You help your clients work through money issues, but you may not have worked through your own. If you are in private practice, then you are a business owner. That means it's crucial that you work through those issues. Sometimes therapists focus solely on the clinical side of private practice. That's understandable. We didn't become therapists for financial reasons. The business side of your practice also needs attention and respect. If you don’t work through your money issues, you won’t do well as a business owner, no matter how wonderful you are as a clinician.

In this series I will go through the top 5 money issues I see therapists struggling with in their private practices. When I help therapists work through these money issues, they are able to dramatically increase their earnings.

The first money issue is having a low earning set point.

“I don’t expect to earn more than ……”

How much do you believe you can and should earn as a therapist in private practice? This is your money set point. You may think you know your set point, but your body will tell you for sure.

Try this exercise:

You’re going to think about earning different amounts of money and listen to your body’s response. Start low, with an amount of money that you think you could easily earn. Say to yourself “I earn ... per year.” Listen to your body as you say this. Then add five or ten thousand dollars to that amount and say it again: “I earn…per year.”

Keep increasing that number and listen to your body. Your set point is the place where you begin to feel uncomfortable. You’ll feel some tightness in your chest or a pit in your stomach or perhaps tension in your neck.

It is very unlikely that you’ll earn more than your set point. Even if opportunities are right in front of you that could bring you above that income level, you unconsciously sabotage those opportunities.

Perhaps you sabotage your earning potential by keeping your fees low, showing discomfort when you discuss fees, getting sick so that you have to miss work, or forgetting to call a potential client back for a few hours. The opportunities for sabotage are endless, aren’t they?

The solution to this money issue is to raise your set point. Often acknowledging your set point begins to make a difference. Explore what is keeping your set point low. Many therapists have to work through some of these statements to work through their set point issues:

It is not safe to earn more than this. My friends or family will not like me. I will mismanage it. I won’t know who I am.
I don’t deserve to earn more than this. I am not worthy of more than this because I’m not smart enough, or (fill in the blank) enough.
I would be disloyal to (fill in the blank) if I earn more than this. I have an unspoken agreement to keep my income lower than this.

Identify the fears and beliefs that are keeping your set point low so that you can release them.

Tune back in for the next 4 weeks to read more about the money issues that might be holding you back.

Is it time to build your private practice in a big way? Apply for a free consultation with me now.