Full Practice, New Problems

When I was in my early 20’s I overheard a strikingly beautiful woman complain about being gorgeous. I had absolutely zero empathy for her (or myself for like, anything). Her statements stuck in my head though and I now feel not just empathy, but awe at her vulnerability. From a more secure, mature perspective, I can totally see how being bikini-model-hot at 20 would make it hard to meet someone who gave a shit about who you were on the inside. It wasn’t a humble brag; she was just stating a fact of her life. Those of you who are on the newer side of building your private practice may have heard full clinicians complain about being full. Maybe you did an internal eye roll or ruminated about the comment. Here’s something I see in the full-clinician circles I’ve run in: there are private practices that get full and run smoothly and easily. Therapists come home energized and satisfied. Then there are private practices that get full and drain the life out of the therapist. They’ve built a higher paying, higher stakes agency job for themselves and it feels like too much to manage. Those of you that are full: Remember when you dreamt that you’d be full and that you wouldn’t have to work so hard to get clients through the door? Remember that brand of hard (which is so different from the hard of being full) and how you felt it would last forever? Congratulations on crossing over. Usually once you’ve been full a little while it’s an indication that staying full won’t be so hard over the long haul. But here’s something you didn’t know was coming: being full sucks sometimes. It’s hard to manage all the balls in the air. You don’t know whether to keep marketing. You don’t want to have yet another “I’m full” conversation in response to a voicemail asking for your services. It feels like the paperwork isn’t ever going to end and once you fall behind, catching up feels impossible. Having to consult with a client’s doctor or treatment team member throws a wrench in what was supposed to be a lunch break. Here’s the good news: you don’t have to go home exhausted. There are ways to optimize your practice so that you don’t feel like you did after agency work. Tiffany McLain from Hey Tiffany and I are teaming up for a series of free workshops aimed at clinicians who are ready to optimize their thriving practices. The first, Full Practice, New Problems: Navigating Success Without Stress, goes live Thursday February 23 at Noon PST/3:00 EST. We’ll be covering: How to Get Shit Done When You Don’t Have Much Time 3 Ways to Optimize Your Practice Which Marketing Efforts to Focus on When You Can’t Take More Clients How to Handle the Client Overflow Anyone who signs up will get the replay emailed to them but only the first 100 people in the virtual room will be able to watch live and join the Q&A at the end.   While these workshops are geared towards therapists who are full or nearing full, they will be beneficial to the newbies who want to be intentional in how they grow. We’d love for you to join us. You can sign up here, whether you can attend live or not. Let us know in the comments if you’re joining us!   Allison Puryear is an LCSW with a nearly diagnosable obsession with business development. She has started practices in three different states and wants you to know that building a private practice is shockingly doable when you have a plan and support. After retiring her individual consultation services, she opened the Abundance Party, where you can get practice-building help for the cost of a copay. You can download a free private practice checklist to make sure you have your ducks in a row, get weekly private practice tips, listen to the podcast, hop into the free Facebook Group. Allison is all about helping you gain the confidence and tools you need to succeed.