Prepare Yourself for The Best 2017 Your Practice Has Ever Seen: Week Three

This week, it’s all about Private Practice Policies!

I talk to so many therapists who’s private practice policies are based on:

• Previous agency jobs or internships
• Client demands or desires
• The policies of a couple of random therapist colleagues

This month, The Art of Private Practice is all about taking a solid look at what worked and what didn’t for your business in 2016 so you can prepare yourself for the most thrilling 2017 your practice has ever seen. In week one, you took a look at your finances. Last week, you dove deep into how you used your time. This week, you’re going to get down and dirty with your practice policies in 2016!

Wait! Don’t leave.

While many therapists treat their practice policies like a thing to be anxiously thrown together and then hastily buried in the annals of a docs folder, I’m going to invite you to do something different. I’m encouraging you to, instead, fall deeply in love with your policies, to treat them as a living entity that grows along with you.

A lot of us therapists are so worried about finding clients when we set out to build a practice that they create policies that remove any and all barriers a client might encounter. We set the most liberal cancellation policy we can muster (often based on the job or internship we just left), set fees that don’t actually cover the costs of creating a thriving practice and leave our policies riddled with clues that alert potential clients that we have doubts about what we have to offer. What we fail to take into consideration is our needs.

And then – even as our caseloads grow – we neglect to think about, work with, and update our policies.

No doubt there are constraints within which we must operate in accordance with our legal and ethical guidelines, but so many therapists place constraints on themselves that are over and above any placed onto them.

But here is the fabulous thing, you can change your policies to reflect the ideas and values that you hold for yourself and would like to embody as a possibility for your clients. You get to design whatever type of practice you want. You’re the boss.

Mm. I like the way that sounds.

So in today’s set of questions, I’m going to invite you to pay close attention to what messages your 2016 practice policies conveyed and urge you to reflect on how you’d like to craft the foundation of your practice in 2017. Be as honest as you can as your answer the following questions and give yourself the freedom to dream big.

To that end, grab a pen. Grab a paper. Or whip out a google doc. We’re going to spend 10 minutes in close examination of your 2016 practice policies and use these to set yourself up for an inspiring 2017!

Week Two: Reviewing your 2016 Practice Policies

1. Check out the first paragraph of your practice policies. How well does this paragraph reflect the way you think and feel about your work as a psychotherapist?
2. What changes could you make to demonstrate the importance of the work you and your client do together?
3. What was your cancellation policy in 2016?
4. What message does your cancellation policy send about the value of the work you do together?
5. How consistently did you hold yourself and your clients to that policy?
6. How did client cancellations impact your sense of security – both emotionally and financially?
7. If you could have any kind of cancellation policy you wanted, what would it look like?
8. What kind of language do you use around your fee policies?
9. What kinds of payment do you accept? Is this convenient for you?
10. What kind of message do you send via the language you use around your fee policies?
11. Check out your email and telephone policies. Do you have clear guidelines around when you will make yourself available and when you are not available?
12. Do your phone and email policies reflect the message that your time is valuable?

Now the good part! Share these answers with a trusted friend. Find someone who is open and eager to provide critical feedback in a kind way. Then, spend some time reworking your 2017 policies based on the type of practice you want to craft in the coming year.

 

photo credits: Nicola Del Mutolo, Valerii Zan, Bernard Bodo, Diana Eller, rawpixel

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