sarasota's go-to duo for building safer, stronger + sweeter spaces

Our Services

Building organizations where people feel held, heard, and motivated to stay

Our Services

Services for Nonprofit Organizations in Sarasota and Beyond

We help nonprofit teams stop losing good people, fix what's actually broken, and build a culture that supports — based on how people actually think, not corporate trends.

You might be in the right place if...

Sound familiar? We hear this a lot.

High staff turnover
When good people keep leaving, it's rarely about the job. It's about the culture they're leaving.
We keep having the same conflict
Recurring conflict is a symptom, not the problem. Something structural is keeping it alive.
Leadership and staff aren't aligned
Usually this isn't a communication problem — it's a power and trust problem wearing a communication costume.
People are burning out
Burnout isn't a personal failure. It's what happens when the system asks more than it gives back.
We just had a leadership change
Transitions expose everything the culture was quietly holding together. Now's actually the right time to look.
Staff say one thing, surveys say another
When data and lived experience don't match, someone isn't feeling safe enough to tell the truth.
Morale is low but no one can say why
Low morale without a clear cause usually means the cause is structural — and invisible to the people closest to it.
We're growing fast and things feel off
Growth doesn't create culture problems — it accelerates the ones that were already there.
We did a training and nothing changed
One session can't shift a system. If nothing changed, the training wasn't the problem — the follow-through was.
I know something is wrong but can't name it
That's exactly what we're here for. Naming it is the first part of the work.
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Just like when choosing the perfect dessert, we want options

Directly influenced by our clinical skills, we offer three approaches depending on your needs

Discover and Diagnose

🔍

You can't fix what you can't see — and most orgs are too close to it to see clearly. We come in, listen, look at the data, and translate what people are actually feeling into something your organization can act on.

  • Organizational culture audits
  • Staff surveys + needs assessments
  • Burnout + turnover root cause analysis
  • Culture Capacity Framework diagnostic
  • Prioritized action roadmaps

Train and Transform

📋

Practical, lived-in skill-building that changes how people lead, communicate, and make decisions — on Tuesdays at 2:14pm, in real meetings, under real stress. Not theory. Not inspiration. Tools that actually work.

  • Trauma-informed leadership training
  • Psychological safety workshops
  • Conflict facilitation + repair
  • Supervisor + manager skill-building
  • Team communication + feedback training

Sustain and Support

🔋

The work doesn't stop when the session ends. We help you implement and protect the changes so they don't disappear the moment crisis pace returns — because it will return, and the system needs to be ready for it.

  • Ongoing nonprofit culture consulting
  • Monthly retainer support
  • Implementation coaching + accountability
  • Organizational change management
  • Culture maintenance

Our Process

Here's what you can expect a project with us to look like

Step 1

Culture Strategy Call

We always start with a FREE 30-minute call.

As therapists, we know it's weird to pour your heart out to a stranger — so this call is just to break the ice and learn about each other. Tell us about your org (the good, bad + the ugly) and we'll tell you about us.

If we think we can help, we'll tell you how. If we're not the right fit, we'll say that too — and try to point you somewhere that is.

We recognize that we aren't the right fit for everyone, so if you want to get a feel for us before scheduling a call, check out our podcast: Talking Shoppe.

Step 2

Project Proposal

If it seems like we can help, we’ll put together a custom proposal based on what we discussed.

It’ll outline the type of support we recommend, what’s included, what it costs and how we’d approach the project.

If you need to involve anyone else, ask more questions or need to tweak anything, we will do those things before finalizing the project.

It’s important to us to be on the same page, so we promise full transparency + ask for honest feedback during this phase. Once everyone’s on the same page, you’ll sign the proposal. Then, we’ll send you a contract, you’ll pay your deposit, and then… it’s showtime!

Step 3

We Get to Work

Once everything is finalized, we get to work — and you... chill. Take a deep breath, do a facemask, or work on one of the billion things on your to do list.

We'll sit down at our conference table with our big ideas, giant paper + Mr. Sketch markers to look at things from all angles, both big picture and small details, and then come up with a plan on how to accomplish your goals.

When our project day gets closer, we'll go strut down the ice cream aisle at the grocery store to pick out the perfect sweet treats to share with your team.

Step 4

Where the Magic Happens

This is the part you've been waiting for — the session, the audit, the debrief, whatever your package includes.

We show up, do our thing, and all you need to do is get everyone there. Once our work is over, we'll follow up with resources, recommendations, reports and/or a debrief call depending on what's best for your team.

And then... it's over. Just kidding.

Realistically, once you work with us, you're officially a member of Deming-Rivers Social Club, so you can expect to hear from us on your social media, at your events, and whenever we see something we think might help you!

GET STARTED →
The Menu

Order whatever sounds good

We're not like regular consultants, we're COOL consultants. Here's what we're serving up:

The Taste Test

$250
Quick needs assessment

You know when things are going well, but things would be PERFECT if things in this one area were improved? You can pinpoint the general issue, but you can't really explain it? We know this struggle all too well, and fortunately (for you) we are great at putting struggles into words and then transforming them into solvable problems.

We solve this problem with the Taste Test. It serves two purposes: A) gives you a chance to sample what it's like to work with us, and B) gives you clarity on what's below the surface of your struggles.

Here's what happens: We develop a targeted survey that blends standardized culture measures + some org specific questions to address your concern. You simply share it with your team, and as the data comes in, we look at what comes back, and hand you a one-ish page summary. It's the TLDR that lets you know where the breakdown actually is, and where to start.

This is for you if… you generally know where the problem is, but you aren't sure WHAT the concern is.
Book a Taste Test →

Mini Culture Audit

$500
Focused cultural snapshot

So people on your team keep raising concerns. And you get it, you believe them, but depending on who you ask, you get a totally different story of what the problem is. You can feel that something is off, but you can't seem to get a handle on it. Maybe you've even tried to address it directly, but when you ask the group: nothing but crickets.

It's not your fault! This is super common.

Research shows that employees value confidential, external and independent avenues to discuss work-related concerns, which is exactly what our Mini Culture Audits are designed to do.

Here's what happens: We develop an in-depth staff-wide survey comprised of standardized culture measures, org specific questions + on-site observations. Then, we give you a breakdown of all the data: themes, patterns, strengths, dynamics, vulnerabilities — and then, we give you specific recommendations on how to move forward and pull together the resources you need to make it happen.

This is for you if… leadership knows something is off but needs more than instinct to do anything about it.
Book a Mini Audit →

Ice Cream Cone

$750
One high-impact session

You know when you're in a training and you have a specific question about how something applies to your org, but you don't ask it, because the training is a "general overview" and you're supposed to figure out how the material applies to your org, even though you JUST learned the basics? Us too.

There aren't a lot of services that will teach you + break down how to apply these broad concepts to your specific context. Soooo, we made one. If you need someone to take a concept and adapt it for your specific org, your dynamics, your staff, the specific way that things are breaking down for you — this one is for you.

Research shows that brief, generic education changes what people know and intend, but fewer, more intensive trainings that include coaching, feedback, and practical support change what people actually DO.

Here's what happens: You tell us about your team, your mission, what you already know + what you need to learn. Then, you chill. We do the heavy lifting to distill all the information on the topic, pinpoint the best practices, find other orgs doing similar work, and come up with practical ways to engage your team in activities that help learn skills in the same environments they need to use them in.

This is for you if… you're ready to close the gap between knowing what you should do and actually putting things into action consistently.
Book a Cone →

Double Scoop

$1,750
Our personal favorite

Here's what usually happens after a good training — people leave motivated, things shift, and then, approximately two weeks later the same patterns are back because everyone forgot and life returns to normal.

In our combined 20 years of experience providing therapy, we've learned that a single session can build awareness, but it doesn't build a habit. Actual change takes more than one conversation and good intentions. It takes ongoing, targeted implementation support — coaching, consultation, modeling + practice. That's the point of The Double Scoop.

Here's what happens: The Double Scoop bundles two sessions — sessions in which we take pages and pages of notes about what we observe. We collect data across both sessions, tracking what surfaces, what shifts, and where the concept hits friction when it meets real life. We wrap up with a Mini Culture Audit report built from everything we got during our time with your team. And because this is our personal favorite package, we also bring ice cream + provide you with certificates and training summaries you can share with your clients, board, funders, or just to brag.

And if one arc isn't enough? We can extend the series — some orgs need two sessions, some need four. We figure that out together based on what the work actually requires.

This is for you if… you like certificates + ice cream. Oh, and you know the importance of walking the walk, talking the talk, and want to create lasting, sustainable change team-wide.
Book a Double Scoop →
Still not sure what you want?

No problem! If you're willing to indulge us in a 30 minute phone call, we'll help you decide if we're a good fit for your org + project. If we are and you want to move forward, we'll send you a proposal to review + think it over. If not, we'll do what we can to point you in the right direction.

Break the ice → Not ready? Take the free self-assessment →

The Sweetest Words

  • Dr. Emily did a fantastic job at presenting an informative presentation that was detailed and interesting. I really appreciated her knowledge on the subject as well as making it a safe space to collaborate to facilitate learning.

  • The presentation was incredibly thorough and engaging. It's clear that Dr. Essence knows her subject matter well and is passionate about sharing it in a way that's easy to digest.

  • Dr. Emily did an excellent job of normalizing not knowing everything, but encouraging the audience to ask questions

  • Dr. Essence did a fantastic job of providing local resources and strategies to prevent and address community violence. I left with a lot of valuable information that I can apply in my practice.

  • This was a great presentation-I think parents and non-psych related professionals or individuals would definitely benefit from this presentation!

  • Dr. Essence is an excellent presenter. It is clear that she takes the time to make sure all participants learn something new and leave with resources. This presentation was very much needed to reframe how we all treat and support people