And why should I listen to her?
I bet we are a lot alike. Perhaps you can relate to my story.
I am a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in California.
In my mid-30’s I left a well-paying corporate management position to become a therapist. After all, my therapist had a cool job. She set her own hours, had a great office and seemed to earn a good living.
I went through the licensing process like we all did. I got my cute little office and decorated it. Then I sat in my cool therapist’s chair and waited for my phone to ring. Waited. And waited.
When by some miracle, I did get a client. I was often afraid to charge them a decent fee. After all, I wasn’t in this for the money. I just wanted to help people.
Well, months and months went by and I went further and further into debt.
And you know how sometimes you have those moments where you wake up out of denial? Well, one day I realized something very important. I didn’t have a business—it was more like a very expensive hobby. One that wasn’t much fun either.
I started to get angry that they didn’t teach us how to run a successful practice in our professional training programs.
I started reading everything I possibly could on marketing and business. I hired coaches, mentors and interviewed successful therapists. I tested and tested lots of ideas.
What happened was that I developed 8 key strategies that helped my business to take off! My phone started ringing, my appointment book filled and I had a waiting list!
Soon I was teaching interns and the newly licensed how to get clients. And they started attracting more clients than their supervisors. The supervisors asked me to teach them what I was teaching the interns.
I was laughing about this with my friend Maria one day when she said “Casey, none of us learned this in graduate school. You need to let other therapists know how to do this.” Remember this was in the 1990s!!
That was the moment I decided to devote my professional life to teaching practice building strategies to therapists so they too could have their ultimate private practice.
I am delighted to say that through my writings, conferences, trainings and coaching, my team and I have helped over 75,000 therapists, coaches and healers build the practice they really want!
As Be A Wealthy Therapist grew, interesting things were happening in our culture. Technology expanded. The view of therapists and therapy changed. Clients began to see themselves as consumers rather than clients or patients. They demanded more flexibility in the way they sought and received treatment.
This gave therapists the opportunity to add services and products to their private practice offerings.
In 2008, I founded the International Therapist Leadership Institute as we broadened our mission.
Since then, we have been teaching therapists to add additional revenue streams to their practice — adding leverage and flexibility which benefits both the therapist and client. Since 2011, we have offered the annual, go-to 3-day conference for therapists in private practice – More Income for YOU! in southern California. It is our celebration of all things private practice – including looking at how to leverage our time and effort for more impact and income — and our annual party to celebrate.
Once therapists filled their practices, a new challenge arose. How do we continue to increase our impact and income once we are full with ‘butt in chair’ hours? Can we clone ourselves? Well, this isn’t such a unique idea. Adding clinicians to a full practice can add thousands of dollars a year to the therapy business owner’s bottom line. But yet there are so many things that need to be taken into consideration. We began coaching senior private practitioners on how to add clinicians to their practice.
In 2013, I opened the Relationship Center of Orange County – an upscale counseling center with multiple clinicians. Today we proudly serve individuals and couples – helping them to find more peace of mind….and heart.
What is next? Our mission continues. I am deep in the design of a new business to help therapists manage the infastructure of their businesses.
We continue to support therapists worldwide in making a great living in private practice. In fact, your success is our mission.
I am so delighted that you have found us. I look forward to supporting you and getting to know you better.
Love and blessings,
Casey