By Sybil Cummin, MA, LPC

You graduate and are now out in the world as a new therapist, determined to help others.  Maybe you go through the grunt work at an agency where you see 35+ clients a week with low pay to get licensed and now you want something different. You want flexibility with your schedule – to get to choose the clients you work with, and you want to be paid well. 
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You went to graduate school to become a therapist so that you can help those struggling with their mental health and those who have experienced trauma, not to learn about business and marketing. So either you’re nervous to start your private practice because you are worried you won’t be able to get clients or maybe you jump into private practice and have the constant worry that you will never have a sustainable caseload.

 What if I told you that you could have a never ending stream of new client inquiries AND help those who do not always have access to the mental health care they need? 

By Sybil Cummin, MA, LPC
​Private Practice Consultation
Private Practice Workshops & Seminars

It can be scary starting out on your own.  Will I be able to fill my schedule?  Will I be able to pay my bills?  How will potential clients find me?

When you are trying to start a private practice, there are several ways to increase your visibility and referral sources in your area.  You can join different groups on social media outlets, post ads through Facebook or LinkedIn, or use tools like Google Ad Words.  You can make sure that your website has strong SEO (search engine optimization).  The most important method for me is meeting other therapists face-to-face and building those relationships. 

What people often do not share is how you can turn people off when trying to increase your visibility to increase your caseload. 

Here are the top 5 reasons why I may not send clients your way.

By Sybil Cummin, MA, LPC
​Private Practice Consultation
Private Practice Workshops & Seminars

If you have had an agency job, you rarely get to pick the clients you see and there is typically a huge range of presenting problems and clients that you work with.  This is great training and allows you to work with a huge range of clients, building your skills and confidence.  It seems like having this diversity of skills and experience will be a significant advantage when starting a private practice -- you could see almost anybody.  Do you really need to have a niche?  Isn’t it an advantage to be able to take on anyone in your practice? While it is helpful to have confidence in what you do and your abilities to work with a diverse population, there are some disadvantages to opening a practice that sees everybody. 

It is likely that you already understand the importance in setting goals to have success in your practice.  It is also likely that you have heard the term SMART goals.  If you have not, the acronym SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time Focused/Oriented.  This acronym sets a guideline for creating goals that can work.  And while it is a great map, there are a couple of other important factor when creating goals for an authentic and successful practice (or any other endeavor you are working on).

With the end of the year approaching, it is a great time to check in with yourself and your business.  What are your wins?  What have been your challenges?  How was this year different from the one you set out to have?  

In what ways do you go about checking in with your 2018?  You can crunch the numbers and check out if your practice has made a profit.  You can look at your current caseload to determine if you are full or not.  I don’t know about you all, but when I was first asked to review my year, I couldn’t remember anything important regarding my business earlier than the summer.  Sure, I remembered bits and pieces, but not enough to have a thorough review of my year.  For me it is helpful to look at the financial health of my practice, however the numbers do not tell me all I need to know about my year.  Some months may have been higher revenue while some were lower, but what factors made the difference?  Are there other things that are important to you within your work besides your bottom line?  So, while it is important to look at your practice at the end of the year, it is just as important if not more important to check in with your practice more frequently.  While I do set yearly and quarterly goals, I have also chosen to check in with myself and my business each month.  I am so glad that I did.