Creating A Successful Private Practice

Attracting therapy clients can be challenging. Therapists develop their practices so they can do more of the work they love with the type of clients they enjoy working with and for whom they believe they have the most expertise. All may be going well except that there are inevitable ebbs and flows of clients – a concern for most therapists is ‘How can I maintain a steady of flow of clients and even expand my practice?’

 

What do we mean by ‘expand’ your practice? For many therapists, this means ‘have more clients or referral bases’. This is all very well but the reality is that today’s client is changing. They are becoming far more aware of what choice they have in the therapy arena. Anecdotal evidence from practitioners indicates that clients tell us that even before they call us, they do a Google Search to get some ancillary information other than our advert, the referral source or our website listing. Then after they meet us, increasing numbers of clients Google us again – this time looking for what articles or blogs we may have published, what talks we have given or even comments on our Facebook, LinkedIn or other social networking sources!

 

If you want to expand your practice, you have to think laterally when it comes to psychotherapy marketing. Do you leave the impression you leave on your potential and existing clients to chance or is there a better way? There is. If you want to expand your practice, you have to work ‘on’ your practice and not just ‘in’ it. You have to decide the best way to convey your attitudes, values, philosophy towards therapy through every source a client can research. In this way, new opportunities to expand your practice will emerge – some through new clients but others in terms of people contacting you to write, speak, consult and be sent referrals.