This Business of Therapy

Category: Growing Your Practice

  • Can I Earn More In My Practice Without Working Extra Hours?

    The subject of money can be a thorny one for practitioners. With lots of talk about recession and redundancies, therapists can find it hard to charge an economic rate. One way of earning more is to work more hours, but if that’s not possible, here are some tips: 1. Increase your rate per hour. A…

  • Where Do I Start?

    Being the one who  runs the practice, as well as the one who provides the service, means that sometimes there’s just too much to do in the available time. I’m sure you’ve had the experience, I know I have; the to-do list that just keeps growing no matter how fast or efficiently you clear the…

  • Taking Risks

    “The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing” (from The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, 2011) I used to love roller coasters. I looked forward each year to Funderland in the RDS, seeing all those wonderful machines whirring and moving, and anticipating the rush of adrenaline as the cars raced and jolted their way around…

  • The Value of a Good Supervisor

    Supervisors matter. In fact, a fledgling therapist can be taken to an unimaginable level based solely on the supervisor they have. Supervisors serve many roles for the practicing therapist: They see the big picture. I can only see what I am doing from my own limited perspective. I’m too close to the action I’m involved…

  • All in Their Own Time

    My name is Jude and I’m impatient. At times, I’m very impatient. It has its good side, I tend to be efficient and eager to move forward, but it also has its downsides. One of the hardest lessons I’ve had to learn in my life is that things happen in their own time, and often…

  • Stretching Our World

    I suggested in a previous post (you can read it here) that trying something different on a regular basis can be good for your practice. This one suggestion has made a huge difference to my work, and to my life, in ways I couldn’t have begun to imagine. One of the ways we deal with…

  • Blackberries and the Power of Decisions

    I really love blackberry jam. I love the taste, the texture, the smell, the memories it evokes, and I love the way it spills onto my fingers as I eat and makes them sticky. I love everything about it. But it’s hard to find in the shops, and the commercial varieties bear little resemblance to…

  • Fearful of Putting Yourself Out There?

    Many therapists shy away from the idea of promoting themselves. At one of our “Attract More Clients” workshops, my friend and colleague Wei Sim Ho led the group in a discussion of the fears and blocks that come up for them around marketing, and guess what came up? Fears of being judged, of not being good…

  • The Support We Don’t See

    On Thursday, I couldn’t access one of my email accounts. Friday, I couldn’t make payments online. It could be what a former mentor of mine calls “Mercury Retrograde” which (I think) implies, “Don’t rely on technology today, the Gods are playing.” After trying all the usual work-arounds (I am persistent!), another machine, another web browser,…

  • The Big Drop – Have You Thought About A Pension?

    Some years ago, one of the financial institutions ran an ad that asked, “Are you ready for the big drop?” The big drop was, of course, the gap between our income before retirement and after retirement. The point being made was that some people have insufficiently provided for their pension. Are you one of those?…