PracticesMadePerfect

November 2008

Hi all,

After last night’s election results, I find myself thinking in bigger, more global terms, so I’d like to ask some big questions this month:

1 - How do we help our clients create quality lives and a sense of well-being either as an adjunct to therapy or post therapy? Or is this our job?

 

 2 - How can we as therapists contribute to the sustainability of our planet by educating ourselves, and possibly our clients about going green, recycling, and/or connecting with nature if this would help them, or is this our job?

As I've been writing my personal leadership book, LifeDancing, Mastering Life's Movement (Check it out on the right), I've been looking at other's models, i.e., Wilber's Integral Life and Frisch's Quality of Life Therapy. Both are excellent models.

What tools do you use to help your clients manage their lives and lead themselves toward their goals after the clinical issue that brought them to your office has been treated, or do you not believe this is important or part of your job? Certainly insurance companies don't think it is your job, so how do you weave life-management or personal leadership into treatment?

Let me know how you feel about this topic and what your thoughts are, please.

 

Marketing Events for late November and December

November

18 - National Memory Screening Day - Free confidential screening available at local healthcare organizations. Think about being one of those sites for next year. This year, simply tell people about it and go to a site and introduce yourself. If one of your specialties is Eldercare, this is perfect time to tell them about your work.

20 - Great American Smokeout - Do any of your clients want to quite smoking? Here is a great day for them to try again. If you specialize in Smoking Cessation, market market market to every professional in town.

December

All Month - Shopping, Shopping, Shopping

Often the holidays mean shopping, and this year, more than most, many are dealing with a shrinking investment or bank account. They may have lost their job or much worse. So how do we all manage and learn to do with less? There are MANY wonderful resources out there to help us. 

 

This is a particularly difficult time for overshoppers. A resource I can highly recommend is April Benson's Stopping Overshopping webpage and books. She has put a lot of work into listing resources for us. Check it out HERE. Also if you are a clinician who may be interested in learning how to apply her work, she has training programs available.

 

and more, or less

 

Every holiday season I seek a new simplicity and simple joy while holding the family together with differing expectations and desires. Last year I used the book Unplug the Christmas Machine and found some great ideas. This year I'm spending less and purchased Simplify Your Christmas for $.01 on Amazon. It looks good. I'll report back later.

 

Holiday Blues

 

When I had the Benicia Community Counseling Center, every year I held a drop-in Holiday Blues Support Group. It was a great way to let others know about my practice and get to know me a little better. If you are interested in offering this service to your community, put together a press release and flyer, find a space (sometimes businesses organizations will donate space if you offer a free community service), create an agenda, make some confidentiality releases and see what happens. Directions for all of the above are in my first book How to Build and Market Your Mental Health Practice (see on the right). If you want to step away from an illness model, you can change the name to Put the JOY Back in the Holidays, or Make the Holidays more Fun, you get my drift.

 

Marketing Tools

 

I've been introduced to a new marketing site, Spiritus. The creator is a wonderful woman who's not too hidden agenda is to create a marketing community. Please check it out HERE.

 

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My next newsletter will arrive in January. Until then I'm off to make my annual Holiday Rumballs, start sewing and making jewelry, and oh yes, cleaning out the garage. I wish you the best life possible until then and a most successful professional practice!

 

Warmly

Linda

 

 

 

 

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September 08

Hi all,

A lot has been going on since my last newsletter. I've been working on The Professional Practice Institutes curriculum and creating a Fast Start, or overview class to get people started TODAY creating a successful practice. You'll be the first to know when it's released. If you haven't visited the site, go to www.ProfessionalPracticeInstitute.com.

I've also been collaborating with other professionals all over the world to create a Positive Psychology website to help others bring positive psychology into their lives and practices. You can view it at www.positivepsychologyatwork.com.

The Psychotherapists Training Institute, that I'm a partner in, is launching an online test preparation program nationwide to help Clinical Mental Health Counselors pass their licensing exam. Check it out at http://www.psychotherapiststraininginst.com/examaceov.php. 

And.... I'm working now with an editor to complete my Personal Leadership book, LifeDancing, Mastering Life's Movement. The Newsletter for that is at here.

All this and next weekend is the grandbaby's 4th birthday (yes, he has a website too) and I've finally completed cleaning up my Mother's estate and am now a landlord.

Practice Development

As you may already know, my approach to successful practice development is to be connected to your community. There are many ways of doing that, that must be congruent with your values and strengths, but one way is to offer services and products that fit into and improve people's lives. That way when they need help, you will be the one they turn to. The ways I am currently doing this are:

I belong to the Chamber of Commerce Networking group. I promote Lifestyle Change via MBSR, Mindful Based Stress Reduction, and consult with small business owners using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator as a tool for optimal performance and team building. CAPT has an excellent training program, assessments and tools to use in your practice. I build awareness of my specialty niche of working with women by collaborating with the local Soroptimists to create a Women's Resource Directory for our community.

Below, I have listed what is coming up for October so you can plan your outreach and activities.

October's Events

Adopt A Shelter Dog Month. Twenty-five percent of the dogs waiting for adoption in shelters were surrendered by people who said the dogs didn’t fit in with their lifestyles. The ASPCA sponsors Adopt A Shelter Dog Month to advocate ending the euthanasia of all adoptable pets. For more information, visit www.aspca.org. This is a good topic to jump off into therapeutic pets.

Domestic Violence Awareness Month. This marks the 22^nd year of this campaign to raise awareness about violence perpetrated against women and their children. Go to www.ncadv.org for more information. If this is your specialty, send press releases to your local publications about your work.

Dyslexia Awareness Month. Millions of children and adults worldwide live with this neurological disorder that impedes their ability to read; many more go undiagnosed. Use this month to learn the signs of dyslexia and understand its consequences—at home and in the workplace. For more information, visit www.interdys.org.

Emotional Intelligence Awareness Month. The more capable we are of assessing and managing our emotions and those of the people around us, the better all our interactions and decision-making will be. Visit www.e-ii.org for more information. This is a great topic for psychoeducation!

National Breast Cancer Month. Get ideas at www.nbcam.org on how to help “Pass the Word” about screenings and early detection.

National Crime Prevention Month. Make your community a safe place to live, work, and play with crime prevention tips from www.ncpc.org.

National Disability Employment Awareness Month. Go to www.dol.gov/odep to find out more about this mission to educate the public on the contributions and skills of American workers with disabilities, and to highlight the employment issues and barriers that still need to be addressed.

National Reading Group Month. To celebrate the joy of sharing books and to inspire individuals who do not belong to a reading group to join one or start one of their own. For more information, visit www.wnba-books.org. Start a reading group in your practice.

Daily

Make A Difference Day. Oct. 25. A national day of neighbors helping neighbors. Find out how at www.makeadifferenceday.com.

Onward

Linda

February 2008

American Heart Month This year'€™s focus is on women and cardiovascular disease. www.americanheart.org

Library Lovers’ Month – Recognize the value of libraries and work to ensure they continue. www.librarysupport.net/library.lovers

National Laugh Friendly Month €Laughter and humor are essential to happiness. www.laugh-friendly.com

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February and Valentines Day speak to the topic of relationships. I thought this month I would focus on Networking and Professional Relationships to enhance your professional experience and expand your practice.

Networking

Being in private professional practice can be very isolating. When I had a group practice, even though we were all (three of us) at the office, we never saw one another. We would come out of our individual offices to greet the waiting client, and zip right back into our own worlds. I eventually mandated a weekly check-in time just to see how everyone was doing and take care of business.

When I was beginning my practice, since I didn'€™t have a lot of money to put into marketing, I knew I had to use my time to promote my business. I randomly joined organizations, not putting too much thought into my return on investment (time). Now that I am older/wiser, and have less energy, I am very aware of where I put my networking time. For more information on how to Network effectively, check out the page on the right Networking.

Professional Relationships

I can'€™t emphasize enough how important it is to have quality professional relationships to support you in your work. You also need colleagues and referral sources to support your client’s needs. Here are a few types of professional relationships that are critical to private practice.

1 Supervisor
2 Expert Consultants
3 Support
4 Professional Associations
5 Specialty Colleagues
6 Back-up and practice coverage
7 Consultants

Supervision
I believe it is critical to always have some kind of supervision while you are seeing clients. You need someone else who is watching what you are doing, an expert to guide you, and a support if you ever are sued for malpractice.

Expert Consultants
Whenever I had a client who became fragile and I believed was a danger to themselves, I always called at least three colleagues to discuss the case with them. I always got ideas I hadn’t thought of or was reminded of things I already knew but hadn'€™t remembered. Of course these relationships are reciprocal. I would do the same for them.

Support
Being in the role of psychotherapist, healer, and businessperson is a BIG job. I once was lucky enough to have a colleague who lived a few blocks away. We would walk in the mornings and simply randomly talk about what was going on in our practices. I had another group that I met with, a marketing support group, to keep me active in my practice development activities. There are so many ways professionals can be of help to one another; we need to look to one another for help.

Professional Associations
I believe it is important to be a member of, and an active participant in your professional association, even if you do not agree with them. Simply being critical is not enough. Step up and be heard. Also if you are new to an area and want to connect with colleagues, this is the perfect place to start.

Specialty Colleagues
Whatever your niche market, or specialty is, I highly recommend staying in touch with colleagues who are walking down the same path. You will be able to share resources with one another and have a companion to attend events.

Back-up and Practice Coverage
You need coverage for your clients when you are on vacation, or are blindsided by family emergencies and medical issues. I didn'€™t really get this one until I broke my leg one day walking the dog. I had been using the local emergency room psych unit for emergencies, but while babbling to clients (I was on pain medication) about canceling their appointments, I quickly realized I needed someone else doing this that I could trust with confidentiality. I highly recommend having an agreement with a colleague or professional practice manager, who you done the whole HIPAA agreement thing with to back you up in case of emergency.

Consultants
You'€™ll need consultants for legal questions, ethical issues, unexpected client issues and needs. It is best to have these in place before you need them. With a group of colleagues to go to for resources, this will be a lot easier.

I know there are many many more professional relationships, these are the top 7.

Have a great February!!!!
Warmly,
Linda

Happy New Year

Happy New Year and all that goes with it. Doesn’t it seem like it happened a long time ago?

This is the time of year when many people ask me what my New Year’s Resolutions are. In response I sputter and launch into my approach to a symbolic New Year. I thought I would share my approach with you since it has worked well for many years.

So let me see if I’ve got this right, I’m supposed to impose a new “should”(New Years Resolution) on top of my current “shoulds” and to do list of 187 items. NOOOOOOO I answer. The way I approach a New Year is the following:

1 – Clean out the desk – How can you work effectively when you are surrounded by clutter and/or can’t find things. This year I found that darn business card I've been looking for all year, an old i.pod, the weird screw for the three hole punch that I need to make it work, a lost credit card, and much much more. It was well worth the afternoon it took.

2 – Do all the backed up filing – Again, it’s important to know where things are. Unfortunately this task has added items to my to-do list but at least I won’t get any surprises from things that got lost, and I’ll be able to find what I need, when I need it.

3 – Clean up the computer disc – It’s easy to save a file or download something some place it doesn’t belong. I complete this tedious task by watching old movies and re-arranging files on my disc so I can find them, deleting old ones and opening up more disc space.

4 – Review all client files – Do you have all those pesky forms current? Do you need to revisit diagnosis, treatment plans etc? Is your billing up to date? These are but a few tasks that need to be up to date.

5 – Organize financial records - preparing for taxes.

6 – Organize credit accounts - Which ones are working for you, and do you need to cancel any?

7 – Now the fun stuff - Doing what you love! - What did you do last year that you REALLY enjoyed? How can you do more of that this year?

Specialties – Are you still enjoying your specialties? If yes, what CE courses do you want to take to deepen your knowledge? If no, what are you leaning towards, i.e., what CE activities are you drawn to, what books have you been reading? What developmental stage are you at in terms of the life-cycle of a therapist? (See the Therapist’s LifeCycle page to the right.)

Marketing Plan – If you don’t have one, put it on the ToDo list. You'll find a marketing plan outline in my first book. If you do have one it needs to be revisited. Ask yourself what worked last year, what didn’t. Since I’m still in the process of updating my webpages and creating a virtual institute, marketing has gone by the wayside. I decided this year to use external supports and approach people I have met networking to collaborate with in marketing events, i.e., work with a female financial planner and offer a workshop on Women & Money. I’m also taking a look at:

Networking - What networking groups do you belong to and are they working for you? Are there new ones that would work better?

Business Cards – Do you still like your business card. You must LOVE your card so you give it to everybody. Check out Vista Print and try out a new design to play with.

Newsletters and Brochures – Are they working for you?

Self Care

Vacations – If your heart skips a beat when you think of a vacation, it’s past due. This year I’m able for the first time in years to actually consider getting AWAY. First there was the relocation from MA to CA and then caring for my ailing mother. Well, we're relocated, Mom passed, and our aging dog that could not be boarded passed as well. This year for the first time we can take a REAL vacation. It is very important that you stay healthy for your clients. Please plan those vacations now.

Personal Retreats – Vacations are fun, and often jam packed with activities. Personal retreats offer quiet times to revisit yourself and find and/or create that center of calm that sustains you through the tough times. I heartily recommend at least one retreat a quarter. I pack up my small dog and head for a small cottage on the Russian River. I would love to go to a meditation center but they don’t allow dogs and no one wants to dog sit my Yorkie who is old, ill, has an attitudinal problem with strangers, and is tittered rather than given vaccinated so kennels won’t take him. Do what works for you. Maybe it is simply a couple of days at home with the phone unplugged and door locked. I have a friend to checks into a B&B that is close by so she doesn’t have to spend time traveling.

OK, I’ve given you enough ideas to keep you busy for awhile. If you are inspired to use this to set some goals for yourself, check out my article on SMART Goals on the LifeDancing newsletter.
http://lllawless.typepad.com/lifedancing/the-secrets-of-successful.html

I wish you a VERY happy, prosperous, and peaceful 2008.

Warmly
Linda