A career can look successful from the outside while navigating challenging questions beneath the surface. Jennifer Slawson spent more than 16 years helping build products and support teams in some of the largest technology organizations. Today, she channels those experiences into The Reinvention Space, a counseling practice shaped by a belief that meaningful change begins with understanding oneself more honestly.
"We have the best laid plans, and life presents us with something different," Slawson says, "What do we do with that?" That question has followed her throughout her own professional journey. After initially setting out to work in public relations, she found herself adapting to changing circumstances early in her career. Roles in mission-driven organizations eventually led her toward business leadership and an MBA before an unexpected path into the technology sector unfolded.
Over the next decade and a half, she worked across several influential companies, helping create environments where people could grow. Looking back, Slawson sees a common thread running through those experiences. "I like to innovate. I like to create. I love working in collaboration with others," she says.
Equally important was her interest in helping people find confidence in their own capabilities. While working in corporate environments, she became deeply involved in coaching professionals who were navigating career growth and workplace dynamics. Many were searching for a stronger sense of direction. Others were trying to understand how to move forward while remaining true to themselves.
Trust in self, she posits, became a recurring theme.
Long before The Reinvention Space evolved into a counseling practice, Slawson had already launched it as a coaching business. Her motivation stemmed from a belief that people often benefit from support that exists outside organizational structures. Independent guidance, she found, can create a space where individuals feel fully seen as people rather than employees.
A pivotal shift arrived during the pandemic. As isolation and emotional strain intensified, Slawson found herself supporting colleagues who needed more than coaching alone could provide. She notes that her professional training allowed her to help people think through challenges, yet she recalls how many were carrying experiences that required mental health care. Finding available providers during a period of overwhelming demand proved difficult.
After repeatedly encountering those gaps, Slawson felt called to contribute more directly.
"I wanted to be part of the solution as well," she says. She took leave from her corporate role, examined her own personal and professional crossroads, and enrolled in a counseling program. She notes that completing her graduate studies while continuing to work demanded its own form of reinvention. Eventually, counseling became the primary focus of her professional life.
Those experiences now inform the foundation of her work with clients.
Slawson's approach draws heavily from psychodynamic therapy, which explores how early relationships and formative experiences continue to influence the sense of self, relationship patterns, and beliefs. Instead of focusing entirely on symptoms, she helps clients examine how their sense of identity developed and how certain protective strategies may have served them earlier in life.
"'Who are you?' 'Who has contributed to who you are today?' 'How have you been shaped by the world around you?' These questions are pivotal to getting effective answers," she says.
Additional modalities, including cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavior therapy, she notes, allow her to introduce practical tools tailored to individual goals. In her view, every engagement is approached through a trauma-informed lens, with particular attention given to helping clients understand patterns that were once necessary for survival.
"We are not what happened to us, because we're never fully defined by what our stories are," she states. Work inside The Reinvention Space often focuses on helping people revisit the narratives they carry about themselves. Slawson believes the facts of a person's life matter, yet the meaning attached to those experiences can determine how they move through the present and future. "The facts may be facts, but what we tell ourselves is a fundamental part of who we are, who we're becoming, and what's possible," Slawson explains. Progress, she believes, depends on a willingness to examine one's own experiences and assumptions.
Her technology background also shapes an increasingly relevant conversation around artificial intelligence. She doesn't dismiss AI or view it solely through the lens of risk. Instead, Slawson approaches the technology with curiosity. According to her, clients frequently use AI between sessions to explore questions or seek perspective.
Instead of discouraging that behavior, she encourages thoughtful engagement.
"My lens is to help clients become discerning users of AI," she says.
She attempts to understand the deeper motivation behind AI's involvement: What prompted someone to seek guidance from AI? What meaning did they take from the interaction? How does the information connect back to their own values and judgment? In that way, she sees AI's role as a reflective tool.
Reinvention, according to her, is an ongoing practice of questioning old assumptions and choosing what comes next with greater intention. Inside The Reinvention Space, that work begins with a simple premise. She says, "Gains and losses are a natural part of the development process, and this space in between what was and what is allows us to integrate various parts of ourselves along the journey of becoming something new."
The Reinvention Space exists to hold that space, and Jennifer Slawson has found the way through.
