Starting a Counseling Practice Success Stories

You know that feeling when thinking about starting a private practice. You think that building a business from the ground up is impossible.Where do you start? Who can you look to for help? You search for tutorials and webinars, and it feels daunting as the research continues to get you nowhere. It's too much time, work, and hassle for little results. You start to think: Maybe I can look into this next year or when my work slows down. But then months pass, and you’re still in the same overwhelmed, stuck headspace.In this episode of Starting a Counseling Practice, we feature various Business School for Therapists alumni who all began their journey into private practice from scratch. Each guest opens up about their fears and obstacles before opening their practices and how they've grown.Each clinician featured experienced similar feelings of personal growth along with a sense of community in Business School for Therapists. Our amazing guests reveal how the program helped them move toward creating sustainable, thriving practices!---Join the FREE Private Practice Community: classroom.zynnyme.com/share/DCZS57H6dbE8S_GZLearn more about Business School for Therapists: news.zynnyme.com/bootcamp/Website: zynnyme.comBlog: zynnyme.com/blogFacebook: facebook.com/kellyandmirandaInstagram: instagram.com/zynnyme/LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/2456942/Pinterest: pinterest.com/zynnyme/

Rachel was on the path to her licensure until she hit a setback. Make that a few setbacks. After moving to California, she found out all of her 750 hours of practice in Pennsylvania would not qualify under state law. Without colleagues or connections, she started from scratch. To her, the burn for change helped her continue her journey to private practice. After internships, multiple jobs, and a pandemic, she became licensed after 8 grueling years.Rachel, an LMFT in Pasadena, credits the constraints from the pandemic as the push she needed to make the transition into private practice. As she was returning to group practice from maternity leave, she felt she “needed more margin in life”. Rachel gives advice on how to tell when you are ready to move on from group practice and make the change into private practice. She also credits the Business Bootcamp as a helpful tool she began to work on the business side of her practice.Interested in our Bootcamp program? Click here for more details and when enrollment begins. 

Do you think you would have more difficulty than others sharing your practice? Would you feel comfortable speaking to insurance companies about raising your rates, or referring out clients after you don't feel compatible with them? As an introvert, have you wondered if it's possible to run your own private practice? After years of working within group therapy, Megan was able to bring her own vision to life by opening her practice and relocating. Right when the honeymoon phase fizzled out, her body started taking a toll. She tried medication and implementing techniques from a coaching program, but they just created burnout. Feeling the lowest she ever had, she was close to shutting down her clinical practice, until she stumbled upon a life-changing article.Megan, LMFT in the Portland area, discusses the success she has had in running her business as well as the challenges she faces as a highly sensitive person (HSP). She also challenges how the normalized workload is too much to handle and how personal issues are business issues. Check out Maegan's FREE program on how to avoid going broke and burnout here.Want to share your own private practice success story? Request to be a guest on the show!

Have you been trying to grow your online presence? Feel like you don't stand out to other practice's websites? Ronald faced the same issue starting his practice late in his professional career. As he worked in education, he wanted to help his students with deeper matters.Ronald, an LMFT in the Bay Area, spoke with Miranda about how he resolved his digital presence. Self-disclosing, niching, and workshops helped attract Ronald's clients. Both discuss certain ways to stand out online, knowing yourself, and dealing with late a career change.Want to learn more about Ronald’s work? Check out his publications on Couples and Relationship therapy here. 

Most of the time, we think of businesses only motivated by money. John, LPCC  and business coach working with therapists in San Francisco,  wants to change that. As he had therapy at a young age, he wanted to pursue it as a career. He continued his education up to a doctoral program where he wanted to teach therapists the business side of the work. Although John noticed faculty weren't backing his proposal, he still wanted to continue helping others. After a retreat where Kelly was speaking, he made the difficult decision to cease his Ph.D. program. Now John works with therapists his own way: Business Made Human. He created his business to help therapists create a purpose-driven practice.Miranda and John talk about the issues therapists have transitioning from agency work to their practice. John discusses how important it is to have a vision and its effects on your practice as a whole. He also wants to remove the stigma of receiving help for clients and therapists alike.Click below on the image to watch the video episode of Starting a counseling practice podcast with zynnyme. Or, scroll down to listen to the podcast version. 

Annie had therapy sessions at the age of 8. She loved the sessions with her therapist and wanted to pursue it as a career. Now Annie, a therapist and coach in San Francisco, began setting the foundation of her practice. After talking to a supervisor, she noticed she wasn’t fulfilled by the work she was doing. As she was still developing her practice, she also had a brainchild in the works: Rebel Therapy. Soon, Annie realized she enjoyed the coaching work more than her actual practice. Annie and Miranda speak on what helped develop their practices and why they shut them down. Annie also shares the issue with wanting passive income and if it is "passive".

Dr. Caroline, registered psychologist in Canada, has always flown by the seat of her pants so when a friend suggested that they get their master’s degrees and become counselors she jumped on board.  Caroline says the move into private practice was “always something I just had to do… I have lots of ADHD, working for an agency is always hard… wasting time, deadlines didn’t make sense…”   She acknowledges difficulties of being in business with a neurodivergent brain, such as handling billing and administration work, but finds the same personality traits that make it hard are the same traits that provide a great point of connection with the kids she serves.  She also states a training program like Bootcamp would have been very helpful.While examining the outcomes of her clients and looking at the research, Caroline recognized grad school leaves new therapists incompetent for the fieldwork.  Due to outdated resources and incomplete training, they often struggle and so do their clients so she created her own training to provide “effective work all around the world.” Her trainings, in addition to updating the techniques for therapy, also focus on improving her students’ practice such as working with their strengths, implementing rating scales with clients, and setting boundaries. Check out Caroline’s website and training programs. A special offer for our listeners: use “zynny” at checkout for 20% off of any training programs!Interested in joining us on Starting A Counseling Practice? Request to be a guest here!

Dr. Shemena credits Jack Nicolson for her career as a therapist. After watching One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, her interest in psychology sparked as she saw how one's environment can affect a person.Dr. Shemena, PsyD and LMFT in Los Angeles, shares her process of transitioning into her practice. She talks about the challenges of leaving a corporate position and how it felt like a traffic jam. From stability and low responsibility to freedom and uncertainty, it was a slow-paced change. She also had trouble adjusting to the free time she had as she transitioned from two jobs to focusing solely on her business.Wishing she had access to Business School programming, Shemena created workshops and a podcast based on her growth within her private practice. She advises why therapists should be in therapy, how to be present with each client, and being open about “what we don't know.”Want to share your own private practice success story? Request to join Miranda and Kelly on Starting a Counseling Practice.

Kate, Ph.D. is an LPC Supervisor and LMFT Supervisor in Texas who had an unconventional start.  After completing her music degree, she began teaching, but when she began having family troubles, she went back to get her counseling certificate.  Kate quickly recognized that this change would benefit her students too.Kate made her first attempt at private practice while still in school but had difficulty handling both school and business full-time while managing her husband being deployed, raising 3 kids, and fighting breast cancer. When she finished her program in 2007, she and a trusted mentor began the practice again. It wasn’t long before she expanded beyond the couch and took her love of teaching and turned it into creating more teachers.Now, in addition to her full-time virtual clinical work with couples and families at Achievebalance.org, Dr. Kate teaches university-level courses and designs continuing education courses for Texas mental health professionals and staff, including the first completely online, 40-hour LPC/LMFT supervisor course in Texas.Want more of Kate? Join her on her YouTube Channel, Instagram, and two Facebook groups: Texas Supervisor Training and Texas Counselors Creating Badass Businesses.Interested in joining our conversations about private practice? Request to be a guest with Miranda and Kelly today!

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was Tracie’s journey into private practice. After her undergraduate years, she started the process of becoming licensed by joining a master's program, but her progress was delayed by a few life setbacks.It took Tracie, LCSW in Salt Lake City, 10 years to complete her requirements… and graduating is one of her proudest moments!Tracie’s goal has always been to reduce the unnecessary suffering of others. She's been a pillar in her business, encouraging a strong working culture and collaboration with other businesses.In this episode, you’ll hear how Tracie started her solo practice and transformed it into a thriving business with 20 clinicians conducting 300 sessions a week.Check out Tracie’s services here and connect with her on Instagram @mountainviewfamilytherapy.Interested in guesting on the Starting a Private Practice Podcast or having Miranda and Kelly be guests on yours? Find out more information HERE!