How I'm Getting a Life

In last week's blog I talked about how my business had started eating my life. In the last few weeks I’ve felt more like myself than I have in years. In case you need to re-find your non-work self, I’m sharing what’s helped me: A List of All Great Things:

  1. I’m almost to the point where I can leave at 4PM everyday instead of 5. I’ve tried all these hacks for meals (Blue Apron, Terra’s Kitchen, already made meal delivery) and it took me until a couple weeks ago before I was like “wait- why creat…

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Is Your Practice Eating Your Life?

I’ve blogged through miscarriages, and stockpiled enough blogs to last me through a maternity leave. I’ve blogged through sickness and varying degrees of anxiety. I’ve blogged through and about being sued. I’ve blogged through a lot of fear and not-enoughness. I’ve blogged through buying and moving into a new home and sick kids and sick family members. Consistency is one of the most accurate measures of whether or not a business prospers. I get an A+, good for me. And I’m also about to make a ca…

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Loneliness in Private Practice

Y’all may know I’m an outgoing extravert. I love, love, love being with people. Going into business for myself was not exactly the smartest social move I could make, or so I thought as I was planning my first full time practice. I feared I would wither away in my office by myself. I feared the lack of meetings (which I hated) and the few minutes in between sessions chatting with colleagues would wear on me and I’d be like a hermit during work hours. Then I’d come home to a studying husband who m…

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What Feels Like Life and Death

I get tunnel vision. I get set on something and drive forward as if it’s the most important thing in the world. It feels vital. It feels important. It feels like if I don’t get this business thing out there on time or up to par everything will fall apart.

Y’all there’s so little in our lives that’s life or death except literal life and death. And so much, especially in the stressful business moments, feels like it.

As I write this, our friends in Texas are facing what feels like insurmountable rep…

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Pathological Continuing Ed and Other Roadblocks

“Pathological” may sound strong. Learning is vital to what we do, after all. Occasionally I work with someone who is using learning to feel good enough. To try to beat back the imposter syndrome. It may start as a desire to feel more competent in order to better serve clients but for some it evolves into a worthiness chasm that they can’t fill. Four degrees and six certifications later, they’re still looking for the next thing to learn in order to be enough.

I see it in practice building, too. I’…

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Parenting and Private Practice

I’ve been asked numerous times to write about balancing parenting and starting a practice. I kept nodding my head and put check marks next to it on my “Blog Post Ideas” doc and skipping over it every time it came time to write.

I've been avoiding this post hard core.

Know why? Shame. Honestly, I was letting my perfectionism dwell in the realm of parenting and feeling completely inadequate all the time. I’d read too much conflicting advice that all seemed to make logical sense. And the “follow …

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Sample Private Practice Schedules

Whether you’re on the front end of starting a private practice or you’re managing a busy caseload, your schedule is a make or break situation. It’s not what you think; your schedule is a make or break for your longevity and happiness, not whether or not clients will come. Clients who really want to see you will make things work.

A part of what we do in the very first meeting of the Abundance Practice-Building Group is talk about what each person wants their schedule to look like. I’m a proponent…

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Full Practice, New Problems

When I was in my early 20’s I overheard a strikingly beautiful woman complain about being gorgeous. I had absolutely zero empathy for her (or myself for like, anything). Her statements stuck in my head though and I now feel not just empathy, but awe at her vulnerability. From a more secure, mature perspective, I can totally see how being bikini-model-hot at 20 would make it hard to meet someone who gave a shit about who you were on the inside. It wasn’t a humble brag; she was just stating a fact…

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You Don't Need A Consultant

In a facebook group I watched the unfolding of one of variations of the “consultants aren’t helpful and are out for your money” conversation. I watch these with interest and a tinge of fear. Is it me they’re talking about? Do they think I’m one of the money-grubbers who takes advantage? So, let me be 100% totally clear: You don’t need a consultant. You can build your practice without one just fine. I don’t want anyone to get the impression that they’re going to crash and burn without the …

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Turning Work Off

Remember when you were in school and there was this sense that you could never fully relax until you’d either completed all assignments or it was winter or summer break? Yeah, welcome to entrepreneurship. If you’re like me, your “to do” list is like a mogwai sprayed with water. These seemingly innocent tasks have become multiplying gremlins that interrupt your life. Mid-chew at dinner with the family and BOOM “OMG, I didn’t return that email!.” In that really sweet spot on the cusp of sleep and…

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