You Probably Shouldn't Start A Private Practice.
- Jordanthecounselor
- 3 hours ago
- 4 min read
By Jordan Harris Ph.D
What We Learned Running Private Practice Incubator.
From 2022-2025 I ran a small consulting firm with Paul Peterson. We helped clinicians go from having no practice, to having a fully booked practice, to having a plan for financial independence in 9 months.
We've since shut down the practice. Here's what I learned.
The pros to starting a practice won’t outweigh the cons for a lot of people.
Our first cohort had a very strict admission requirement. You first had to go through our free month-long training on how to give trainings, and give a training before we’d admit you.
We had 7 clinicians go through our first training program. 2 of them finished. One of them accepted our offer to join Private Practice Incubator. The other decided to stay at his group practice.
With only 1 clinician in our program, we didn’t have many people. So we decided to do away with the requirement that people needed to go through our training program first. Maybe the requirement to learn how to give trainings before you start a practice was too much of a barrier.
Most clinicians don’t want to give trainings after all. They want to do therapy.
And it worked! We had a much bigger third cohort. Our cohort was bigger, but we had other issues- people not doing the work.
At that time, we had two meetings a week: a Thursday meeting and a Tuesday meeting. And cohort members would regularly come to meetings not having done any of the work.
We were shocked. People were paying us every month, but weren’t doing the work!
So we decided to disband the weekly group meetings. Instead, we sent everyone an email to set individual meetings with us so they could each get individual attention.
Crickets. I think we had 1 participant meet with us regularly. Everyone else never set another meeting with us. Yet they kept paying us.
That was a weird experience. It forced us to confront some very counterintuitive truths.
Starting a business means doing a lot of things which are uncomfortable.
Most of us, therapists included, avoid doing things which are uncomfortable. We don’t like public speaking so we don’t give trainings. We don’t like talking about ourselves, so we don't market. We are afraid of being criticized, so we don’t reach out to potential referral sources. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being comfortable. But you can’t avoid discomfort and have a business. A business is a constant source of discomfort.
The reason many people don’t have what they want is because they avoid discomfort.
Seeing so many participants avoid the work to have a business taught me that many people never get what they want out of life because they are avoiding the hard thing. A lot of complaining is really justifying avoidance of discomfort.
I say this as someone who feels a LOT of discomfort doing my business. Many days I have anxiety about seeing clients. I always get nervous before a speaking engagement. And a few months ago when I was cold calling therapists it was almost overwhelming. Honestly, I think Paul’s method of handling discomfort is healthier than mine. I tend to blunder through, refusing to let discomfort keep me from the things I want. My energy can become aggressive at times. Paul is a high-level meditator and instead chooses to change his relationship to discomfort.
Regardless. I don’t say this as someone who’s somehow mastered discomfort. I feel it regularly. That being said, I didn’t realize how many people are handicapped by discomfort. So the behavior of our participants shocked me.
Because of this, my personal opinion is that most therapists should not start a private practice. For many people the pros of having a solo practice do not outweigh the cons. That’s okay. Totally fine. Just keep working at your group practice.
Best,
Jordan (the counselor)
Jordan Harris Ph.D, LMFT-s, LPC-s, is a specialist in what makes a master therapist. He regularly offers trainings teaching this skills of master therapists. You can learn more about Dr. Harris's trainings here.
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
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.
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