Charles Warren, MS, NCC, SHRM-CP, LPC

Meet Charles

I care deeply about people and somehow, I’ve often found myself working for bosses and companies that didn’t share that very simple value.

Before co-founding Chosen Path Collective with (my friend/confidant/colleague/fellow human) Chelsea, I spent over four years helping to build, manage, and grow a successful group private practice. Before that, I left a decade-long career in Human Resources to become a therapist. I remember telling a former employer that I was leaving the “safe” and predictable world of corporate HR because I was tired of working under CEOs who operated with unethical values and treated people as expendable. I wanted something different. I wanted to ACTUALLY help people. I wanted to spend my time building community, empowering others, and reinvest back into the humans doing incredibly hard and lifesaving work.

Spoiler alert: I didn’t get to do those things. I ended up back in systems that looked different on the outside but still centered total power, unrealistic productivity, and profit over people.

One moment that has always stayed with me was when a former CEO told me ‘I have to be okay with sacrificing someone else to protect myself.’ That moment really stuck with me. I don’t ever want to be in a space that is okay with sacrificing someone who doesn’t hold fancy titles or generate high profits for my own personal gain. That felt so wrong and really shook me to my core.

But it helped me. It was a turning point, where I realized, I do not need to keep engaging with the status quo where people get hurt, exploited, and thrown aside by businesses. I wanted to do it differently.

If a big queer commune was a viable business option, that’s what Chosen Path Collective would be at its core.

My approach to being a leader is influenced heavily by a strength-based and coaching framework. I’m often called the ‘warm and fuzzies’ – but all that really means is that I trust the people I work with and believe in their intentions, abilities, and goals. I genuinely want to support them, and see people experience true liberation in their life, not just in their work. I don’t believe in withholding knowledge, experience, or gatekeeping access to systems that will help people grow. Those are tactics used by people, systems, and companies that are afraid of losing power and control. Those tactics are oppressive and valued by capitalism.

I believe in transparency and education. If someone wants to know how to start a private practice and fly solo – I will help teach them. If someone wants to learn how to lead people and manage systems – I will offer my experience.

Thus, Chosen Path Collective started forming as an idea. One that came out of a time of sheer chaos and lots of exhaustion. And now I get to dedicate myself to making Chosen Path Collective the kind of space I wish I had earlier in my career:

• A space where perfection and productivity aren’t the measures of success.
• Where people feel safe enough to show up as themselves even when that means being unpolished, and a little messy.
• Where mistakes are not met with punishment and shame but instead coaching and understanding.
• Where asking for help is a strength and doesn’t threaten your job security.
• Where curiosity and learning is not just encouraged but woven deeply into our culture.

I am so lucky to get to work with some of the brightest, fiercest, and most passionate humans in this industry, and I am inspired daily by them.

The people who have weathered unimaginable chaos, but still show up to be helpers, even when they are tired deep in their bones because the world is too heavy to carry. But they still do it, because they also care about people. To be trusted to support and grow with this team is a privilege I don’t take lightly and will be thankful for every day.

Charles Outside of Work:

Consider me chief chaos goblin.