ThrivingTherapyPractice's podcast

Today’s guest, Brendan McClenahan, explains video marketing has been shown to increase website conversions by 150 - 200%. That means you could double or triple your new client calls from your website just be incorporating video. But you’re probably wondering, “Just how do I get started with video marketing?” I’m glad you asked. We hear this question a LOT. Video can seem so overwhelming that only a tiny majority of therapists ever use it. When I learned about the work of Brendan McClenahan and Connor McClenahan, founders of Cupla Media, I knew instantly I had to get them on the podcast. They specialize in helping psychotherapists produce top-notch videos to promote their practices. In this episode, Brendan explains how to: Start marketing using video for free Use video to stand out from the crowd Stop accidentally repelling clients (this is true for all marketing, not just video) Include the two critical components all videos must have Write your video script Post video online for maximum impact Get 1,500 FREE views to your video

Over the past 6 months or so, I've been hearing from a lot of you that you're considering dropping insurance and building a private pay practice. We've touched on this in other podcast episodes, but after hearing all your questions and concerns, I knew it was time to discuss it again. And I immediately knew who to interview. Mary Ellen Connett is a former client of mine and just went through this transition herself after 34 years in the field. When Mary Ellen started this process, she didn't want more clients. She wanted fewer clients. She wanted to drop managed care and attract fee-for-service clients. Her goal was to decrease her caseload without decreasing her income. Mary Ellen went through a turbulent few months, and in this interview, she candidly shares her experience. However, after just 90 days, she was earning more than she had been previously, seeing fewer clients, and working just 3 days a week. Want to know how she did it? Mary Ellen's story will inspire you to create the practice you've dreamed of, and develop the confidence to make the changes you need to get there.

In this episode, you’ll discover: How to find juicy blog content so you never have to stare at a blank Word document again 5 tips for reducing blogging overwhelm A time-saving strategy to dramatically reduce the amount of time you spend blogging Why blogging makes you irresistible to Google AND to your potential clients.  

In this episode In this episode, I speak with Perry Rosenbloom, founder of Brighter Vision, a company that specializes in creating websites for therapists. (BTW – they create GREAT websites.) and you’ll discover: The fastest, easiest way to get more clients from your website. (This is some seriously good stuff. How to make Google AND your clients fall in love with your website. Using your directory listing strategically to get more website traffic. Key numbers to track each week to manage your practice.

Jessica Marchena, LMHC has been using workshops in her practice for 2 years, and in this interview, she shares how to make this successful, what she’s learned along the way, and even shares her advice if you are just starting out with workshops in your practice.

Arianna Gray, LPC is a psychotherapist, speaker, and workshop leader.  From her experience as a mental health professional for 18 years—and her own personal journey with burnout and inspiration—Arianna coaches counselors and helping professionals to break through burnout and get re-inspired in their work and life.  In “The Transformational Healers Summit for Helping Professionals” Arianna is bringing together the most impactful experts in the field to empower the tribe of  helpers to “Break Through Burnout, Give Your Gifts, Love Your Life!” You can find out more at http://www.ariannagray.com/thsjs  

My guest in this episode, Keri Nola, believes that being ourselves (our human, vulnerable, authentic selves) is what makes clients resonate with us. Keri believes that our training and our fear both get in the way of being authentic with our clients, and when this happens, our client can sense it.

In this episode, Stephanie shares: How to identify a need for your clients and how to design a program around that The importance of committing to our own aliveness How to prepare to handle new client calls What's worked (and what hasn't) with marketing Her most effective marketing strategy How to share your mission in everything you do

Jeff Guenther has the answer. Jeff runs a mental health directory for Portland, and get tons of insight into the exact search terms your potential clients are using when they are searching for a therapist. Jeff has compiled a list of the 56 specialties therapy clients search for online. In this episode, he shares the top ten most popular. (Three of these even surprised me!)  

Want to expand your reach with potential clients? Podcasting is one of the most powerful ways to do that. Podcasting has grown year after year, with no signs of slowing down.

Here's the thing about selecting your niche: It's scary. Like REALLY scary. Even terrifying. But once you make the decision, something magical happens. Because I know how difficult it can be to make the leap from "I help everyone" to "I help these clients", I asked Christie to come and share her experience with us. Not an expert, not someone who has written a book about it. A real-world counselor who went through this process.

"There's NO WAY I could charge $150 per hour and find clients willing to pay those fees each week."  This is a comment I got on a training I did recently, and it really stayed with me. This is a topic that comes up frequently, especially for those that are new in practice. It can be hard to really own your worth and charge fees that are appropriate to the services you provide. Let's be clear... I'm not talking about taking advantage of clients.  I'm not talking about trying to "get rich quick". I'm talking about charging what you are worth for a valuable service that you provide your clients. When you undercharge, you set up a win-lose scenario with your clients. They win, but at your expense. When you overcharge, you also set up a win-lose scenario. You win, but at their expense. When you charge what you're worth, you set up a win-win scenario. The client's get a life-changing transformation, and you live a prosperous lifestyle. To me, that's what it's all about. Charging what you're worth is about half MINDSET and half STRATEGY. This podcast addresses both facets.

Are you considering moving beyond a traditional private practice? Do you dream of serving more clients and making a bigger impact on the world? Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson created Bright Line Eating, a program that has served clients all over the world, and in this episode, she shares just how she did that. Susan is the real deal. She has helped 4,000 people in 63 countries lose 133,000 pounds. 133,000 pounds! Her program is based on her work in the neuroscience of weight loss, willpower, and food addiction. She shows people how to break free of addictive food patterns so they can live in a "right-sized body". What first attracted me to Susan is how passionate and genuine she is about her work and her program. I invited her on the show to learn more about how she built this hugely successful program. Susan started with one single idea and created a program that serves clients in 63 countries. She's sharing with us exactly how she did that. In this episode, Susan shares: 2 principles of how to market without your audience feeling like they're being "marketed to" Her big eye-opener when she wanted to write a book How to tell your story in a way that serves and moves your audience The most profound truth she's ever heard about building her business

Quick! What's the first thing pops into your mind when I say, "SEO"? Did you say "keywords"? Keywords have become synonymous with SEO for many of us. But what exactly does that mean? Keywords are essential to SEO, but they're not the only thing that matters. AND keywords are used differently today than they were in the past. When I created my first website, you could throw a bunch of keywords on your page, and you'd end up at the top of Google. SEO just doesn't work that way anymore. Google and our clients have both gotten more sophisticated in online searches. So your approach to online marketing needs to become more sophisticated as well. In this podcast, Daniel Fava, founder of CreateMyTherapistWebsite.com, explains how therapists can boost their SEO. He explains that as Google gets more sophisticated, the way to optimize our websites changes. Daniel's a proponent of "on-page" SEO, which means SEO for specific content pages on your website. Content like articles, blog posts, videos and podcasts. In this interview, Daniel shares: Why on-page SEO has become so important Which keywords psychotherapists should optimize for How to track which keywords perform the best How to make your website more readable 5 actions you can take right now to boost your SEO

As a professional, it's essential that your clients, potential clients, and treatment stakeholders all know, like, and trust you. That's the foundation of all human communication. "Trust is REQUIRED for people to do business with you", explains Dr. Simone Alicia, our guest in this episode. Trust is built through effective communication. When you see yourself as competent and competent, others take you seriously and have trust in what you do. As therapists, we need our clients to trust us BEFORE and DURING therapy. However, the way we communicate with potential clients must be different than the way we communicate in the therapy room. Otherwise, we'll make the wrong impression with potential clients and actually sabotage our success. Simone is an NLP practitioner, and has used her expertise to develop strategies to help professionals become more powerful communicators. The first time I met Simone, I was drawn to her. She has a magnetic energy that just lights up a room. She's a living example of the power of her strategies, and in this interview she explains how you can incorporate these strategies as well. In this episode, Simone shares: How your tone may be sabotaging your success The best communication with potential clients Effective communication techniques in the therapy room How your internal representations affect your communication

Online therapy. We're all intrigued by it, right? But is it really effective? How does it work exactly? How do you handle the legal & ethical issues? Well, we've got the answers right here. In this podcast, I interview Steve Bisson, LMHC, who has been doing online counseling for 2 years. In this interview, Steve shares: Which clients are the best fit for online therapy exactly How the online therapy process works How he integrates online therapy with his traditional practice His advice for a therapist considering online therapy Handling high-risk clients

Amy Crane is a Facebook Advertising Consultant and the founder of Social Lab Marketing. Frustrated with spending thousands of dollars on traditional marketing for her retail business and seeing little results, Amy decided turned to Facebook Advertising. She quickly realized the power of Facebook Advertising and her overall sales jumped 30% in just a few short weeks. Now she manages over $250K in monthly ad spend for her clients and loves helping other entrepreneurs and business owners build a tribe of raving fans and customers using Facebook Advertising.  

When Sofia Robirosa started her practice in 2014, she had to learn to walk through her fear and anxiety to build her practice. She started small her first year, getting herself "ready". But by the second year, she was off to the races. Now, she has a thriving, private-pay practice, and helps clients "enjoy the people they live with". I've had the pleasure of working with Sofia throughout this journey, and it's been amazing to watch what she's built. In this episode, Sofia shares: The marketing methods she uses to attract clients How she learned to trust herself as a practice owner Her 3 top tips for therapists just starting out The importance of taking action Why it's quality over quantity

Kate Beeders is an internationally known Mindset, Money, & Marketing Expert, specializing in helping passion-driven entrepreneurs be in charge of their own destiny by discovering the secrets of making money faster! You can learn more about Kate and her work at www.katebeeders.com. You can also email Kate (info@katebeeders.com) to book a complimentary Money Breakthrough Session.

In this interview, Susanne reveals: The three things it takes to be successful in private practice How to keep going when you are overwhelmed by self-doubt Her transition to becoming a successful businesswoman  

You know I'm a big proponent of charging clients for missed sessions, both from a business perspective, but also from a self-worth perspective, valuing your time and what you have to offer. Marty really opened my eyes with how not charging for missed sessions is actually detrimental to your clients and to the therapeutic relationship. You can hear him explain this in depth on the podcast.

One of the questions I get asked most frequently is about how to handle new client calls. Some of you have even confessed to me that you don’t even return phone calls from potential clients. Whether this is from fear, or from not knowing what to say (or both), it doesn’t have to be this way. In this episode, we’ve got exactly what you need to overcome the fear and develop the right skills to convert potential clients into paying clients.

Imagine if you could sit down with a branding expert and get her to spill all her secrets about branding, brand loyalty, and getting publicity for your practice? Well, that's exactly what I've done for you in this podcast! From the moment I met Jessica Ramos, I knew I had to have her on the podcast! Not only does she have 14 years of PR and Marketing experience, Jessica specializes in working with psychotherapists! Whether you're an individual private practitioner, part of a group practice, or even connected to a treatment center, Jessica really knows her stuff!

From teacher to actor to social worker, Stuart Fensterheim, is making his mark helping couples reconnect with the people that are most important to in their lives. He does this with his direct work with couples (couples counseling as well as retreats), and he also does it with over 10,000 people in 26 countries through the podcast that he launched eight months ago. As the host of "The Couples Expert" podcast, Stuart brings his heartfelt and humorous voice to tackle important relationship issues that affect us all. While his podcast is certainly a calling, he's also using it to successfully build his practice and attract clients to his private practice in Scottsdale, AZ.

I thought the biggest frustration psychotherapists have with online marketing would be "not getting enough clients calling". But, nope, I was WRONG. The most common answer was "not getting calls from ideal clients". Turns out that many of you ARE getting new clients to call you online, but they're the wrong clients. You know the type, right? You probably get them calling you as well. I call these clients "price shoppers". They're the ones that are calling through a list of psychotherapists, just looking to see who's the least expensive. They aren't calling you because of your expertise or your specialty. They're calling you because they're hoping you'll be $5 less than the person they just spoke with. Here's the deal, this is a positioning problem. If you're getting the wrong clients calling you, it has to do with they way you are positioning yourself online.

Webinars are a fantastic way to market your practice. We see them all the time for marketing, coaching, even health and fitness. (They have been my own best source of connecting with potential clients.) But we don’t see them often from psychotherapists for the purpose of marketing private practice. That’s why when I met Tanisha Sapp, I just had to interview her for this podcast. She is not one to let fear stand in her way, and once she got the idea to experiment with webinars, she put it into action.

In this episode of the "Profiles in Practice Success" podcast, I interview Katie Keates May, a counselor in Philadelphia who has built a full, profitable private practice using groups. That's right, she's built a completely full practice, which is a wonderful place to be.

Maybe you’re a bit like me… Until recently, the world of Practice Management Systems has been this big muddled up realm for me. That all changed when I did my latest podcast interview with Dr. Susan Litton, founder of PSYBooks. When I was in private practice, I used a Practice Management System that I hated: it was a ton of time and effort, and never really worked for my practice. I was running my practice to meet the requirements of the technology, rather than truly having a system that worked for me. I know I’m not alone. Many of you in private practice have the same sense of confusion or outright frustration when it comes to an EHR (Electronic Health Records) system that I did. I get asked quite a bit about EHRs, and I’ve never felt as though I had the best answers to give. So I realized it was time to seek out expert advice.Dr. Litton is the perfect combination of clinical expertise (she’s been in private practice for a while now), and techie geek. So she knows exactly what we need to make a private practice run more smoothly and efficiently.