Centerpoint's History

Centerpoint’s Story

Once upon a time way back in the 1980’s, there was a woman named Carol who found she was living in the wrong city. Her world seemed upside down; she was very unhappy. Nothing seemed to fit for her…except for her work. She loved everything about her job as the Director of the Career Planning Center at Fordham University School of Law, including the warm community of people with whom she worked! One of the things she loved most was helping law students and alumni reconnect with their true selves so that when planning their careers, they could follow their hearts instead of listening to all the forceful, persistent voices around them that told them to forget about what made them happy and just go for the big bucks.

It was never easy for Carol to think about where else she might live because being in the big, crowded city called New York it was difficult to listen to her heart with all the noisiness that goes along with a crowded, busy, urban area. She tried taking lots of vacations to various beautiful places and did things like canoeing in the Allagash Wilderness in Maine, sailing off the west coast of Florida, and hiking through Europe. She thought maybe that would be enough to balance out the discomfort she felt living in the Big Apple. But, alas, it wasn’t to be. Each time she returned to the city she realized just how miserable it made her.

Stepping Back

So in 1987 Carol decided to go to Bend, Oregon to participate in a two-week conference that was being held by Richard Bolles, the author of What Color is Your Parachute?. She had trained with Dick at several other workshops and had learned so much. Surely the inspiring setting could give her time to think about where she belonged geographically?

It worked! She took the time she needed for renewal and stepping back and developed a clear description of what she needed for her living environment to be just right for her. After that retreat Carol felt grounded and sure that she was ready to find that perfect place to live. It took a while, but then she discovered that there was this place called Seattle, a half a world away from where she was. She visited there in 1988 to see if it fit. It was a dream come true! When she arrived she immediately felt like she had found home. Not only that, Seattle matched every single one of the twenty specific criteria that she had listed the year before!

A Clear Vision

But, uh oh, what was she going to do about work? She loved her job but she couldn’t move it to the West Coast. After some soul searching, she decided to create a vision for what her ideal job would look like and took several networking trips to Seattle to find it. While she only knew one person in Seattle, she networked up a storm… even cold calling people from the yellow pages! She looked everywhere and talked to everyone she could but she wasn’t able to find what she was looking for.

If you ask her now, Carol would say that she was looking for a place like Centerpoint—a community of other like-minded, holistic career counselors who wanted to help people “come fully alive” and provide high-quality, affordable services to individuals in all parts of their transitions—but it didn’t exist at the time. She also thought she needed a “job with benefits” while she was making this 3,000 mile move away from everyone and everything she knew. Interestingly, though, she found that she didn’t. She ended up starting her own career counseling practice, Vecchio & Associates, in downtown Seattle in 1989. Funny, it didn’t feel risky to her even though most of her friends and colleagues from New York thought she had lost more than a few of her marbles. To her it just felt like the right next step. (If you get to hear her speak sometime you may hear her share the longer story about this move!)

Vecchio & Associates specialized in the career transition needs of attorneys, a population that Carol continues to serve. While she enjoyed her private practice, she knew it wasn’t the final choice for her. She still wanted to be connected to a community of other career counselors and make a bigger difference. After settling in to Seattle and the business, she continued to network keeping an eye out for someone (or ones) with whom to collaborate.

Exploring Options

In 1990 she began to explore the possibility of teaming up with another career counselor who was moving to the area from California. His name was Rikk Hansen and he had a similar vision for his work. They decided to test out the connection and developed the concept of a 4-day retreat for lawyers in transition. It took some time to combine their approaches; they organized and facilitated their first retreat together in September of 1991. While it was envisioned for attorneys, others wanted to attend. Both the facilitators and participants considered including non-attorneys and decided to open the reteat up to people of other professions. Having a group with variety of careers was such a success that the retreats have been held that way ever since.

That first retreat was so very affirming for both the participants and the facilitators that Carol and Rikk decided to explore how they might work together more. After a few months of creative brainstorming and planning, Centerpoint Institute for Life and Career Renewal was formed and was incorporated as a nonprofit organization on April 1, 1992.

Slowly, Vecchio & Associates’ work was absorbed under Centerpoint.

A Commitment to Growth

Centerpoint has experienced many significant milestones over the years:

A Community Effort

We owe our longevity to the many people over the years who have cared for and nurtured Centerpoint including:

• the many past and current board members who have given so generously of their time and financial resources
• prior and current administrative staff and faculty; we’re so grateful to have your visions intersect with Centerpoint’s and that you decided to share your gifts with others through your work here
• our major donors and anonymous angels
• those who have continually supported Centerpoint through their membership renewals, even when they didn’t need services
• our database of 16,000+ clients and fans who have found the support they need through their participation in this growth-oriented community

Centerpoint invites you to be an on-going member of our amazing community!