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Building Mental Health Practices that work

10 steps to grow your mental health practice

Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash

Brian Tancock discusses how running a mental health practice takes particular skills, but there is much that you can learn from other business types.

In my work, nurturing Mental Health focused businesses, I have spent countless hours listening to both Psychologists & Psychotherapists as they discussed how well their practices performed. Much of what I learnt was startling.

 

Frequently I would be invited to ‘reverse roles’ and sit in the Therapists own chair. Often the meeting was held on the premise that the Therapist was asking for help from a “Tech Guy” with their website, Search Engine Optimisation(SEO), or some form of marketing.

 

I often heard the description of a perceived solution, with little or no consideration given to what was wrong. A potential client would simply invite me to fix something without referencing strategic goals.

 

Reading between the lines, I would hear about vulnerable businesses generating insufficient income, dependent on a single overloaded person, and not wanting to invest appropriately. This whilst wishing to reach more people. Probing further, I sensed a broader dissatisfaction with how the business practices were running.

 

It was also apparent how the Practices were not meeting their owners’ needs. And by that, I mean they were neither helping support their owners’ personal goals nor their business aspirations.

 

Despite Counsellors fully understanding the need to explore root causes and their client’s goals, aspirations and objectives, it was abundantly clear that they quickly forgot their own and those of their business. In a nutshell, they weren’t practising what they preach.

 

In the following paragraphs, I’ll highlight some business basics essential to any Mental Health focused Practice. When you address the necessary aspects, your business can become sustainable while contributing to the welfare of others and fulfilling your own needs. It may also provide long-term employment opportunities for others.

 

Accept that your Mental Health Practice is a business

In conversations with mental health practitioners, many have expressed that their work is unique and that they can’t run a mental health practice as if it were a business.

 

While acknowledging the importance of certain subtleties like informed consent, ethics, confidentiality and representation of services, it’s worth noting that mental health practitioners share more similarities with other businesses than they might realise. Ultimately, they are providing services like many different business types out there.

 

For a Psychotherapist’s Practice to be successful, it needs to get the basics of business right. It is simply not enough to be a good therapist, even if you are doing what you do because you like helping people. It would help if you found the right blend of business and client-focused activities to succeed.

 

After all, you’ll be helping no one, not your clients or yourself, if you don’t make sufficient money to keep yourself afloat or live on a knife edge. Neglecting your business will likely mean you won’t be there for your clients when they need you.

 

Psychologists and Psychotherapists can still prioritise their strengths, like talking to people, but they must do this against a backdrop of proper business management.

 

If you aren’t good with the admin, hate marketing, or don’t like working with numbers, there’s no need to fret or ignore these areas. All that’s needed is to realise that you can’t do everything yourself and need help. And that’s where companies like Informing Minds come in.

 

Change any preconceived ideas that it’s not about making money

Unless you are wealthy and are running your Practice without any financial concerns for yourself or your business, making money will be necessary for more reasons than you may have considered.

 

  • It is essential to balance and grow the businesses finances as making money likely supports:
  • Your own personal & family financial security.
  • Keeps a roof over your head.
  • Attainment of your personal goals.
  • Your ability to be there for your clients week on week, month on month, year on year.
  • The ability to support those who can’t afford your regular rates with discounted low-cost Therapy or even free therapy sessions for those in need.
  • Potential business expansion, taking on additional therapists.
  • Expanding the services or products offered.
  • Investment in your own and your colleague’s professional development
  • Colleagues and their family’s financial security.
  • Funding your retirement or whatever you want to do next.

 

A financially secure, well-managed mental health practice is a dependable source of support for those in need. Therefore, having an unstable, poorly structured, and unsustainable Practice is not a viable choice.

 

Understand what you want from your Mental Health practice.

When working with clients, such as Psychologists, they commonly express many ideas but need direction. They may exhibit signs of procrastination, anxiety, and overwhelm. It’s understandable why some professionals have suggested that I sit in their seats for a change. They recognise the need for a “Business Therapist” to assist with unravelling their ideas and optimise their abilities.

 

Goals, strategy & objectives: You won’t argue that these are essential for big businesses or individuals. After all, helping the latter with theirs is your bread and butter. However, despite being vital for small or even one-person micro businesses, they often need to be addressed. Even by Therapists!

 

How often do you see patients or clients who are living unfulfilled lives? When this happens to a therapist due to a misaligned or dysfunctional business, it puts their livelihood at risk and can impact their clients too.

 

An unfulfilled, unhappy or anxious therapist may not be giving their best. As a result, they may be running a business at risk of failure or driving its owner or employees towards quitting. After all, mental health professionals are not immune from work-related stress and anxiety.

 

With a thorough understanding of where you want to get to in your personal and business lives, you can ensure that your Practice supports yourself, your employees and your customers.

 

You need to ask yourself whether you have a clear vision of your goals(what you want to achieve), strategy(your approach to achieving your goals), and objectives (specific, measurable actions) for both yourself and your business. I often walk my clients through their personal goals before their business goals. If misaligned, they’ll have a business consuming their time and energy, likely with a limited sense of fulfilment.

 

With clear goals, strategy and objectives in place, you’ll know what you want to achieve in your professional life and be able to show how that will help deliver on your personal needs and goals.

 

Define your non-negotiables as a Therapist.

You are right if you want to insist that your business & clientele is unique. You will know that the practices, tools, services and service providers you use to facilitate your business must be aligned towards mental healthcare due to its unique considerations.

 

Your non-negotiables as a Psychotherapist or Psychologist support the uniqueness of your business and will likely include the following:

  • Offering only effective, proven modalities of mental healthcare
  • Adherence to ethical guidelines
  • Ensuring informed consent at all stages
  • Conforming to regulations and industry practices
  • Respecting client confidentiality
  • Working in a strategic & sustainable manner
  • in a manner complementary to personal and business goals.

Whether it’s how you ‘advertise’ what you do, book appointments, keep client notes, respond over email, which 3rd party tools you use, the components that form your website, or even the people you work with. It all has to support your business’s specific needs and non-negotiables.

 

Once you have a good idea of what is crucial for you and your business, regularly check back to ensure that everything continues to be aligned. If you outsource any aspects of your business’s running, ensure through regular checks that the people you work with are operating in a manner complementary to the boundaries and non-negotiables you have defined.

 

Refrain from assuming that your Practice will miraculously keep running as you intended once you’ve set things up. It will require nurturing and adequate processes and controls to be in place to keep it on track.

 

Hold yourself accountable for keeping your whole business on track. Remember that accountability is not something that you should outsource. Whether it’s your assistant, accountant, tech guy, or even a vendor supporting your bookings or website, the buck stops with you when it comes to keeping yourself and your clients safe and happy.

 

And lastly, and perhaps most importantly, ensure you operate in a manner that supports your personal and business goals. Sacrificing one for the other shouldn’t be negotiable.

 

Don’t leave anything to chance

Having defined your business and your strategy, started talking to people etc., the job still needs to be completed. Like anything worth preserving, your business will need nurturing and protecting.

 

Risk Management for Psychotherapists and Psychologists

 

As a practising therapist, you’ll know how easy it is to go from apparent comfort to crisis. Just as this is true for an individual, it is also true for any mental health practice or individual working within one.

 

Mistakes, poor financial management, burnout of owners or employees, breaches of client or business confidentiality, regulatory or governing body sanctions, and negative reviews can all have a significant impact.

 

Understand the levels of risk you are running

 

Have you asked yourself about the risks in your business, assessed their impact on your operation and looked at how you either accept or mitigate risks to an acceptable level?

 

You will have put years of effort into building your business. You’ll likely have spent a lot of money getting to where you are. You don’t want it to come falling down because of an information leak, an error of judgement or something that embarrasses you publicly.

 

Effective Risk Management is fundamental to sustaining a business and should be considered from day one. Otherwise, your livelihood and ability to live a fulfilled life for yourself will remain more uncertain than is necessary.

 

Understand your business and the processes which put together form the backbone of what you do. Whether they are client acquisition, servicing, marketing, data confidentiality, billing or financial management, they all have associated risks. For each of the areas of your business, you should consider the processes that form your operation, the risks inherent to them and what controls are required to mitigate the risks you run down to acceptable levels.

 

Technology & Data Confidentiality Risks


Your risks will multiply and become more challenging to identify if you use technology to support your business. Remember, you still remain accountable for the levels of service to your customers and the confidentiality of their information, even if you use third parties or technology solutions to support your work.

 

Having a clear understanding of the potential risks associated with your business is crucial for ensuring its longevity without compromising its core strengths.

 

Despite most Therapists knowing that the digital age presents certain risks, only some have an idea as to the level of risk that they are running. Even fewer have yet to learn how they can mitigate the risk to acceptable levels.

 

Independent Risk Management support for your mental health business

 

Understanding and mitigating the risks inherent to your line of work can be a complex subject to master. Given the impact on your business from an adverse event, consider seeking assistance managing your business risk and help to identify your Processes, Risks and Controls. Where you have done this yourself, you may benefit from outside assistance to provide an independent review of what you are doing.

 

Ask yourself, are you your biggest risk?

The temptation might be to think that no one can or will do what you do. You may not have even considered what would happen if you weren’t able to do what you do through accident or illness.

 

Depending upon your goals, you should think about how your Practice will scale or cope without you.

 

Seeing 20 or 30 clients a week won’t work in the long term if it even works at all. I once heard of a practice where therapists saw 35 people a week. Clearly, the Practice was equating volume to success without thinking about the quality and the welfare of both Therapists and clients. This level of work was not sustainable, and there would undoubtedly be problems for individuals or the Practice as a whole in the future.

 

If your objectives are to run everything by yourself, then test your plans. Do the finances work? Can you see enough people to make it work whilst looking after yourself and your clients? Could you cope with a disruption to your business?

 

If banking a quarter of a million pounds a year is in your goals and strategy, you’ll probably need to think about how others will help you unless you are doing something magical. No, you won’t be cloning yourself, but you can invest in leading others that work as you do. Having others work under your Practice and brand will ensure the availability of services to clients and provide long-term revenue streams if anything happens to you. Done well, and with proper supervision and controls in place, it is possible to replicate much, if not all, of what you do.

 

Deprioritise work on anything that’s not supporting your strategy or objectives.

You know from your day-to-day mental health and coaching work that to make progress, it is necessary to define boundaries.

You will find it harder to achieve your goals if you are not focused on the activities you have prioritised in your strategy.

 

Just as you would encourage your clients to practise enquiry and reflection routinely, the same is true of any business. In most organisations, control functions like Finance, Audit, Operational Risk, Corporate Affairs, Board Members, CEO and Chairperson ensure the ticks and balances. Running a one-person business might mean doing most, if not all, yourself. Therefore, you must ensure you stay in your lane and look for obstacles or distractions in your path.

 

Consider putting in place periodic reviews of your progress against your goals and strategy. Set yourself Key Performance Indicators(KPIs) against which you measure progress and effectiveness.

 

You put a lot of effort into starting your business and had exciting plans for both it and yourself. Regular reflection and measuring progress can help you adjust how you operate, thus ensuring your exciting plans come to fruition.

 

Should you market your Counselling business?

Marketing, promotion, and advertising are often viewed as crude subjects and entirely inappropriate given the mental health subject matter.

 

There are ethical lines that you mustn’t cross given when promoting your business. Sometimes these are written, in regulation, in a code of conduct or similar; others are founded in traditional norms and habits.

 

There is also consideration of what is right for you and your brand. After all, your public face needs to reflect the branding vision and values that you are setting or have established for yourselves. Any marketing that you do should also align with your goals and strategy. Money thrown at promotion that’s not aligned with your objectives is money that’s not working to support what you want to achieve.

 

I once stood in a leading Psychiatrist and psychology practice owner’s office. It was in a plush building several stories above the ground. We were overlooking a rather upmarket housing area. I said to the owner, “Let us assume that 1 in 4 of the people out there need your help. The trouble is, hardly any of them know that help is available and that you exist”. If the Practice had waiting lists, it might not have mattered, but it didn’t. Their books were half empty. Yet people who could even see their windows had no idea that help was there, ready and waiting.

 

Not advertising your services will do a disservice to both yourself and those needing help. Marketing or advertising your business (within the rules) allows people to hear about what you do. It lets them know you exist, and it helps them understand that help is available.

 

Marketing your Psychological and Counselling Services correctly can be educational, deliver on immediate needs for client income and support a sustainable, thriving business.

 

If Marketing is needed to support the growth and sustainability of your dreams for yourself and your business, then it is vital that you fund that marketing sufficiently. Investing appropriate levels of energy in it and, where necessary working with trusted partners can turn a lacklustre Practice into a shining beacon that stands the test of time.

 

Talk the language of your target audience

Alongside your strategy, you will have defined your objectives, including who your priority audience is. When conducting marketing, you need to be clear as to who you want to target. Your audience may differ from campaign to campaign, depending on your priorities.

 

You might have general marketing that talks about the services you offer and targets a broad spectrum of people. Or you might be targeting a specific audience, for instance, if you are targeting those affected by Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or Drug Addiction.

 

It is vitally important to write your website, article, advertising etc., in the language of your intended reader. It’s also important to prioritise based on what you want to achieve.

 

In the case of private Clinical Psychologists, for instance, we see them offering their services in a variety of ways. They may specialise in certain areas, such as addiction, anxiety disorder etc. and offer services to the general public. They might also supervise other professionals and want to make others aware that they do this. They might also be functioning in academia and targeting peers. Their marketing and website need to align with their objectives so as to work today, supporting what they want to achieve actively.

 

If, for example, you are targeting your services and campaign towards those affected by PTSD, then you need to think about where those needing your services work and play. Or even what jobs they do, such as police, fire, military personnel, paramedics etc. Targeting your marketing towards these groups of people targets those most likely to have been affected by PTSD and those who would benefit from your support.

 

A business focused on addiction recovery, looking for new clients – potentially addicts themselves, or those supporting them, may benefit from using language in their advertising or on their website that uses the language the addicts use themselves. Using more commonly used language would work well if you are targeting and prioritising the end users of your marketing/website. Whereas, if you are aiming at growing an audience of peers or finding more Doctors to refer patients to you, you may benefit from talking using their more academic and medical language.

 

Therapy Means Business

With an understanding that ‘Therapy means business’ – in all senses of the words, and cautious acceptance that you need to run what you do as a carefully managed, money-making enterprise, you are taking the first steps toward success.

With careful consideration and focus on your goals and objectives, you will be well-positioned to nurture a thriving business that meets your needs.

 

Get the basics in place, and you will be able to run a business that works well both for yourself, your clients and their families.

 

 

Informing Minds Ltd specialises in helping Psychologists, Psychotherapists, and Therapists grow their mental health focused businesses, products and services.

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