Can You Make a Six Figure Income in Private Practice?
Does anyone in private practice make enough income to live on?
I hear this question, or some version of it over and over from people thinking about making the leap to full time private practice. The specter of financial ruin is one of the scariest parts about making the transition.
It can feel foolish to leave the comfort of a job with a steady salary and benefits for the unpredictability of private practice. No shortage of people, including other therapists in these jobs, are happy to tell you you’ll never make a living at it. I’m not going to lie. It is scary. We fly without a financial safety net. If I think too much about it, my stomach clenches even after all these years.
But I am here to tell you, you can absolutely make a good living in private practice.
Yes, you can make six figures in private practice and many therapists routinely do. It is a very achievable goal. Don’t listen to all the people telling you you’ll never make enough to live on doing this. You can.
If you are serious about building not only a clinically successful practice, but also a financially successful one, there are some crucial ducks you need to get in a row.
You need to look at your relationship with money.
Can you give yourself permission to make money?
I talk about this in depth in my Master Course. I’ve developed a worksheet, ‘How to Talk Fees and Get Paid Without Having a Panic Attack’, to help you with this process. (You can get the worksheet by filling out the form at the top or bottom of this page).
Most of us go into this field because we are drawn to help people. As a byproduct, many of us have a fraught relationship with both making money and talking about money in this work. This is rarely discussed in our graduate programs and for many of us this feels like a taboo subject.
Yet we NEED to talk about it.
Once you go into private practice you are a small business owner. If you have not made your peace with your relationship with money it is going to cause ongoing problems and stress, some of which can get you into ethical dilemmas. It will be hard to talk with clients about your fees, your no-show policies, managing outstanding balances, and other money related issues. It will be difficult to make clear policies, and you will struggle to be consistent with enforcing your policies. This is not only an administrative problem, but a clinical and ethical one as well.
Now is the time to look at your beliefs, emotions, and obstacles related to money. Do not skip that worksheet. It includes a powerful exercise to help you look at your obstacles around money. It also provides scripts for you to use when talking with clients.
What if you could successfully set up your practice without the mistakes most therapists make?
What if you could do it without feeling stressed out and overwhelmed?
My Private Practice Builder Master Course and Mini Courses are here to make that happen. Check them out now!
Don’t be the $25 therapist.
A crucial mistake many therapists new to private practice make is underselling themselves. All you women out there, this is especially for you. We find it so hard to ask for what we are worth. It is the conversation I have over and over with therapists starting a private practice. They are afraid to charge the going rate.
There are a few reasons for this.
- When you open your private practice, it’s the best feeling in the world. Until you realize you’re not overflowing with clients in the first month. Then it starts to feel anxious and frustrating. Many therapists think drastically cutting their fee is the answer to get clients in the door. It’s not. You are building your professional identity and reputation in the community from day one. Unless your goal is to offer very low-cost therapy to the community, do not establish yourself as the low-cost therapist. You need be consistent with building the type of practice you want. You can certainly make room to offer lower fee spots but be very purposeful about this. I discuss this in depth in the Master Course.
- The Imposter Syndrome rears its ugly head and whispers in your ear, “You’re not worth it.” Do your work now to understand the triggers and obstacles you need to resolve to feel confident to ask for your full fee. Don’t let guilt or anxiety dictate your rate.
- You want to help people and feel bad charging them your full fee. You know how it goes. You get that intake call that tugs on your heartstrings, so you make an exception. This goes back to looking at your relationship with making money in this field. There is room to offer lower fee spots, but as I mentioned above, you need to be very purposeful about this. In the Master Course I discuss how you can quickly get yourself into trouble when you do not have a clear policy, including some serious problems with sliding scales. If you accept insurance, you need to understand the implications of your fee structure. Making decisions about lowering your fee on the fly is a terrible idea for many reasons.
Don’t expect to make six figures out of the gate.
While there is no shortage of therapists who have immediate success in private practice, for most of us it takes some time to ramp up and start to build our caseload. Don’t get discouraged when you don’t have a full caseload a month in.
Have a financial contingency plan in place to help you manage the stress of the early days of a private practice. For some therapists, they start their private practice part time while still working in a salaried position. Prepare for your practice to take a good six months to a year to build to full time. It may not take that long but leaning into the worst-case scenario always helps us manage anxiety.
Use the early days to focus on building your referral relationships. Have a plan in place to build these relationships before you open your practice and keep tweaking it once you’ve launched. I’ve got some crucial tips to help you Increase Your Referrals AND Create A Successful Niche To Bring In Your Ideal Clients.
To find out more crucial information about the steps you need to take when starting your private practice check out The Master Course, Everything You Need To Know About Private Practice But Didn’t Know To Ask. To get the same information in more affordable, bite size pieces, don’t miss the Mini Courses!
I love helping therapists build successful private practices! For more great information like this to help you build yours, make sure to check out the Master Course and the Mini Courses. I’m here to support you and I want to help you reach your dream!
If you need some individual help with all of this, I’m here for you! I offer mentoring services for those who want some personal attention to help them build their successful private practice. Don’t hesitate to reach out to me. You can find out more on the Mentoring Groups page.
COME JOIN THE FB COMMUNITY! Starting a private practice is hard. The My Private Practice Builder FB community is a place to get support, encouragement, and awesome information to help you embrace this journey. You can do it! Come join us here.
Hey You. Are you struggling when it comes to talking with clients about money? I feel you. It’s one of the hardest parts of being out there on our own in private practice. I’ve got your back! I’m hitting you up with a free copy of one of the worksheets from my Master Course! Check it out, it will help you give yourself permission to make money and charge what your worth. Find out right now how to Talk Fees And Get Paid Without Having A Panic Attack. You don’t want to miss this one. Just sign up right below!
