This Business of Therapy

Tag: profitable practice

  • A Business Plan for a Therapy Practice? You must be kidding!

    If you are setting up a therapy business, you’re going to need a private practice counselling business plan. It seems over the top doesn’t it? You just want to help people, and don’t want to be bothered with all this business stuff. I get it. But before you close this post down in disgust, bear…

  • Spending Time ON Your Practice

    A reader of one of my newsletters wrote to tell me of her struggle to find time to work on her accounts. It reminded me of how often we can forget that running a practice is more than just seeing the clients. There are lots of little tasks that need to be done to keep…

  • Can the Client Pay?

    Twice recently, while discussing with therapists who might be their ideal clients, the question of clients’ ability to pay came up. Or rather, it didn’t come up. Neither of the therapists in question mentioned ability to pay as a criteria they would consider in forming an idea of their ideal client. And yet, both of…

  • Five Ways to Make your Marketing More Effective

    A therapist client asked me recently to help her create marketing material that would bring in more clients. This otherwise articulate professional found it difficult to put words together into promotional material, in a way that sounded authentic without being sleazy. If you’re going to invest money in getting a brochure or flyer designed and…

  • …And Then There Was The Accountant Who Spun Plates!

    In most professions you get the generalists and the specialists. In medicine you have the GPs and the Consultants. In Law you have the Conveyancers and the Criminal Lawyers. You have the local dentist who does fillings and polishing, and you have the orthodontist. In counselling and therapy too, we have those who specialise in…

  • Do you Advertise or Not?

    I often get asked by practitioners, “Is it okay to advertise my services?” And in particular, “Is it okay to advertise on the Internet?” Those in favour of advertising online will argue that we live in a technological age, and that potential clients will reach for their phone, iPad or computer as the first source…

  • Our Time is Up!

    Setting and holding firm boundaries is an important aspect of self care. It helps us to mind ourselves in the work, and reminds us that our needs are important too. It is also an important aspect of modelling for our clients. An ability to set and hold boundaries is an important skill in the business…

  • Who Minds the Shop?

    A couple of years ago, my therapist had to drop out of the work at short notice due to a sudden illness.  I can still remember the shock of learning that she was going to be absent for several months, and the difficulty I had in dealing with it at the time.  My therapist had…