There was a lot of “buzz” in the social work community when LifeWorks started. The best in-home providers were venturing out on their own and creating something new. John Stanley, Ryan McClure, and Greg Gaul ventured out on their own to begin LifeWorks. With the addition of a few others, we were given the most challenging cases and our thoughts and recommendations “held a lot of water” in people’s minds. We worked out of our cars, ate on the run, and read the maps at the back of the phone book to get directions. As soon as the LifeWorks doors opened, I was begging to be hired. I am proud to say I was the first hire and so many years later there is nowhere I would rather be. I love to go to work and what an honor it is for me to sit in families living rooms week after week and watch them transform.Greg understood the power he had to help change a families life. He was their biggest cheerleader and he took it as a compliment when people said he wore his heart on his sleeve. He could read a family really well and understood how to join with them to make change. Though we lost Greg in 2004, there are a lot of us who were mentored and guided by him and to this day are trying to walk his walk with our own clients.
Since those early days, LifeWorks has grown tremendously. We now offer multiple programs, both office and community-based, and have over sixty employees. We now extend to multiple counties to provide quality and comprehensive therapy and psychiatry services to families in the Des Moines Iowa area.
LifeWorks has changed a lot from those early days, but the core remains. We are here to serve. We are here to walk with families until they are ready to walk on their own.
– Lisa Richards