Dan Claussen and Larch’s Development

Experience, Education, and Training

I am the current founder and director of Larch Counseling PLLC. I began supervising in 2019, and received my AAMFT Approved Supervisor Designation in 2021. I received my Master of Science in Marriage and Family Therapy from Seattle Pacific University in 2016, and my Bachelors of Arts in Youth Ministry from Moody in Chicago in 2012. I started seeing my first client with Larch Counseling in 2016. Before I began working as a private practitioner, I worked as a clinical intern at Compass Health in the family clinic, consulting with young kids, adolescents, and their families from Sep 2014-Jun 2016.

I am trained in level 1 and 2 of Lifespan Integration, and EMDR Trained.

 

Business Experience/History of Larch

My business experience started before I launched Larch Counseling way back in 2008. During my undergraduate studies, my brother and I began a residential window cleaning company while we were attending school in Chicago. Over the course of the next nine years, we expanded it to include many other services, filling different needs as we saw them arise. We eventually moved it back home to the greater Seattle area, grew it to the point of hiring employees for the last three years, and eventually sold it in 2017 when I made the launch into full time counseling.

My experience as a practice owner, more directly related to Synthesis Practice Consulting, started in November of 2015. As I prepared to graduate in June 2016, I started creating my branding, set up my sol prop., obtained my business license, and Larch Counseling was born. I started consulting with people, building a business plan, and developing the website. I saw my first client September 1st, 2016, and Larch was no longer a theory. Business plans are fluid things, so it evolved and changed over the course of the first year as the theoretical plan hit the practical function of real-world application. About 8 months into my practice, I hit my caseload goal to be able to enter fulltime counseling, and sold our window cleaning company. 15 months after my first client with Larch I realized the practice needed to change, and after a few more months of consulting and planning, in December 2017 I made the decision to convert Larch to a PLLC in preparation for hiring Larch’s first employee. In the next 5 months, I created procedures and policies, and began interviewed to bring on a team member to my single office practice. In May of 2018, I offered my first position to Aubrey, who is now acting as Larch Counseling PLLC’s Clinical Director. In early 2019, we expanded to a four-office suite to prepare for growth, and brought on a few more team members. That same year, we started our clinical internship program within the local public school district. There was then a crisis in our community that we responded to, and from that, established a larger program within the school district with licensed clinicians, providing psychotherapy to students on campus. Towards the end of 2020, after a little over a half a year of a global pandemic, we saw a strong need in our neighboring community, and launched our second office location in North Bend Washington in December 2020 as a trial in a short-term lease. Within a few months, the trail proved to have a strong prediction of success. We made the decision to make a permanent home in a newly vacant office space created by the pandemic. We built out a four-office suite and slowly staffed it with clinical interns and licensed clinicians. Our Duvall location continued to grow, and we expanded in 2022 by adding a 5th office to our suite. In 2024, we circled back to North Bend when another adjacent space opened up and we expanded by adding another 3 offices. At the time of this writing (December 2024), we have five offices at our Duvall clinic, and seven at our North Bend clinic. Our programs have expanded and contracted, but Larch as a whole has continued to strengthen its impact in the communities we serve. Our school program has changed as budgeting needs of the district have changed. The journey of business ownership always continues to change as culture, staffing, and the community needs change.