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A Dedication…
In sharing our story with you, we wanted to dedicate this section of our website to someone very special to each of us at RISE & Shine Integrated Therapeutic Services — Kara Rochelle Ezrin, PA, LCSW.
This business would not be where it is today, and would not have been possible without the four months that she worked with us. Her unique insights, immediately opened the door and our eyes to so much of what really set us apart, and would emerge as some of our most important contributions to the communities we serve.
Our Story…
RISE & Shine, like many of our clients, has gone through changes since we opened in May of 2014.
We have had to adjust to overcome struggles like many new businesses. While we have made many changes along the way, they are symbolic of the many changes we often have to make in our lives in order to better them. We are very proud of where we are today and also the amazing team that we have working with us.
As a practice and as individuals, we have experienced significant changes along the way, since we first set out to bring our unique approach to therapy to the community. Like most aspects of life, some of these changes have been exciting, rich and rewarding, and others have been remarkably painful losses.
In April of 2019, our practice’s founder, Bet Shaddinger, had been looking into the different ways to utilize an integrated behavioral health model as after reading about it in an industry publication. She immediately saw the value and need for it, but didn’t know who to reach out to in the community to help make it happen.
Then one day, unexpectedly, Bet ran into an old friend of hers, who recently returned to South Florida after completing her masters degree, at Duke University. As an experienced licensed clinical social worker, Kara Rochelle Ezrin was now also a Physician’s Assistant, and could bring a world in insight, experience and skill to the practice that no one else could approach.
The two spoke at length over a meal, and Bet expressed her frustrations with the ways therapy clients were not always able to access the right kinds of therapy, and how areas of trauma were being ignored, often at the clients’ expense.
Bet also shared that clients were contacting her about medically-related trauma from living with life-threatening conditions, traumatic brain injuries, chronic illnesses, such as diabetes, fibromyalgia, and heart disease. Many of these clients were being dismissed elsewhere as being psychosomatically/emotionally based problems, and Bet knew there was a need to provide such people with compassionate, qualified care.
Having someone on-staff with Kara’s medical background would have been a remarkable asset; especially with Kara’s background in Medical Social Work in the crisis and trauma unit at Jackson Memorial Hospital.
For the next four months, Kara’s unique insights immediately opened doors, and opened Bet’s eyes to aspects of therapeutic care that she says she might never have considered otherwise, along with Dr. Sandra Novak, PsyD, MSW, CHt, who has collaborated with Bet for more than a decade, and who specializes in the family work, trauma, crisis and critical incident relief. Dr. Novak helps clients to monitor and be responsible for their medication and medical issues, by reviewing their logs for how they are implementing their treatment plan, and looking for patterns that may be causing the client to have difficulties.
Along with the practice’s Medical Director, Osteopathic Physician, Dr. Neil Furman, DO, RISE & Shine developed a diverse and experienced team of practitioners, based on the shared vision of Bet and Kara.
Kara reminded us of particular areas in which clients’ needs were not being met elsewhere, and today, we’re proud to be among the only practices we know of that provides our community with such incredible access to care.
Tragically, Kara passed away in October 2019, but her spirit and vision lives on in everything we do.
With our new team, unique approach, and professional services, we now go beyond helping people to RISE, we also help them to SHINE while doing so.
Recovering, stabilizing, healing, and a continued focus on personal growth and wellness is not always easy, but it doesn’t always have to be the struggle that it has been. Using our unique niches and areas of specialization, we have demonstrated that it can be both at the same time.
Healing doesn’t always have to be so hard. There are ways to make it easier, and there are ways to incorporate learning to live, laugh, and enjoy life in this process.
Our Unique Approach…
We take a collaborative approach in which our clients work as a part of our team to help us to best understand how we can help them.
We work with them to come up with an action plan with the best services we offer that will help them best benefit from their time with us. Our approach is a holistic approach (meaning we focus helping our clients with their struggles pertaining to mind, body, and spiritual struggles their are dealing with. Our staff understand the importance of a safe environment and we do our best to provide that for our clients.
We promote open and honest communication and do our best to model that in therapy.
In Memoriam
Kara Rochelle Ezrin
