Two Days To Build Your Practice

I haven’t written for the sake of promotion since last August when I went on my launch/promotional blitz and hated it. Those of you who hung in there with me through that, thanks!

Last week I talked about how one of the company values is that we are ambitious and not afraid to sell. Then I sat down to write this post and found that I was, in fact, stupidly squeamish about telling you about what I truly consider an opportunity.

If we were having coffee I wouldn’t feel that way. Like if you said, …

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A Partner's Perspective

After publishing When Partners Have Concerns, a counselor requested a post from the perspective of a partner to share with his wife. I thought this was a pretty brilliant suggestion and immediately knew who I wanted to ask. 

I'd like to introduce you guys to my good friend, Jeff Hardesty. When my husband and I moved to Seattle, Jeff and his wife Allison were among the first people we met (you first met Allison in my maternity leave blog post). They invited us to a party a couple days later that …

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9 Tips for Private Practice Marketing

You know how I preach stockpiling your blog posts so you never have one breathing down your neck? Here’s a confession: I used my blogging time to house hunt for all of June and July. Totally one of those “do as I say, not as I do” things. Eek! The good news is that we’re under contract on a house we love (or rather, whose potential we love… helloooooo renovations) so my blogging time will be restored. The other good news is that I happened to do a webinar on 9 Tips for Private Practice Marketing…

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Doing It Your Way, Enjoy Work

I had an eye-opening experience a few days ago. Agnes Wainman’s awesome Blissful Practice Facebook Group (similar vibe as the Abundance Facebook Group… hop in both!)  had an “Ask Me Anything” with storyteller extraordinaire Marisa Goudy.



Who To Trust

Like many of you, I’m constantly learning: reading blogs, listening to podcasts, diligently underlining whatever book I’m reading (pro tip: keep an index card as a bookmark and use it to make straight lines). Lately I’ve been on an efficiency kick. …

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10 Myths to Bust About Using an Online Business Manager

Our common friend Jo Muirhead suggested Frances and I meet. On Skype, across the country, I was floored by her experience and what Frances is up to.  If you’re one of those clinicians that really struggles to get your business shit together, Frances is your woman. She’s was the director for a big counseling practice, managing the business side for the company. As the owner of My Solution Services, she is passionate about making our jobs, and thus our lives, easier so we can do what we do best. I…

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Saying No In Your Private Practice

There are a million ways we can talk about boundaries in your practice, and I’m sure I’ll hit most of them at some point, but today I want to talk to what happens when we fall into scheduling and fear-based victimhood. Oh yeah, I used the V-word. Let’s own it.

Time

Here’s what happens: someone calls and seems like a really great fit. You have space available since you’re still building. You want to see this client. They insist that they can’t make the times you offer, so you stretch a little and …

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Healing From Client-Related Trauma

*Trigger warning: description of violence follows*

I have a scar from a client, a man twice my weight, who locked his jaw on me and wouldn’t let go. I was once restrained by a young but strong girl and didn’t know how I was going to get out of it. As a house parent at 19 years old, I was placed alone with two men in their mid-30’s who had sexually assaulted a young woman and I wasn’t told about it, nor did I have access to their chart, until months in. A co-worker I traded shifts with was once pu…

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Business Half-Truths

I have a new pet peeve! It’s people who spout off business advice half-truths. (And before you worry, it’s no one in the Abundance Facebook Group; those folks will tell you the full truth).  These half-truthers know it’s more complicated than they say it is, but they don’t just fess up that a part of their brilliant idea/system sucks. Having bought into some of these, I want to tell you some pitfalls of these options so you can make a better informed decision. I want to stress that these strateg…

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When Partners Have Concerns

This suggestion came up in the Facebook Group (which you should join!) as a blog topic and it was the first one I wrote about because it’s something I see a lot. I’ve had several conversations with partners of therapists who wanted to join the Abundance Practice-Building Groups but their loved one had some reticence around private practice (and thus the investment in the group).  I think our partners' unfamiliarity with the private practice possibilities, in tandem with the risk, makes for some …

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Stop Seeing Your Clients as Victims

This blog post is a long time coming. It all started with a hater. Not a troll, but someone who looked at the surface of a few things I said, made some assumptions about me, fit that into her paradigm about therapy and therapists and let me have it. I’d had my share of haters by that point, but none that invested a ton of time in writing a diatribe of grievances about my character and the evil I was spreading in the world of counseling. At first I felt really misunderstood. I wanted to defend my…

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