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Hi, welcome to the Abundant Practice Podcast. I'm Alison from Abundance Practice Building. I have a nearly diagnosable obsession with helping therapists build sustainable, joy filled private practices. Just like I've done for tens of thousands of therapists across the world. I'm excited to help you too. If you want to fill your practice with ideal clients, we have loads of free resources and paid support. Go to abundance practice building.com Links all right, onto the show. So I've talked about therapy notes on here for years. I could talk about the features and the benefits in my sleep. But there are a couple things I want you to know about therapy notes that doesn't typically make it into an ad script. First is that they actually care if you like their platform. They don't only make themselves available on the phone to troubleshoot so you don't pull your hair out when you get stuck. They also take member suggestions and implement those that there's client demand for. Like Therapy Search, an included listing service that helps clients find you internal and external secure messaging clinical outcome measures to keep an eye on how your clients are progressing. A super smooth super bill process, real time eligibility to check on your client's insurance. In my conversations with the employees there at all levels, they all really believe in their product and they want you to love it too. Second, they are proudly independently owned. Why should you care about that? Because as soon as venture capital becomes involved, the focus shifts from making customers happy to making investors happy. Prices go way up. Innovation plateaus. Making more money with as little output as possible becomes the number one focus. With over 100,000 therapists using their platform, they've been able to stay incredibly successful and they don't have to sacrifice your experience to stay there. You can try two months free@therapynotes.com with the coupon code Abundant. Welcome back to the Abundant Practice Podcast. I'm your host Alison Parear, founder of abundancepracticebuilding.com and I'm here with Jen Lowe who is going to talk with us about six missteps in private practice and that way y' all can avoid it. We don't want to make missteps, learn from our mistakes, the mistakes we've seen other people make. So thanks for being here Jen.
A
Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited. I am a student at University of Cumberlands in their PhD program. I actually taught this to some master students interested in private practice because I think ideally we would know about these missteps. Yes, before we even start private practice. But even if we did it. It's not too late to sort of redirect. And I love to call them missteps instead of mistakes. Because I don't want therapists in private practice to feel like, oh, I can't do this. I made a mistake.
B
Right.
A
Little misstep. How do we help you get back.
B
On track and you're doing a more robust training? We have an hour for our trainings within the abundance party community. So if y' all are listening to this and you want some more, then hop into the party if you're not already in there.
A
The first one that I researched and found in the literature that I know you talk about all the time. We all talk about all the time. Is the first misstep is not knowing how much money we need.
B
Yes.
A
We really need to be crystal clear, how much money do I need to survive and to pay my bills and to pay for my health insurance? And one of the mistakes that a lot of therapists are reporting is they have this broad number. So if they previously were a teacher in another career or worked for a group practice, they'll think, oh, Well, I made $40,000 a year. I need to make $40,000 in private practice. And it's not that simple because of tax structures are different and insurance is different. Health insurance, retirement contributions. So we really need to know and help therapists know, how much money do you need to pay your bills and go on vacations and to feel like you're okay? And some of the researchers were saying that worrying about money while trying to help our clients will affect our clinical work.
B
Yes.
A
So I always tell people the tuna fish analogy, that if I agreed to see a single mom two years ago for $40 a session, and I myself cannot afford to pack a good lunch or to buy lunch, and I'm packing tuna fish sandwiches every day, that will affect my relationship. If she's, you know, maybe got a promotion at work and she went on vacation to Disney World, it's gonna affect our therapeutic relationship. I'm gonna have feelings that are gonna impact the work that we do. So we have to find that balance between being a business owner and being a therapist.
B
Absolutely. And I think we all think, well, I'm. I'm not the kind of person who's going to get resentful about that kind of thing. But when getting close to burnout or you're having a hard time paying your bills. I remember I took on a sliding scale client years ago, maybe 20 years ago. She was a young adult. Her mom had negotiated the Rate. I was like, fine. This. This young woman was coming in with designer, designer bags. I'm not talking about, like, $300 bags. I'm talking about, like, $3,000 bags and not fake ones either. And then, you know, it was like, well, I'm going to be gone in July because we're going to be in the south of France. Her dad was the VP of a multinational corporation, but her mom wanted a deal. And so. And, you know, it also said something about how she had spent three grand on a purse for the outward appearance for her daughter, but wanted to discount therapist, essentially. And I did not know how to handle it at the time. I really just kept being like, it's fine, but the way that I felt about that client was impacted. And meanwhile, I had other clients who were, you know, waiting tables and paying me my full fee and making it work. And here's somebody who wasn't working and was taking these vacations I was drooling over. It impacts the work.
A
We want our clients to get the best care possible. And even if sort of unconsciously, I'm having a little bit of resentment or some feelings or just worried about myself or my own bills or my own mortgage in my brain, I'm not going to be able to fully, fully show up and be present for people. And they really need that in mental health therapy.
B
Yes, absolutely.
A
The second one is a little connected to money, too, and it's trying everything for marketing. I think sometimes when people start private practice, they really want clients and they really do want to help people, and they really love the work. And so. And there are people who will sell you advertising venues. There are people who will sell you an ad in your local newspaper. And so we find that therapists are just trying everything. So it's, you know, throwing darts at a dartboard with a blindfold. We're aiming, but without data and focus, it's luck.
B
Mm.
A
And then we're almost at the end of the year, we're almost at 2025. So this is a great time for therapists and private practice. Just pull the statements from their banks or from QuickBooks or. And to just look, how much money did I spend on Psychology Today or an ad in my local newspaper? And how much money was that? And did I receive a return on investment?
B
Yes. Yeah. And it's easy because our practices always grow slower than we want. Not always. I would say 98% of people's practices grow slower than they want. Sometimes they grow in, you know, somebody's full in three months, but that's still slower than they wanted. We all want to be full, like within a month, basically. And so while we're in that doing the marketing we're doing phase, but not quite seeing the results we want yet, it's really easy to chase these shiny objects. I know. I keep getting emails in my private practice email account. One guy who just won't leave me alone, despite the fact that I'm like, dude, this is not for me. Who's like, you can advertise and it'll be seen by all these elementary schools and blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, no, thank you. No, thank you. And then a hotel downtown who's like, we would love to feature your business on our recommended businesses. I'm like, what am I going to do for somebody who's here for two days? I'm not interested. But if I was brand new, new, and I've seen people, golf courses is another really big thing. Like, they'll put a little advertisement on a golf course that I've seen some people pay for and get nothing out of because they're like, oh, these are people who have money. I work with stress. These people are stressed. Like, it seems like my ideal clients could be playing golf, but they're not looking for their therapist on the golf course.
A
And that is also a great question to ask yourself. Does my ideal client play golf?
B
Right. Right.
A
And where am I spending my money? And not just money, but time and attention. So to have a YouTube channel and an Instagram and a TikTok and a LinkedIn and to keep up with Bing and Yahoo and Google directories, that's a lot of mental load for people to keep up with. And I know you suggest no more than five marketing strategies.
B
Yeah. And two of those are spoken for. Right. Like, you need a website, everybody needs a website, and everybody needs to be marketing. So really, that's only three left. And the website is free or close to free. If you're doing a DIY site, it's like 20 bucks a month. If you pay somebody to do it one time, then you might be out a few thousand dollars, but you're not having to pay a lot ongoingly. And networking is coffee or lunch. You don't have to spend a bunch of money on it.
A
But you're right that when people are new and they're not feeling as fast as they want to, they could get a little anxious. And those bright shiny things could be like, oh, I should do that, I should do that, I should do that.
B
You choose five things, you do them the right way. And you know that you're using marketing best practices for them. And if you don't know the abundance party tells you, then if you're doing those five things, you will get full. You don't need to keep adding things. You just need to do it consistently.
A
That at the end of the year, if you find that one of your five did not work or was not, it is okay to be aware and to. Okay, I'm going to pick a different one for the future.
B
Yeah, yeah. And you're not going to be doing five for the rest of your practice. I also want to be really clear about that. I just did a story today where I know the marketing strategies that work best for me. And. And so I don't have to do all five to kind of suss out which works best. So as I'm rebuilding an intensive piece to my clinical practice that I'm super psyched about, I'm networking, I've got a great website, and I'm doing speaking gigs. And I know for me, that'll get me there because I've done this for 20 years, you know. But you have to discover what works for you first. And it's not 10 things. It's. You never need to start with 10 things to narrow it down, because you'll be doing all of those 10 things badly, but you can focus energy on five and do them well.
A
The third one I have for us is accountants. I realize some of your listeners, probably maybe in their bachelor's or former career, were former accountants, but most of us did not go to school to become an accountant. Yeah. And trying to be an accountant or trying to be a CPA or trying to be a payroll expert is probably not a good use of our time. And we hear really scary stories of therapists who've run into huge tax bills, and it's really discouraged them. So I always say, don't mess with the irs. Mm. They're not friendly people, and they work in a very slow fashion. And some really scary things can happen. So always seek out an accountant and keep the business and personal finances separate and seek out knowledge and advice. And it is good to have guidance in that area.
B
Yeah. And it's not like, seek out an accountant in March. Seek out an accountant when you start. Most of them will do a free consultation, essentially. And some people are like, yeah, you can be on my roster for tax time, but you're going to need to be paying quarterly taxes, so you're going to need that accountant as soon as possible. And you're also going to need to be saving from every single month or biweekly. However often you're paying yourself, you need to be saving money. I love to over save for taxes because I've gotten a tax bill that was way more than I saved for and ended up having to take out a bunch from my personal savings to make it happen. And I don't want anybody to have that. Gut punch can be like, well, my emergency fund's gone. Thanks Iris. It could have been avoided if we had met with our accountant on the front end, but we had bumped into another tax bracket and didn't realize it was going to be a lot more.
A
And even if they say I'll put you on your roster for tax time, they'll still help you set up quarterly prepayments. Mm. How to log into the IRS and make prepayments. And they'll give you a little advice and they'll even be able to calculate what percentage you should be saving for tax time. Here's an estimate.
B
Yes, and this is not the time to turbo tax it. I strongly believe business owners, which you are, if you have a private practice, should not be doing their own taxes. It's more complicated than I mean you can do TurboTax. You're just going to end up spending a lot more, probably a lot more than you would have spent on an accountant who's going to make sure you do it right and you're not going to get dinged later.
A
And it will save you stress and anxiety and money because sometimes the IRS will charge you late payments or failure to make tax prepayments and compound interest and just try to avoid messing with the irs. Yes, do not want them to be a part of your life. Even having to call them is just a lengthy hour long process. I tease about it on Instagram. Sometimes of the phone calls with IRS are long. You'll be on hold for a long time. Fourth is social media is not supervision. And I know in your podcast you have listeners that are counselors, licensed marriage and family therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists. Right. Lots of people in private practice. And we all have a different code of ethics. But most of our code of ethics talks about what do we do when we're seeing someone new or something new or treating a new area. So the aca, the American Counseling Association Code of Ethics, they talk about if you're ever doing something new, supervision, education and training. And I think sometimes in private practice we're alone and we get anxious and we have a new client that has a new presenting concern that We've never seen before. And so people will go to social media. Just not the best place. It might be a place to ask to seek out a consultant or to seek out a supervisor or, hey, if I'm new to treating bipolar disorder, what kind of trainings did you all go to? But we don't want to give a lot of private information on social media about our clients.
B
Yeah. When I had the big Facebook group with tens of thousands of therapists in it, this was like the moderators. And I had to stay on top of this so much because it didn't matter how many times we posted stop. If your client would recognize themselves. It's too much. You cannot de. Identify information truly about clients. It needs to be general. Like, what trainings would you recommend for X, Y, or Z? Never, ever about a specific client. It was daily. We were taking down posts. And not every Facebook group is doing that. It puts you at risk. It puts your license at risk, and it's just not good.
A
And when you are in private practice, if you are working solo, supervision and consultation, individual or group, is really so valuable to our clinical work and helps so much with that connection.
B
Yeah.
A
Which leads us to the other one. So when I was doing this research, I had found a great research study where they had interviewed people in private practice, and one of the missteps they had found was a lack of networking. We could survive on a desert island temporarily. Right. We could find some food or shelter or clothing. But a solid professional network is so great for us. Right. It's a good place for advice, consultation. They found that it reduces the therapists in private practice stress load, and the economic pressures, environment and isolation contribute to stress for counselors in private practice. Mm. So when we think about that, you know, economic pressures, environment, isolation, that if people are in these consultation and supervision groups or networking groups, that it's a great place for support. 97% of the people that they interviewed for this study reported that support was an important aspect, as their work is like an independent practitioner.
B
Absolutely. And there's so many benefits to networking. You're scratching that social animal itch. Maybe in the middle of a workday where it's all about another person, you get to have interaction where it gets to be about both of you. You get to know, like, okay, this person in my community is going to be a really good referral for people struggling with X, Y, or Z. They also get to know that about you. So it really. I mean, networking has always been my most powerful marketing strategy, but it's also How I've met some of my closest friends and so you get to. As long as you're not being like salesy and weird, which I think a lot of people associate with networking. If you're just coming in open hearted like this is a potential new friend, which is how I approach all of them, then you just get to know another person, which is great. You maybe get to geek out on a modality or presenting concern and learn from one another. There are just too many benefits and maybe even commiserate. Like God referrals have been so slow this year and they realize it's not just you.
A
I love that. And if you can't find something like that, it's okay to start that. Start a networking group in your city or your state or a virtual networking group for therapists in private practice or therapists who treat anxiety. Or you could start a group. People need connection and want connection. And one of the few good things that came out of COVID is we are more comfortable with virtual Zoom meetings now and connecting with people in a virtual way.
B
Yeah, absolutely. It expands our communities in this really meaningful way if we let it.
A
And the last one I have to share is the last misstep is taking everyone that calls you that. We have to be able to balance our business with our personal life. We can only work with so many clients emotionally, physically, mentally. If you have a lot of complex cases or difficult specialty areas, how many of those clients are good for my brain and deciding how much and when? Even years ago, when I used to see children and trauma and I used to specialize in like sexually abused children and do a program called TF cbt, I found that when kids were in their trauma narrative stage where they were actively doing their trauma narrative, that it wasn't good for my brain to have more than three kiddos a day because it was a lot of trauma processing and a lot of sitting with big emotions. Yeah.
B
And even if it's not that it's hard, there are just certain people we click with better. There are certain presenting concerns we are more effective with. And if you take on everyone who calls and you're getting somebody that you either don't click with or you're not great with that presenting concern. And it's maybe because you're disinterested in the presenting concern, like you don't want to do the education and consultation and supervision, then what's going to happen? We've all had these clients where we're like, have you been in therapy before? Yes, I have. Well, what Was it like we just kind of talked? I mean, she was nice. None of us want that said about us. I hope to God nobody I've ever seen. I'm sure that they have, but I hate the idea of any of my former clients being like, you know, I mean, she was nice, but I don't really feel like I got any better. Stab me in the heart.
A
When I had done this presentation for master's students, I had actually quoted you and said, do you want to be the nice therapist or the therapist that helped people get results? One of the articles I read that really landed with me said, we have to sort of reframe how we talk to ourselves after that consultation call. And instead of saying, I had to turn people away, I had to turn someone away to instead hang up the phone and say, I referred them to a great fit.
B
100%, yes. Because for every client that we're not interested in working with, there are all these therapists who are like, God, if only that person would call me. We all like different things and different people.
A
And Sher read that article. It really reminded me of supervisees and people I've mentored in private practice who have said, oh, well, I have to be a network with, you know, Cigna and United and Blue Cross and this one and this one, because I feel so bad when I have to turn people away because I'm not in network with all of those companies or, gosh, I had to turn someone away because I don't do that. And that goes back to that networking aspect we were talking about earlier, that if we have this network of people, we're not really turning people away, we're helping them find someone awesome for their needs.
B
Absolutely. Oh, Jen, thank you so much. And Jen is also like the supervision consultation queen. I'm going to put that out there. Like, you're always so thoughtful about these pieces. So as people are listening and if they're like, I'd really like to maybe explore this thing. How can they get in touch with you if they want to learn more?
A
No, that's necessarily true.
B
Allison.
A
I think if you like the Abundance party in the. In Allison's Abundance Party, I definitely do sort of try to comment or direct people to resources, but actually I just do private practice.
B
Do you really, you know so much about consultation and supervision, though? It's clearly like something you care about a lot.
A
I am in my PhD program and almost finished all but dissertation.
B
Huh.
A
And I do think I want to add, you know, teaching at a university, because I think it would be one I think it's wonderful to have. We loved those professors that had actually been in the field and had worked and done it and. And we could relate to. But people could follow me on. We could follow each other on Instagram. I am on Instagram @Jen Lowtherapy with 2n'. But no, I don't do a lot of like have a lot of supervisees.
B
That's so funny. I have you so linked with that in my head. It's awesome. I just must think of you as super competent.
A
Your party, I think, amazing.
B
Well, thank you so much. I hope that this prevents people from making some of these missteps. And you know, if you make them, you make them. Most of us have made these missteps at some point, so no worries. But it gives people a bit of a heads up so that they can course correct. Amazing.
A
Thank you so much.
B
Absolutely. I'll see you later. Bye. If you're ready for a much easier practice, Therapy Notes is the way to go. Go to therapynotes.com and use the promo code abundant for two months. Free. If you're listening, you probably need some support building your practice. If you're a super newbie, grab our free checklist using the link in the show Notes. I'd love for you to follow rate and review, but I really want you to share this episode with a therapist friend. Let's help all our colleagues build what they want.
Title: The Biggest Missteps In Private Practice
Host: Allison Puryear
Guest: Jenn Lowe
Date: December 3, 2025
In this episode, Allison Puryear welcomes Jenn Lowe, a PhD student and private practice clinician, to discuss the six biggest missteps therapists make when starting and running their own private practices. Drawing from research, clinical experience, and the experiences of others, Allison and Jenn offer practical advice and empathetic guidance aimed at helping therapists create sustainable, profitable, and fulfilling practices—without succumbing to burnout, confusion, or financial instability.
(03:14 – 07:01)
"If I agreed to see a single mom two years ago for $40 a session and I myself cannot afford to pack a good lunch or to buy lunch, and I’m packing tuna fish sandwiches every day, that will affect my relationship ... I'm gonna have feelings that are gonna impact the work that we do."
(07:04 – 11:16)
"You need a website, everybody needs a website, and everybody needs to be marketing. So really, that’s only three [additional strategies] left."
"If you're doing those five things, you will get full. You don't need to keep adding things. You just need to do it consistently."
(12:14 – 15:07)
"Trying to be an accountant or trying to be a CPA or trying to be a payroll expert is probably not a good use of our time."
"I love to oversave for taxes because I’ve gotten a tax bill that was way more than I saved for... It could have been avoided if we had met with our accountant on the front end."
(15:07 – 17:50)
"Social media is not supervision... It might be a place to seek out a consultant or a supervisor... but we don’t want to give a lot of private information on social media about our clients."
"If your client would recognize themselves, it’s too much. You cannot de-Identify information truly about clients. It needs to be general."
(18:08 – 21:09)
"Networking has always been my most powerful marketing strategy, but it’s also how I’ve met some of my closest friends."
(21:15 – 24:35)
"Do you want to be the nice therapist or the therapist that helped people get results?"
"For every client that we’re not interested in working with, there are all these therapists who are like, God, if only that person would call me. We all like different things and different people."
"I love to call them missteps instead of mistakes. Because I don’t want therapists in private practice to feel like, oh, I can’t do this. I made a mistake."
"Meanwhile, I had other clients who were, you know, waiting tables and paying me my full fee and making it work. And here’s somebody who wasn’t working and was taking these vacations I was drooling over. It impacts the work."
"Those bright shiny things could be like, oh, I should do that, I should do that, I should do that."
"This is not the time to TurboTax it. I strongly believe business owners, which you are if you have a private practice, should not be doing their own taxes."
"It puts you at risk. It puts your license at risk, and it’s just not good."
"If you’re just coming in open hearted like this is a potential new friend, which is how I approach all of them, then you just get to know another person, which is great."
"Instead of saying, I had to turn people away... say, I referred them to a great fit."
The episode is supportive, candid, and practical, mixing research insights, real-life anecdotes, and a strong sense of camaraderie. Both Allison and Jenn encourage listeners to view private practice challenges as normal and solvable, rather than fatal flaws, and they consistently promote community, boundaries, and self-care as the foundations for successful practice-building.
Jenn Lowe:
Instagram: @jenlowtherapy (with 2 n’s)
Allison Puryear & The Abundance Party:
Resources, checklists, and support at www.abundancepracticebuilding.com
This episode is a must-listen for therapists in (or considering) private practice. It walks through the most common missteps—from fuzzy finances to haphazard marketing and trying to “do it all” alone—offering concrete, actionable advice at each step. Allison and Jenn’s stories and research-backed recommendations provide a compassionate roadmap to building a sustainable, joyful, and ethical private practice, where you can thrive as both a clinician and a business owner.