Consider a mosaic. If you stand too close, your world narrows to just a few pieces of colored glass. You might see a single sharp edge, a crack, a fragment of darkness, and mistake it for the whole. But if you take a step back, a different perspective emerges. The individual pieces, with all their unique shapes and imperfections, begin to connect. They form lines, then patterns, then a breathtaking and cohesive image, more beautiful and complex for its many parts. Scott Stolarick, a clinical psychotherapist and the founder of Mosaic Pathway Counseling, has built his life’s work on this single, powerful idea.
Scott is a man who has spent his career looking at the intricate pieces of the human experience, from the stark realities of a county jail to the quiet vulnerability of a private therapy session. He has come to believe that the greatest gap in mental healthcare is a myopic focus on the broken parts, a tendency to mistake a single traumatic event for the entirety of a person’s story. In his warm and welcoming office in Gurnee, Illinois, a practice he founded in 2023, he is doing something quietly revolutionary. He is helping people take that crucial step back, to see the larger picture of themselves, and to recognize that they are not a single, shattered piece, but a magnificent, resilient, and ever-evolving mosaic.
The Early Pieces
Scott’s journey began in 1990, in the demanding and often stark environments where trauma is most raw. His first job, while completing his graduate degree in counseling psychology, was in an adolescent psychiatric setting. From there, he relocated back to Lake County, Illinois, where he took on two roles that would profoundly shape his perspective. He worked part-time as a counselor at the county jail and full-time at a local youth and family counseling agency.
It was in these settings, working with forensic populations and specifically with sex offenders, that his eyes were opened to the staggering prevalence of untreated trauma. Scott was confronted with the difficult and delicate task of balancing the need for legal accountability with a humanistic and empathetic approach. It was a skill, he says, that evolved with time and experience. He learned a fundamental truth that would become the cornerstone of his practice: “Understanding one’s trauma journey goes a long way when attempting to engage someone in the process and develop effective treatment planning for them.”
Assembling the Picture
For years, Scott put his considerable effort into building brands for other people, holding leadership positions in various organizations. But he felt a growing sense that he was not fully actualized, that his own unique vision was not being fully supported. The advice he so often gave to his clients, to take a risk and believe in themselves, was a hurdle he himself had to overcome. “With the help of family,” he recalls, “I eventually overcame my self imposed fear and took the advice I gave to others. I bet on myself.”
This courageous leap led to the creation of Mosaic Pathway Counseling. The name itself is a declaration of his philosophy. The practice was born from the belief that a single experience, positive or negative, should not define a person. He wanted to address what he saw as a critical service gap: the tendency to treat one or two issues instead of treating the whole person.
Scott’s proudest accomplishment is not an award or a plaque, but the simple fact of this creation. “Having the belief in myself to start my own business and proving that I can build my own brand with my own vision fueling it,” he says, is his greatest professional win. “I feel the business is truly reflective of me and what I aspire to offer to others. I truly enjoy coming to work every day!”
The Tools of the Artisan
At the heart of Scott’s practice is a quality that cannot be taught in a textbook: a profound and genuine curiosity. “I am a very interested and curious person,” he says. “Everyone has a story worth telling, and I am the person who loves to hear it, learn about it, find strengths and find inspiration within.” He sees his gift as the ability to be fully present in his clients’ journeys, offering unwavering attentiveness and empathy. For him, it is a privilege to travel alongside people on their path to healing.
This deep human connection is supported by specialized clinical skills. Scott is Level II trained in E.M.D.R. (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), a powerful modality for trauma resolution. He explains it with a simple, elegant analogy. Unresolved traumatic experiences, he says, are “stuck,” like a knot in a rope or a pothole in the road. They are not processed in the same way as mundane life events. E.M.D.R. uses bilateral brain stimulation, often through eye movements that mimic REM sleep, to help the brain re-process the traumatic event, reducing its emotional intensity and impact. The detailed process works to clear adverse body memories and replace negative cognitions with positive ones, legitimately helping clients to put these painful experiences behind them.
Creating the Frame
Scott understands that for a client to engage in this deep and vulnerable work, the environment must be one of absolute safety. The cultivation of a “safe clinical relationship” is paramount at Mosaic Pathway Counseling. This begins with the tangible details: an office setting that is intentionally warm and aesthetically pleasing. It extends to the professional pillars of being timely and consistent with appointments.
But the true foundation is built on something deeper. It is about earning trust, understanding that clients are taking a significant risk to become vulnerable, and consistently showing that he is capable of meeting them exactly where they are at all times. This intentional creation of a safe and supportive frame is what allows the deeper clinical work to flourish.
Seeing the Shared Humanity
Scott’s philosophy extends beyond the walls of his office and into his approach to public speaking and the destigmatization of mental health. “We are all part of the human condition,” he states. “The way we experience that may differ, sometimes significantly, but that baseline experience is what has the potential to bond us if we allow it.” He sees his work as one human being simply relating to other human beings, a perspective beautifully encapsulated in a quote he once heard: “Everyone is the same height from God’s viewpoint.”
This worldview is mirrored in his leadership philosophy, which Scott describes as servant leadership. He cites Simon Sinek’s book “Leaders Eat Last” as an influence, expressing a deep belief in the joy of lifting others up and investing in their growth. “Making our profession better and stronger,” he says, “is something that I feel is changing the world.”
A Portrait of the Artist
Currently, Mosaic Pathway Counseling is a one-person operation, with Scott managing everything from budgets and marketing to his full clinical caseload. He has hopes to expand in the future, with a desire to get more involved in the podcast space and, ideally, to write a book.
He admits that he struggles with work-life balance. “Many people who know me tell me I work too much,” he says, “but I love what I do.” Away from the office, Scott is a man of diverse interests. He enjoys time with his wife, their two adult daughters, and their two miniature dachshunds. Traveling has always been a major passion, and he is an avid collector, a self-proclaimed sports and comic junkie, always discovering new “wormholes to explore.”
This portrait of a deeply curious and engaged person is perhaps the best reflection of Scott’s professional life. He is a man who sees the value in all the varied pieces, in his own life and in the lives of his clients. He has taken the ultimate risk, to bet on himself, and in doing so, has created a space where others can feel safe enough to do the same, to step back, and to finally see the beauty of their own unique and unbreakable mosaic.
Visit: https://www.mosaicpathwaycounseling.org/
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