Summer Slow Down

Curt and Katie talk about how to successfully navigate the changes that occur during the summer when you’re in private practice. We look at how to plan for the whole year, sync your vacations with your clients, get business maintenance done during the summer, and make sure you’re incorporating your own self-care.

It’s time to reimagine therapy and what it means to be a therapist. To support you as a whole person and a therapist, your hosts, Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy talk about how to approach the role of therapist in the modern age.

In this episode we talk about:

• The change of pace that often happens when the summer hits
• The importance of taking a bird’s eye view of the full year, rather than focusing month to month
• How to set your fees to address the time off and missed sessions during the year
• Planning your vacation at the same time that your clients will be out
• The need to lead by example, showing self-care and boundaries
• How to take advantage of down times, so that you are ready for the uptick when the fall hits
• The types of assessments that you can do on your practice during the summer
• How to move away from panic, by planning financially for the full year
• The MTSG challenge: Catch up on your notes in July
• Setting yourself up for a more lucrative practice with increasing fees or cleaning up practices
• Taking vacations and getting your practice vacation ready
• Vacation coverage and helping your practice stay responsive during your vacation
• The joy of implementing your systems during the slower times (because it takes time)
• The possibility of having a better schedule when the summer ends – assessing and moving to an ideal schedule after moving people around during the summer
• Getting training during the summer, so you can actually implement it deliberately
• Re-evaluating your personal routines and self-care/self-maintenance
• Putting some effort into getting content (social media, blog posts, marketing, etc.) planned out and created
• Capitalizing on the creative time out of the office
• Evaluating your practice and your business planning