You May Be Working Too Hard

I started out 2016 with a blog post called 2016: The Year of Not Hustling. At the time I wrote that I was in therapy and working really hard to divorce my self-worth from my “achievements”. Like my clients with Anorexia, every time I hit a goal I set another, more intense one. And because I was hitting my mark I was getting positively reinforced for it. Workaholism is real. Obsessive drive is about more than wanting to do what I love, provide for my family, fear of failure. Like most addictive b…

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Signs You’re Building The Wrong Practice (and What to Do About It)

Signs You’re Building The Wrong Practice (and What to Do About It)

For those of you who have worked in toxic agencies, do you remember the “Sunday Scaries*?” Laying in bed, dreading the work week. Maybe you didn’t go to brunch or get together with friends on Sundays in order to have enough downtime to bear the next 5 days. It’s places like that that led me to private practice. In my last job, I never knew if I’d be therapizing my clients or my coworker-friends more on any given day. Or if I’d be…

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Work/Life Balance?

My tender-hearted, sweet, funny three year old doesn’t sleep. I mean she DOES, but it’s an all night struggle that involves 3 of the 4 humans in our house and sometime the dog. My 7 month old sleeps a little better; typical for a kid her age who has been sleep-crutched for her entire life. Like many parents of young kids, I haven’t slept through the night in over 8 months except one blissful night. I have an amazing husband. He’s funny and smart and hot and will absolutely hate this paragrap…

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How You Do Life Is How You Do Business

If you’ve been on my email list for more than 2 days, you’ve seen that on the first of every month there’s an opportunity for free consulting. Usually 30-40 spots open up and are claimed within minutes (which totally makes me feel like Bono, or whoever the kids are listening to these days).   Let me tell you about the hate-mail I get about this: Every month, without fail, at least one person sends me an email along the lines of “there’s nothing available and you should have more open for …

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A Partner's Perspective

After publishing When Partners Have Concerns, a counselor requested a post from the perspective of a partner to share with his wife. I thought this was a pretty brilliant suggestion and immediately knew who I wanted to ask. 

I'd like to introduce you guys to my good friend, Jeff Hardesty. When my husband and I moved to Seattle, Jeff and his wife Allison were among the first people we met (you first met Allison in my maternity leave blog post). They invited us to a party a couple days later that…

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Work When You Want

Work When You Want

As a full time worker with a part time practice I was used to the 8-5 then 5:30-7:30 plus a half-day Saturday work week. God, I read that now and feel totally overwhelmed by the idea of it, but at the time I just chugged along… for 5 years. 5 years, guys. That’s a long ass time to work that many clinical hours. I entered full time practice with the belief that clients NEED evening appointments. It didn’t even occur to me that I could end at 5 and head home. So I built that f…

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Doing It Your Way, Enjoy Work

I had an eye-opening experience a few days ago. Agnes Wainman’s awesome Blissful Practice Facebook Group had an “Ask Me Anything” with storyteller extraordinaire Marisa Goudy.

Who To Trust

Like many of you, I’m constantly learning: reading blogs, listening to podcasts, diligently underlining whatever book I’m reading (pro tip: keep an index card as a bookmark and use it to make straight lines). Lately I’ve been on an efficiency kick. I’d started to buy in to the idea that I needed to shorten my bl…

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Saying No In Your Private Practice

There are a million ways we can talk about boundaries in your practice, and I’m sure I’ll hit most of them at some point, but today I want to talk to what happens when we fall into scheduling and fear-based victimhood. Oh yeah, I used the V-word. Let’s own it. Time Here’s what happens: someone calls and seems like a really great fit. You have space available since you’re still building. You want to see this client. They insist that they can’t make the times you offer, so you stretch a lit…

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Private Practice & Your Life

Let’s talk about your private practice within the context of your life. Not how to fit your life around this entrepreneurial venture. Not what you have to give up in order to succeed. I hate that shit, as you know. I want to make a few assumptions about you. You are a person with beautiful, amazing, interesting things going on. You have interests beyond counseling. You have reasons you want a more flexible schedule and more money. They don’t have to be grand, but how you want to spend your t…

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How to Balance Building Private Practice with Your Other Job

Today's Guest Post is from Bina Bird, of Haslet, TX. Bina's an active member of the Abundance Practice-Building Facebook Group (feel free to hop in for some great community and support) and it has been awesome to watch her transition from a total newbie to private practice, to getting enough clients that it's TOUGH to work full time. I love this blog post because she lays it out simply in nuts and bolts fashion as she's going through it (vs. my version that involves hindsight). Check out her awe…

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