Can I Feature Your Private Practice? Content Creation Opportunities on Toolbox

Talk to thousands about your practice by submitting content for Private Practice Toolbox.

I've written a lot about the importance of content creation in building a professional online presence, creating value for website visitors and social media followers, and establishing yourself as an expert in your specialty area.

Incoming links to your practice website boost SEO, boost traffic, and establish credibility. It's always better to create content for larger websites. Well, here's your chance to shine. I want to feature you on THIS blog in 2013! Here are 4 ways you can be featured:

1) Pitch a guest blog 

I'm always looking for guest posts from qualified individuals from a variety of fields who can share insights about how to run, manage, market, and thrive in private practice. I recently started working on my PhD and I'm not able to blog as often as I used to. I'm open to posts from professionals outside the mental health field as well. Attorneys, accountants, SEO experts, marketing, website design, interior design...If your expertise can help private mental health practitioners build successful businesses, pitch away!

2) Be featured in my"Adventures in Private Practice" series

Answer the following questions and submit them with a photo, a brief summary of your practice and a link to your website here.

• Tell me a little about your practice…
• Why did you decide to open a private practice?
• Clients that therapists find to be the most “difficult” are sometimes the ones who can teach them the most. What have you learned from your toughest clients?
• What’s your biggest pet peeve about private practice?
• How did you discover or develop your practice “niche”?
• What resource (book, website, person) helped you the most when setting up your private practice?
• What has surprised you most about being in private practice?
• Has your private practice helped you grow professionally? How so…
• Has it helped you grow personally, too? How so…
• Being a therapist can be emotionally exhausting. What do you do to care for your own emotional and psychological health?
• How do you cope with the inevitable stressors involved with being your own boss?
• What personal strengths have helped you succeed in private practice?

3) Be Featured in a "A Day In The Life" Series 

How do private practitioners spend their time? What does it take to create a thriving practice? Track your private practice activities for one day. Submit a word doc, photo, practice summary, and link to your practice here.

4) Be feature in my "Virtual Office Tour" series

Submit a video tour of your office space and I'll feature it on this blog! Submit you information here. Peek inside other therapist's offices.

Other ways to connect with private practice resources:

Join the Private Practice Toolbox Facebook Group

Join the Twitter conversation using hashtag #practicetoolbox (I'm @julie_hanks)

Join the 2013 Therapist Blog Challenge for help creating regular content on your private practice website.

Martin Fisch via Compfight

Sharing Office Space With Your Spouse (part 2): Peek Inside A Rural Dental/Therapy Office

Last week Dr. Christina Hibbert contributed a guest blog highlighting her experience of sharing an office with her husband in rural Flagstaff, AZ. (If you missed it you can read part 1 here.)

In this post, Dr. Hibbert gives us a tour of the office space she shares with her husband, Dentist O.J. Hibbert. Peek into a rural Dentist/Psychologist office and see how this clinical psychologist keeps business "in the family."

Would you like to let other shrinks peek into your office space and be featured on this blog? Get details here.

[Video] Peek Inside A Hip Urban Psychiatry Office

Collaborative psychiatrist Kelli Hyland, MD's office space in Salt Lake City, UT is unlike most traditional medical office spaces.  What's impressive is that it is both functional and funky, and accurately reflects Kelli's collaborative style and approach to treatment. I love how Kelli has set up the waiting room to function as a personal work space and a colleague consultation room.

For additional information on Dr. Kelli Hyland's collaborative psychiatry practice in Salt Lake City visit KelliHylandMD.com.

[Video] Peek Inside A Therapy Office With A Modern Vibe

Thanks to Rhett Smith, LMFT of Auxano Counseling in Plano, Texas for submitting this fun virtual office tour. I am definitely stealing the idea to mount Lexan plastic on the wall for genograms and illustrations - brilliant! Also, love the symbolic tree painting and that chunky rug. Very clean, light and inviting office space.

Find out more about Rhett Smith's therapy practice at rhettsmithcounseling.com

If you’re interested in submitting a YouTube virtual office tour video get details here.

A Day In The Life: Meet Divorce Counselor Misty E. Vogel, MA

A ten year career in the mortgage banking industry not only prepared Misty Vogel, M.A., NCC for many of the business aspects of self-employment, but also for managing the intense emotions that come with major life transitions.

Helping clients buy homes seems far from providing therapy, but the process of helping mortgage clients navigate intense emotions that surface during home purchasing has been added to Vogel's therapeutic skill set.

Fresh out of graduate school, Vogel is just starting to build her practice in Denver and in Evergreen while she continues to work as an extern at Evergreen Psychotherapy Center, a practice specializing in treatment of attachment disordered children and families.

In her private practice, Vogel combines her experience doing attachment work with her passion to help children and families navigate the difficulties of divorce and custody issues. Vogel's own parents divorced when she was 5 so she knows first-hand the impact divorce can have on the entire family. Peek into a day in the life of a therapist just beginning to build her private practice and see what it takes!

A Day In The Life

February 13, 2012

6:30AM

Alarm is sounding and my husband is up and out of bed quickly. I, on the other hand, reach for my phone which is next to me on my nightstand, easy to check email from here. I turn on the local news to check the weather. No snow and warmer temperatures… happy about this, as it means I can go for a walk later (self-care).

7:00AM – 8:15AM

Getting ready for my day includes planning lunch and a change of clothes. My externship is located in the foothills outside of Denver in Evergreen, about a 30 minute commute on a good day.

8:15AM – 8:50AM

On my commute to Evergreen! I can’t complain, this drive is often quite picturesque – many times the moon is setting to the west, or the snow capped mountains are glistening in the sun rising upon them, and, more often than not, I am fortunate enough to spot wildlife – buffalo, coyotes, elk, hawks, and even eagles once in a while! I also am lucky to use this time to make a few phone calls. (When I was still studying for the NCE exam, I used this commute to listen to Dr. Rosenthal’s study CDs!)

9:00AM – 12:00PM

In session, an intensive at my externship. Our current family is in real crisis. Mondays of the second week can be very tense because the families have just spent a couple of days outside of treatment and often they fall back to old patterns. Unfortunately, in this case, the crisis may not be diverted and it appears this week is going to be a tough one.

12:00PM-12:50PM

An hour with an individual client – my own client, not part of the externship. Without a break between the intensive and my individual session, I am feeling some hunger pains! Those almonds didn’t quite cut it.

1:00PM – 1:30PM

Commute back to Denver, meeting up with an old co-worker and friend who has a networking group she wants to introduce me to.

1:30PM – 2:45PM

Lunch with friend. Networking is essential at this stage of opening my own practice. I also attend a Private Practice support group as well as numerous workshops and conferences.

3:00PM – 4:00PM

Changed into walking clothes at the restaurant and went for a walk at the park. This is my self-care time!

4:15PM – 6:30PM

Back at my home office. I make finishing touches to my post card announcements for my new practice and two offices. Order those online – some will be mailed to a small database and the rest will be distributed in local coffee shops and local hang-outs. Post a quote on my business Facebook page – I find that if I do this every day, people are more likely to remember me and my practice. Open up the project I am currently dreading…building my website. I am trying to determine if I chose the right web page host; it hasn’t been a user-friendly experience thus far.

6:30PM – 7:45PM

Cook and eat dinner with my husband. Catching up on one another’s day. He is working on a start up company and we are also beginning the journey of seeking out fertility options. The journey has just begun – I filled my husband in on the task at hand getting in for a consultation with the fertility doc, information gathered on a phone call during my commute this morning.

7:45PM – 9:00PM

Took a little time to read up on divorce and attachment. I had downloaded a few articles over the weekend. I am considering writing a blog targeted to this population.

9:00PM-10:00PM

Both my husband and I are exhausted. We treated ourselves to a few TV shows on the DVR. Turning off our brains before heading to bed tends to produce better sleep!

10:00PM

Turning in – thinking about the family I’ll see tomorrow at Evergreen. They have been on my mind a great deal this afternoon.

Find out more about Misty's practice at  www.mistyvogel.com.

If you'd like to submit a day in your life for this series, please contact me here.