Private Practice Boot Camp: Essential Strategies for Success

What’s the future of your practice?

Will you work harder and longer for less money?

Will you struggle to fill your schedule?

Will you enjoy your work? Or be drained by it?

“Wait and see” can be a risky strategy.

Business Strategies You Didn’t Learn in Grad School

Learn how to thrive, regardless of economic and political conditions – at this 2-day conference.

Dates: – Summer 2018 (to be announced)

Location: California (to be announced)

What you’ll learn

Grad school provided a great education and foundation for your clinical work. But if you’re like most mental health professionals, you got very little training in the business side of clinical practice. Business mistakes can be expensive, not only in terms of money, but also lost time and lost opportunities. We’ll walk you through the essentials of sound and ethical business decisions and procedures.

Our goal is for you to leave the conference with clarity and practical action steps for a profitable business, regardless of political or economic conditions. Topics to be covered include:

Pros and cons of private practice as a career path
Join a group practice or go solo?
Compensation models and their implications
Contracts you may be asked to sign in joining a practice – What to look for
Taking insurance or not taking insurance?
How your academic training and your interests can shape your practice
Should you generalize or specialize? Niche practice opportunities to consider
Innovative ways to get referrals
Establishing yourself in the community
Which marketing techniques are most effective – online AND offline
How to set fees
How to collect fees
Three types of insurance that you must have
Financial aspects of practice
Key strategies for thriving during economic flux
Nuts and bolts – office paperwork that you need
Ethical considerations in private practice
How to minimize the probability of getting sued
Use of mentors and consultants
Envisioning your ideal practice

PLUS – small group activities for the deep dive into key factors for success in private practice. You can’t get this experience from books.

Just one new client as a result of what you will learn, will make this a worthwhile investment.

Earn 12 CE credits by participating in this workshop

The Practice Institute is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The Practice Institute maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

Learning objectives

At the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:

Compare different models of private practice
Explain how niche practice helps inform the public toward finding a clinician for their needs
Analyze how evidence-based practice and research can be integrated into your practice
Design data collection strategies to help analyze clinical and other practice patterns
Describe ethical strategies for marketing and advertising
Create plans for building strategic relationships with other healthcare professionals
Summarize steps to comply with government requirements for business
Describe essential office procedures and record keeping
Discuss diversity considerations in private practice
Assess ethical and risk-management vulnerabilities in your practice policies and procedures
Discuss ethical fee setting and collection
Use practice data to formulate short term and long term practice goals
Prepare a customized action plan for your current or intended practice

Learning level: Beginner/Intermediate

Instructors

Lauren Behrman,Ph.D.

Dr. Behrman is a clinical psychologist, family mediator, parenting coordinator, collaborative divorce professional, trainer, practice consultant, author, and speaker. Since completing her doctorate in Clinical Psychology in 1985, Dr. Behrman’s professional journey in private practice has been rich and varied, with unexpected twists and turns. After completing Postdoctoral Training in Child, Adolescent and Family Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy at the Postgraduate Center for Mental Health in 1990, Dr. Behrman has developed specialty niches addressing the challenges of family transitions, including early childhood special needs, infertility and adoption, and divorce and post-divorce parenting. What has stood out for her as her practice evolved over the years, was the way in which an independent practice was ideally suited to shifting needs of family members over the course of her children’s development.

Looking in the rear-view mirror, Lauren was inspired by the idea that in addition to being clinicians and healers, independent practitioners in mental health are also entrepreneurs and small business owners. Recognizing that we enter our professional lives with a strong knowledge base in our clinical fields, while having no formal training in the skills needed to build and sustain thriving practices, Lauren joined with three colleagues to develop The Practice Institute in 2010.

As a founder and principal in the Practice Institute, Lauren develops and delivers programs to teach entrepreneurial and business skills to colleagues in independent practice. Through individual and group consultations, workshops, and writing, Lauren enjoys helping colleagues invent, envision and create thriving practices that fit their skill sets and their personal lives. Dr. Behrman is in independent practice in midtown Manhattan, and Westchester, NY.

Pauline Wallin, Ph.D.

Dr. Wallin is a psychologist in private practice for almost four decades. As cofounder of The Practice Institute, she teaches and coaches other mental health professionals to earn a good living while doing what they love. Dr. Wallin is president of APA Division 42, Independent Practice. She is also former president of Division 46 Media Technology & Psychology, and has chaired or served on numerous committees within APA and the Pennsylvania Psychological Association.

In addition to writing and teaching about the business of practice, Dr. Wallin has written a self-help book, was a magazine columnist for several years, and has frequently appeared in or been quoted in the media, including CBS news, the Associated Press, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, USA Today, Redbook, Ladies Home Journal and others.

Jeffrey Zimmerman, Ph.D.

Dr. Zimmerman is a founding partner in The Practice Institute, Editor of Practice Innovations a cross-disciplinary journal that supports innovation and the highest standards of care in mental health practice and past President of the Society for the Advancement of Psychotherapy. He has been in independent practice since 1981 when he started in solo practice and then co-founded what he and his partners grew into a large multi-site interdisciplinary group practice, before returning 22 years later to solo practice. He is author or editor of three books on practice, and is a frequent consultant to practices large and small.

Questions? Please contact us:

Rod Goodyear (rod_goodyear@redlands.edu)

Private Practice Boot Camp – coming soon!