Chirie Bazzelle spent her career working for others in the behavioral health field before the opportunity arose in 2010 to buy New Beginnings Behavioral Services LLC of Little Rock.
When Bazzelle, 45, made the purchase, she became the only woman and the only African-American to be the sole owner of a behavioral health company in Arkansas.
New Beginnings has been growing ever since.
Bazzelle declined to release revenue figures, but the client list has grown from about 60 to more than 600. New Beginnings opened its second location, in Rison (Cleveland County), in 2016. The company also recently started serving students in the Pine Bluff School District.
New Beginnings has outgrown the 4,000-SF building that it leases in Little Rock and is buying a 11,000-SF headquarters in west Little Rock. That deal is expected to close this month.
The company — with 77 employees, including licensed therapists — treats children and adults with problems such as anger management, anxiety, depression and grief.
It also treats children with complex trauma. “We have a lot of kids whose parents have been killed in front of them,” Bazzelle said. Other children have seen their parents taking drugs.
Bazzelle said it’s not difficult to go to work when children have been suffering. “It’s a passion to be able to help them,” she said. “So whenever I see … the little kids and talk to them, they give me more energy.”
The course of therapy treatments, which can take place in the children’s schools or at the New Beginnings office, depends on several factors, but therapy can continue for years.
Bazzelle said one of the reasons for the company’s success is her firsthand involvement with not only the teachers who work for her, but also the parents of patients. “I meet a lot of the parents, so they’re able to actually meet the CEO of a company where their child is being provided services, and that makes them feel good,” she said.
The Little Rock native graduated from Philander Smith College in Little Rock in 1995 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and from the University of Central Arkansas in Conway in 1999 with a master’s in community counseling.
Bazzelle worked in juvenile and adult correctional facilities and with the U.S. Probation Office in Little Rock for nearly 10 years before she bought New Beginnings.
One of the most difficult aspects of purchasing the company was actually running the business, she said. “My background is in counseling,” Bazzelle said. “I do not have a business background whatsoever.”
However, she said, she received help from attorneys with business operations and keeping up with changes in Medicaid, which, along with private insurance, accounts for some of her revenue streams.
Despite the challenges, owning a business has been “great for me,” she said, and it has the potential to have a positive impact on her young clients, many of whom are African-Americans. Her status as a business owner shows the children that they, too, can become business owners or CEOs if they work hard, Bazzelle said.
She said she expects continued growth for the company in Pulaski, Jefferson and Cleveland counties.
“The need is there,” Bazzelle said. “There are so many adults and children out there suffering right now. … We’re here to try to help provide services to those at those times.”
Sign up for Daily E-news
