POSITIVE STEPS COUNSELING, LLC
LONGWOOD, FLORIDA

Having helped dozens of therapists grow their practices, we have the experience and expertise to help you find and focus on solutions, not problems. Debbie Sawicki-Lake and Scot Lake first envisioned Positive Steps in 1996 while leading a group of globally conscientious teens on a trek through the Annapurna massif in Nepal. There, within sight of the summit of Mt. Everest, the soon-to-be husband-wife team discussed plans to build a lifetime around their passion for helping others live lives that are both meaningful and deeply fulfilling. Debbie and Scot have lived and traveled across six of our planet’s seven continents. They returned to the US in 1999 to start a family, pursue advanced studies in psychology, and create the kind of life-affirming enterprise that would ultimately become Positive Steps. As part of their vision, Positive Steps Counseling emerged in 2004. Positive Steps is a collaborative effort, with Debbie focusing on counseling, strengthening and promoting the health and functioning of individuals and their relationships, while Scot focuses on consulting, using his expertise in leadership to strengthen and grow mental health counseling practices of all kinds. onceptually, Positive Steps is about helping our clients develop the knowledge, skills, insights, and behaviors they need to improve their lives and the lives of those they love— to make them more fulfilling, more functional, more interesting, more effective, more exciting, more meaningful—but that’s the microscopic view of what we do. Our lives don’t exist in isolation, and Positive Steps is equally concerned with empowering all of us to widen our “circle of compassion,” to improve our relationship with the rest of our world. Idealistic, perhaps, but we like to think that Positive Steps is about making the world a better place for both ourselves and for the children who will someday inherit it from us. Debbie discovered her passion for helping others at an early age. That interest would ultimately lead to a bachelor’s degree and professional teaching certificate from the University of California. With characteristic enthusiasm, boundless energy, and a healthy appetite for adventure, she set off on a professional career in education that had her jetting across the globe to teaching posts in places like Singapore and The People’s Republic of China. Debbie envisioned ways to leverage her knowledge and experience to help people from all walks of life live deeper and more fulfilling lives. She returned to the United States to complete advanced studies in psychology from the University of North Florida, earning her master’s degree and counseling licensure in the field of mental health counseling. and she started Positive Steps as a way to help individuals, couples, and families develop the understanding and skills that enable more satisfying, more functional lives. She is perhaps best known for her skills working with couples who face challenges stemming from affairs and cheating, family or financial stress, substance or alcohol use, individual anxieties, or any of the other situations that make being married a challenge. of young people who were capable of international expedition travel and study, Scot decided to apply what he had learned while directing the program. Pointing the bow of his 38-foot sailboat south, he sailed from Michigan to Florida where he pursued advance studies in organizational psychology at the University of Central Florida. Upon graduation in 2005, he found a demand for consulting with and developing leadership teams for Fortune 500 clients such as Ford Motor Company, Sprint, Darden Restaurants, and Green Mountain Coffee. Willing to share his skills with big business for a time, Scot now consults exclusively with mental health therapists who wish to grow healthy, successful, private practices—private practices that provide life-changing results As a military dependent, Jessica’s family moved every five years, and, of course, that kind of constant change made school and college challenging. Finding success, and then later a career path, seemed inextricably linked to worry and anxiety. Through it all, she knew one thing for certain—she wanted to help others conquer their fears of the unknown. And she’s done that in a big way. Jessica loves helping 20somethings and 30somethings learn to better manage their situations, their relationships, and their careers. Along the way, she has become a local expert on the topic of Emotional Support Animals (ESAs), and she works with individuals and families who could potentially benefit from living with an ESA. Debbie discovered her passion for helping others at an early age. That interest would ultimately lead to a bachelor’s degree and professional teaching certificate from the University of California. With characteristic enthusiasm, boundless energy, and a healthy appetite for adventure, she set off on a professional career in education that had her jetting across the globe to teaching posts in places like Singapore and The People’s Republic of China. Debbie envisioned ways to leverage her knowledge and experience to help people from all walks of life live deeper and more fulfilling lives. She returned to the United States to complete advanced studies in psychology from the University of North Florida, earning her master’s degree and counseling licensure in the field of mental health counseling. and she started Positive Steps as a way to help individuals, couples, and families develop the understanding and skills that enable more satisfying, more functional lives. She is perhaps best known for her skills working with couples who face challenges stemming from affairs and cheating, family or financial stress, substance or alcohol use, individual anxieties, or any of the other situations that make being married a challenge. of young people who were capable of international expedition travel and study, Scot decided to apply what he had learned while directing the program. Pointing the bow of his 38-foot sailboat south, he sailed from Michigan to Florida where he pursued advance studies in organizational psychology at the University of Central Florida. Upon graduation in 2005, he found a demand for consulting with and developing leadership teams for Fortune 500 clients such as Ford Motor Company, Sprint, Darden Restaurants, and Green Mountain Coffee.