Therapist Private Practice

Welcome to Therapist Private Practice!

Therapist Private Practice has moved to its permanent address at www.therapistprivatepractice.com

Feel free to look around this site but for the most up to date information including a new eBook on starting a private practice, visit the new website!

 

This website is for Therapists, Counselors, Social Workers, Psychologists or anyone in a similar field who has the qualifications to start their own private practice, has always wanted to start their own private practice or has tried to start a private practice but is having trouble attracting enough clients, dealing with insurances or other common issues. You are looking for honest, practical advice that will help you move from working a low paying job at an agency to working for yourself, making your own hours and making a decent amount of money.

Are you working for an agency that doesn’t value your professional services?

• Are you making $20 to $30 an hour for an agency that bills insurance companies $80 to $100 an hour for your services?
• Did you spend upwards of $100,000 on an education only to make hardly more than someone with a High School education or a Bachelor’s degree?
• Did you spend thousands of hours working under a Licensed Supervisor to receive a License and didn’t even receive any recognition for it at work?
• Did you receive a License and not even get a promotion or raise at work?
• Is there very little room for advancement at your job except for supervisor positions which often don’t pay much more than the salary you already make yet involve more responsibilities and less interaction with clients?
• Are you making barely enough to cover your living expenses?
• Do you not have any benefits at work like health insurance, 401K or retirement plan?
• If you have health insurance or other benefits, are you paying a high premium to have them?
• Do you feel limited in how you can work with clients because you have to do what the agency wants?
• Do you often think you would do things differently if you had your own private practice?
• Do you feel like you could help your clients more but you are limited in how much time you can spend with them due to a large caseload?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, maybe it is time to start your own private practice.

I believe there are many people working in the social services field who deserve to have their own private practice. They work hard to get Licensed in their field only to discover they get little recognition for this accomplishment and aren’t paid much more than people who don’t have a License. The only options for advancement for someone with a social services License is to become a supervisor or start their own practice. There aren’t many supervisor jobs available and when they do become available, they are often given to people with 20 years or more experience. Besides, supervisor jobs don’t pay much more than other social service jobs. The only real option to make a decent salary in the social service field is to be in private practice. However, many licensed professional don’t choose to start their own therapist private practice.

What keeps qualified, Licensed Professionals from starting their own private practice?

• They are afraid of failure
• They lack knowledge about running a business
• They don’t know how to get on insurance panels
• They don’t understand how to bill for services
• They are uncomfortable asking clients for money
• They don’t want to be perceived as greedy
• They don’t believe in their own worth
• They don’t value the service they have to offer
• They don’t know about marketing
• They feel uncomfortable with marketing themselves
• They feel they should be helping people not charging them money
• They feel timid about seeking out referrals
• They don’t know where to find referrals
• They are afraid they won’t have any clients
• Others have discouraged them from starting a practice
• Others have told them how hard it is to get started
• They don’t think they can afford the start-up costs until they start making money

Hi! My name is Anna Deeds, LPC. As a Licensed Professional Counselor, I had these concerns and fears when I started my private practice. I made a lot of mistakes along the way which cost me time and money.

I started this website to guide others in the social services field so they don’t make the same mistakes I made.

I also wanted to ease many of the fears and concerns about starting a private practice. When I started my practice, I didn’t have anyone to guide me and I couldn’t afford to pay huge fees to pay for someone to coach me.

I understand that you can’t afford to pay large amounts of money to learn how to start a private practice. I thought the least expensive way to learn how to start a private practice was to read books on the subject. There are many books available and I bought a few of them before I started my private practice. It has been my experience that they don’t come anywhere near to offering the help they promise to get you to buy their book. I want to help you get your practice started by giving you practical, useful information that you need to succeed in private practice.