Embark on a journey with us as we peel back the layers of what it really takes to start a private therapy practice. From those crucial first steps in establishing your practice to the finer points of branding and self-care, we'll uncover the often-unspoken challenges and how to triumph over them.
Strap in for an episode that promises not just theoretical knowledge, but also practical mentorship. If you're flirting with the idea of hanging your own shingle, or if you simply crave a deeper understanding of the private practice landscape, this is your invitation to a comprehensive training that's both enlightening and actionable. This episode is a buffet of guidance and expertise you won't want to miss. Remember, your feedback fuels our journey, so keep those reviews coming and join us on this enlightening path.
To register for March 2nd 2024, or to receive the recording, please contact me at stevebissonlmhc@gmail.com to set it up.
Embark on a journey with us as we peel back the layers of what it really takes to start a private therapy practice. From those crucial first steps in establishing your practice to the finer points of branding and self-care, we'll uncover the often-unspoken challenges and how to triumph over them.
Strap in for an episode that promises not just theoretical knowledge, but also practical mentorship. If you're flirting with the idea of hanging your own shingle, or if you simply crave a deeper understanding of the private practice landscape, this is your invitation to a comprehensive training that's both enlightening and actionable. This episode is a buffet of guidance and expertise you won't want to miss. Remember, your feedback fuels our journey, so keep those reviews coming and join us on this enlightening path.
To register for March 2nd 2024, or to receive the recording, please contact me at stevebissonlmhc@gmail.com to set it up.
Hi and welcome to Finding your Way Through Therapy. A proud member of the SiteCraft Network, the goal of this podcast is to demystify therapy, what can happen in therapy and the wide array of conversations you can have in and about therapy Through personal experiences. Guests will talk about therapy, their experiences with it and how psychology and therapy are present in many places in their lives, with lots of authenticity and a touch of humor. Here is your host, steve Bisson.
Speaker 2:So welcome to my podcast. I'm so happy to be here. I hope you noticed the subtle differences in the intro. Started last week with Episode 139 with my great and amazing guest host, courtney Romanowski. Courtney is such a friend and she chose one hell of a guest to start off with. And Krista Verastro and I hope I got her name right I know she said it on the podcast, but me in names. It was just an amazing conversation, just an open conversation, which is really important for me to have on this, and Courtney hit a home run, so happy that she did that and can't wait to have her back on as a guest host, which will be two to three months. We'll figure it out. If you want more of her, hey, you know what, let us know. I mean, leave me a note. I'm always like that Reach me through my email, through my social media. You can always do that and I'm pretty sure you can reach me through most of the podcast platforms. So I'm very excited about Episode 140. I'm going to talk about something that I typically don't do. I'm going to do some conversation about how to start your own private practice and I'm going to get back to that. But the first thing I want to say is that what I'm going to do is I'm going to have my first affiliate program ever, and this is Episode 140, so it's been a while, so please listen to this very important affiliate program coming up right now. Hey there, everyone, you've known me to host this podcast for about 130 something episode, before I put actually any type of commercials on here, and I'm looking right now at my health care professionals, looking to have a real impact with our clients. I really enjoyed this product and I've actually used it personally, and that is why which is very important for me to tell you, because that's why I want to share this I want to introduce Freed F-R-E-E-D Freed, the app that listens, transcribes, writes your medical documentation for you.
Speaker 2:With Freed, you actually can actually pay attention to your clients, do things with your clients and not be distracted by making sure you're writing notes. What also helps with this app is that the note is saved for about 10 days and it does disappear no longer is there after a while. So writing down those notes is no longer your responsibility. The AI Freed will write the note for you and create a progress note. But it goes also beyond that, and what I really like about it is that it can help you set goals and it even creates a letter. You can make any type of edit to it and there's actually a button now for it to learn how you write your own notes. So maybe the first few days you set it up so that your Freed can recognize your note taking process and how you want to create a progress note either soap or what have you and it really helps you with that. And, the best part, it's very affordable. I really think that at $99 a month, you'll have access to what helps your practice and I'll tell you I can tell you from personal experience Taking notes, writing down notes, writing down the goals, writing down any type of letter a client might need that usually takes me you know, I don't know takes me a lot of time during the week, maybe.
Speaker 2:I used to do my notes on Sunday and it used to take me about three hours. Now I think that if it takes me an hour, that's surprising. And when you think about Freedai, it's very affordable. For just $99 a month, you can access everything that I just talked about. If you pay for the whole year, you actually save 10%, which is what I did and I'm looking forward to continuing to use it.
Speaker 2:And because you hear this podcast, you're my friend, someone I know I have a little treat for you. You can use the code Steve50 against Steve and you'll get $50 off your first month. That's right more value for your money. I don't want you to miss out on how to get your practice going and give yourself a freedom to pay attention to what's important. Why we did this job is to pay attention to the client. So download Freed today, don't forget to use my code Steve50 for $50 off the first month, and let's make a difference in our clients lives and make sure we can pay attention to them. Remember, with Freed, your clients always come first.
Speaker 2:Well, I hope you enjoyed it, guys. You know it's kind of an interesting thing I've, you know, thanks to the sitecraft network. You know I'm learning to self-promote and it's not something that I'm really good at no guest this week, just me and one of the things that I want to learn how to do self-promote myself. And you guys have heard me for a long time. Now it's time for you to listen to a little bit of what I really do besides podcasting, because they do have other stuff that I do One of my favorite projects to do and I try to do it once to twice a year, depending on the case live, but it's available throughout the year and what I mean by that is you can contact me and I believe for, if I remember correctly, 189.99 for the recorded version.
Speaker 2:When I do it live. Again, this will change. This is obviously being recorded in February of 2024, so prices might change, but for the live version, which I know like right now, in March of 2024, march 2nd, I'm gonna have a live version, zoom. For those who can come in for Zoom and those who want to come face-to-face, you can meet me in my office. I'm gonna probably do it out of my office in Holliston, massachusetts, but for 179.99, I'm gonna teach you how to start your own private practice, and you know most people say, well, that seems weird. You know your podcast or your therapist, and you know you you're not exactly Mr Studing your own private practice, but I've been doing this for five years and I gotta tell you I think I am and what I mean by that is this I think it's 80% of people who have done my training have been full within the year, and that's something to be said and when I say full, that doesn't mean they had 75 clients each full for them and what the private practice Studying your own private practice talks about. That we talk about how being full.
Speaker 2:What we're looking for from a private practice is not what other people are doing, and what I mean by that is this what I do is I help you set up the basic stuff, tell you how much it's gonna cost. It's Massachusetts prices, so if you're contacting me from another state, some of the information will be relevant. I think it's relevant at about 70 to 80%. Some of it is mostly Massachusetts base, but I explain what the basics are needed, anything from an EIN to, if you don't have your MPI again on CAQH, getting all that stuff done and then getting into how to get approved by insurances, if you need a space or not, depending on what it is and also talk about what is HIPAA compliant, because one of the things that I would say to you is this podcast is not HIPAA compliant because everyone has access to it. So I don't share private and my client's information is never shared here. But if you do it through Skype, facetime Messenger, zoom, if you're not paying for it, microsoft Teams, which if you're not paying for it, or Google Meet, which is another one that's not HIPAA compliant. But so a little preview of what's not HIPAA compliant but why we need HIPAA compliance.
Speaker 2:You know it's not about the insurance companies. You've heard me on this podcast long enough. I complain about these insurance companies, but I do understand why we wanna keep our clients' privacy very important. I like to tell people that most people would read my progress notes despite my new sponsorship. They would say like it kinda protects your clients. Yes, because client-terapist privilege does exist and I think that's important. But we wanna make sure we meet some criteria. So the insurance company essentially pays right, and we'll talk about if you need to be on insurance companies. We'll talk about if you should go for self-pay, the pros and cons of that. Maybe you wanna do insurance for a short while.
Speaker 2:How to access different places, as I, you know, I think we have a long conversation about Alma, headway and all that, and I talk about Talkspace and BetterHelp, if you want to. For those of you who know, I work for Talkspace for a long time and no longer work for them. I never work for BetterHelp, but I do have some experience. We're talking about advertising and how to get that. One of the most important things I'm not gonna spoil it, because that's why I want you to join the training is the importance of how you're gonna advertise, where you're gonna advertise, how much it might cost and spoiler alert, it might not be as expensive as you think. I know that for those of you who scroll on social media, you hear all these prices or they're like, oh, they'll give you for free, but then you pay for this. I'm gonna give you some tricks here, if you come and do my training. And then how to get accounting, because you know, having an accounting firm is important sometimes and sometimes it's not. It's talking about that and my favorite part, I think for me and I know people are gonna say that's weird, because that's not something that a lot of people talk about Niche or not to niche that is a question, and I know I'm quoting Shakespeare here, but I wanna explain a little bit about the pros and cons of that, just like a pros and cons of private pay versus insurance. But it's also about making sure that the private practice works for you.
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Speaker 2:I think that that's one of the things that I find very interesting is that people don't get that this has to work for you, and I talk about that a lot.
Speaker 2:We can talk about a bit of a business plan. What happens is I bring it up, like I usually have anywhere from four people to eight people. Some people tell me to record it, send it to them. But I talk about different things, about making it work for you in your business plan. So if you niche, there's a business plan for that and I don't tell you exactly what it's got to be.
Speaker 2:Because that's the other part too is that some people come in and say can you tell me what it's about? Some people come in and say, can you tell me exactly what I need? And the answer is no, and what I mean by that is this what I've done to succeed in my private practice in my career has a lot to do with what Steve needs. I have my kids 50% of the time. I'm happy to spend more than that with them, frankly. So I have different needs than someone who might have a partner, or someone who doesn't have any kids, or if someone has a partner but no kids, and so on and so forth.
Speaker 2:And so I tell people that part of the training is to find what works for you, because it's not a one size fits all. Is there a couple of things that are one size fits all? Of course there is, but I like to think about every plan being individual, and one of the reasons why I do this training is because my master's program did not teach me how to start a private practice Right. And from what I understand, and especially my experience in Massachusetts, new England, in general, I'm pretty sure across the country, they don't teach you how to start a private practice. We want to be therapists. Sometimes we want to work for someone, we want to help people in the community and nonprofit organizations and I really, truly appreciate that. But maybe you want to start your own private practice.
Speaker 2:That's been my goal since 16 for me, and when I started I'll give credit to my ex-wife. My ex-wife helped me a whole lot in regards to how to get it done, how to get things done, and I want to be able to pass on this information. You know you've heard me talk to especially the mental men and other people, but particularly the mental men. We talk about mentorship and the importance of passing on that information to everyone and I think that that's part of what I do too with this is that, yes, I know I charge, but I also kind of offer like and you know I can't attest to those who did that class and even though they're not HIPAA compliant classes in the sense that anyone can attend and it's not privacy and people can go see the videos if they pay that fee with people who were there, but I do protect my attendees. I don't know identity, I guess, and it's important for me to do that because you really want to make sure that you talk about that protection for them and make sure that they know what they want and what their life circumstances bring them.
Speaker 2:I can also direct you on different things that are online. I have, like I do, the training from nine to four, which gives you seven hours to try to get a little food in there, because, as much as I talk for a living, talking for seven straight hours makes me very, very, you know, dried out and tired, so I need that. But you know the other part, too, that I love to talk about with my client with this training not my clients, but this training your points of a professional headshot. Don't take a selfie and I'll tell you why in the training how to brand yourself, why would you brand yourself? Why is that so important Talking about that?
Speaker 2:And the other thing, too, is I don't know everything right, and what I mean by that is you know I'm the site Craft Network. We've got Gordon Brewer who does how to start your own private practice, talks about practice and stuff for therapists. That is so important. You know I have profit for therapists and her name escapes me. She's going to be mad at me. She's on the site Craft Network too, but I love having like giving that information and there's profit, first by Michael, and I can't pronounce his last name. There's a bunch of Facebook groups that are good and I share those, and some of them aren't so good. So if you tell me I'm in a group ABC and I say this, I'm not telling you not to follow them, I'm just telling you the truth and you know.
Speaker 2:The other part that I talked about is how, when I talk about lifestyle and we say about how this fits into your life, I talk about the self care that goes with that and joining a mentoring group, how to set boundaries, how to talk to other people and stuff like that. And again, I think it's a great training. It's obviously I'm biased but as, as everyone who's ever done it will tell you, I really help people. I want them to succeed. One of the goals of that I know I charge, but for me is that I need to pass on this information and I need to make sure that people get that information so they can succeed in their lives. And so very happy about this training.
Speaker 2:Like I said, march 2, 2024. I know this is going to be a podcast that's going to be on for a long time, but you can join me live and I would love to see you there. And if you don't join me there, there's going to be a video of it recorded and we'll offer that for again. Prices as of February 2024 is 18999. And one of the things that is the reason why you say, well, it's a little more expensive and it's recorded.
Speaker 2:Well, you get a half hour alone with me, and what I mean by that is you do the training, I don't watch you. Obviously, you're doing the video and then after that, you get 30 minutes to ask me whatever you want, and I think that that's also important. People who have done that too, have told me that that's been very helpful to them, and I strongly suggest that you look at all the. There's an option right now. So if you're listening to it right now, right before the training, you go oh my God, I wish I can start that now.
Speaker 2:Well, I have that video 18999. I'll send it to you and then you get a half hour at any time not any time, but certainly we try to schedule a time so that we can be convenient to both of us, so that you can get to where you want in your private practice and answer any questions that you may have had that weren't discussed. So that's it. I mean, I'm I'm very proud of my program. Honestly. I'm very proud of what I've completed on this and I hope that you guys in you know really enjoy it too. On episode 141, I'm going to have Catherine Darley and you know one of the conversations that I struggle with. You know I struggle with this personally sleep and she's going to talk about that, talk about other stuff that goes with that, and I can't wait to have her on.
Speaker 1:So I hope you join me then Please like, subscribe and follow this podcast on your favorite platform. A glowing review is always helpful and, as a reminder, this podcast is for informational, educational and entertainment purposes only. If you're struggling with a mental health or substance abuse issue, please reach out to a professional counselor for consultation. If you are in a mental health crisis, call 988 for assistance. This number is available in the United States and Canada.