You’ve got openings in your practice. Someone calls wanting to learn more about you and possibly to hire you. Good news, right? Before you begin your free phone consultation with this person, take a moment to breathe and get centered.
Remember this: You're NOT going to try to convince them to work with you.
If you work hard to convince them, one of two lousy things might happen:
1. They will hire you even though they are not quite ready.
2. They will run away because they feel pushed.
There's an energy flow that gets choked off when one person is trying to convince the other.
Think about the last time you were talking to someone who was trying to convince you of something. How did it feel? Not so therapeutic, right?
Rather than trying to convince the potential client, try this instead:
Help the potential client make a good decision about whether to hire you.
If you’re focused on that, you’ll help them feel comfortable, find out more about what they need, and tell them what they should know about you.
Sometimes the potential client will PULL for you to overpromise.
Let’s say this person asks you “If I work with you, will I (X)?” (Fill in X with “save my marriage, stop being depressed, find my life partner, stop having panic attacks, or any other result they are hoping for.)
Slow down, breathe, and tell the truth. Maybe you’ll say something like this:
"X is something that has happened to a lot of folks I’ve worked with. It’s not something that any therapist can guarantee. Here are some things that make it more likely that you’ll have X happen.”
Then you can tell about the kind of steps they can take to make X more likely. Perhaps you’ve noticed that people who practice skills between sessions, come weekly to therapy, or journal between sessions are more likely to have that desired result.
Next time I’ll talk about how to handle that question so many therapists get flustered by during consultations: “How do you work?”
If it’s time to create your unique therapy practice, and you’re committed to building it ethically and authentically, get in my orbit. Free stuff from me in your inbox every week. Never spam.