Hey everyone,
Podcast Interviews with Natasha
Sep 15, 2020
Listen to these podcast interviews:
Clinical Psychologist Dr Damon Ashworth interviews Natasha Ace, chaos tamer and director of Private Practice Alliance. Natasha works with mental health clinicians to assist them in solving all of their business concerns. Together, they discuss the differences between private practice in the US and Australia, the risk of burnout with working in private practice, and how clinicians can diversify the work they do to reduce their risk of burnout. Natasha has an 8-week course called 'Build Your Passive Income' that runs every 3 months. The next round of the course begins next week.
On this episode, Natasha shares her work with the Private Practice Alliance and their vision to understand and improve the client journey. They do this by supplying the necessary tools for practitioners do their job better, and also improve the empathy and connection they have with their clients. Natasha also believes that transparency is the easiest and quickest way for...
DIY COVID 19 PRACTICE BLUEPRINT
Apr 20, 2020
Have your referrals slowed down? Worried about what your practice looks like AC (after COVID?). I've got your back! I've asked some of my trusted humans to tell me what they use to DIY their own businesses. Together we've come up with a list of useful tools and resources that can help you recession-proof your practice. Please note, these are NOT affiliate links and I do NOT get any money from anyone if you purchase these products.
Practice to Profit - $47 / month
This Monthly Video Series will take the guesswork out of Building your Private Practice by helping you navigate the clinical and business worlds, assist you in streamlining your practice, and make your business truly sustainable.
Your 90-Day Content Calendar $29.95 $19.95
Stop thinking about what to post on social media. Fiona Kilackey from My Daily Business Coach has created this DIY Content Calendar to help you stop the struggle. Look, it's not an...
Take our Practice Stress Test
Jan 09, 2020
I began this journey as a consultant working within the Alliance a little over 2 years ago. Every day I feel like a student who asks myself, "where do we want to see the direction of this business go?" Honestly, I still don’t have a straightforward answer.
In such a short space of time, I have learnt more from our clients than taught; I will be the first to admit that.
Similarly, the world of mental health continually evolves and the need to reshape and adjust as practitioners is always something that requires adaptation.
We do see our clients (the practitioner) as needing to change their primary focus to achieve sustainable growth and this creates a feeling like you’re on a never-ending merry-go-round: (recruitment-referrals-processes-clinical governance-self care-repeat).
This has led me and my team to continually challenge each other as students and consultants to...
Contractor Conversation (FREE) Checklist
Dec 16, 2019
This topic has been quite a hit within the private practice community. (If you haven't watched our Facebook Live, check it out here.) .
Here's the deal, everyone is going to feel very different about "how" this works. My perspective is that it should be from a level playing field. Each side is taking a risk and must trust one another to work together. Private Practice doesn't work without full transparency and cooperation from everyone.
I have owned a private practice. When I moved to Australia, I still had every single clinician who started with me, stay. Why? Because we had built a partnership. Did I have more risk as an owner? Eh, maybe. However, that was my choice to make. I never laid that responsibility on to my contractors or administration team.
If everyone works hard and does their part, the business will be successful. Not one person needs to feel as though they have been taken advantage of. It just isn't necessary. I don't think more...
A Clinician's Guide to Life; it's like a motorcycle.
Dec 06, 2019
This is a blog entry, from my personal blog. Dated: Sunday, June 5, 2011
I wanted to share this with you on a professional level. Sometimes, we forget these things.
Today was my first official day back on my bike since the warmer weather. It was awesome. Beautiful day. Back to my title though; I was riding and thought of some key points to which life was exactly like my bike. Since I hadn't been on in over 8 months, I was worried if I'd remember how to ride. See last spring/summer was my first time ever riding a bike by myself. So there was a lot of learning. I spent the entire summer worried about remembering what exactly I was to be doing in order to make the thing go without me falling over. Getting on this year was easy as 1-2-3, A-B-C! I remember exactly what I was doing and did it seamlessly! The greatest accomplishment ever is not having to look down to see if you're in neutral. JUST knowing you did it without looking down, was fantastic. Breaking around...
A Clinician's Guide to Self-Care
Nov 26, 2019
I have worked with a lot of psychologists. Too many to count, to be fair. One thing I have noticed with these clinicians is that they may give helpful advice to their clients, they do NOT take it themselves. So for as obvious as this seems, I'm reaching out to these clinicians and talking to them about self-care.
A few of my favourite suggestions:
1. Stop seeing clients that you don't want to be seeing.
Many clinicians in private practice work very hard for every bum on their seat. They hold on to referrals like they are going out of style (and don't get me wrong, they are going out of style); however, is it healthy? Are you driving yourself insane seeing clients that you don't want to be seeing? If you look at your diary and roll your eyes about a client coming in, refer the client to someone else! By allowing your diary the freedom of clients you don't want to be seeing frees you to be able to see your dream clients.
2. Don't give away free time!
A Clinician's Guide to Private Practice
Nov 22, 2019
This post could be endless. It could go on and on and on about tips, tricks, hints, and how to's. I'm not going to get into that today. I just really want to cover how you can introduce yourself to Private Practice and 5 secrets to watch out for.
You aren't being paid a salary.
Entering private practice can be extremely scary. Most often, you will not find a role in private practice that is salary. There are a number of reasons for this, but just bear this in mind when you're applying for a role.
You should participate in marketing.
You will need to step out of your comfort zone and get your hands dirty. Referrals come from a good relationship. A good relationship is only generated upon meeting and liking you.
You should do your share of the work.
As a previous owner of a psychology private practice, my clinical team treated the administration as equals. If you are asking the administration team to do more than 2 things for you a day, its too...
Using Template Case Notes the Pro's and Con's to
Jun 30, 2019
Let us get straight into this. We'll start with the con's.
1. You will need to be using a client management system.
Some practitioners are still using pen and paper. This is great (in fact, this blog was drafted on pen and paper); however, with more and more technology coming about, your practice is at a huge disadvantage of staying old school. (think the cost of supplies cost of long term storage, risk of confidentiality breaches.)
2. Sometimes a client doesn't fit the "mould."
Yes! You want to be able to show individuality and specific detail in your notes. However, sometimes it can be draining and we lose sight of the important details (we mean you might add too much detail). Think of it like this, if Mark Zuckerberg (who?) stopped wearing different clothes to work, then maybe there is something to be said for streamlining your notes.
3. It doesn't look very professional.
Obviously, even with template notes, you will need to edit the...
Create a Sliding Scale for your Practice
Jan 09, 2019
Have you had any clients who have come in through the GP referral pathway and the GP has asked you to bulk bill the client? I was working with a clinician who received a referral from a GP. The arrangement with the psychologist and the GP was that the psychologist would bulk bill the clients that the GP felt would be in need. After two sessions with a client, the psychologist learned that the client and their partner were both from high paying jobs.
Lesson learned.
When speaking to your client for the first time, regardless if it is yourself or your reception team, it is wise to ensure they understand that all clients have the same fee for the sessions. I know many psychologists who charge their fees based on what a third party will pay. This causes unrest and distrust in the community. Why should a client who receives NDIS funding pay more than the bulk bill client you see?
Yes, the maybe some extra paperwork, but is $92 worth of paperwork?...
First Session Conversations Checklist
Nov 15, 2018
How do you get through all of the things you need to get through in your first session?
You manage the client's expectations. Your mandatory administration. The foundation of therapy. Build Rapport. Give them some skills in their first session to want to come back. Oh, and you're doing this in 50 minutes.
Most practices have not thought about increasing their first session appointments by 30 minutes. This way you have extra time to lay down a great clinical foundation. The client will still get a full 50 minutes to unload. Win/Win.
Another aspect is by providing yourself with some extra breathing room. In the first session cover the bare minimum that you need to cover and then explain to the client that the first three weekly sessions are to assist with building the foundation of therapy as well as allowing time for each of you to suss each other out. This will allow you to plant the seeds of your own practice boundaries. Consider these topics:
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