The $12,000 Mistake Many Therapists Make

Ending sessions on time or charging more for extended sessions not only models good boundaries, it's good for your business.

What's the big deal about giving a few extra minutes to your clients? After all, we are in this field to help others and we are generous souls by nature, right? Yes, we are. However, an on-going pattern of giving away a few minutes each session adds up over a year's time.

Let's say you see 10 clients for 50 minute sessions per week= 500 minutes. If you go over 10 minutes with each client you're doing 600 minutes of therapy and only being paid for 500 minutes. That means you're giving away 100 minutes of therapy every week. After one year of giving away 100 minutes every week you are giving away 5200 minutes of free therapy. 5200 minutes is the equivalent of 104 free 50 minute sessions every year. If you charge $115 per session your practice is giving away $11, 960 of free therapy a year!

In addition to thousands of dollars of lost income, therapists who have a habit of giving away their time carry the stress of running late for other sessions, not taking adequate time for self-care, and falling behind on clinical notes and other administrative tasks. These chronic patterns may ironically lead to you being a less effective therapist with a less successful practice.

Now, just to be clear, I am all for pro bono work. The problem with this kind of "pro bono" work is that therapists don't realize they're giving it away and clients often don't realize they are being given a gift of therapist's time. Clients may come to expect 60-minute sessions because therapists have taught them that this is the norm and may then feel ripped-off when their therapist decides to start setting firmer boundaries.

Setting firm boundaries with session ending times, and charging for additional time allows you to consciously take on pro-bono clients, because you have more time, energy, and resources to offer free services. If you struggle to end sessions on time, here are a few suggestions to help you.

Suggestions for setting boundaries with session length:

1. Set the expectations from the very first session. It's a lot easier to set the norm of ending sessions on time, than to bring it up later in the course of therapy.
2. Keep your agreement. In your initial consent for treatment paperwork be explicit about how you will handle longer sessions. Let the client know that if they need more time they will have to pay more. If I am in a session and it seems like the client would like to go longer, and I have the flexibility of giving additional time, I might say something like, "Our session is just about over. It seems there's more here to work on. I have an additional 15 available today, would you like to keep going with session even if it adds additional cost?"  Since I charge $150 per 45-50min session. If a session goes 15 minutes over I charge an additional 1/3 of the session fee.
3. Recommend scheduling longer or more frequent sessions. For clients who seem to have difficulty processing their issues and containing their affect in a 45-50 minute session, schedule longer sessions (75 or 100 minute sessions), or offer to see them an additional session per week.
4. Start wrapping up 10-15 minutes before end of session. Give them explicit verbal cues like, "We have about 15 minutes left in the session. Let me tell you what I've heard today..." Physical cues like sitting up straight in your chair or standing up when the session is over may help you send a congruent message that the session is over.

Eric Gjerde via Compfight

SEO For Shrinks: Can Potential Clients Find Your Practice Online?

Do therapists really need to care about search engine optimization (SEO)? If you're in private practice the answer is YES!

So, what is SEO? SEO is the process of improving your website's visibility in search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.

Before you starting thinking about SEO, you first need a practice website. Even a single page site with your photo, practice description and contact information is better than nothing! I predict that in the near future it will be nearly impossible to build a successful private practice with clients who pay your full fee unless you have a website and strong professional online presence. If you don't have a website, stop reading here, and get busy creating a site. If you already have a site and you want to make it easier for potential clients to find your practice on the web, read on!

Since "meeting" Your Google Guy, Peter Hannah, LMHC, online I've marveled at the combination of his therapy education and telecommunications specialties. I couldn't wait to "pick his brain" about SEO basics for shrinks to help you succeed in attracting your ideal therapy clients to your private practice.

There's A Reason They're Called "Keywords"

The most common SEO mistakes that therapists make on the website is not understanding how crucial keyword are. Hannah suggests, "If you're a psychologist in Orlando, those two words should be prominent in your site and appear on each page of your website. They should also be in your meta tags. Because people will be searching "Orlando psychologist" to find you and people like you."

Another mistake that Hannah has observed in his consulting work with therapists will often omit their location on the homepage of their website, "Your home page acts as an orientation point to visitors. Who you are, what you do, and where you do it. Make sure it's all on there!"

Hannah says there are two parts to SEO work: on-page (your website) and off-page (out on the web). "On your site, making sure your website clearly has language in it that matches your city and your services is probably the easiest and most important. You might want to talk about "healing" and "journeys" as you write about your work, and that's good, but make sure you're also mentioning "counseling" or "psychotherapy" once in a while, too!", Hannah suggests.

Create Consistent Content

Hannah suggests consistently creating content on the web. This is what I  love to do, and it's what contributed to Sharecare Now naming me the #1 online influencer for depression. I've never met anyone who works with Sharecare, but because of the amount of mental health content and the number of channels on which I produce regular content (4 blogs/sites, 5 Facebook pages, Twitter, Google +, Linked In, iTunes podcast, blog posts, YouTube channel, links to my site from national sites) I came up on radar of a national health organization! Hannah suggests writing something helpful for potential clients your website blog and always have it link back to your website.

Get Listed, But Don't Pay A Dime

Paid therapist listing sites aren't as beneficial as shrinks might think. Hannah suggests finding site that list your business for free and write as much information as you can and provide links to your website. My therapy site is listed on Google places, Facebook places, Yelp!, All About Counseling, local university referral listings, City Search, and many other free listing sites. Also, remember to get listed on your professional organization referral lists.

Peter Hannah, MA (Counseling) MS (Telecommunications) is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in Seattle, WA. He's also a former technology professional who helps therapists market their practices on the web. Since 2005, he's worked with several hundred therapists, marriage counselors and psychologists with SEO, Google Adwords and making their websites more effective.  Find out more at his website YourGoogleGuy.com.

photo credit: Flооd

5 Common Website Mistakes And How To Fix Them

Your most powerful tool to build your private therapy practice in the digital age is an effective practice website. The Internet allows us to talk directly to potential clients who are seeking mental health information and services. The majority of Americans, 62 percent, use the Internet to find health care information (Pew Internet and Family Life Study, 2009). Few therapists have training in website programing and design, but as technology evolves, more options become available to create a cheap or free website that looks professional and accurately represents your practice. My websites are built on Wordpress, a fairly easy platform on which to build a website or blog. There are thousands and thousands of free Wordpress themes that you can use to customize your practice website. Therapy Sites, another website resource for therapists, allows you to select a template and customize it for your practice based on a monthly fee.

As I've consulted with therapists, developed my own websites, and done a lot of internet research, I've noticed some common mistakes that therapists frequently make when it comes to building websites.  These are the top five mistakes I've seen and suggestions for how to fix the problem to make your website more effective.

Mistake #1: Contact information is difficult to find

How to fix it --> Put contact information on every page in a prominent place

Even if you are starting small with a single page site, your contact information is the most important information to feature. After all, you want clients to actually contact you to schedule a session, right? I suggest putting your contact information on every page of your website with a "call to action".

Mistake #2: Feels too Impersonal

How to fix it --> Write website text in first person and include a photo

When potential clients visit your site they should have a feel for who you are as a person. Always include a photo and a personal statement. While your bio can be written in third person, the rest of your site should feel like you're talking to your potential client.

Mistake #3: Too much "psychobabble"

How to fix it --> Focus on benefits of your service in layman's terms

Most potential clients aren't going to be familiar with psychological acronyms or detailed information about every credential and training. Your potential clients care less about your training and more about if and how you can help them. Write your website text with your ideal client in mind.

Mistake #4: Confusing site navigation

How to fix it --> Feature the the four topics above in your site navigation

Your website should be easy to navigate. You don't want your site to be an additional source of stress for potential clients. Visit other private practice therapist's websites and notice what you like and don't like, what works and what doesn't. Put yourself in the client's shoes. What information are potential clients looking for? Here are the top 4 things potential clients want to find on your website:

• who you are (your basic information)
• what you do (services)
• how you can help them (benefits of your services)
• how to contact you (contact information)

Mistake #5: Bad design

How to fix it --> pick one or two fonts and stick with a consistent theme throughout your site

Simple and clean is best when it comes to websites. Unfortunately, many therapists with "do-it-yourself" websites, in an attempt to be creative, end up using too many design elements. When designing your website, keep in mind who you're ideal client is, and let your basic message guide your choice of colors and fonts to create a cohesive feel that represents who you are as a therapist.

Are you guilty of making any of these mistakes on your private practice website? Post the link below and I'll give you feedback about your site.

photo credit: twm1340