Do you have a successful practice? Would you like to not have any more fears about whether or not you have enough clients? Would you like most of your clients to be referred by former clients who are living their lives fully?

As therapists we don’t like to think of ourselves as business people. We may fear that business models are solely focused on making more money.  However, building a successful client centered practice takes more than therapy skills. These days, a therapist needs to be able to market themselves, be on social media, have an informative website, and be a top notch clinician.  My training as a CBT therapist did not provide any template on how to develop a successful practice. It has only been through my journey to provide access to training for anxiety and OCD that key business people and ideas have come into my life for me to put to use in my practice.

I recently listened to a podcast about how to be a successful entrepreneur. (Masters of Scale with Reid Hoffman: The 10 commandments of Startup Success). One of the things he shared was that you only need one customer to build a successful business. The key is to go to that customer and ask them about their experience with your product.  How did they find you? What has been their experience so far? How could you make your product better for them? With this information, you begin to create a better experience for your customer.

The idea from the podcast that one customer can help us be more effective and be more successful really struck me. How many of you are getting feedback from each client about their experience accessing your services? How many of you take the time to ask what your client’s experience was in session? Not only what was helpful but also what was not helpful? These questions are crucial to the development of your therapist/client relationship and can also be another step in creating a thriving practice. These questions also are an essential part of a CBT session.

Hiring a marketing or social media person can be helpful as you learn some of these business skills. Listening to podcasts or reading about having a successful business can be also be informative.

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If you are interested in developing your skills to be an effective CBT therapist, click here.

For more tips on marketing your practice, watch this ADAA webinar.