Category: Earning a Living

  • If money was my sister…

    Like practising counselling and psychotherapy, self-employment is a personal development process. As we meet each new situation in our practice that asks something of us, whether it is learning to market ourselves, or finding appropriate rooms to work in, we are offered an opportunity to grow into the person we need to be at that…

  • New Online Course “Marketing Your Practice”

    I am delighted to announce that a new online course is coming soon from This Business of Therapy and TherapyAcademy.ie. Presented by Jude Fay the new course includes 10 modules, with videos, text files and exercises to help you to integrate what you learn. Learn it at your own pace, at your desk. 10 hours…

  • Using articles to promote your practice

    In other posts I have spoken about knowing your preferred client and having a niche or specialist area that you work in as a way of making your marketing easier and supporting yourself at the same time. One way of using a niche or specialist area to your advantage is through writing articles on the…

  • Starting Out? Avoid these common mistakes!

    I’m often asked what in my view is the biggest mistake that people make when setting up a therapy practice for the first time. It’s hard to see what’s the biggest, but there are a few that crop up again and again. Spending too much time and energy on clients and their issues, and not…

  • Willingness to Create a Practice

    There’s a saying that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Taking that first step, and each of the steps that comes after it asks our willingness to move. Willingness is an essential attribute of being a small therapy practice owner. Not just willingness to do the client work, but also…

  • The Merits of Working for Nothing

    Working for free is fine, and a valid marketing strategy, as long as we feel it’s our choice. However, it can breed expectation, so don’t take yourself for granted, or you’ll find others will too. The marketing environment has changed hugely over the past few decades. Providing information, samples and services for free is now…

  • What Do You Want For and From Your Practice?

    What is your desire for your practice, for your clients, and for yourself? It’s an interesting question, and I wonder how much time you have given to it. How much detail can you create about your desire before you interrupt yourself with something. It might be, “I never get what I want,” or, “It will…

  • Criticism Kills Off Our Desire

    In a recent article about the creative process of setting up in practice, I wrote about how we can interrupt our desire by judging it. Criticism is toxic to creativity, whether it comes from others or from ourselves. I have a big inner critic. Some years ago, I worked with a coach who gave me…

  • Money Shows Up Our Trust Issues!

    Nothing brings up trust issues as quickly or as obviously as money! (Except perhaps sex?) I have had several clients who pay me at the start of the session rather than risk forgetting to pay at the end. I’ve asked about it and the answer is always the same, they don’t trust themselves to remember.…

  • New Video: Do You Remember…?