Surviving the Pre-Licensed Stage: Staying Motivated When You Feel Like Quitting

This month’s guest post is from Seida Hood, MSW. She has been an active member of the Abundance Practice Builders Facebook Group (c'mon in, you're welcome to join) from it’s early stages and has given and gotten lots of great support there. As a pre-licensed therapist, she is in the trenches with the rest of you on the path to get the magical letters after your name after years of work. I love this post because it so beautifully encapsulates the soaring highs and demoralizing lows of early priva…

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How to Survive a Networking Event

Here’s the optimistic picture most people create about networking: You’re at a “networking event” in your new favorite outfit, feeling confident, looking great. Your most polished self is ready to dazzle them with your obvious charm, intelligence and sparkling white teeth. People hang on your every word and greedily collect your cards. They have a caseload full of people to send you on Monday. They’re so glad they met you. Here’s the pessimistic picture: You’re at a “networking event.” It feels …

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Networking for Fun and Profit (By Focusing on the Fun)

Networking is one of the single most important factors in practice-building. I know it’s not what you want to hear but I’m about to make it easier for you. Here’s the deal: we all know there are sucky therapists out there. We can tell in a single conversation what kind of a space they hold, how well they actually listen, if they seem empathetic, if they off handedly call yo “babe”. I’m going to interrupt myself with this quick story: I was at a dinner sponsored by an Eating Disorder Treatment Ce…

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Marketing Your Practice for Real Life

a.k.a Why I deleted my Social Media Accounts, My Blog, and the Newsletter Sign-Up Form on My Website. A Guest Post by Natalie Moore, MA, MFT Intern

(A note from Allison: Today I'm featuring a guest blog from Natalie Moore. She's a therapist in California who has REALLY done a great job using her voice and being seen. She has been a member of the Abundance Practice-Builders Facebook Group and you may have heard her being interviewed on this episode of the Selling the Couch podcast about networki…

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Re-Starting Your Practice When You Move

Adventure! Necessity! Exploration! Education! There are a million great reasons to move some exciting, some heart-breaking. Maybe your practice is in that beautiful, easy place where referrals roll in effortlessly and it pains you to leave it. Maybe you are still in the building stages and are tired at the thought of investing all over again. Fair enough. Here are some things I’ve learned as I’ve ping-ponged across the United States as private practitioner: You are in transition. You know all th…

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Why You Desperately Need Diverse Referral Sources

I was chatting with a therapist-friend the other day who told me the story of how his practice went from very few clients to full in the span for a couple months. A local behavioral health agency lost the psychologist who did their testing and boom! my friend’s business blew up. As one of very few psychologists who enjoys testing in his city, he was in a great position to fill the need. Having a niche is awesome.   I’ve been worried about him since that conversation. He was no longer working on …

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Failing in Slow Motion

I’ve always heard this notion that failure is a part of business. That you can’t succeed without failing. I always found it unsettling to read and, having had plenty of successes without failures, hoped it was meant for OTHER people in OTHER industries. I saw these Pinterest pins about it and read these quotes and decided they were there to normalize it for those who struggled rather than take it like a harbinger of future failure for those who were succeeding.

Until last week.

I talk to my therap…

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10 Ways to Be Patient When the Phone Isn't Ringing

10 Ways to Be Patient When Your Phone Isn't Ringing

For most of us there’s lag time between networking our buns off and getting that first client. By lag time I mean a scary, panic-inducing, freak out span of time where you have to keep reminding yourself to chill out. If you’re still working full time, you’re wondering if you’re ever going to be able to quit this agency job. If you quit to devote all your time to your private practice, you may be raking ourself over the coals for this decision. …

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Start Before You're Ready

How many big life changes have you really been ready for, as opposed to a societal “it’s time” kind of pressure? Were you truly ready for college? That face-plant you took in the dorm bathroom after a night out may be an indication. If you’re like me, you left for college when you did because you graduated from high school and it’s just what’s expected when you’re successful in school.

Were you really ready to get married or was it the next step in your relationship after a certain age or amount …

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Can Introverted, Non-Go-Getters Succeed in Private Practice?

Howdy, introverts! From the emails, Facebook Group conversations, and discussions in both the Abundance Practice-Building Group and Individual Consultations I’m clear there are a lot of you here! Thank goodness!

I’m going to answer a question I get at least once a month. It usually goes something like this: “I’m really introverted and not a go-getter; do I have any chance at succeeding in private practice?”

My answer is “Absolutely!” Sometimes people read my story and think I’m going to preach my …

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