3 Things Before Starting Private Practice
Robin Arnett, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in private practice, joins our blog to share her wisdom and straightforward advice about starting a private practice.
Read this blog post for honest (and real!) advice on mistakes she made and ways you can avoid them yourself.
Here are the three things she wished she had known before starting a private practice:
Find your niche
Intentional growth takes time
Marketing and branding are part of the job
Starting a private practice can feel like dealing with a black box.
Private practice is a very popular (and often necessary) path for therapists at some point in our careers.
Despite that fact, I never once saw a course offered on how to go about this process while I was pursuing my master's in social work. I hear that this is typical across graduate programs.
Although it might feel intimidating at first (it did to me), starting a private practice is not as scary as it seems, and there are now tons of resources out there to make the process easier. Don’t let the fear factor stop you! I’m happy to say that after four years in the biz, my practice is thriving, I’m attracting my ideal client, and I’m even expanding into new territory, which feels amazing.
01. Find Your Niche
I don’t know about you, but I didn’t learn much in grad school about how to actually do the job of being a therapist. Post-grad, I’ve pursued advanced training in EMDR and Internal Family Systems therapy to close that gap. Although it can be frustrating to have to spend even more time and money on training after going through grad school, I can say without a doubt that having the clinical lens of IFS and EMDR has been the biggest benefit to my practice.
I hear all the time from potential clients that they reached out precisely because I have that combo of expertise. My advanced training has also allowed me to branch out into consultation and supervision, which helps with burnout and expands my reach. Find what resonates for you and learn more about it, both as a trainee and a client for your own healing work. Going deeper is key.
02. Intentional Growth Takes Time, But It Works
My advice, if you can, is to take your time to build your practice with cash-pay clients that fit your vibe, aka your “ideal client.” When I first started my practice, I was in a situation where I had to start making a living as quickly as possible. To do that, I got paneled with as many insurance companies as I could, took whoever reached out to me, and was super flexible on meeting times.
My practice was full a couple of years later, but I was burning out quickly. Insurance payouts weren’t paying the bills, my caseload was all over the place, and my schedule was a mess.
I was forced to realize that the way I’d started would not be sustainable long-term, and I had to spend about another year working backward to set boundaries, build my caseload intentionally, and wean off of insurance. It was a painful process involving many difficult conversations.
If I had it to do over, I would have started out with the boundaries and systems I have now and allowed my practice to build slowly but in the right way.
Boundaries help you stay in the game longer and do your job better. Therapist burnout is a very real concern and something that we all need to take seriously. I’m somebody that’s used to being able to “make it work” by pushing through and just working harder. The thing is, this is a job where pushing through just doesn't cut it. Almost no other job requires the focus, attention, and connection that we need to do our jobs well.
We can’t just zone out, and we need time to rest and process.
If we’re going to keep doing good work as we gain more experience, we need to find ways to stay energized, motivated, and happy in our practices.
03. Marketing and Branding Are Part of the Job
I’m someone that tends to like to be behind the scenes. I’m very comfortable putting the spotlight on my clients and keeping my life to myself. I’m sure many of you can relate.
So, marketing can be uncomfortable for me.
But as I’ve gotten further along in this process, I’ve started to see that by marketing myself, I’m simply making myself more visible to the people that could benefit from my services.
We have something to offer the world, including all the time and money that we’ve invested in our training and education. Why not make it easier for people to connect with what we have to share?
The more I’ve honed in on my brand, style, and approach over the years, the more I’ve also attracted my “ideal client.” Working with your ideal client isn’t just about making the job easier and more fun for ourselves—the fact is that we do better work when we’re in our flow and connecting with people that are a good match. When we do good work, we get referrals, and our practices grow. Beyond that, working with our ideal client energizes us instead of draining us. Getting that energy is crucial for avoiding burnout, which, again, we need to take seriously in our field.
Conclusion
I wish I had had the opportunity to connect with more therapists in private practice that could guide me through the process and help me avoid all the unnecessary mistakes I made when I was just starting out. I hope this blog post will help some aspiring therapists along the way!
Feel free to comment below and share some other things you’d wish you’d known before starting out in private practice.
ROBIN ARNETT is a trauma-informed clinical social worker, coach, and EMDR Approved Consultant. She has nearly 10 years of experience as a clinician and consultant in settings across the board, including community mental health, the justice system, and most recently, private practice. Robin believes that there could be nothing more impactful than building a critical mass of sensitive, intuitive women that trust themselves and lead from their hearts.