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 enough time and energy on your practice

Most therapists underestimate the time, energy and commitment needed in the early months and years to get a practice up and running. Most also underestimate the practical and emotional support they will need to make it a reality. A practice doesn’t create itself, and you must make it happen. Don’t give everything to your clients. Of course, wanting to do the client work is what brought you into the profession, but if you invest all of your time and energy in your clients, you’ll leave little for your own needs.

Believing that your qualification is enough to bring people to your door, or that your accreditation

will change everything

It’s a common perspective that having invested years in acquiring your qualification that potential clients or referral sources will flock to your door. It doesn’t happen this way for most people. Similarly, many therapists expect that their self-doubt about being self-employed will disappear once they are accredited by their professional body. I’ve often heard therapists say that they will be a “real” therapist when they’re accredited, and that others will then take them seriously. However, while those organisations that look for accreditation will now be within reach, little else changes. And anyway, it’s not other people who need to be convinced of your skill and worth. It’s you.

Our fascination with the past and the question “why?”

It’s an occupational hazard as a therapist to be interested in the back story to the current situation. When we don’t feel ready to face the challenges of self-employment, or things don’t work out as we would like, it’s tempting to divert ourselves with the reasons why. And yes, it’s interesting, and may help us to make better choices going forward. However, it can also be an avoidance of getting down to the practicalities of creating a practice. Related to this is a tendency to abdicate responsibility for our results by blaming outside circumstances. When you’re self-employed, you are responsible for the lot. Try to shift your focus from “Why I can’t,” to “How I can,” and then go do it!

Lack of clarity about what we want and lack of a plan

There’s a saying that if we don’t have a plan of our own, we will become a part of someone else’s plan. The world is busy and demanding. We need to have some sense of where we want to get to with our practice, and how we are going to get there, otherwise, we may end up getting nowhere. Your time and energy will be spent looking after your clients or your family. So make a plan. It doesn’t need to be complex or demanding, it can be simple and straightforward. The only thing that matters is that it works for you.

Then put it into action.

Believing that setting up a web site will ensure that people will see it

There are many millions of pages of information on the internet. To get some value from a website, you need to invest in making sure it can be found by potential clients. Without doing anything to make your website visible, it’s like expecting to find a single stone out of the millions on a beach. So, if you don’t know much about technology and how the internet works, get some help. Remember, you don’t have to have a website, there are other effective ways of connecting with potential clients.

Fear about what others will think

Sometimes, it’s not until we start to act on setting up a practice that we meet the part of ourselves that is sensitive to the opinions of others. Then we might find any number of reasons why it’s not a good time to promote our practice. The prospect of having a conversation with a stranger about what we do for a living and asking for a referral raises anxiety in the best of us. Learn how to reduce it to a manageable level.

Not taking action

We can avoid very effectively a lot of anxiety by not taking any action at all. So, if one of these mistakes is bigger than the others, this is probably it. However, although avoiding anxiety might help us to feel better, if we avoid taking any action we also lose the benefit of what we learn in the process. Remember, setting up a practice is a personal development process, and helps us to grow in ways we can’t imagine. Our growth helps our clients to grow too. So take small risks that evoke some anxiety, and build on those.

Conclusion

We spend years learning how to help our clients. If we want to practice privately, we also must learn how to earn a living from our work. These two aims are not the same and ask different things of us. We need to step back from our clients’ needs far enough to see what we need from our practices, and how those needs can both be served. This feels like it’s a contradiction, and in a way, it is. We find that the end of our training is the start of a new journey, where by acknowledging and embracing our own needs, we also serve our clients.

If you are finding it hard to get your practice up and running, or if you are stuck and can’t move forward, perhaps I can help you? Contact me here to make an appointment or to book your free 20 minute consultation.