Managing Your Therapy Practice


Here we are looking at the fifth section of the Therapy Practice Business Assessment as the basis for making some changes to your therapy or counselling practice in 2016. You can read the blog posts in which I made suggestions in the previous areas by clicking on these links:

Knowing Your Practice

Growing Your Practice5 pillars Cloud 2

Minding Your Practice

Valuing Your Practice

Today we’re going to look at the fifth pillar of a successful practice, Managing Your Practice.

This one has a lot to do with the twin lanes of mind-set and action. Thinking like a business person on the one hand, and acting like one on the other. It asks that we take off the therapist or counsellor hat we wear in our client work, and replace it with the self-employed entrepreneur hat instead. What steps could you take in 2016 to better manage your therapy practice, to get more organised, or to learn from the way that other entrepreneurs run their businesses? Here are some ideas…

The Fifth Pillar of a Successful Therapy Practice: Managing Your Business

Read a book about setting up a therapy practice, or about running a small business, and commit to putting at least one idea into practice. Check out my reading list here for some suggestions.

Get your financial affairs in order. If you write up your own records, get more knowledgeable about how accounting works. Learn what expenses can and can’t be claimed against your tax.

Allow others to help you with the chores of running your practice. Every day for a week write down all the tasks that have to be done, from bookkeeping, to diary management, to cleaning, and so on. Then look at your list critically. Do ALL of these tasks have to be done by you alone? Could some of them be more efficiently or easily done by someone else?

Look at the previous list again. Is there an easier way the task could be done, for example, by using a pre-printed template for notes, or a computer based bookkeeping package. There may be a short term learning curve, but a huge long term gain.

Do you dither over making decisions, or procrastinate about getting things done? Find a way to move past the road Lost and Confused Signpostblock. Try “behavioural contracting” with a friend or colleague (eg I’ll pay you €x for every day I go over the deadline) or use shame in a positive way by announcing your intention to others whose opinion you value.

Set aside some time each week for working ON your practice rather than IN your practice. Give yourself a specific goal rather than just using the time for busy work. Even if it’s just one activity a week, that takes quarter or half an hour, you’ll quickly see the benefit.

Make 2016 the year you decide to invest in the business of your practice. A 2013 IACP survey reported that while many practitioners “may clearly be struggling to develop and grow viable practices, most seem more interested in learning about developing areas of treatment rather than about how to market, develop or establish their practice.” Take some time to explore your reaction to this statement and its truth for you. What are your beliefs about yourself that might be being expressed through this trend?

If you’d like to learn how to better manage your therapy or counselling practice, I’d love to help you! Please contact me here for your free 20 minute consultation, to ask a question or suggest an area you’d like to know more about.