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

Social Collaboration For Shrinks: Add Your Favorite Practice App To Listly

Two heads are better than one...and two thousand heads are infinitely better. Come on, private practice shrinks, let's do some social collaboration with Listly.

Earlier this week I introduced you to the concept of online social collaboration and suggested some possible ways it might be useful in private practice. I invite you to join in an easy social collaboration experiment by adding to my list of mobile apps I use most for managing my private practice.

As a tech geek and social media freak (and yes, I think these diagnoses should be added to the DSM 5), I delight in the brilliant new mobile apps that are available for fun, for learning and for business. I have my favorite iPad and iPhone apps that I use, but I want to draw from your collective experiences and see what apps you recommend.

Enter Listly (lists made easy + sharable + fun), a really cool and easy to use social media collaboration tool that you can embed in a blog post or website (see below). Here are my favorite private practice apps, links, and description of their use. Will you add yours to the list below?  Here's the process:

• Click the "Sign in" button on the top right side and sign in with Facebook or Twitter (if you don't have a Facebook or Twitter account, then I'm surprise that you're reading this blog)
• Click the "add to list" pink button on the left side
• You'll see pop-up box with the option to add item with or without a link
• Add your suggested app
• Fill out the short form with item link (if you have it) name, description, tags
• Click "add item" button on the bottom of form
• While you're at it, see the "like" and "dislike" buttons on the side of each list item? Feel free to vote on ones that you like.

Top Apps For Private Practice Mental Health Therapists

View more lists from Julie Hanks, LCSW

Thanks for participating in this social collaboration experiment. Fun, huh? More on social collaboration in the coming weeks! If you think of a practice related list you'd like to start, please post a link in the comment below so we can add to your Listly.

(c) Can Stock Photo

Poll: Do You Work In A Group Or Solo Practice?

I've recently blogged about the pros and cons of group practice.  Watch next week for more on running a solo practice. Until then, I'm curious how many of you practice in a group practice setting versus a solo practice. Take this poll and please pass it along to colleagues.

Do you practice in a group or solo practice?   (c) Can Stock Photo

Poll: How Much Do You Charge For A Therapy Session?

Are you unsure about how much to charge for psychotherapy in private practice? I've blogged recently about signs it's time to raise your fees and how to talk to your clients about raising your fees, but what about setting your fees in the first place?

One thing to consider in setting your psychotherapy rates is what other therapists with equal experience and training are charging. While average fees vary greatly depending on your location, your degree, level of experience, and many other factors, I thought it would be fun to poll who read this blog so you can see where you fall on the continuum to give you a general sense of what other therapists are charging.

Do you want to know how your fees compare to other private practice mental health therapists? Take this poll. What's your fee for a 45-50 min. therapy session?

Are you surprised by the results of this survey? Where do your fees fall on this continuum?

Feel free to post your comments and questions below! If you know other mental health therapist's in private practice, please share this poll with them. (c) Can Stock Photo

When The Therapist No Shows

(cc) photo by khawkins04

Last week's post How To Get Paid For No Shows prompted some excellent discussions and follow up questions about how to enforce cancellation and payment policies. One comment in particular, posted by "Paul" brought up a valid concern.

Do your policies go both ways? How do you handle the situation when you, the therapist, no show for a session due to a scheduling error, inadvertently double book a session, or cancel a session at the last minute due to illness? Here's what he wrote:

What happens if the therapist needs to cancel a therapy session with less than 24 hours notice to the client?

This isn’t a sarcastic question. My dentist has a policy similar to yours and I don’t really have a problem with it in general. However, one day I needed to rearrange my work schedule to accommodate an appointment with the dentist. The morning of the appointment I received a call stating that the dentist was sick and wouldn’t be available for my appointment. Ok, no problem, these things happen. They were able to reschedule me quickly, too.

A few months later the reverse happened – I had something very important and completely unavoidable come up and I had to cancel the morning of a scheduled afternoon appointment. To their credit, they acknowledged that I’ve been a client for several years and had never missed an appointment or had to cancel without 24 hours notice prior to this incident. They didn’t charge me and all was good.

What’s annoying is that not all offices practice this. Some are all too willing to charge a client who no-shows or calls to cancel with less than 24 hours notice, but when they need to cancel with less than 24 hours notice they act as if it’s no big deal and the client is expected to simply shrug it off.

If we, as therapists, expect clients to follow through with their session or pay for the missed session, shouldn't we offer them the same courtesy and model the accountability that we are requiring of them?

When the therapist no-shows

If I miss an appointment due to a scheduling error on my end, I offer the client a free session. If I am running more than 15 minutes late to a session I generally offer the session for free as well.

When the client or therapist is sick

To clarify, I don’t charge for no-shows when there is an illness or an emergency on the client's end. If I am ill I don't offer a free session unless I was unable to reach the client and then showed up for the scheduled appointment. However, I do watch closely for patterns in client behavior. If they are sick every other week, then I treat it as a relationship pattern and deal with it as a clinical issue in therapy sessions.

How do you handle the situation when you, the therapist, no show, double book, or have to cancel at the last minute due to illness or accident?