For therapists, the urge to start a private practice may feel like a calling.
It's a deep desire to help people. It's also a desire to create a life of freedom and choice.
Our work in therapy creates a strong emotional bond. So, the path of a private practice therapist feels like a true journey.
It’s an intense, long journey to go from a grad student to a licensed therapist running a thriving practice.
In many ways, a therapist's path to private practice is a hero's journey.
Many stories you know, Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, and The Lion King, share the same hero's journey.
Joseph Campbell was a well-known American writer and literature professor. He found that the hero in almost every story must go through a series of stages.
The four main stages are:
- The call to adventure
- The initiation
- The transformation
- The return
Starting a private practice is like Campbell's hero's journey.
Many common stages in a practitioner's career fit key stages of the hero's journey. They include getting licensed, opening a new practice, and filling your client caseload. Then, branch out into teaching, writing a book, or other creative projects.
The initiation, or supreme ordeal in the hero's journey, is the licensure process.
Remember the long hours, low pay, tiny offices, and tough exams?
It’s quite an ordeal. But, at the end of that process, you’re ready to jump into being a practicing clinician.
Transformation can, and does, happen at any stage of your career. But starting a private practice brings unique and valuable challenges. It will change you.
We learn how to set fees, how to market ourselves, and how to grow a brand-new practice. With time, we become skilled business owners and clinicians.
And this adventure of private practice helps us. It develops gifts we can share with our clients and communities. We can share our wisdom beyond our sessions. We can become educators, writers, podcasters, and public speakers.
1. The adventure: Answering your calling
Has anyone ever asked you what led you to start a private practice?
I’m guessing the answer is yes, but it’s usually pretty difficult to come up with a quick response.
Most of us feel called to this work from a deeper place that is full of personal meaning and purpose.
If you and I sat down to have a cup of coffee and share our stories, we would likely be there for quite a while.
Becoming a therapist isn’t an easy career choice.
Everyone comes to this work from a different place. But we choose to be practitioners. It feels like an essential part of our life's mission.
My path, for instance, involved healing from a tough childhood. I found that my empathy helped others.
I was confident in my choice. But becoming a therapist was a leap into the unknown. I’m sure others have felt this too. This work is a call to explore our inner worlds. It urges us to seek an adventure that will create positive change in the world.
When you’re at this early stage of your career, you may not know for sure what your future holds, and that’s okay.
I wasn't sure of anything after licensure, which took all my focus and energy.
2. The initiation: Choosing private practice
It's a tough shift from grad school's hard classes to the long licensure process.
This is why therapists clap and cheer when they get the news that one of their peers has passed their exams. We feel all the pain and pleasure of this epic accomplishment.
I’ve often wished that my own initiation process wasn’t so lengthy and challenging.
I transferred schools mid-degree and chose a three-year grad program. So, it took me eight years to finish my studies. I was also slow to complete my required training hours. That process took the full six allowed years for various reasons.
I had a few internships that didn't give me enough hours. My wife and I also had two amazing daughters. On top of all that, I was struggling to develop my confidence as a fledgling therapist.
I started this journey right out of high school. I didn't get licensed as a marriage and family therapist until I was almost 30.
At the end of the day, I’m grateful for this intensive initiation.
It was an ordeal. But it was a formative experience. It built my confidence to take the next step, opening my own practice.
If you're at this early stage, you may be considering starting a private practice.
Or, it still seems a bit uncertain and unknown, but it is something you are considering.
As you get closer to being licensed, consider your next steps. You'll soon face the changes that come with running your own practice.
3. The transformation: Becoming a business owner
After becoming licenses, you must choose a path.
Many career paths offer chances for growth. But there is something unique about the change that comes when you start a private practice.
It's a new test, beyond licensure. It will test your grit, resilience, and tolerance for uncertainty.
Most new therapists lack a business degree or training in how to start a business. You’ve got the treatment part down, but the rest is a bit of a mystery.
- How do you build a website?
- How do you set your fees or bill insurance?
- How do you negotiate a lease for office space?
- Should you have business cards, and what do you put on them?
There are so many questions in the first year, and solid answers can be hard to come by.
This was a massive learning curve that I wasn’t prepared to face. I've found that, to solve most of these problems in starting a private practice, I needed to seek help from others.
I suggest finding reliable resources. You'll need them as you face new challenges.
I remembers many tearful moments in the ups and downs of starting a private practice. Especially, when my practice was new and I was supporting my young family, every new referral thrilled me. But every client who left therapy made me feel like my whole ship was sinking.
At first, I succeeded by focusing on my niche.
It was working with teenage boys and their families. I set up my therapy website and started a parenting blog. Then, I sent out a regular newsletter with helpful tips each week. My schedule filled up and stayed that way.
To this day, my confidence as a therapist and a business owner increases every year. I learned to manage my anxiety and the uncertainty of private practice.
Starting something from nothing and watching it grow transforms you.
Many of the people I know in private practice have had similar experiences. If you’ve already opened your own practice, you have too.
If you’re thinking about starting one, it’s helpful to know what you’re getting into, this is hard work. But there are many resources that didn't exist five or ten years ago.
They can help you through this transformation to the next stage.
4. The return: Figuring out what’s next
The hero completes the last stage of their journey by making a return.
Each story has a different take on it. But, at the core of each, a hero returns from an adventure as a changed person, with gifts or new knowledge to share.
Many therapists want to share their gifts beyond the therapy office.
They want to explore new ways to help their communities. Others continue to focus on direct client care, which is a gift in itself.
For me, this has evolved over time. I have written ebooks, taught online classes, and spoken at events. I also started a group practice and a virtual assistant business.
After going through my initiation and transformation, I decided to share what I learned with my peers.
As time goes on, new ways will emerge for practitioners to make a difference. I haven't explored all the options, but I'm excited to continue growing and trying new things. Our ways of using our gifts to help others will only grow from here.
So, what’s next?
When you’re in the early stages of this journey, it can seem impossible to see where the road ends.
There are many side trips and downed trees to climb over. It can feel overwhelming to even take that first step. Luckily, other travelers have walked this road before, and we have a map ready for you.
As you plan your career, ask: what's your dream project? Use that as your North Star. If you could create anything and share it with the world, what would it look like?
Although the roads other people have taken can act as a guide, they’re not the only roads you can take. Your unique ideas, dreams, and goals will guide you through whatever stage of this journey you’re in.
You get to choose how the next chapter unfolds.
You’re the hero of this story.
