Hey! I’m Taran.
Hey there! I’m so happy that you’re here and that you’re at least a little intrigued about what I have to say. Before you take a deep dive into everything, I want to take some time to share a little bit of my story with you. I will attempt to avoid things you’ve already seen in a bio or on my resume. Instead, my goal is to share parts of me :) I hope that there is something that encourages you, enlightens you, or even gives you a laugh here and there. So here we go…
My name is Taran McGowen. I was born in Fort Worth, TX, to Theron and Denise Bowman in May 1991. I have an older brother, Theron II, who is a husband, father, and physician at a major hospital in the DFW area, and a younger sister, Tiereney, who is a UT & SMU Law alum and now a practicing attorney in Fort Worth as well. My dad worked for the City of Arlington for several decades, beginning as an officer and then promoted to Police Chief. He was the first black police chief in the city! He later became Deputy City Manager and retired a few years afterward. He is now the CEO and Founder of The Bowman Group, a police and public practices consulting agency. My mom, Denise, started and ran a restaurant that was, indeed, before its time with my grandfather, John Carter. The restaurant has been open for over 30 years! Between the years of 2016 and 2017, my maternal grandparent’s health declined, ultimately leaving my mom with the choice to move to catering only for their restaurant. After their passing, my mom continued their legacy by providing food services to major businesses and organizations and starting a non-profit in honor of my grandparents, Carter Cares.
You’re probably wondering why I spent an entire paragraph highlighting my family’s accomplishments. Well, they’re a big deal; two, they’re a significant part of my story. Hold tight; we’re going somewhere…
Coming from a family of high achievers was challenging, to put it mildly. I attended a small, private Christian school in Fort Worth from pre-K to 8th grade. I have a lot of fond memories there, from being in the choir and leading songs with Miss Brookins to grading papers of my classmates and students who received higher grades than me. I recall several high schoolers asking me if I’d graded their ________ papers yet. Should it have been done? I’m not sure. But that was a benefit of being in a school for 10+ years. Everyone there was family. They were my family.
Fast forward to 9th grade, I transferred to The Oakridge School in Arlington. Oakridge was….different.
I went from maybe 12-15 classmates who looked like me, came from similar backgrounds, etc., to over 70 classmates where I was one of maybe 5 or 6 black students in my class. Oakridge is a college preparatory school known for over-preparing its students for college. I was no longer grading the papers of my classmates and upper-level students. I struggled. Academically, I was behind. My classmates were enrolled in honors and AP courses, and I felt I had to pass the regular classes. I felt utterly inadequate and out of place. I constantly compared myself to my classmates, but I also found that some teachers expected me to excel, like my brother, who was a few years ahead of me. They didn’t know he could skim a page and be ready for an exam. I, on the other hand, had to spend hours outside of school working to appear, at least, competent.
Many nights, my mom would sit at the kitchen table with me and do her best to break down the concepts to help me understand. Sometimes, we were successful, and other times, I just went into the next day knowing I’d done my best. If I knew then what I know now about neurodivergent brains, things probably would’ve felt different, but this was the early 2000s, and we didn’t know all of that yet.
One great thing about my time at Oakridge was that I loved participating in sports. The teachers and coaches loved you like you were their own, and I had amazing friends! I learned how to connect with people of all races and cultures. I learned about the beautiful Brazilian men and their fantastic soccer skills (haha, don’t tell my husband), but most of all, I learned how to work for something I valued. While I consider my high school experience extremely challenging, I would not be where I am today without everyone who invested their time and energy to ensure I was successful.
After graduating from Oakridge, I attended Dallas Baptist University for a bachelor’s degree in Music Business. During my first week of first-year orientation, I met a few friends who happened to be cheerleaders. It took them about 30 minutes to convince me to try out for the team in the coming days. Well, I did try out and unexpectedly became a collegiate cheerleader, and thank GOD I did! Joining the cheer team aligned me with meeting my now husband, Jordan McGowen. We need an entire blog on our love story, so I’ll save that for another time. In 2012, I graduated from DBU with the intent to attend law school and become an entertainment attorney. I remember completing the applications for law school, answering the questions, and feeling completely disconnected from it. “Why are you passionate about law?”… Umm, because my dad served in law enforcement? It was a mess. I know now that pursuing a law degree would help me feel like I fit into my family of already high achievers. I wanted to be independent, make my own money, and finally make my family proud. However, I chose not to pursue it further and fell into a master’s degree in Counseling. A VP at DBU called me the summer following my graduation and offered me a scholarship to complete my master’s degree. After some advice, I decided to pursue Counseling. I would later learn I had fallen into what would be my life’s work.
The following weeks after graduating with my master’s were the busiest of my life. I graduated, then a week later, got married! A few months later, I began my career as a school counselor, and shortly after, I found out that we were expecting our first baby girl! A whirlwind!!
The years after that were filled with attempting to balance a new marriage, motherhood, career, home, bills, and everything new. I transitioned into a group practice where I learned so much about trauma and helping clients work through complex trauma. In October 2019, I took a leap of faith and started Thrive House Therapy. And then, there was COVID.
COVID-19 devastated many people but stretched my clinical skills and pushed me to start a group practice. Since then, we’ve transitioned into Thrive House Wellness, a holistic group private practice offering many forms of therapy from diverse clinicians.
In 2021, Jordan and I welcomed a precious son, Jordan Mills. He made our little family complete! Since then, many days have involved being active and busy parents, starting and running businesses, serving in our church and community, and continuing our education. Today, I am currently a doctoral student at the University of North Texas in Denton, where I am completing my PhD in Counselor Education and Supervision. I have to admit that when I applied here, I didn’t fully understand what I was getting into, but it has been everything I could have hoped for and more. I am part of an all-female AMAZING cohort, working alongside professors who are so warm yet distinguished in their careers. My cup indeed runs over.
If you’ve made it this far, there are so many pockets and stories in between the stories that I can share. One day, I hope to! But for now, just know that my story is an imperfect yet beautiful picture of God's graciousness. There have been so many times that I’ve walked into things that I had no clue what was going to happen, but I’ve been covered, loved, supported, and even, at times, carried through them.
I remember being in a seminar at DBU, and one of the speakers asked us, “What’s your life sentence?” Of course, we all looked puzzled at each other. As he elaborated, he shared that when we die, when people share their sentiments, they tend to summarize our lives in one sentence. “Oh, Taran, she was nice.” “Taran was such a good baker.” You know, the one-sentence summary of your life’s meaning to them. I think about this daily, and I’ve decided that not everyone will share the same sentence, but I hope one of them is “She inspired me to thrive.”
I hope that anything I share here, online, in my work, or even in passing with you, reminds you that you deserve all the best things in the world. Don’t become weary or complacent with an unsettled life. Strive for the life you want. You can have it! You were literally made to thrive, and my hope is that my life inspires and pushes you to do just that.
With Love,
Taran
