Meet Tracy Mergler | CEO and Recovery Coach

We had the good fortune of connecting with Tracy Mergler and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tracy, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Honestly, it was because it was something I needed in my recovery after coming back from residential eating disorder treatment and it wasn’t available in my community nor had a heard of anything like it. I needed to create the same feeling of safety but in my own community. I honestly, didn’t plan on it becoming a business. It started as peer run support groups during COVID but then the need became so clear- it was not just individuals that were struggling with an addiction that were affected by the pandemic, it was everyone. We all need a safe space to feel understood and connected. We all have coping strategies, some of them just more accepted and healthier than others and we all need human connection. My personal journey gave me a glimpse into a world that was wrapped in shame for so many. My goal with safe space was to approach mental health from a whole different lens- empowerment and education because you cannot expect someone to take of years of learned behaviors and shields if they do not feel safe enough to do so.

What should our readers know about your business?
Safe Space Organization strives to change the conversation around mental health by educating, connecting and supporting others through a peer-to-peer network. Safe Space is a community hub with therapeutic alternatives and prevention methodology that empowers the process of healing by providing individuals with the resources to self-manage their mental health. We are a start up 501c3 that believes all individuals should have access to education, services and support around their mental health. Why are we different? We are the prevention method or the model in between that allows individuals to receive help and support while they are going through something. Currently, you have to get “bad enough” to receive help. Safe Space’s fundamental purpose is to provide a respite, a safe, peaceful place to breathe for individuals, and to educate and empower those individuals on how to self manage their mental health through creative outlets and traditional means by connecting them to community resources and other community members.

My path here was not easy 🙂 I am a dreamer, a visionary and even though I am a child of entrepreneurs, business is not my specialty. I would much rather choose an art project over a spreadsheet. But I just started. I just started running support groups, partnering with providers and sharing out mission through social media and the business just continued to build itself. We have a wonderful organization here in Syracuse named WISE, which supported women owned businesses with free advice and coaching. I took advantage of their services to write a business plan, find a lawyer, create the LLC then the 501c3, tap into initial funding and so on. As I grew within my own belief that I could actually do this, the business began to authentically grow all on its own.

Funding was probably one of the biggest challenges. In my head, this vision was so clear. The need was BEYOND clear and I just thought everyone would see it and just get it. But that was not the case in the beginning. The funding did not come. The donations were slow and I focused all my energy on building on the most amazing space to fit this vision that was so clear to me. But in many ways, I put the cart before horse. I had to flip the approach by building out the programming and putting the people in place to do what we were saying we would do and attract the funding that way. When I started with Safe Space, I was a single mom that worked as a special education teacher. I did not have access to the funding that I needed to put into a start up. So I just started doing and putting the mission out there and attracting the people that could help me bring in the funding to create that space that was in my dreams.

I over come challenges by asking for help. If I didn’t know how to do it, someone did. I wasn’t completely inventing the wheel here. So a big part of the first 2 years was connecting and networking. For everyone I met, they introduced me to at least one more person that they thought could help me on my way.

The lessons I have learned along the way:
1. There will always be a to-do list. Know where you limit is and know when you need to shut down.
2. Burnout is real when it comes to starting your own business. Sprinkle in self care and joy every single day. This is a must.
3. Delegate as soon as you can.
4. Being a mom, women and entrepreneur is hard. Being a super women doesn’t mean that you need to have so many balls in the air that you have no time to appreciate the process. I would much rather go slow and steady and trust the process than miss out on all the small moments of joy that my kids bring me.
5. This is my journey. It doesn’t look like anyone else’s so there is no room for comparison.
6. There is a lot of free help out there when you get started especially as a women entrepreneur.
7. You are going to fall down a lot and make a lot of mistakes but each time that happens, it is the opportunity to learn, not to shame.
(thats a lot and I could keep going because I feel like I learn something everyday)

It wasn’t until I surrounded myself with other individuals that were fighting the same fears that I started to let my guard down and feel safe to share my story. Magic happens when you put vulnerable people in safe space and allow them to remove their armor and try their true selves on for size. We aren’t allowed to do that in any other environment. I truly believe that we rise as a community by coming together.

I was put on meds at a very young age and sent to talk therapy. I went to multiple treatment centers and put on more meds and mood stabilizers for an eating disorder, anxiety, depression and PTSD. Yet, I was also a three sport athlete, student body president, honors society and prom/homecoming Queen. No one expected me to be suicidal. I lived both worlds trying to keep up with what society deemed as normal.

If one med didn’t work, the next one must. This leaves a human being feeling not only like a failure but also in a constant haze and on a roller coaster of emotions as the med game is played.
Then you are put back out into the world that made you sick to begin with.
This model does not work. It sets up people for failure and in a continuous cycle without a proper step down process. When you constantly are looking for other people to “fix you” you never learn the tools to help yourself.

Trauma is held in the brain and the body and until I was taught how to do somatic work such as breathwork, yoga, meditation, art, writing, combined with talk therapy, I had no idea what real freedom and safety felt like.
Yet, I am white and middle class.
I am one of the lucky ones that is still here today and I believe it is my mission to help bring these services to a community level for all. When we empower and educate community members around their own mental health needs, we establish a foundation for growth and prosperity here in Central New York. Our brand is inclusive for all because we believe mental health is a spectrum and 5 out of 5 people struggle with their mental health. As soon as we start to discriminate, we label one another which makes it much harder for people to reach out when they are not okay.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Throughout my whole entire journey, the right people, books, teachers, podcasts, etc seemed to show up at just the right time. My family has been the consistent force behind my recovery journey and the building of Safe Space Organization. Not only did they never give up on finding me care, support and treatment but they have been my biggest cheerleaders as I have built Safe Space, encouraging me to follow my dreams and persevere through whatever roadblock were put in my way. They are my “safe space” and I could not have gotten this far without them.

Website: www.safespacecny.com

Instagram: @safespacecny

Linkedin: Safe Space Organization, Tracy Dando Mergler

Facebook: Safe Space Organization

Youtube: Safe Space Organization