A local mental health counseling clinic has chosen the Murdock Building at The Waterfront Vancouver for its third location. It opens in early March.
Refresh Therapy is expanding during a time when mental health services are in “extremely high demand,” said Chief Operating Officer Jeff Goodman. The waterfront location will be its third, and the company will add about nine employees, mostly therapists.
“We have steadily grown and been received by the community with open arms,” Goodman said.
The company will occupy 1,800 square feet of the building, which is about 90 percent rented, according to the Murdock Building website. Refresh Therapy’s office will take the northwest corner of the fourth floor, Goodman said.
The demand for office space in downtown Vancouver is extremely high, and developers are meeting the growing pressure; The Hurley Building downtown is set to open within a month, and a new 10-story office building at The Waterfront Vancouver was announced for Block 2 on Wednesday.
Refresh Therapy says it holds about 1,300 sessions a month at its two locations, at 16701 S.E. McGillivray Blvd., and 1319 N.E. 134th St. It employs about 20 therapists.
“Since the Affordable Health Care Act went into play (in 2010), people have become more aware of mental health benefits,” Goodman said.
Goodman’s wife, Bryanna Goodman, founded Refresh Therapy that same year. She had been working in community mental health services and realized there was a need for therapists in Clark County. Jeff Goodman left his financial services job in 2015 to join her as a partner at Refresh Therapy. In 2016, the business expanded into Salmon Creek with its second location, Jeff Goodman said.
The couple first toured the Murdock Building in spring last year and settled on opening up a third branch. They wanted to have three locations scattered around the county for easier access to a growing list of clients, Jeff Goodman said.
“With our brand and vision, there wasn’t great office space available in downtown Vancouver,” Jeff Goodman said, referring to before the Murdock Building opened in late 2018. “We toured it and fell in love with it.”
The couple is considering further expansion into Portland or north of Vancouver.
“We just want to try to help the masses,” he said.
