Answering New Therapist’s Most Asked Questions

First off- congratulations on becoming a therapist! We definitely do not have enough helpers in the world, and you providing professional services to others helps more people walk authentically each day. I have been a therapist for over 5 years now and I have seen every marketed item under the sun that tries to grab new therapists attention and money.

Let’s be honest, when you are a new therapist… you have no money. (insert Gru voice here). Which led me to create affordable, and concise resources for others who want to grow their own businesses or keep a streamlined practice system.

While there are many things that I can go over in more depth in my below resource guides, here are a few freebies:

How do you set your current rate?

This is probably one of the top questions I get asked on a regular basis from therapists starting their private practices. While my Launching Your Private Practice guide goes into more of the math, the general idea is straightforward- know your market area, find the bell curve of your area, and select a price that aligns with your business goals. For myself, I keep my practice in the median cost of the area I live in, and panel with insurance companies to provide a wider new of access to my services.

How did you create your scheduled hours? Do you account for administrative tasks?

The great thing about this question is it is totally up to you! Creating your work schedule is up to a few main goals: what income you want to earn, your business expense coverage, the time you are most effective as a therapist, and your personal scheduling blocks.

In general, the most common practice is working 3-5 days a week, for a set number of client hours and set number of administrative hours. For example, pre-baby I worked 20 client hours a week, 4 days a week- and allotted 2 hours of administrative time. Formerly, before having a biller and accountant, I needed an additional 4 hours of time to do my bookkeeping and insurance billing outside of client hours- so hiring additional professionals to take that over for me cut down the amount of time I need to allot to administrative tasks.

Was starting a private practice hard?

My authentic answer is not compared to being sucked into a group practice. I am a firm believer that therapists should be paid at a reasonable, living wage and the pro’s definitely outweighed the con’s of alternative forms of employment for me when it came to opening a private practice.

It is a big leap to build a business from scratch. So if you are planning ahead, making sure you have a savings you are comfortable with living off of if you cannot pay yourself for a few months as you grow your business is something to consider. Any business takes a while to become fully successful, and the idea of what success means to you is a deeper conversation you can have with yourself, your colleagues or a business consultant such as myself.

If you would like more 1:1 support in launching your private practice you can reach out via my Portal here to book a business consultation call that works well for you!