How To Start A Therapy Practice

Define Who Your Clients Are

You would never create a product without having a customer would you? In the same way, you shouldn’t start a private practice without knowing who you really want to cater to. Therapy is a wide and varied field, before you invest both your time and resources into building a private practice, firstly identify what you’re good at. Take time to figure out who you want your ideal clients to be. Think about the following questions:

• Where does your expertise lie? (do you have a speciality?)
• Who are you trained to support? (what is your speciality?)
• What type of clients are you looking for? (who are going to be your clients?)

Defining your ideal client allows you to market your private practice in a way that attracts those people initially. Additionally, appealing to clients that you are well trained to support allows your practice to start off on a very strong note. This good reputation will take you far in being able to build a larger client base.

Create A Website

In today’s age, almost everything is done over the internet. When looking for a therapist, the first step many of your potential clients will take is to search for a therapist in their local area via the internet. Not having a website means that you’re losing out on many potential clients, because they just won’t know that you are there.

• Create an easy to navigate website
• Become active on social media channels (Twitter, Facebook, etc.)

Having a professional and easily to navigate website is necessary. The first question you should ask yourself when building a website is “What will people look for when they come to my website?” With this question in mind, it is recommended adding the following information to your website.

• Staff member’s names (and profile pictures)
• Your address and opening hours
• Contact information (phone numbers)

Though having a website professionally created may seem like a lot of unnecessary expense, a good website more often than not will pay for itself. A well-done website can result in a significant increase in clients, making the initial investment worth every penny. Your website is the first impression a potential client will have of you so you want to be sure it is neat, professional, and welcoming.

A great way to bring clients to your website is by being active on social media. You don’t need to create an account on every social media platform to have an effective social media marketing strategy. Instead, focus on creating quality content for the social media accounts you do have. Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter are good platforms to start out on.

Finding The Right Balance

Owning a private practice means you are not only a practicing therapist but also a business owner. Both of these jobs will take a lot of work and sacrifice. This can quickly become overwhelming. In order to help your private practice succeed you have to take time for yourself.

Engaging in self-care is a necessary part of your job, as a private practice owner. Take time to do the things that make you happy you will tell your clients this all of the time, so you must also practice what you preach. This means setting strict boundaries for yourself. Though you may want to be available to your clients 24/7, this just is not possible. Instead, determine a work life/home life balance that takes into account both your needs and the needs of your practice.

By creating a balanced lifestyle, you reduce the risk of burn out and increase the likelihood of success for you and growing your practice into something amazing.