Therapist Spotlight: Marcia Beauchamp, LLC

This year, Marcia joined our team of therapists at GPS Guide to Personal Solutions. Marcia works with children 12 years old and under as well as parents experiencing parenting difficulties. 

“Kids are spontaneous, full of life and energy. Everything is an exciting new thing and when it’s not, because they’ve had some pretty awful experiences, I like helping bring them and their parents back to a place of healing,” Marcia says.

Marcia became a therapist later in life, although she’s been guiding children for years. She raised six children and homeschooled them, even being involved with the homeschool community on state-level leadership. She adopted her youngest two children through foster care. When they reached high school, Marcia reflected on her life experiences with trauma, the foster care system, adoption, and attachment. Living in Indiana at that time, Marcia had found it hard to find therapists that were experienced in working with children and attachment issues. She decided to become that counselor herself.

Even when working with children, Marcia expects to be working with parents as well. She says, “The parents have to be involved as well… It’s not a ‘drop off and fix’ kind of situation… I get it when you’re struggling with kids who’ve had stuff going on. They’re not your average kids… I’ve been there as far as raising kids… Society likes to point a lot of fingers at parents and say, ‘It’s your fault,’ and sometimes it is – I’m not saying it isn’t ever – but kids can also be born with issues, or things happen in their lives that have nothing to do with parents. Sometimes parents don’t know how to help kids through experiences…”

Marcia shared her own experience with parenting: “One of my biological kids had a ton of sensory issues and things, there just wasn’t information out there back then that I knew how to find. My son was 8 when I found a book that helped me understand what was going on.” 

In a first session with Marcia, she’ll provide some assessments depending on what the primary concerns are. These may look like questions about sensory processing, sleep, schedules, what pregnancy was like, toddlerhood, etc.. She’ll also explain a little bit about play therapy and explore what the attachment is currently like between the child and parent. She may or may not ask the parent to be present during part or all of the session.

For those nervous about coming to therapy, Marcia says, “Give it some time… Lean into the process… It’s a working relationship, we’re figuring it out as we go.”

Marcia encourages everyone to practice self-care in their own lives by taking time to do things they enjoy, which can be hard when you have children. She wants to support people in finding a way to carve out that time for themselves.

In her own life, Marcia finds joy through her family. She has 10 grandchildren that she loves all the same (“It’s not the blood, it’s the love”), loving friends, and a church community. She loves to garden and to teach her grandkids to sew. 

Marcia reads research and completes online trainings to keep growing as a therapist, and she has no plans of stopping anytime soon: “I could retire right now if I wanted to, but I don’t. I like doing what I do. I’m going to keep going until people are telling me, ‘You’re falling asleep’ in session!”