Editor's Note

Lynne Azpeitia, LMFT
Voices Editor

Getting Paid: 4 Tips to Make Your Practice Even Better

Here are four tips for making your private practice better, easier, more enjoyable, and increasing your income. To make it interesting, these tips are selected from some of the articles I’ve been recommending to the therapists I’ve been doing practice coaching with this year.

Each of these articles is a short and easy read — and every single one of them is chock full of the best tips and information that therapists can quickly and easily use to make their practice better any time of the year. Reading any one of them will definitely give you more private practice success — and without stress!

So, if you have--or can make--a little time to reflect on your practice and how to make it better, stronger, and more successful, take a look at one of these and see what you think. I’ve included links to the articles they’re from.

As you read the following information, be sure to remember: 

●      Only do and say things that fit for you, your clients, and your practice—and always within legal and ethical guidelines

●      You can ignore everything written in this article and still be successful. Discover what works for you, your clients, your professional designation, and the practice setting you work in.

Tip 1: How To Identify Your Ideal Client

If you are ready to start targeting the clinical work that you find most meaningful and stop the shotgun approach by “specializing” in every mental health issue out there, here’s my advice to you.

Find some time in a peaceful place and ask yourself the following questions:

1. Which clients in my practice do I look forward to seeing? What do they

have in common?

1. What mental health issue gets me so fired up that I love to teach people

more about it?

1. If I could only treat one or two issues for the rest of my career, what

would I choose?

1. What clients make me my best therapist self?
2. What clients bring me energy and help me to feel passionate about my

work?

By answering these questions you will have a pretty good idea of your ideal client. Start noticing how you engage in your therapy sessions when you are working with your ideal client. Notice the energy you experience. Notice which clients make your sessions enjoyable. Your clients will thank you for it!

Michelle Lewis, LCSW

Article: How To Identify Your Ideal Client To Build Your Private Practice

Tip 2: What should your branding message be?

When I was first training as a therapist, I learned that everything you do conveys a message. How you dress says something. How active or passive you are, sends a message. And certainly, what questions we ask and what we are curious about, says something. One cannot “not communicate.” Everything communicates something. So what messages do you want to send?

Start by answering this question:

How do you want a potential client or referral person to feel as they interact with your marketing materials and, ultimately, your practice itself? 

Do they come away with a sense of professionalism, warmth, excellence, and confidence? That is my hope. Or do your viewers have an “eew” experience? The point is that creating a marketing message is a byproduct of much of what we do and we should be paying attention.

Here are some of my suggestions about what your branding message might be.

Professionalism

Professionalism is defined as “the competence or skill expected of a professional.” We want our potential clients to expect and receive evidence of our competence. We spend years in training. That training should show in the way we treat clients. We want our professionalism to show through everything we do. That includes the subtle messages that our website and marketing materials convey. Additionally, it incorporates how clients are treated both on the phone and in person.  

Warmth and empathy

Clients start thinking about psychotherapy because they are experiencing pain in their life. We want them to know that we care about them as people. They are more than the check they pay us. Our clients are hurting and it drives them to do this very awkward thing– psychotherapy. They are reaching out to a stranger with the hope we can help them in ways that work. We should be dripping with empathy at every step of the way through the process.

Excellence

People are attracted to excellence. They may not know what that term means, but they like the feeling. The dictionary defines excellence as “the quality of being outstanding or extremely good.” Does your website say that? All your marketing materials? How you handle the phone? Your first sessions? Additionally, even how you do your billing? We want everything to show your excellence, from top to bottom; beginning to end.

Confidence that we know what we are doing

When a client starts thinking about calling a therapist, one of their biggest concerns is whether the therapist will be able to help. Sometimes they even directly ask. For example, how many times have we had a client who described their situation only to close with, “Can you help me?” And they mean it. They are looking to borrow some of my confidence to help them with their despair. After all, they have felt defeated by their issues. Borrowing some of my hope is useful to all clients.

Dr. David Norton, LMFT, GrowingOurPractice.com

Article: How to use everything to reinforce your branding messages

Tip 3: Wait, but what exactly am I supposed to say when I network?

First off, so much of networking is just about making connections. Those connections might not even have to do with clinical work at first. Just think about making a human-to-human connection, listen well, ask questions and be curious about the other person (bonus, you’re already good at that because you’re a therapist).

Second thing, here’s where some of our therapist internal messaging about not self-promoting comes into play. “Isn’t self-promotion kind of gross?” Trust me: 99% of the time people are really happy to hear about your services because it gives them some relief to know they have somewhere to refer people!

Bottom line: Marketing is providing a service! They can’t send people to you if they don’t know you’re there, and you can’t help people, and alleviate suffering if you hide out in your office all day!

So here’s what you say:

“My name is _______ and I have a practice in _________ (location) and I love to work with clients who __________ (fill in the blank with a quick 10-word description of your ideal client)”

For that last bit, I recommend you do some work on narrowing that down and making it as specific as possible. Even if it doesn’t encompass every person you see, it should really be focused on who you want to see more of. Again, this is where the importance of knowing your ideal client comes in.

Melissa Kelly

Article: Networking Tips for Therapists Who Think They Don't Know How to Network

Tip 4: How to set private practice fees

Setting private practice fees as a social worker, therapist, psychologist, or other mental health professionals means looking at what the specific clinician needs to earn to thrive. I teach my clients to look at what is sustainable, aligned, and values-based for them. That means making sure a therapist's fee can cover the following things.

Here are questions I ask all of my private practice coaching clients as they get ready to set their fee.‍

Can my fee allow me to...

●      Take time off that refreshes and restores me?

●      Pay my business and personal bills in full and on-time?

●      Afford my quarterly taxes?

●      Get health insurance that covers my/my family's healthcare needs?

●      Work the schedule I desire?

●      Enjoy self-care activities and hobbies that are important?

If the answer is "no" to any of these questions, it's time to create a new fee. First, I encourage therapists to sit down and answer the above questions with numbers. How much does it cost to pay personal and business bills? To afford quarterly taxes? How much is a good healthcare plan? What money needs to be set aside to pay for self-care and professional development? I encourage adding up all of those expenses. 

From there, it becomes a simple math problem.

Lindsay Bryan-Podvin, LMSW

Article: How to Set Your Fees in Private Practice (Plus 3 Mistakes to Avoid)

Lynne Azpeitia, LMFT, AAMFT Approved Supervisor, is in private practice in Santa Monica where she works with Couples and Gifted, Talented, and Creative Adults across the lifespan. Lynne’s been doing business and clinical coaching with mental health professionals for more than 15 years, helping professionals develop even more successful careers and practices. To learn more about her in-person and online services, workshops or monthly no-cost Online Networking & Practice Development Lunch visit www.Gifted-Adults.com or www.LAPracticeDevelopment.com.