Today we’d like to introduce you to Natalie Strzok Erin Lewis-Gibson.
Natalie Strzok, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Essentially, the company was something that we often dreamed of when we were friends in undergrad, but it finally came to fruition in November of 2020. We have four founders: Erin, Gretchen, Glenn, and Natalie. We all invested a great deal of time, money, and sanity to achieve our goal of opening a group practice. We started the practice with just one employee and grew to 10 employees and one nurse practitioner. We are proud to be known in the community as the place people refer those experiencing trauma. Our staff is passionate about helping those who have trauma integrate it and live more meaningful and fulfilling lives. Although Gretchen and Glenn have moved on from this life, they remain interwoven into every aspect of our business, including our company values. As founders, Christianity shapes our lives and informs our values for the company.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
There have definitely been many bumps in the road. We both entered the business with limited knowledge of how such businesses are run. Natalie was in another state and getting married when it was decided it was time to start the business. She and Gretchen committed to packing up their lives in Ohio and moving down to North Carolina to unite with Erin and Glenn Coco. Erin was experiencing extreme burnout while treating severe trauma, while the pandemic had just started, and there was no vaccine available yet. Erin, who is living with dissociative identity disorder herself, was going through a challenging mental health time herself, but still pulled together with Natalie (aka Napkin) to start NCCEC. We learned and failed a lot along the way. What I am glad we have held true to is our commitment to each other and serving the community and our staff in a way that is value-aligned. While we will continue to make mistakes, we will also work hard to correct them as we can, own up to where we screwed up, and move forward while continuing to follow our mission. Erin and Natalie work to readjust their goals and patterns after losing their two canine founders in 2025 and 2026.
As you know, we’re big fans of NC Cutting Edge Counseling, PLLC. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
The team specializes in working with adults with mild and simple trauma to severe and extreme complex trauma. We treat an array of diagnoses, including but not limited to, post-traumatic stress disorder, borderline personality disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, dissociative identity disorder, relational trauma, sexual trauma, and spiritual trauma,
What makes NCCEC special is our dedication to research and bridging the gap between research and counseling practice. This is why you will notice that our team has extensive training in many modalities, such as existential therapy, multicultural therapy, Internal Family Systems (IFS), NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM), Somatic Therapy, Brainspotting, EMDR, Inference-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (I-CBT), Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), Psychological Approach to Couples Therapy (PACT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Schema-Focused Therapy, Neuropsychotherapy (NPT), and Constructed Awareness. We also conduct diagnostic evaluations for personality disorders and dissociative disorders.
We accept many commercial insurance plans for our services at NCCEC. We take Aetna PPO and State Health Plan, BCBS PPO, Ambetter, United Healthcare, and Blue Home with UNC Health Alliance.
We are most proud of being trusted providers in the community for the treatment of trauma.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
I would say luck has little to do with where we are today. We have always attributed our success to God, because without Him, we would not have made it this far.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.nccec.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nccecpllc/
