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Thinking of Starting a Counseling Private Practice? Take This Readiness Survey First.

Updated: 58 minutes ago

Here is Northwest Arkansas, mountain biking is a big deal. We have over one hundred miles of singletrack trails and a robust community of riders.


Whenever we have visitors from out of state, we’ll often invite the out-of-towners to ride with us. There’s a big problem though — many of these people get injured. 


It seems hard to avoid the broken collar bones, busted bike frames, and stitches, for some reason. Even though we try to give riders an informed consent process (so they know the risks and benefits of going out on the trails), we consistently find that riders who haven’t ridden singletrack before, done jumps, or practiced banking turns can’t assess their skill level.


Sure, they’ve been peddling around on a bike for a few decades, usually, but the trails in our area are a very different beast. It’s all too common for us to teach and warn new riders about going slow, taking things easy, and not pushing themselves, yet again and again we have riders getting injured on a group ride.


Sadly, we see the same thing in private practice start-ups.


Too many times, Jordan and I will hear of someone who wants to start their own practice without any professional support, and then we find them crashing or launching off the trail (of success) and crawling out of a thorny blackberry bush with wounds and pains. We try to be clear about what leads to success and failure, yet we find that clinicians frequently misjudge themselves and the task before them.



The Quick and Dirty Approach To Learn if You're Ready to Start Your Own Counseling Practice.

There’s a simple way to find out if someone can mountain bike: put them on a bike and send them down a short, intense course. Ideally the course is short enough that no one breaks a collar board or cracks a bike frame, but intense enough that it tests the actual skills they need to ride down a mountain. In that way the test speaks for itself — if they make it down, they can do it.


We want to give you that opportunity for your starting a private practice. 


Here’s a 35-question survey (also listed below). It’s rough, it’s tough, and if you make it to the bottom unscathed, you’ll probably be fine in private practice. If you find yourself stuck in too many portions of the survey, then consider very, very carefully whether or not you want to do the real thing.


Those that successfully finish our program can complete this survey with a high level of detail in one short sitting. They’re experts now. They ride free into the sunset in their solo practices.


We offer this post to you as one more attempt at giving clinicians the best chance of knowing what they’re signing up for in a solo practice. May it support you in deciding:

  1. If Private Practice is right for you

  2. Which parts you can do yourself

  3. Which parts you should hire out

Hello friends :) If you want to join me and other readers in exploring the world of counseling sign up for my newsletter. 

How to Use this Survey To See if You're Ready to Start Your Own Counseling Practice.

After you take the survey, you’ll probably have a lot of insights into what you already know about practice building and what you don’t. If you can’t answer 80% of the questions above with confidence we wouldn't recommend trying to go solo on your own. Instead we’d recommend one of three options:

  1. Hire someone to teach you what you don’t yet know

  2. Work at a group practice. 

  3. Use our survey as a checklist of things to learn. Spend a few months learning the things you don’t know before you decide to go solo. 


We realize how this can sound. 


Jordan and I run Private Practice Incubator, a coaching program where we help people launch their solo practices. So saying “you shouldn’t start a practice on your own, hire a coach” can sound like we’re trying to sell you our services. 


Our highest intention is to empower clinicians. If working with us fits, that’s great. If it doesn’t, that’s great too. We honestly want to clearly lay out what we think it takes to start a practice so you can say an informed Yes or No to each aspect.


We don’t want to find any more clinicians hoping to reach the bottom of the bike trail and instead finding themselves in a hospital.


Because we run a coaching program, we have about a dozen stories right now of people who either skipped our program, exited early, or decided not to complete certain modules. In every one (so far), the person has had to delay or bail on their private practice within 1-2 years.


We don’t mention that to push you into our program. Not everyone has to do our program to be successful. 


We want to build your self-awareness. We’re not trying to scare you or even advocate that you work with us specifically. We truly want you to be able to make an informed decision about your path.


The goal is to protect your financial future. Staying at a group practice forever, or learning to answer these questions before leaving your group, or hiring a business coach are all perfectly acceptable ways to proceed. 


Best, 

Paul + Jordan 


Am I Ready for Private Practice - Survey





Paul Peterson and Jordan Harris are co-founders of Private Practice Incubator, a consulting firm dedicated to:

  1. Helping clinicians earn more money.

  2. Helping clinicians help more clients.

 

If you'd like to learn more about launching your practice, visit us here.

Paul Peterson

Paul Peterson is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) in the state of Arkansas. He has certification and/or training in EFT, hypnotherapy, and mindfulness as well as adult psychological development models. He's been in the mental health field since 2015 and in 2019 worked with a team of authors to publish a content analysis in the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy. The content analysis reviewed almost 1,000 research articles and tracked trends in publishing and clinical effectiveness research. He has also published a book on a Wholeness-oriented approach to contemporary Christian faith. He gives regular training on clinical skills, hypnotherapy, and business skills for solo practice therapists.


Jordan Harris

Jordan Harris, Ph.D., LMFT-S, LPC-S, received his Doctor of Philosophy in Marriage and Family Therapy from the University of Louisiana Monroe. He is a licensed professional counselor and a licensed marriage and family therapist in the state of Arkansas, USA. In his clinical work, he enjoys working with couples. He also runs a blog on deliberate practice for therapists and counselors at Jordanthecounselor.com


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