Customer Reviews

Building Your Ideal Private Practice: A Guide for Therapists and Other Healing Professionals

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The first 30 pages alone would have been enough to rank 10 stars! Just by reading this book I became optimistic about my practice and it began to fill. Each chapter gave me ideas I never thought of before. It helped me work smarter - with less effort, much more pleasure. By the time I finished this book I was trying to decide whether to raise my rates or start a waiting list, and I was seeing IDEAL clients, taking no HMO's, charging more than other psychiatrists in my area, and looking forward to going to work each day. This book blends business with integrity and taught me to value myself, my practice and my clients. I recommend it to ANYONE in the health care field. It made it so easy, and helped me to confront business aspects I hadn't been paying attention to. And she gives so may real life examples, it feels do-able. This book is worth a years' worth of high quality business consulting. I recommend it to any of my clients who have private practices from yoga instruction to massage therapists, and to all my friends in the psychotherapy field. I have never made so much money or felt so good about my practice in my life. She even makes talking to clients about money something I can now do in a way that feels both appropriate and respectful - to me and to them. What I have learned has already netted me literally thousands of dollars. I have never written a book review before, but I have to express my gratitude in some way, and this is my attempt to let others know that with the suggestions, tips and encouragement from this book, it is not only possible to make a living doing therapy, but to build an IDEAL practice without having to contract with any insurance companies. What a God-send of a book.

I am a clinical social worker, in private practice for quite a while. Last year without knowing why, my client count began to drop off. I got worried. A colleague in my peer supervision group swore by this book. (Her practice stays full all the time.) I think it is the most helpful book on practice-building and marketing for therapists I have ever read. The information in the book is really useful and solid. But more than that, the tone of the book is so calming and inspiring. The author clearly knows her topic, and she finds ways to explain exactly what steps you need to take to become more profitable and grow your practice. Unlike other non-therapist marketers, she understands the mind of a healing professional and the mental shifts in thinking that introverts like me need to go through in order to follow through on networking or getting more boundaries in place for my billing policy. On the back of the book, one reviewer (who was a social worker of the year!) said the book should be the bible of every clinician. I agree. I keep it on my bedside table, and when I can't sleep because I am worried about my practice, I open up this book and feel inspired. Her new workbook is great as well.

This book gave me the vision to open my own private practice. It provided me with the necessary information to make me feel confident when I finally made the decision to begin building my own practice. It not only explained the business aspects but also described how to make me personally satisfied with what I was doing. I call this book my "Private Practice Bible" and I am sure you will too once you read it for yourself. Good luck with your dreams. This book helped me make mine come true.

For me, the ratio of inspirational clouds-and-shrouds to tangible substance is too high. Other books, I suppose, teach you the steps of establishing and building a practice. This one doesn't really; rather, it tries to inspire you to be a much more "abundant," powerful, entrepreneurial, well-connected, spiritual and hyperkinetic person -- a better person, in fact -- than you really are, by means of meditations, guided imagery, hierarchical lists of general business concepts, and case histories of miracle business cures. I suppose my problem is that I'm not susceptible to being inspired by other people's unbridled enthusiasm, and inspiration and enthusiasm, in several dozen permutations, is the main substance of this book. If YOU are so impressionable, the book may be great for you. Another problem, from my rather reactionary viewpoint, is that Ms. Grodzki wants to carry all psychotherapists along on the New Age bandwagon, happily yanking us out of the "pathology"-focused mindset and into the growth-and-self-actualization mindset. This may not be a fad, but I wish it were. I believe that, despite the therapist's enthusiasm for serenity, karmic bliss and a bright-eyed future orientation, hurting clients primarily want (or need) their hurts focused on. Ms. Grodzki would, I believe, see this orientation as a real lead balloon in the business plan. Bottom line, I feel that this book is written for the "inner Bill Gates" that Ms. Grodzki sees in her readers. In other words . . . by Ms. Grodzki, for Ms. Grodzki.

Lynn Grodzki offers two invaluable things in her book. One, was the ability to get me unstuck and out of my fear-based paralysis about the future of my practice and the future of the business of psychotherapy. She has done this through her unbridled enthusiasm and inspirational message that apparently comes directly from her own business experience. If someone has a very successful practice than I want to know their experience, hope, and strength. Her positive mind-set has helped shake me out of a "victim" and "scarsity" mindset that was polluting my "off" hours,i.e. the hours when I didn't have clients in my practice.

Secondly, she offers a ton of practical advice for a clinician like me. How to start thinking like a business person in addition to being a skilled clinician? Her book has gently led me forward, past my resistences, towards thinking much more intelligently and responsibly about the business end of my work.

Building Your Ideal Practice, by Lynn Grodzki is a true gift. This is a book about empowering yourself to create, build and grow the type of practice that you dream of. It offers a rich set of practical tools, suggestions and examples to help guide you through the process. Blending the strength of Lynns business background and the richness and success of her own psychotherapeutic practice, she offers readers a well thought out approach that helps to attract new clients, hold onto clients and avoid the pitfalls of many private practioners. This book is particularly important for therapists who love the work of therapy, but are struggleing with growing their practice in light of changes in the health care industry. The book is fun and easy to read. I have spent 25 years in the business world and am now growing my executive coaching practice and have found her book to be most helpful in laying out the right foundation so that I get off to the right start. Bravo, Lynn Grodzki, thanks for writing the book that has been so desperately needed.

This book is fantastic. I've underlined passages, bookmarked pages, and I go bck to them again and again. It's like having a personal business coach for the price of the book! I went from wondering how in the world I could market my private practice, to now seeing limitless possibilities! It should be a must-read for every clinician, both those starting out and those who need a little boost.

As a new counselor, I was looking for something that could instruct me in setting up a private practice and this was it. I also bought the workbook that goes with it. This book takes you through all the steps, beginning with identifying what you want, mission and vision statements and how you want your business to look and function...from a counselor's perspective. There are other books out there that tell you how to set up businesses, but this is from one counselor to another and the perspective makes all the difference. I recommend this book highly to anyone who is just starting out in practice or is seeking to expand their practice.

I have had this book on my shelf for a number of years. I manage a practice with 15 therapists and am always looking for resources I can use in training recent grads to do the right things. This one just doesn't do it. Even for those with newly minted mental health degrees there is just not enough meat. OK for those who have never given a thought to how mental health practices succeed.

This is a very well written book with a plethora of helpful information. Probably the most important concept addressed is the need for most therapists to switch to a business mindset. I'm still working on this myself. I appreciate that Lynn freqently gives different options on addressing different issues. Her awareness that one size does not fit all is well modeled in these examples. There are a number of exercises to help you craft your marketing message and evolve your business mindset. However, her
Twelve Months to Your Ideal Private Practice: A Workbook (which she uses for her teleclasses) offers more exercises and is more practical. Her ebook Private Practice SOS offers more updated suggestions and resources. (I recommend both of those books.) That said, I did get several ideas of things that I will further consider to augment my practice.

Mike Miller, PhD
http://establishinganinternetpresence.com
http://drmikemiller.com