Private Practice Mentorship & Coaching

Have you wanted to make the lead into private practice, but you can’t figure out how? Do you get lost in a sea of “private practice coaches” who apply a one-size-fits-all plan to their customers, but you want to stand out from the crowd?

My last day as someone else’s employee….

I launched my private practice in 2007 after being laid off by a county-funded agency because they lost part of their contract and wouldn’t have enough money to keep all the Team Leads on the payroll. 

My boss said, “It was a tough decision to make, so we just went with last in, first out. So Colleen, since you were the last Lead hired, we have to let you go.”

Holy cow! That was it!  When I went home that day, I didn’t have a job to come back to the next day. My team just assigned my clients to another clinician. I felt so betrayed. This agency had just signed off on my pre-doc hours to provide the clinical supervision I needed to graduate. I just paid my school over $4500 for the privilege of getting my hours (you know what I mean about that!), and, just like that, I was $4500 in debt, with no job, no clinical supervisor, and as of that minute, I wasn’t sure how I was going to pay my rent in about a month. I got into this field because I have a passion for helping others. I have loved my work and watching clients transform themselves. All of a sudden, I was flying in the wind, with a lot of fear about letting someone else be in charge of my financial welfare at an agency again.

For as much as I loved the work with my clients, I did not love the bureaucracy of working at these precariously-funded mental health agencies in town. In the end, my last job working for someone as a W-2 employee came to be the ONLY job I was ever laid off from.

Never, Ever Again!

I went home and cried for 24 hours, but then I started looking at my options. I had always wanted to be in my own private practice, but I was 8 years into my career and hadn’t made the leap yet. Why not now? Well, lots of reasons popped into my head: Imposter Syndrome, Fear, Lack of Business Acumen, no real Role Models. I could’ve quickly just put the idea aside and just started pounding the pavement again.  I was definitely employable.  For the last 4 years of my W-2 career, I had been in leadership positions, even at one point running one of the largest in-patient substance abuse rehabs for men in San Diego. I was a shoe-in for probably any job I went after. I was already licensed with my Master’s degree. BUT…..I just couldn’t bring myself to start applying, interviewing and, ultimately, leaving the fate of my employment, and my income, in someone else’s hands. As I was gathering my thoughts the next day, I remembered that a few months ago, on a whim, I had filled out an application to get approved to see foster kids as fee-for-service provider. In that split second, I went from crying about what to do to realizing that not only would I be able to survive, but that from here on out, I would be making at least double per hour than my agency job and would be in charge of my schedule, and would be able to grow at whatever pace I wanted……..and no one could ever lay me off again!!

What I did….

I dried off my tears, rented an office by the end of the week, and built my practice. Did I hire a business-building coach? NO. In fact, I thought it was kind of silly when I saw the emergence of practice-building coaches become popular among my peers online. These people were very “rockstar-style” in their advertising copy, and I got curious about them.  Were they rock stars in the field? I didn’t think so. What I discovered is that many had left their own private practices to teach others how to build theirs.  I get it, lots of people get good at a skill and then want to teach others, but for me,  they were like the law professor, or the psych professor who does not actively work in their field.  I have never gravitated to those people as mentors. I want to know if someone is teaching me to do something today, they are still doing it and understanding the nuances of the field as it grows and changes.

Would a Mentor have been helpful to me? Absolutely! 

I wish I had someone who could have shown me the ropes back then, because I made a lot of mistakes. One of those mistakes cost me my income for 3 months and resulted in my car getting repossessed!

I know, you’re reading this and thinking, “Why should I work with you if you couldn’t even get it right yourself?“ 

Well, I didn’t get it right in the beginning. Many business owners don’t.  You should work with me because I actually stayed in the game. I persisted, even when times got embarrassingly tough. 

I stayed in the game so long that I’ve accomplished a lot!

Some of my proudest moments come from the changes my clients make in their lives, but that’s part of the job. The things I’ve had to learn to do have resulted in:

• I have become a sought-after guest expert in my niche. I’ve been interviewed or quoted in over 200 major magazines, websites, podcasts, newspapers, and radio shows.

• My practice has been full for years, with very little SEO presence and without advertising.

• My practice not only survived a recession and then the pandemic, but it actually grew through each of those years.

• I have given myself consistent pay raises while still holding space for pro bono work.

• I have mentored and provided clinical supervision to many therapists over the years who were either working towards their initial license or were referred to me for mandated therapy by the state board as a term of their professional probation.

• I launched the Coaching Through Chaos podcast in 2015. When it launched, it was featured in Apple Podcast’s New & Noteworthy pages, and to this day, it remains in the top 2.5% of all podcasts!

• I wrote my first book in 2018, “The 60-Day Plan for Embracing Your Inner Leader!”

• My 2nd book launched in 2022, “My Mindful Reflections: a Daily Journal for Better Mental Health”.

• I launched “Love, Unboxed: The Podcast for the Hopeful Romantic” in 2024.

Now, you may not want to do all the things I have, but I list those prideful moments in my career because I would challenge you to find another private-practice coach or mentor who has comparable accolades.

I want to help you:

• Design & grow your dream private practice

• Become a sought-after expert in your niche

• Set rates that ensure you get paid what you are worth

• Have a recession-proof practice

• Design opportunities to create other income sources, designed around the knowledge you have to share.

• Design the private practice that fits you and the life you want to live.

This was a proud day. My practice earned a Live Well San Diego Certification.

What Does Our Work Together Look Like? 

We will initially schedule a call to find out where you are in your practice-building journey. I love when someone is still working at their agency job and wants to see if private practice could really be for them. Unlike other coaches out there, I’m not going to position myself to you as a guru. I have some very specific areas of expertise. Based on what your needs are, I can design a package that is a pay-one-price deal or a pay-as-you-go consulting arrangement.  I don’t do this in groups.  When you hire me, I work for you, and you alone, in our time together.  I will be invested in you getting off the ground and finding clients that fit the work you love to do!

• Private Practice Building

• Networking and Marketing your practice

• Writing compelling ad copy for directory listings!

• Pros and cons of insurance panels.

• Developing community relationships

• Podcasting for building your practice/ Writing a book to help your practice grow

• Pitching appearances and guest blog posts to major outlets

• The importance of clinical consultation groups

• Adding Clinicians to your practice

Call today to set up your 20-minute exploratory call – Let’s get you on the path to your own private practice!