One Reason You May Be Hitting An Income Limit In Your Therapy Practice

If you try to build your therapy business around a kind of work that doesn’t excite you, you’ll hit an income limit pretty quickly.

A therapist I’m working with came up with a great strategy based on her niche. She took some steps, improved her website, increased her networking, and got a few more full-fee clients. She was getting pretty close to meeting her financial goals, but she’s wasn’t making the kind of progress she wanted to. She wasn’t making the kind of progress I expect for my clients.

Then she had a breakthrough. 

 

During a coaching session, she realized the niche she was filling her practice with was not the one she wanted to continue working on. She had chosen this specialty because she had a lot of training and experience with it, and she was  somewhat well known for it by her colleagues and clients. She knew there were plenty of people searching for therapists with this specialty.

Those are all valid reasons to consider a niche, but if you’re not excited about the work, it’s not the niche for you.

Deep down, she already knew what kind of work she really wanted to be doing. We pivoted her strategy to build a business around this new specialty, and she got right to work.

She had been making SOME progress before, but after this breakthrough she was able to take steps to build her practice with less hesitation. She WANTED to talk to colleagues about this specialty, and creating new content for her site came easily to her. She was all in. The steps that felt difficult and complicated to her before now seemed pretty straight forward.

This breakthrough happens for A LOT of therapists I work with. 

 

If you’ve decided that you SHOULD continue to work with a certain kind of client, specialty, or therapeutic method that you’re no longer excited about, please reconsider. If there’s a part of you that doesn’t want to do that kind of work, you will inadvertently sabotage the building of your business.

When a therapist tells me that she’s not loving her work, I actually get a little excited. I know we’re about to have a breakthrough.

It may be scary, but I know from my experiences with MANY therapists that on the other side of that breakthrough is a much more fulfilling and profitable business. 

Are you ready to acknowledge and claim the business you really want to be running? I’ve got a program to help you. Apply for a free 20-minute phone consultation with me now.

P.S. My next Superpower Method For Therapists™ Program is starting in a week. Contact us now if you're interested. I keep this program small, and the spots are filling.

You Might Have These Questions About The Superpower Method For Therapists™ Program

Registration is now open for The Superpower Method For Therapists™ Program. If you’re considering participating in the program, but you’re not sure, you might have one of these questions or concerns.

1.    I’m not sure if I can afford it.

The investment of the program is $1400 (or $500 per month for 3 months). If you’re feeling scarcity about money in your business right now, that might feel like a scary number. If you’re ready to invest time and energy into your business, then you will use this program to increase your income by much more than $1400. You’ll apply yourself to the homework assignments and use each group call as well as your individual session to make profitable changes to your business. If you add one client to your practice for a few months, you will have recouped your financial investment. I hope you intend to do much more than that. Most participants make changes that add thousands of dollars to their businesses each year, and that’s what it’s designed to help you do.

2.    I’ve tried coaching programs before.

Most therapists I’ve worked with have participated in some sort of practice building program or conference or have gone through workbooks before. Many of you got some value there. If you’re the kind of therapist who will benefit from The Superpower Method For Therapists™ program, you also need a different process to take your business to the next level. In this program, you get lots of individual attention and opportunities to connect directly with me throughout the process. I give you individual feedback on every assignment and interact directly with you on our group calls. You get even more individualized strategy in your 1:1 session with me.

3.    Can I really turn my business around in 3 months?

This program is designed to give you a process that you can use intensely during the 14 weeks of the program, and then that you can use over and over again throughout the life of your business. You CAN shift your mindset, get clear on your vision, and create a strategy for your unique business in this 14-week process. You’ll also receive bonus challenges in each of the 7 modules. If you are especially ambitious, you can complete every bonus challenge.  In that case, you’ll have overhauled the most important pages on your website and launched a new aspect of your new business model before the program is over.

4.    I want to add something besides 1:1 therapy sessions to my business, and I don’t know if this program will help me with that.

More than half of the participants of the last Superpower Method For Therapists™ Program are in the midst of launching or have already launched new offerings outside of in-person therapy sessions. If you’re considering adding coaching, a group program, taking part of your business online, or hiring an additional therapist for your practice, this program can help you make it happen.

I want you to get your questions answered. If you’re wondering if this program is the right fit for you and I haven't answered your questions, submit your questions right here. The program runs only 2 times per year. Here's the spot to find out more. 

How (and why) Does The Superpower Method For Therapists™ Program Work?

Many years ago, before I was a business coach myself, I was a participant in a few practice building conferences and boot camp marketing courses. I learned some useful skills, but I found the format didn’t take me where I needed to go.

There were plenty of ideal client profile exercises.

There was advice about what pages to have on my website.

There were plenty of marketing tools.

There were lots of enthusiastic coaches.

What was missing was a process to help me connect the dots, identify the bigger potential of my therapy business and create an individualized strategy to get there.

 

Then I started coaching therapists individually a few years ago. Some of them had also participated in boot camp courses and other practice building programs.

What these therapists most needed from me was a process to identify and then create the bold and innovative businesses they really wanted to run.

Without that kind of process, you may be able to build a practice that makes OK money, but you won’t make the most of what your business can be.

To break through and create the business only you can create, you need a process that helps you answer tough questions, stretch to think in new ways about yourself and your business, and discern which tools to use and how to use them.

(I have to be honest. Some of the questions are TOUGH, but they're worth it, and I’m here to help.)

Then I realized that I was walking many therapists through the same process, and that going through the process in a small group TOGETHER could give them even more value. No two therapists end up with the same practice or the same strategy.

Sometimes hearing what another therapist is working on helps you realize you had a question before you even knew to ask it.

The Superpower Method For Therapists™ Program was born.

Registration is NOW OPEN, and we start on January 28th. A small number of spots are still open.

IF THIS IS THE YEAR for you to create the therapy practice only you can create, you don’t need a grab bag of marketing tools. It’s time for a personalized strategic plan.

Learn more here.

Ever Stall Out When You Try To Write For Your Therapy Practice?

You’re ready to build your therapy practice this year. You’ve got big plans. You want to significantly increase your income and attract your right-fit clients. You’re ready to put some work and energy into it. I’ve been telling you lately that you’ll need a strategy based on your strengths and tailored to the practice you want to create. 

Once you’ve got a great strategy, you’re ready to start taking action. Then...you begin to run into obstacles. That’s not a bad sign, and it’s certainly not a sign that you should stop. It just means that you need support and new skills.

Maybe you’ve decided to write regularly for your practice this year, either a blog or just a group of articles. Maybe you’ve even gotten started on that.

Writing is a very common place for therapists to get STUCK.

You’ve chosen writing as one of your practice building tools because you’ve got something to say, you want to increase your web traffic, and you want your potential clients to get a sense of how you work.

Many smart and creative therapists have a hard time following through with writing articles. If you’re one of them, I don’t want you to give up. That’s why I’m offering a free 30-minute online workshop about writing a blog for your therapy practice.

Join me on Tuesday, January 12th at 11:00 a.m. PT

I’ll share the most common problems therapists deal with when they begin to write articles, and how to move through those problems and keep writing. I’ll also share some keys to making your therapy articles engaging rather than just clutter on the Internet.

(Sorry, this event is now over)

How To Know If You're Ready To GROW Your Therapy Practice

Over and over, I have helped therapists grow successful, non-insurance based private practices when people around them were saying “It’s a terrible time to try to build a practice.” I’ve increased the revenue of my own private practice during these times too.

The time to build your therapy practice is when YOU are ready.

I live in the Bay Area where rents are up. WAY up. Of course this impacts a therapy business.

Factors outside of yourself, like rent and cost of living and unemployment rates do have an impact on your business. But they are not the most important factors.

The factors inside of you are much more important to your business. 

Here are some questions about those inside factors to tell you whether you might be ready to really GROW a private practice right now.

DESIRE

Do you WANT a private practice that makes a profit?

Think deeply about what you want for your professional future. If you know you want a private practice free of insurance panels, working with your right-fit clients and making a good living, then it may be time to make that happen. If you’re ambivalent, and you’re not sure what you want, take the time to figure it out first. Building a private practice takes commitment, and you will falter if you’re ambivalent.

ENERGY

Do you have energy to do the marketing and networking it takes to build a practice?

If you won’t be able to get yourself up in the morning to take steps to build your practice, then it might not be the right time. Consider whether you’re willing to set aside some time to do what it takes outside of sessions.

CONFIDENCE

Do you have confidence in your work?

All good therapists doubt their clinical skills at times (except maybe the narcissistic ones, and that’s another story). When you are working with a client who is a great fit for you, do you feel confident about the transformation and healing you facilitate? If not, it’s time to get some support, either through clinical training, or perhaps your own therapy, to find that confidence.

STRATEGY

Do you have a solid marketing strategy?

Desire, energy and confidence are important, but you also need to know what to do to build your practice. Find out here what I mean by strategy. You don’t have to figure it out alone. Check out The Superpower Method For Therapists Program. The next one Starts in January. 

If you know it’s time to build the business only you can create, apply for a free 20-minute phone consultation with me.

Do You Believe That Building A Therapy Practice Takes A LONG TIME?

You’ve heard that building a successful private practice takes a long time.

Perhaps you’ve heard it takes YEARS to grow a successful business.

It is true that time helps if you’re doing the right things consistently, and that the right actions will pay off more and more over time. Your practice will be more profitable and you’ll have more choices 2 years from now than you will in six months.

But don’t discount how much you can accomplish in six months.

You DON’T have to wait years to have a successful private practice.

When you believe it takes a long time to build a successful practice, that can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you’re waiting for referrals, you may in fact be waiting for word-of-mouth to kick in and fill your practice. Word-of-mouth is a wonderful PART of a practice building strategy, but it takes way too long on its own.

If you don’t take action based on strategy, time won’t lead you to a full practice.

Your practice will grow slowly, and it will grow in a direction you might not choose. Without strategy, you may end up with a practice full of clients you’re not excited about, doing work that doesn’t really suit you.

Strategy and action build your practice.  

What is strategy? Strategy includes

1. positioning your practice

2. choosing your business model

3. creating a marketing plan

Positioning your practice means knowing who you’d like to work with and how you’re unique as a therapist. When you position your practice, you’re clear that what you offer is a great fit for the clients you want to serve. You know you’re not competing with every other therapist out there, and you’re able to articulate how you’re different.

Your business model is the set of services you offer your clients. A business model can include only one service, such as individual 50-minute sessions, or it can include groups, workshops, coaching, and more. Your business model should be designed to lean on your strengths and bring you profit.

Your marketing plan is the way you reach out to your right-fit potential clients when they are ready to work with a therapist. Thoughtful and authentic marketing is an important part of speeding up the process of building your practice.

If 2016 is your year to build your bold and unique practice and make more money, it might be time for my next Superpower Method For Therapists Program. If you sign up for the interest list now, you’ll be the first to know when I open registration in January.

One Key To Better Writing On Your Therapy Website

I’m always telling you not to use jargon on your website or in any of the writing meant for your potential clients. If you’ve followed me for a little while, you know that I advocate using the kind of words your right-fit clients use when you write about their pain, their problems, what happens in therapy, and what it’s like to work with you. Unless your right-fit clients are all therapists, you’ve got to unlearn some of the words you usually use.

But as much as you shouldn’t use jargon or clinical language, you also shouldn’t use cheesy, dumbed-down or overly general language.

 

Your right-fit clients are smart and discerning. Writing feels cheesy when it pulls for an emotional response that seems exaggerated or out of context. Cheesy writing is like a proposal on a first date.  “I love you, will you marry me?” on a first date is creepy, even if one might enjoy hearing those words at the right time and in the right relationship.

You want to find a sweet spot in your writing: neither clinical nor cheesy. The way to avoid both of those is to be specific and descriptive of your right-fit client’s experience.

Let’s use the example of a therapist I’ll call Jane who loves working with smart young women who want to improve their relationships. Jane’s right-fit client wants to find a good partner or improve the relationship she’s in, and she wants stronger, more resilient friendships. Jane uses attachment theory in her work.

She might be tempted to write something like this:  

“In therapy with me, you can increase your capacity for relational engagement. We will investigate and heal your attachment injuries in the context of a safe therapeutic relationship.”

(I made that up, but I see things like it all the time!) Her right-fit client would glaze over, because although she understands all the words, she doesn’t really see her experience in those sentences. Too jargon-y. Too clinical.

The other extreme would be for Jane to get a little cheesy and say:

“In therapy with me, you will learn to thrive in your relationships in new ways.You’ll finally create relationships that are stronger and last longer. I help you learn to love yourself so that you can create the relationships you deserve.”

(I made that up too, but again, I see things like it all the time.) Remember, Jane’s clients are smart, and this just sounds too general. Her right-fit client begins to roll her eyes.

To reach her right fit client, she needs to use words that are both descriptive and specific.   

Jane could write:

“You’ve tried setting better boundaries, using “I” statements, and being more emotionally honest. Your relationships still aren’t as satisfying or close as you want them to be, and you’re ready to find out why. In therapy with me, you’ll get comfortable with those parts of yourself that bring up self-criticism and shame. As your relationship with yourself improves, you’ll find that all of your relationships begin to shift.”

Better. What’s different? Jane has had to work harder to come up with these words. She has articulated what her right-fit client is experiencing and how therapy helps. She’s found a way to say all of that using words that her right-fit client would find accurate.

It’s worth the effort. Every time I’ve guided a therapist to edit their words and find the right ones, they’ve told me it was worth the work.

Is it time to build the private practice only you can create? Apply for a free 20-minute consultation with me now.

Are You An Upholder? Here's How To Succeed In Private Practice

Do you ever have trouble sticking to your business goals? You should know about Gretchen Rubin’s work. She’s the author of The Happiness Project and Better Than Before, and she’s created a model called The Four Tendencies addressing how we form good habits and get things done. She discovered that we don’t all respond to expectations in the same way. Some people respond to the expectations of others (Obligers), some people respond to their own expectations (Questioners), some people resist both inner and outer expectations (Rebels), and the final group responds to inner and outer expectations alike (Upholders).

When you know what kinds of expectations motivate you the most, you can set up your work life to help you take advantage of that. Stop trying to change yourself. Find the solutions that work with your natural tendency.

Now go take her quiz to find out which category you land in.

As I started this blog series, I was curious which categories my therapist clients would be in. A lot of those people were kind enough to take the quiz and tell me. The largest group was Obligers, then came Questioners. Rebels and Upholders made up a very small number.

Read these posts to find out how to adjust your business if you’re a Rebel, a Questioner, or an Obliger. Today I’ll talk about the final group, Upholders.

To the Upholder:

This is my category, so I’m intimately familiar with it’s advantages and pitfalls.

You respond to both inner expectations AND outer expectations. Upholders get a lot done. When you set a deadline for yourself, you usually follow through. If a deadline comes from someone else, perhaps an accountant, coach, or web designer, you’ll follow through with that too.

As an upholder entrepreneur, you can use your ability to get stuff done to your advantage. Once you know the goals and tasks that will make you successful, you’ll probably accomplish them.

It’s not all pretty for you though, Upholder. You can get a bit neurotic. If you set an overly ambitious deadline for yourself, you feel distressed if you don’t meet it. Sometimes you meet that deadline when it would be better to just move it.

With so many expectations from both the outside and the inside, you live with a lot of pressure.

Upholder, you need to give yourself realistic expectations so that you can meet them without distress. Be strategic and choosy about what goals and projects you take on. You’re at risk of taking on too many practice building tasks at once, and when you do that, you lose your sense of focus.

Is it time to create a strategy to build a unique private practice? Apply for a free 20-minute consultation with me now.

 

Are You An Obliger? Here's How to Succeed In Private Practice

You’ve got so much to do in your therapy business. You want to revamp your website, meet more colleagues, update your intake forms…It takes a lot to run your private practice. How you stay motivated and effective depends on who you are and how you’re wired. Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project and Better Than Before, has created a model called the Four Tendencies. It divides people into four categories, based on what kinds of expectations they respond to. When you know what kinds of expectations get you motivated and allow you to form good habits, you can be more effective by using that information to your advantage.

Read my overview of The Four Tendencies.

Now take the quiz to find out whether you’re a Rebel, Questioner, Obliger, or Upholder. Read my posts about how to run your practice if you’re a Rebel or a Questioner. Upholders will be up next week.

To The Obliger:

If you’re an Obliger, you kick yourself when you don’t follow through with the goals you set for yourself. You try over and over to set goals and keep going until you’ve accomplished them, but it often doesn't work. Rather than trying to change yourself, why not set up your work in a way that comes more naturally to you?

You respond to outer expectations. You’re driven to please others and to give of yourself. When a group or individual expects you to do something, you tend to step up and get it done. If you join a gym and plan to go 3 times a week, you may not follow through. If you sign up for an exercise class with a friend, you’re much more likely to show up consistently.  Both the teacher and your friend are expecting you!

When you’re building your therapy practice, the key to your success is accountability. Don’t just set arbitrary deadlines for yourself. Work with a coach,  accountability partner, or group so that you know someone is expecting you to follow through with each step.

Some of my Obliger therapist clients have accomplished more in 3 months of my group coaching program than they had in several years of working on their own. Many of them had tried and failed at using self-study marketing courses or workbooks. Without accountability and feedback, they stalled out.

If you’re an Obliger, embrace your tendency and start using it to your advantage. For every important task you’ve been procrastinating, there’s a way to build in accountability.

If you’re ready to get help building your unique private practice, apply for a free 20-minute phone consultation with me. 

Are You A Questioner? Here's How to Succeed In Private Practice

When you understand what motivates you, you can set up your therapy practice in ways that help you succeed. Gretchen Rubin’s Four Tendencies Model is a great tool for this. She has discovered that different people respond to different kinds of expectations, and splits us all into 4 categories.

Take her quiz to find out which of the four categories you fall into.

To read my summary of the four tendencies, go here.

To The Questioner:

You question expectations. You don’t do things just because someone tells you it’s important. You ask “why?” On the other hand, if a task makes sense to you and you’ve decided it matters, you’ll accomplish it without much fuss. Once you create a goal for yourself, you’re likely to follow through with it.

When you’re creating, building and running your therapy practice, you must gather information and take the time you need to make business decisions. Internal buy-in is necessary for you, so allow yourself to do what it takes to arrive there.

One questioner therapist I know is very careful to find the right trainer or teacher when she’s learning a therapeutic method. If she doesn’t admire and trust the teacher, she won’t feel motivated to do the work. She needs to work with leaders who will allow her to ask why.

Think through the tasks of running your business. Are there things you need to do more of in order to be successful? Get your questions answered and do the research so that you can create internal buy-in for each of those tasks. You will respond to the expectations you impose on yourself.

The upside of being a Questioner is that you don’t waste time or energy trying to please other people. You have the potential to create a unique business based on what makes sense and matters to you. 

Gretchen Rubin points out that questioners are the most likely “to question the validity of the Rubin Tendencies.” So if you’re thinking, “I’m skeptical that I fall into one of those categories,” you’re probably a questioner. Hah!

Next week I’ll talk about the most populated category, Obligers.

Is it time to grow a unique therapy practice? Apply for a free 20-minute consultation with me. We’ll talk about some steps to get you there.