About Us
The MindWork Group Story: How we came to be
MindWork Group Story - from Dr. Nikhinson and Dr. Franklin
We co-founded MindWork Group as a private practice in 2020. It was a challenging time in the world - we were entering the COVID-19 pandemic with all of its difficulties and uncertainties. Our focus at that time was to provide the best care we could to folks in our outpatient practice - whether it was through virtual meetings, phone appointments, walk-and-talks or even sessions in a small private grove of trees outside - we prioritized working as safely as possible while providing support and ongoing treatment to our patients.
Having developed much of our clinical expertise in residential treatment settings, we found that working in private practice had its conveniences but it also had a significant down side. We did not work together. We worked side by side, consulting with each other, thinking about our individual patients. We missed the invigorating and rewarding setting of a therapeutic community. We did not have a team. A team that worked together to understand and help people with more complicated illnesses, utilizing different disciplines and bringing to bear what we knew individually and collectively to help them get better.
We started thinking about an Intensive Outpatient Program. Having worked in hospital and residential treatment settings for a combined 30 years, we had a sense of what moved the needle for patients clinically. We spent a year developing a program that would allow us to do what we knew how to do best; to treat a small group of patients with highly experienced clinicians in a therapeutic community setting. Our most valuable asset was our time with patients and our knowledge and expertise.
We set out to find the right space: We were not a hospital. We were a private practice, with clinicians seeing patients in their offices. We needed a space that didn’t feel institutional. We developed a space that was updated, comfortable and inviting, helping folks feel at ease as much as possible as they would devote many hours of their time to us. We made sure to have natural light, comfortable chairs, plants, a kitchenette area and of course coffee. A lot of coffee.
We set out to find the right people: The staff we hired was going to be key. Their expertise, warmth, willingness to work together and to learn together, and their openness to intensive psychotherapy were essential. We assembled old friends and colleagues, made new friends, pursued connections with like-minded clinicians who enjoyed the rigor of a therapeutic community. We are so proud of the team we have built. Anyone who has done difficult therapeutic work knows that you can’t do it alone, and our bench is deep.