Mindset

*Trigger warning: description of violence follows* I have a scar from a client, a man twice my weight, who locked his jaw on me and wouldn’t let go. I was once restrained by a young but strong girl and didn’t know how I was going to get out of it. As a house parent at 19 years old, I was placed alone with two men in their mid-30’s who had sexually assaulted a young woman and I wasn’t told about it, nor did I have access to their chart, until months in. A co-worker I traded shifts with was once p…

I have a new pet peeve! It’s people who spout off business advice half-truths. (And before you worry, it’s no one in the Abundance Facebook Group; those folks will tell you the full truth).  These half-truthers know it’s more complicated than they say it is, but they don’t just fess up that a part of their brilliant idea/system sucks. Having bought into some of these, I want to tell you some pitfalls of these options so you can make a better informed decision. I want to stress that these strateg…

This suggestion came up in the Facebook Group as a blog topic and it was the first one I wrote about because it’s something I see a lot. I’ve had several conversations with partners of therapists who wanted to join the Abundance Practice-Building Groups but their loved one had some reticence around private practice (and thus the investment in the group).  I think our partners' unfamiliarity with the private practice possibilities, in tandem with the risk, makes for some very fair, very real conc…

So here I am, back from maternity leave and getting all my ducks in a row with both businesses so the content of this post is what’s on my mind. Balance is big for me right now and as you’ll see in this post, I was feeling like a train wreck for part of last year. Here's the story: Let’s start with a guy named Jeff Walker; he’s a brilliant, likable, extremely successful entrepreneur who a bunch of multimillionaire entrepreneurs listen to about how to “launch” their products or services. Being a …

Amanda Patterson, LMHC, CAP, NCC is a private practice success story. She has been so successful individually that she's built a successful group private practice.  As a member of the Abundance Practice Builders Facebook Group, she has generously offered support to clinicians new to private practice from her wealth of experience. I totally agree with this blog post; I had no idea what was available to me as a grad student and may have started this process much earlier if I had.  It’s been more t…

This blog post is a long time coming. It all started with a hater. Not a troll, but someone who looked at the surface of a few things I said, made some assumptions about me, fit that into her paradigm about therapy and therapists and let me have it. I’d had my share of haters by that point, but none that invested a ton of time in writing a diatribe of grievances about my character and the evil I was spreading in the world of counseling. At first I felt really misunderstood. I wanted to defend my…

This month's guest post is by Amanda Dutton, MS, LAPC.  Amanda is an active member of the Abundance Practice-Builders Facebook Group (hop in!). When I say active member, I mean she really puts herself out there, supports the hell out of the other folks; she helps make it the incredible community that it is. Amanda's been a part of the Facebook group almost since the beginning and I'm so happy she wrote a post for you guys that exemplifies what I admire most about her: her authenticity. Her encou…

If you're unmotivated in private practice, I’m not going to tell you to get over it. When you’re unmotivated there’s probably a reason. That reason may need to be addressed or it may need to be set aside or it may need to breathe a little. Let’s check in to see what’s going on and what to do about it.

1. You’re burned out. Totally the #1 reason I hear from the practice-builders I work with. Many are working a job while building their private practice. They’re also doing their best to be a good …