Therapists Mentoring

I work with other therapists to support them in starting and developing their private practice. My experience expands to many different disciplines, not just talking therapy, as I worked as a clinic manager in a multidisciplinary health clinic and offered guidance to the therapists who worked in the clinic. I worked in various clinics over 15+ years, as I started work at the first clinic at evenings and weekends whilst doing my A-levels.

My Journey to private practice

After graduating my Post Graduate Diploma in Humanistic Psychotherapeutic Counselling at University of Brighton, I was eager to start private practice and used my previous experience of working with other therapists to set up my own business. I’d witnessed what works and what doesn’t, which was a real strength. After setting up private practice in 2018, I was in a position to move on from the comfortable secure job I had whilst studying and took a leap of faith to focus on being a full time psychotherapist (whilst going through further study to get my Masters). I achieved all of this within 6 months of private practice. Back then, I was working exclusively face to face in rented clinic space. When covid hit and we went into lockdown, I made the really tough choice to take my practice online, I was grateful that the majority of clients I was working with were happy to make this transfer.

In August 2020, I took a break from practice and spent 6 months on maternity leave. Returning to practice felt so much easier than the initial setting up of my business. I felt like I was pressing play and had learnt so much from the first time around. I built up my private practice again quickly, in a way that I felt comfortable with. To start with, this meant just a handful of people a week that I had previously been working with, then went with the flow and took on more clients as it felt right with the needs of myself and my family. So not only has my business survived a global pandemic, it has survived my world being turned upside down and entering into a new chapter of life and now and entering into the wonderful world of motherhood. Being a mum and a therapist works really well for me and I find that the lifestyle offered in private practice means I have a good balance of being a professional and a parent.

After graduating with my Master of Science in Psychotherapy, I went through the process of getting together my portfolio of evidence for my UKCP accreditation, which included evidencing my work and learning to date and carrying out work on an NHS inpatient unit as part of the mental health familiarisation placement. I was aware of the changes coming to place with SCoPEd (Scope of practice and education) and wanted to make sure I was ready for the changes that might happen within the psychotherapy an counselling community.

When thinking about returning to face to face practice, I made the decision that it was important for me to have my own space, as I really enjoyed working from home and ditching the commute. In order to do this, I needed to look at changing my living situation, as there wasn’t space to provide a space for face to face work, as I worked online in the playroom. Now I have brought a house with a designated room for my work and have gone through the complex process of applying for a mortgage when self employed.

I have now consistently had a fully booked private practice for over a year, with a waiting list. This means that I have now not needed to pay for any advertising for a long time. I still put myself out there by engaging with other avenues of promoting myself.

What I can offer you

I offer 1:1 mentoring, whereby we sit down and look at what you need from a mentor and what your business needs are. This includes being new to private practice and not knowing where to start with it all, or having an established business that needs some input from an outside perspective. Or like me you might have found yourself taking a break from practice and need some support when it comes to going back into private practice in a way that suits you. Being a therapist can be isolating. There is no team with different expertise, private practice means you are a practitioner and a business owner and become the marketing and finance department etc all rolled into one. This doesn’t mean you have to do it alone. I am able to offer support no matter what stage you are at with your journey in private practice.

Over the years, I have learnt so much from helping others grow their business and starting my own. Yes there have been obstacles along the way, but there is always a way around them. Sometimes you just need someone to talk the problem through with someone else and that’s where a mentor comes in handy. I am so grateful for all the support I had in the early days and am now in the position to help others with developing their business which compliments the lifestyle they want, which takes a step away from the traditional coaching mindset of being driven by profit margins. However, I do offer a space to hold accountability and offer nurturing support and motivation when working towards goals, whatever they look like. To be clear, I cannot offer clinical supervision (maybe one day). But what I can do is offer a space to look at the inner workings of your business and how you can get this to fit into the lifestyle you want.