Eight excellent reasons NOT to start a new practice
There are reasons to start a new practice and reasons not to. Here we look at eight reasons not to create a new mental health practice. The consequences of a […]
How to master the unrelenting business demands of practice
Some start a mental health business to avoid having a boss. They want to answer to no one. This is a myth. In truth, every owner must make peace with […]
Conducting excellent job interviews for clinical staff
Once you have a candidate for employment, you need a plan for conducting excellent job interviews. The superb job interview does not just happen. Mapping out an interview plan increases […]
When we need to fire an employee
There are times when we have exhausted all other options, and the remaining option is to fire an employee. Of course, getting to this point should rarely be sudden or […]
Recruitment methods for finding excellent staff
The first part of recruiting the best employees for your practice is attracting strong candidates to apply. And of course, to consistently find good prospects takes a plan. A hodge-podge […]
Making Opening Day a marketing event
We have only one Opening Day and you want to use it as a first draft of a series of marketing campaigns. Unfortunately, there are so many distracting details to […]
Selecting a practice management system
These days, everyone should use a practice management system to organize many functions of a practice. But evaluating and selecting one is no small task. Additionally, the wrong choice can […]
Picking the best option: Independent Contracting vs Employing
According to the Internal Revenue Service, there are only two employment types: independent contractors (1099-employees) and regular employees (W-2 employees). Who pays which taxes is determined by this legal distinction. […]
Why create another mental health practice?
Why would one set out to create a mental health practice? My story may shed some useful light. I did not start out thinking I was going to own a […]
3 Steps to Starting a Private Practice
Many think about starting a private practice but are unsure how to go about it. This post lays out 3 steps to starting a private practice and points you toward […]
From nothing to something: The beginning of my practice
The following summarizes the beginning of my practice. My goal is to use my early experiences as a case example. I reflect on some lessons that may be of more […]
Starting a new business? The start-up blues
Every one underestimates the challenges of starting a new business. Starting a new business is hard. It is hard even after you read everything you can find and done tons […]
From nothing to something: Beginning of an organization
The beginning of an organization is a story worth considering. Each has its own history. No two are alike. This is the story of the early history of Centennial Counseling […]
Why don’t my clients change the way they’re “supposed to”?
Early in my career, I had lots of questions about how clients change. Why didn’t my clients change as rapidly or as profoundly as my grad school texts seemed to […]
Developing deeper referrer relationships: How to broaden your reach
Whenever a clinician begins a new referrer relationship, that clinician becomes the point person for that connection. And we want the clinician to nurture that referrer relationship until the point […]
The training we never had—Excellence in managing staff
Success inevitably requires a difficult choice: either refer out the excess referrals or hire staff to handle the overflow (see “The dilemma of success: Do it myself or delegate” for […]
Types of mental health organizations
There are several types of mental health organizations employing psychotherapists. Many of these organizations are built by, managed, or owned by mental health providers. In this article, I will look […]
Avoiding these partnership issues saves you down the line
When people form a partnership, there are always issues to work through. We have all heard the saying, “taking a business partner is like taking a marriage partner” and it […]
How to use meetings to build your workplace culture
Once your organization reaches a certain size, building a strong workplace culture needs to become more organized and formalized. Certainly, the leadership of every organization should spend time thinking about and then […]
Psychiatrist and non-psychiatrist ownership
There are profound differences between a psychiatrist and non-psychiatrist ownership. The largest practices tend to be owned by psychiatrists. They then hire other mental health providers as employees in the […]
Our Philosophy for Working in Community
As an organization we first tried to outline the matrix of values that guide decision making in a document. We created it in 2007. We named it CCC’s Philosophy of […]
How clinicians end up with the right clients
I believe that we end up with the clients we are meant to have at every stage of our development as a clinician. Somehow the therapist fit is surprisingly good […]
Mandatory owner’s skills: How to know if you have what it takes
The owner’s skills will determine if a solo practice grows. Sometimes this is hard to face, but the organization will take on the character of the founder. There really is […]
How many referrals do you need for a full caseload?
One of the early concerns when starting to build a practice is how to have enough referrals for a full caseload. I suggest that 1000 sessions per year is a good […]