In the month of September we had wonderful articles talking about everything from how to deal with no-show clients to how to get your office ready. We shared a great list of podcasts for you to listen to and even delved deeper into whether you should give your practice a generic name. In our podcasts we had a takeover by Alison Pidgeon who interviewed some phenomenal guests.
Top Stories
What I Did After My Client No-Showed
My client in private practice didn’t show up tonight. In fact, this was my third no-show in two weeks. I milled about trying to not feel the weight of each minute passing, wondering if she was just late today. Then I chatted with a co-worker, attempting to ease my anxiety and get a dose of reassurance. I called the client, left a message and sent an email. For a a moment I felt like I’d been stood up on a date. I wanted to spend time with them but they didn’t want to spend time with me.
Small Town Therapist
I live and practice counseling in a small town of 24,000 people. After moving here 7 years ago from Boston, MA, I adjusted slowly to rural life. I shop here, send my kids to school, eat at local restaurants, use the public library, and attend a church. I have learned that there is never more than one degree of separation between my clients and me. This was never a problem in the big city, where I could count on the number of people to keep me properly hidden and reasonably safe from too many personal connections.
How To Transition Mid-Career To A Counseling Practice
When operated correctly, a private practice can offer counselors a healthy six-figure income, a benefit which is generally out of reach to other mental health professionals. Thus, after years in the field, psychiatric nurses, social workers and similar relatively low-earning professionals often consider transitioning into private practice. Here’s how any mental health professional can open or enter private practice – and make the career transition successfully.
Podcasts
Meighan O’Toole Helps Small Businesses Define, Establish, And Build Their Businesses Online | PoP 322
In this podcast episode, Alison Pidgeon speaks with Meighan O’Toole about how to leverage social media and marketing to your advantage and how to target your ideal clients.
Tara McMullin Creates Economic Powerhouses | PoP 323
In this episode Alison Pidegon speaks with Tara McMullin about how she helps small businesses owners connect with each other in a peer to peer fashion so that they can trade notes and figure out what’s really working.
Lacy Boggs Knows A Lot About Content Creation | PoP 324
In this episode Alison Pidegon speaks with Lacy Boggs about how to use content creation and marketing to your advantage so that you connect with your audience.
Cecilia Briseno Does Hardship Evaluations And Is Changing The World | PoP 325
In this episode Joe Sanok speaks with Cecilia about how she started doing hardship evaluations and how you too can start offering this.
Before You Go…
- Taking The Leap
There will be no perfect time to put in your notice at work. It will be scary to consider that you won’t start your business with a full caseload. My message to you today is to find people who will meet your fear with compassion, curiosity, and encouragement. You can take the leap, and we’re here to support you. - How To Determine If It’s Time To Hire An Administrative Assistant
In order to increase my billable hours to clients, I had to evaluate what I could decrease. It became clear to me that I was spending too much time on paperwork! Who could help me with all the paperwork? An administrative assistant! - I’m Thinking About Hiring My First Clinician, Now What?
The thought of bringing on your first clinician may excite you, but also frighten you at the same time. You may be a person who had a vision, from the very beginning, that you wanted to have a full group practice. But when faced with the decision to take next step to do so, you feel a sense of hesitation. - 3 Tips on Adding Services To Your Practice
In the growth of each business there comes a time to add new services. Adding services is a big undertaking that requires thoughtful systems, acute marketing, and precise execution of the services. How does one go about adding services? To be honest, there are many ways to add services, but here are a few tips to help on your journey in the form of an anecdote. - Stay The Course
You decided to start your own practice. Easier said than done. Creating a practice is a journey. It’s life changing and it can be scary. Most of us are used to working for someone else and receiving a consistent paycheck. You could just continue to maintain your job and fulfill your other adult responsibilities without receiving criticism for doing so. - How to Stay Motivated When You Start Your Practice
You have put in hours setting up your private practice, creating marketing materials, networking with other professionals, researching the necessary business tools, setting up your office, and applying for insurance panels. Then you wait for the phone to ring….. nothing. It can be very discouraging when you are ready for your practice to take off but you aren’t getting clients. - How To Stop Sounding Like Every Other Therapist
Dear therapist, stop being boring when you market. Stop writing your profiles and web copy like you are writing your dissertation or worse yet copying lists from the DSM (you laugh, but I have worked with clients who take their copy when they start with me from DSM lists.) - Empathizing With New Patients
Trying something new for the first time can cause quite a bit of anxiety. I felt pretty anxious before I went to my first barre class (you know, that trendy exercise fad right now combining Pilates, yoga and ballet?). I imagine this is what it feels like for some of our clients to start therapy. Don’t get me wrong, I have been on the other side and have been a client myself in therapy. The only thing was, I wasn’t anxious at all to begin. In fact, I was really excited and enjoyed it very much. However, I know this really isn’t the case for a lot of people who come to our office. - Planning To Hire Your First Clinician?
So, you have decided to take the next step and hire your first clinician. How exciting! If you’re like me, you may have spent most of your time up until now focusing on client care with a side of business management. Unfortunately, school does not prepare us for the business side of things, which can leave us feeling stuck and overwhelmed when it comes to the logistics of growing our own practice. I have put together some steps that can help you in preparation of taking this next step, in hopes of helping you find the ideal candidate! - Getting Your Office Ready!
When starting out my private practice, I was initially subleasing. But as my practice grew, it was time to find my own office space! I did some research from location and decorating, and this was what has been helpful so far! - What Rate to Charge for Consulting
Do you wonder what rate to charge as a consultant? Q&A was part of Next Level Practice, the most supportive community for therapists starting a private practice. In this video, Joe answers the question based on what rate to charge as a consultant. - How To Know When To Discuss Sex With Clients
This is a question I wrestled with for a number of years. Both in my private practice, as well as agency work. When is it okay to talk with your clients about sex? It took up sizeable amounts of time and thought in my mind. It didn’t often come up in my agency work, but it did in private practice. - Who Needs Online Counseling?
As a social worker, I am a problem solver by training, so I was certain that there must be a solution to this quandary. After much research, I discovered the budding world of online and telemental health counseling. However, I was doubtful and hesitant. Is online counseling ethical? Legal? Research-based? Effective? - Should I Give My Private Practice a Generic Name?
Are you in the process of naming your private practice? Q&A was part of Next Level Practice, the most supportive community for therapists starting a private practice. In this video, Joe answers the question based on whether or not you should give your private practice a generic name. - 20 Podcasts To Listen To Now
I’m going to share with you my favorite podcasts. Of course I love my own podcast, the Practice of the Practice podcast where we help people have innovative ideas to start, grow, and scale their private practices. This is for people that have a counseling private practice, massage therapy, chiropractors, attorneys – all sorts of people with a private practice. - A Few Practical Tips That Helped Me Establish My Paper & Process Systems
I’ve been in private practice for almost two years now and there have been so many new things that I’ve had to learn along the way. One of the more challenging and important has been the development of my paperwork and process systems. Here are some basic tips to consider as you work to build on these foundation systems for your own business. - 3 Easy Ways to Generate Ideas for Content Marketing
Content marketing is a great way to bring ideal clients into your practice. However, if you’re not familiar with the process of creating content it can seem overwhelming and you may not be sure where to start. - Importance of Building Community
When I first started my private practice and hung up my shingle (ahem, published my website), I thought I was ready. I’d recently moved across the country and thought it would be the *perfect* time to start my practice. And it was for many reasons. But it wasn’t for one big reason: I didn’t have a community. - Three Things You Can Do to Prevent Retraumatization
Do you have clients who when asked about traumatic experiences tend to get into a lot of detail and emotional activation when describing these experiences? Do they tend to talk about these events each time they meet with you? Whether you are doing trauma therapy with them or not? If so, they are probably retraumatizing themselves and need some help to stop doing this.
