Community Highlights: Meet Dan Kapelle of DK Counseling and Clinical Supervision

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dan Kapelle.

Hi Dan, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Thank you for the opportunity to share our story and thank you for helping us do so!!!

In 2022 I was working for a community mental health agency in Phoenix. While doing so, I developed a desire for entrepreneurship and began to consider the possibility of being more involved with our local community of Peoria. I spoke to a former colleague about the potential of partnering with a local church, and this seemed to be a viable option for several reasons. In an effort to move forward, I began sharing my vision with people in the community. One of those people was an employee at Trader Joe’s, who took an interest in me and my vision. We spoke casually over the course of several months, and I learned that a family member of his was an employee of Life Church Peoria, and he encouraged me to share my vision with church leadership. 

After giving this further consideration, I stopped by the church after work one day. The lights were off, and seemingly no one was there, but I knocked on the front door anyway. To my surprise, their associate pastor was doing some sermon preparation in a room right around the corner. He opened the door and asked how he could help. I explained that I was interested 

in starting a private counseling practice but wanted to do so in partnership with a local church. The associate pastor listened kindly, and the longer we spoke, we discovered we had a great deal in common. The associate pastor shared his heart for mental health, and we decided it would be best to continue our conversation with the lead pastor at a later date. 

I had several meetings with both the lead pastor and associate pastor in the following months. During this process, I was overwhelmed by their kindness, grace, generosity, and heart for the local community. If anyone was going to be on my team, I knew it had to be Life Church Peoria! They embraced my vision and shared their own for serving the mental health needs of not only their own church but also the broader community as well. It became apparent that we could help make a bigger impact by working together. As a result, we decided to move forward as partners. This partnership enabled us to utilize some of their space for counseling services and work closely alongside their team to plan workshops, training programs, and community events all surrounding mental health. This partnership has equipped us to serve the local community in a way that would not have been possible otherwise. We remain encouraged by the love and support of Life Church Peoria as they strive to be a holistic resource for the community. 

At the same time we started our partnership with Life Church Peoria, another unsuspected partnership was taking root. A local private practice, Vine Life Counseling, LLC, owned by Kelly Cassady, LMFT, took interest in our developing business. I had previously met Kelly at an EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) training in 2021. I had recently reconnected with him at a local networking event for private practice owners. Having been in private practice since 2011, Kelly quickly became a guide and mentor for my practice, and his expertise was an invaluable asset to my business. We remain great friends and partners to this day. Our practices are located just two miles from each other, so we tend to collaborate often. Vine Life Counseling, LLC specializes in Marriage and Family Therapy, and their team is yet another invaluable resource for my practice and our community. 

As partnerships in the community continue to develop, I have been supported by former colleagues of mine from the community mental health agency as well. From helping me launch my practice and by lending their time and talents to spread the word, our team has grown to include three former colleagues and myself. We treat adolescents, adults, and couples. We have been privileged to help clients overcome a variety of different challenges, including: trauma, addiction, relational issues, anxiety, depression, marital issues/divorce, spiritual abuse, grief, abuse/neglect, and a variety of general mental health concerns. 

We deeply value and prioritize the relationships we have with our clients. We place primary emphasis on building a therapeutic alliance as it is the most effective aspect of the counseling process. In addition, we employ a range of modalities including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, EMDR, and Emotion Focused Therapy. Our approach is solutions-focused and strengths-based. Our desire is to see every client find the best fit when it comes to a counselor. Our aim is to partner with clients and help them get connected with the provider who will best meet their needs, even if that provider doesn’t work for our practice. Thus, we have become part of a robust referral network of providers with an array of different experiences and specialties. We seek to provide quality referrals to our community partners if our clients’ or prospective clients’ needs would be better met elsewhere. 

Partnership is at the heart of our story, and it is one of our core values. As we have been greatly blessed and shaped by our partners, we desire to be a good partner to clients, other businesses/organizations and the broader community as well. Seeing the value of partnership for all involved in this process, our aim is to develop additional partnerships, even if those partnerships seem unlikely, atypical, or unconventional. We desire to think collaboratively and innovatively when it comes to community partners. Our hope is to promote the success of all our partners, be they clients or other businesses. 

We recognize the need is great, and we are privileged to serve the community in this way. We are grateful for every client who gives us an opportunity to hear their story and work with them to attain healing and resolution. As mental health is a critical need which often affects all areas of our lives, we want to be an organization that helps people succeed and thrive! 

Thanks again for your interest in our story. It is an absolute privilege to serve this community! 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
We recognize that building a brand and reputation take time, but the process of marketing and letting people know we exist has been challenging. We are learning to be patient and persistent. Our partners have helped us a great deal in this area! At the moment, we do have four providers who are accepting new clients. 

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next, you can tell us a bit more about your business.
DK Counseling and Clinical Supervision, LLC is a private practice offering a variety of mental health services to adolescents (12+), individuals, and couples. We currently have four providers, two male and two female. All of our providers are licensed through the Arizona Board of Behavioral Health Examiners. We provide counseling to treat trauma, anxiety, depression, addiction, general mental health concerns, relational issues, marital issues/divorce, abuse/neglect, life transitions, and spiritual abuse. Our team has years of experience working together, and we are more like family at this point. We work together collaboratively to help assure our client’s success. We have providers that specialize in serving women and providers who specialize in serving men. All of our providers have a great deal of experience working with and treating clients suffering from trauma and addiction. We have seen great success in the work we do, and we take pride in being part of our client’s life transformation. We hold the therapeutic relationship in high regard, our aim is to assure all of our clients connect with a provider they feel is the best fit. We are committed to helping our clients find this within our practice or another local practice we partner with. We offer free 15-minute phone consultations. If anyone thinks they may benefit from our services, I would encourage them to reach out and give us an opportunity to connect with them. 

What makes you happy?
The following make me happy: 

-Seeing people develop skills to better cope with their problems 

-Watching people face and overcome their fears 

-Helping people learn to love themselves and others 

-Watching a couple reestablish contact, care, and connection 

-Teaching clients to communicate and resolve conflict in more effective ways 

-Experiencing the change of someone overcoming depression and/or anxiety 

-Seeing people live in freedom despite past painful experience 

-Watching clients gain or regain confidence to do something they’ve always wanted to do 

-Helping people who are single navigate the dating world and find a partner 

-Developing rich relationships with others and hearing their story 

-Forster trust with others who have a hard time trusting 

All of the above bring me great joy simply because I love people and consider my role in this helping profession to be an absolute honor and privilege. 

Pricing:

• Individual Counseling Ranging from $125/50 minutes – $140/50 minutes
• Couples Counseling Ranging from $140/50 minutes – $150/50 minutes

Contact Info:

• Website: www.dkccs.com
  Psychology Today Jackie: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/jacqueline-zumach-peoria-az/1216382
  Psychology Today Dan: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/dk-counseling-and-clinical-supervision-llc-peoria-az/1120736
  Psychology Today Lisa: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/lisa-crist-peoria-az/1124276
  Psychology Today Daren: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/daren-dirksen-peoria-az/1225531