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Do more than therapy in your psychology private practice

If you are setting up a psychology private practice you need a business plan. And it needs to have more than therapy in it… Many of us stumble into private practice as an add on to an already busy NHS (or other public health) role. It is too easy for us to just assume that all we do is rent a room and use our existing skills. Many talented clinical psychologists, therapists and counsellors are shocked to discover that they don’t make much money from their private practice.

I was in that position a year ago. I had gone full time in my practice and was busy with clients. But I wasn’t making much money, didn’t have the flexibility I needed to fit around solo parenting my two children and most annoyingly I found myself with NO time to do the community psychology interventions I was passionate about.

I noticed I was heading for financial, creative and emotional burnout and invested in business coaching to figure out how on earth to make it right. It was the best decision I ever made and I have put the key learning points into this blog and the psychology private practice business plan workbook (available when the Crowdfunder goes live on March 2nd!) to help make sure you don’t make the same mistakes as me. If you are just starting out you might find yourself feeling resistant or “a bit icky” about some of this stuff. Don’t worry that is part of the journey. You will feel better when you are up, running and helping lots of people.

The Foundation of a Psychology Business Plan

Mission: What do you want from your private psychology practice or project?

All too often we set off into a venture without being intentional about what we are trying to create. However you run your practice, whether full time or part time I guarantee it is going to have you working more hours than you ever did in the NHS. The good news is many of those hours won’t feel like “work” at all if you are passionate about the purpose of your practice. So don’t skip this bit if you want to feel fulfilled rather than drained by your work!

The following questions should help you figure out your personal and professional mission:

What is the change you want to create in the world?

What is the change you want to make in your life?

Write out one or two clear mission statements that sum up the impact you want to have for other people. Then write one that puts into words what your work needs to provide for you and your family.

I want to help X (insert group of people you want to help) to do X. I will use my X skills to do this.

I want to create a life that allows me to live my values. The things I value most in life are x, y and z. My business will help me to have more of these in my life by x, y , z.

My examples:

I want to help solo parents to parent confidently through hard times in life. I will use my therapy and writing skills to do this.

I want to help psychologists and therapists who want to have big impact but feel stuck and don’t know how get their projects off the ground. I will use my writing, marketing and coaching skills to do this.

I want to create a life that allows me to live my values. The things I value most in life are health, being present with my family and creating social change. My business will help me to have more of these in my life by giving me financial freedom, flexibility in my hours and the ability to reach people who find it hard to access NHS services.

Structure of the Business: Should my psychology practice or project be a Ltd company, social enterprise or sole trader?

Don’t get hung up on this! This question is mostly about what is going to happen to your “profit”.

I am not an expert in company formation (by a long way) but my research for my own business has given me a basic understanding. It seems to me that if you are a sole trader all your money (less your personal tax allowance) is taxed through self assessment so all you need is a separate bank account and rock solid records of everything you spend and receive.

In a social enterprise you pay yourself and others on the team a salary and then the profit gets reinvested into your business or other projects that align with the social change you told the government you want to make. There are a few different ways of setting these up that dictate how much freedom you have. A Ltd company usually involves paying yourself a salary and then taking a dividend if you make extra “profit” on top of that basic salary. It can be tax economical if you are making good money and most SEs and all Ltd companies have the benefit of limiting your liability so your own assets are protected if the company goes bankrupt and can’t pay its debts.

If you are setting up something big involving other people it is best to consult a lawyer to get some advice to make sure things are set up well from the beginning. In my opinion, if you are doing it on your own it is usually best to get started as a sole trader and then look at becoming a social enterprise or limited company once there is money coming in with which to pay an accountant. This will be an upcoming topic on the podcast and I will get some proper expert advice for you. For now just don’t let this stuff stop you. So long as you have the right professional indemnity insurance my advice would be to get started and figure it out later…

Mindset

Don’t skip this! I used to think mindset work was a bit woo… It often is… But it is also completely essential. For now just be mindful and notice what comes up for you when I start asking you to think about how your business will make money and how much money you need to make. There will be ickyness and I use a lot of the tools of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to help me deal with it so I can keep working towards my mission. It isn’t easy and there are plenty of times I would far rather hide than show up online a put myself out there. Keep your mission at the front and centre of your mind and commit to dealing with some painful feelings in order to make it happen.

If you are new to ACT or don’t use it much in your work the key principle that is useful here is that when we are doing something that pushes us outside our comfort zone it is normal and inevitable that we will feel anxiety, stress and other unpleasant emotions. That is our mind’s way of trying to keep us safe. If however we know that we need to do this scary thing in order to live the life we want to live, including serving others in the way we want to, then we need to allow these feelings and do what matters to us anyway. There are loads of tools in ACT that can help us to do this and if you are interested in learning those DM me and I will happily send some resources your way. For now my favourite is one from Russ Hariss’ ACT Made Simple. Russ asks you to imagine the icky feeling as an object in your body, locate where it lives within your body, what shape it has, texture, temperature, whether it is moving or still. Spend some time really getting to know the object, examining its colour, weight and density. Once you have done that then try sending some soothing breaths into and around the object, imagining your body softening around it and making room for it. I find this technique very helpful when I am doing something scary, like recording a podcast for the first time.