The AAMFT Blog

Minority Fellowship Program Applications Are Open

MFP Applications for the 2020-2021 year is currently open and will close Friday, February 14, 2020.

The AAMFT Research and Education Foundation's Minority Fellowship Program offers three Fellowships. The MFP is one of the longest running behavioral health workforce development grants funded by the federal government – funding provided by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). These Fellowships are:

1. Dissertation Completion Fellowship (DCF)-For doctoral students at the dissertation stage of their curriculum;
2. Doctoral Fellowship (DF)-For doctoral students still in the process of completing pre-dissertation core curriculum;
3. Minority Fellowship Program- Youth (MFP-Y)-For masters students interested in service provision to the nation’s youth.

Find more information here.

Email the Minority Fellowship Program staff with any questions or concerns at [email protected].

Diversifying Your Income in Private Practice

This content is provided by Brighter Vision, an affinity partner of AAMFT. This information is not necessarily the views of AAMFT and should not be interpreted as official AAMFT policy.

When you make the decision to run your own private practice, you get to experience the freedom of being your own boss and deciding your own schedule. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always mean you have control over your income.

As a therapist, there are a few levers you can pull to increase your bottom line:

1. Work more hours (i.e. see more clients)
2. Raise your rates
3. Hire more therapists
4. Add a new source of income

As you can probably guess by the title of this article, we are going to be discussing #4 - Adding a new source of income.

Without further ado, let's get to it and dive into the most effective and modern methods for diversifying your income in private practice. 

Additional Sources of Income for Therapists

E-courses

Marketing is about messaging. And when it comes to private practice, it's critical that your messaging is about how much of an expert you are in your field of specialization. What better way to demonstrate that expertise – and earn a little extra cash – than by creating an online course (or e-course) targeted towards your ideal client?

Creating an e-course is easier than you might be imagining, especially since you can make one on a topic you already know a lot about! For example, if you specialize in anxiety and adults, consider an e-course titled, “How to Date with Social Anxiety.”

To learn more about how to build your very own e-course, check out this episode of The Therapist Experience podcast: How to Create an eCourse to Bolster Your Business Income.

E-books

Just like an e-course, writing an e-book positions you as an expert and authority on your subject matter. Plus, it can be used to increase your income!

An e-book is a book that you sell online as a file download instead of a physical book and, while writing an e-book may sometimes take longer than creating an e-course, it also takes demonstrating your expertise to a whole new level.

Published authors – even if it's 'just' an e-book – have a level of authority and expertise associated with them. This expertise is incredibly effective at driving in more clients to your practice.

If you’re thinking, “How would I fill up a whole book?” then you need to listen to this episode of The Therapist Experience podcast: How Writing a Book Can Super-Charge Your Entire Practice.

Teletherapy

If you haven’t already hopped on the telehealth train, it’s probably time! Adding teletherapy to your practice adds a huge amount of flexibility to your working schedule.

It also gives you the ability to see clients that you couldn’t before, such as those who can’t leave home for medical reasons, or who live in your state but may be too far away for a casual drive to your office.

Learn more about why adding teletherapy might be right for you in this article: Busting 6 Myths About Offering Online Therapy. 

Coaching

Adding coaching services is a wonderful way to help even more people, while opening up your practice to many new types of clients at the same time.

As a therapist, you know there are a number of significant and subtle differences between coaching and therapy. But coaching can be an effective way for you to help even more people, all-the-while growing your private practice.

If you’d like to learn how a fellow clinician used coaching to seriously boost her practice, check out this episode of The Therapist Experience podcast: How Mercedes Samudio Niched Into Parent Coaching & Her Practice Exploded. 

Consulting

Are you a private practice superstar? If so, then I bet you have a ton of insight, guidance, and expertise that other therapists would love to learn! And that's where consulting steps in.

Consulting has really taken off in the private practice space within the last few years, with a wide range of business and independent consultants. These consultants offer everything from e-courses, to private Facebook groups, to in-depth business coaching. And there's still plenty of room for other experts.

If you're a private practice superstar, we hope to see you offering your advice to other therapists soon!

If you want to know the right way to add consulting to your practice, check out this episode of The Therapist Experience podcast: How Therapists Can Add Coaching/Consulting & Protect Their Licenses.

 

Next Steps

So, you’ve listened to the podcasts, read the articles, followed the advice, and you’re actually making more money. Now, what do you do with it? If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll eventually wind up in the same financial shape you were in before you made more money.

Learn how to change your views about your private practice finances in You’ve Made Your Money – Now What? and if you’d like to find out how Brighter Vision can help, please schedule a call with us  today.

AAMFT Endorses Evidence Based Practice Consensus Statement

As a participating organization at the 2018 and 2019 Coalition for the Advancement and Application of Psychological Science (CAAPS) Summits, AAMFT collaborated with numerous other organizations committed to clinical science in creating an evidence based practice statement.  

The Coalition for the Advancement and Application of Psychological Science (CAAPS) strives to promote science to understand, reduce, and prevent the burden of mental illness, and foster adaptive development and well-being. Member organizations work on many different aspects of the creation, dissemination, and application of clinical science and the training of clinical scientists but share a commitment to prioritizing a scientific epistemology to advance knowledge and improve human well-being.

Along with numerous other associations, AAMFT endorsed the following practice statement.

Evidence Based Practice Consensus Statement

Consensus Statement: Evidence-based practice decision-making for mental and behavioral health care

Evidence-based practice of mental and behavioral health care is an ongoing, collaborative approach to making decisions about services, which includes the following components:

1) Evidence-based practice begins with consideration of the best available basic and applied empirical research evidence when making decisions about mental and behavioral health services.

The limitations of the available empirical evidence are also considered, especially given contextual factors such as developmental level, community/cultural needs, the settings in which the services occur, barriers to services, and the strengths and assets of individuals and communities. The limitations of the evidence base, however, do not impede the retention or adaptation of principles and techniques from the empirical evidence that remain relevant and applicable after consideration of the limitations.

2) Evidence-based practice includes ongoing measurement and evaluation of the impact of services and, if necessary, outcome-informed adjustments to services that are intended to maximize their effectiveness.

3) Providers serve as a guide for collaborative decision-making in evidence-based practice, integrating different sources of information, including recipients’ values and preferences, as well as the provider’s competence and the organization’s capacity to provide effective services.

AAMFT is grateful for the invitation to attend and participate in CAAPS. This work is critical for decision making in mental and behavioral health issues.

MFTs in Medicare Legislation Reaches New Record: 100 Cosponsors!

The Mental Health Access Improvement Act of 2019, legislation that would add MFTs as Medicare-eligible providers, reached record-level support in the House of Representatives late last Friday. On December 6^th, Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-13), became the 100^th cosponsor to support H.R. 945, the House’s version of the Mental Health Access Improvement Act. AAMFT would like to extend our gratitude to the 100 Representatives that have shown support for MFTs in Medicare, as well as the 30 Senators that have cosponsored the Senate version (S. 286).

The level of support shown in the current (116^th) Congress has surpassed our most recent record of 74 cosponsors during the last Congress (115^th). This trend of increasing support shows that Members of Congress recognize the need to prioritize mental health policy, especially as data indicates critical mental health workforce shortages and increasing suicide rates. News of reaching 100 cosponsors follows another important Medicare announcement: the inclusion of MFTs as eligible providers in Medicare-funded, SAMHSA-certified opioid treatment programs (OTPs).

Given that there is still a year left in this Congressional term, there is still time for additional cosponsors to sign on to H.R. 945. If you haven’t already, please contact your Member of Congress, and encourage them to support the Mental Health Access Improvement Act.

If you’d like to learn more about AAMFT’s advocacy efforts around MFTs in Medicare, please join us on Wednesday, December 18, at 3:30pm for a live webinar featuring discussion on this very subject. AAMFT staff will be accompanied by AAMFT’s federal lobbyist, David Connolly, to discuss factors that affect support for MFTs in Medicare, as well as next steps for continued advocacy.

Register Here