practice operations. With a network of engaged providers and free CE courses, Alma makes it easy for you to build the practice of your dreams on your terms. Alma believes that when therapists get the support they need, mental healthcare gets better for everyone. Learn more at https://helloalma.com/ATPP.
Portland, Maine, Summit 2026
The 2026 Doubt Yourself Do It Anyway Summit is happening for the first time in the United States in beautiful Portland, Maine, on September 1st–3rd, 2026. Portland, Maine, is a beautiful coastal city in the Atlantic Ocean. There's a lot of history there, and it's a very funky, creative, safe, walkable, diverse, and progressive city. You will get 9 NBCC CEs. We have ASWB pending—we'll make an announcement when that's finalized—and have 13 prolific industry leaders. This summit has always been about showing that our skills are applicable in so many different ways, and to motivate you to think bigger, grow in this profession, take more risks, work through self-doubt, and really embrace the doubt-yourself-do-it-anyway mentality. Spots are limited. Reserve your spot here: https://www.empoweredescapes.com/portland-maine-summit Doubt yourself. Do it anyway. See you in Maine.
The Receptionist for iPad
The Receptionist for iPad is a HIPAA-ready digital check-in system that eliminates the need to walk back and forth from your office to the waiting room to see if your next appointment has arrived. Clients or patients can check in for their appointments, and you'll be immediately notified by text, email, or your preferred channel. Break free from interruptions and make the most of your time, because it is valuable. Start a free 14-day trial of the Receptionist for iPad by going to https://thereceptionist.com/privatepractice. Make sure to start your trial with that link to get your first month free if you decide to sign up.