The AAMFT Blog

Top 4 Messaging Mistakes Made by Marriage And Family Therapist Websites

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

Your private practice website is a hub for connection with potential clients. The messaging you use on your website and other marketing materials is meant to connect, inform, and motivate people to act for themselves. Your message could be the difference between someone being stuck in their pain and someone finding help to heal their pain.

But when you search for marriage and family therapists online or through a directory, you may find a lot of the messages have made some simple mistakes that we want to show you how to avoid.

Mistake #1: Ask a lot of questions

Imagine if you are meeting with someone you don’t know, naturally, you ask a lot of questions to get to know them. Yet, part of having a solid marketing plan is knowing who you do great work with and being able to speak to the pain of those ideal clients. You should know generally something about their pain. If you start your website asking a lot of questions such as: Do you feel stuck? Do you not feel like yourself? Do you struggle with anxiety or depression? Are you grieving the past or something in the current present moment? You communicate that you aren’t sure who you are speaking to and are unsure of what they might generally be going through.

Instead of asking a lot of questions, peppering them with all the possibilities of what could be going on, speak to the common pain points of your clients. This takes knowing who you want to work with though. You can’t speak to everyone in one message. You need to hone in and speak to the clients you do the best work with.

Imagine moving away from the questions and more into painting a picture of what they might be going through. For example, "you woke up this morning with a tightness in your chest that is all too familiar. You do your best to push down the anxiety and worry, but day in and day out, it creeps up on you rendering you exhausted. You can’t focus at work. You miss appointments or space out in conversations with friends and loved ones. You worry so much about what others think about you, you just never feel like you can let your guard down."

How does that messaging feel compared to questions? It conveys attunement, and an understanding of the client because you know other clients like them. They aren’t alone and you know how to help.

Mistake #2: You aren’t clear about how you help

So many therapist websites speak in generalities about how they help. Many therapists talk about how they hold a safe nonjudgmental space for their clients. I hope they do! That is important, but that is the standard across the board. Besides, does a client really know how a nonjudgmental space being held for them helps? Probably not other than that there is comfort.

Instead, speak to how you show up as a therapist, giving good, informed consent about what to expect from you as a clinician. We aren’t speaking about being competitive and comparative with other clinicians. You never need to put down others to put yourself out there. You simply want to stand out clearly about what is unique about you in this work.

For example, I help anxious, high-achieving adults to simmer their anxiety so they can be comfortable in their own skin. I meet with my clients weekly because that is what gets better outcomes for the way that I work. I’m not a therapist who gives homework, instead, you will learn tools you can use outside of the session to use your body's wisdom to help you integrate more calm states in your day-to-day. Many of my clients love that they get to move their bodies during sessions and that there is a lot of laughter in the process of healing, It doesn’t always have to be so serious as you see on TV.

In this example, you can learn more about how the therapist works and what to expect. This gives the potential client way more information to decide if this is a good fit for themselves. Maybe they decide they don’t like what they read. That’s a good thing because it’s helping them tune into their own wisdom about what they need and it expedites them on the path to finding the right therapist for them.

Websites for Therapists for a Successful Private Practice

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

Websites are often one of the first things therapists think about when it comes to marketing their practices. If you have a website, you might remember the first time you bought a domain name or saw your website live on the internet. For me, it felt so satisfying and exciting. There is something about having a website that can make your private practice feel official. Yet, a website isn’t the thing that makes your private practice successful. At the intersection of what makes a private practice successful, you will find a private practice that is not only profitable but that is run sustainably (see you later burnout) and is consistently improving on clinical outcomes. Your website is a tool that can bring those three things together and we want to show you how.

 

 A Website That Works

Your website is how you keep the light on for your business 24/7. At any time in the day, a person searching for help can find you and reach out or get information that can truly transform their life. Your website can be the difference between someone feeling seen or motivated to take the next step toward therapy and a person giving up on the search for mental health services. Having your website do some of the work for you, lessens your burnout on running your private practice. It can hold a lot of information that otherwise would be laborious to get out into the world on your own. Your website makes your marketing plan more sustainable as it is consistently available to people searching for help. Your website also exists to attract the ideal client for your practice. The ideal client is the person you know you can help, and that you have the skills and passion to serve. This directly impacts the clinical outcomes of your practice. By working within your wheelhouse, you can continually improve on your service delivery. People are searching for the right therapist, but you are also attracting the right client for your practice. Your website serves both you and the client in making a match. When you work with your clients and get great clinical outcomes it acts as a loop, giving back to your practice. Your clients stay until they get the needed transformation, your retention improves, clients are more likely to refer to you and as you are more satisfied in your work it shows in the therapeutic relationship as well. This leads to more predictable income as well as consistent clients and clients referring to you. It’s a beautiful thing. But there are some things you need to make sure you have for a successful therapist website.

 Therapist Websites: Make It Connecting

A therapist's website is the hub for communicating who you work with, connecting with their pain, showing that you understand as well as talking about how you uniquely help and the transformational value of working with you. While people may find you in other places, they may come to your website for that final validation that you are the right person to reach out to. From the moment someone comes to your website, they should know they are in the right place. You want your website to reflect your ideal client through the copy and images. Because it is here that the first attunement can begin in the therapeutic relationship, far before the first session. Our coaching clients often remark how referrals reach out saying that they came to their website and wept because they felt seen for the first time. That’s the power of your website messaging. The message is about attuning to their pain. It’s not really about you all that much. When you talk about what the client is going through, you demonstrate your understanding of their pain far better than if you said “I understand, you aren’t alone.” Yes, you share how you help, but first and foremost you connect. Connecting through the website leads to attracting the clients that are right for your practice, the ones who get great clinical outcomes. Taking the time to create a website that really is a home base for your practice also makes your marketing way easier. Too often therapists think fancy designs make an impression when it really is the language used to connect.

Therapist Websites: Making it Accessible

 You want your website to be easy to use. Nothing is more frustrating than wanting to connect with someone from their website and it being hard to find out how to do that. You need a clear path on your website for what a potential client needs to do. Often that is going to a contact page to book an initial consultation, but whatever you want this person to do as a next step, make sure it is clear. Also, you want anyone coming to your website to get the information they need with ease. Making your website accessible means creating a website that someone with vision impairments can read, if there is audio or video then there is a transcript or captions, and the images have descriptions. The design should never distract from the content. We would also argue for using the language that your clients use. No more technical jargon that creates a barrier between you and the client.

 Therapist Websites: Making it Visible

You can have a great website that is connecting and accessible, but it must be visible and easy to find. When someone searches for a therapist in your area, you want to pop up as an option in their search. We refer to this as SEO, Search Engine Optimization (learn more about it here). We teach how to do this in our Business School for Therapists, but essentially you want your website to tell the search engines what your website is about and why it is relevant to show your website on search results. Creating a website isn’t enough, it has to stay up to date with information. Consider it an ongoing project to get your website to be ranked and visible. You also want to share your website with others. Put it on your social media accounts, email signature, business card, or digital card and in your other marketing materials. Since it is your hub of communication, with any points of contact with others you want to bring them to your website.

 

Therapist Websites: Making It Ethical and Compliant

As a therapist, everything you do in your practice needs to be compliant with the ethics and laws of our profession. This means you need to have the proper notifications on your website, such as your terms of use, privacy policy, & disclaimers. Use tools on your website that are HIPAA compliant, even for your contact form. Your messaging should never offer false promises about what therapy can do. You can speak to the hope in the transformation, but using quotes and making guarantees about outcomes are something to avoid.

Website Perfection

It can be hard to make your website public or to promote it. You might want it to be perfect. We believe that most therapists can easily start their website with just one page. You don’t have to have all the pages, bells, and whistles together before you launch your first website. In fact, we don’t believe you have to hire a designer and pay thousands of dollars for your website. You can definitely do that if you have the budget, but in our website checklist for therapists, we cover all you need to know to get started or to revamp your website. The sooner you get yourself out there the sooner people can find you, even if it isn’t perfect.

 Website Mirage

Sometimes it can feel like all you are doing is working on your website, but you don’t know why the phone isn’t ringing. Fiddling with your website is just a marketing mirage. Your website is a piece of the marketing plan, a tool, and not necessarily the only way people find you and decide to work with you. You still need a marketing plan. When it comes to your website you do want to add pages and make updates based on the needs of your practice. You also want to keep your website fresh with new content such as through blogging. But you also want to be building relationships in the community, building your visibility with the people you serve. The website is just the start of expanding your marketing and making your message more accessible. It relies on you going out there in the world in order for it to do its job. Need more support with your website? We have a ton of resources on our website checklist for therapists here. Our hope for you is that you continue to hold your clinical outcomes as part of the foundation of a successful practice. Your website is another marketing plan cornerstone where you can make decisions that influence that foundation. It is with your website that you can find more ease, attract the right clients, and continue doing the work you love.

Multiple Streams of Income or Multiple Streams of Distraction?

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

It seems like every other podcast and training for therapists is focused on multiple streams of income. Write a book, start a podcast, launch a course, start doing retreats, what about integrating plant medicine? 

The truth is, you DO have a lot of options as a Marriage and Family Therapist! But the grass is NOT always greener. Today we want to dive into how multiple streams of income can lead to more distraction, less profits, and more burnout so you can get clear about whether multiple streams of income really the right next step for you in your career is.

A Shaky Foundation

Many therapists get little to no training on how to run a business. In fact, many only have to take statistics in grad school- which is NOT helpful in developing a business plan! In fact, for many of us basic financial math was not taught or shared with us.

Colleges and universities would be doing themselves a disservice if they taught us financial math in many cases. Why? Because master’s degrees related to counseling and therapy continue to be among the top worst-paid master’s degrees. Showing a student the numbers in terms of income while they are investing sometimes over $100,000 in getting a degree is just bad math!

As we start to move into seeing clients during practicums and internships, we are often unpaid or severely underpaid. I was lucky enough in California as an MFT Trainee to have a job paying $15/hr where I could also gather hours. People were jealous of my income. And yes, I had to take a pay cut to do this work because I had been supporting myself working in corporate America previously.

Getting paid ANYTHING feels like a luxury. Most people around us aren’t getting paid much. So, being overworked and underpaid feels normal. It is normal… in this profession. We often replicate this when we start our private practices. Of course, we end up with practices that leave us living paycheck to paycheck, client to client, or without any retirement. You are NOT alone if you need more income as a therapist. You didn’t do anything wrong if you replicated and emulated what you learned and saw and are realizing it doesn’t work for you.

So, isn’t another stream of income, passive income, or a side hustle the obvious solution to this problem? In our experience, having coached therapists for almost two decades, in 90% of cases, it is a distraction from the real issue, and it will actually exacerbate the lack of income and overworking versus solve the problem.

Why are multiple streams of income a distraction for most MFTs?

The truth is, you likely don’t have additional time or energy as it is. You’ve been overworked and underpaid for so long. There are so many hours in the day. Many MFTs today are literally living and working with poverty wages, even with a master’s degree (or higher) and a professional license and it is NOT ok. The first step is not to create another stream of income and replicate being underpaid in a new way.

The first step is to get to the bottom of why your current business or full-time income is not fully supporting you. You should be able to live comfortably, have a savings account, go on vacations, pay down debt, and yes even do a bit towards retirement with one stream of income. If you living paycheck to paycheck, on income repayment for your student loans, etc. something is out of alignment. So, let’s start there.

Are you charging a fee that is truly sustainable?

We know you want therapy to be accessible to as many people as possible. But, if you are struggling to pay your bills, or even losing your love for the work because of the financial struggles that is not going to make therapy more accessible. In fact, more people are leaving the mental health field than entering it right now. We need as many MFTs to stay in this work as possible to make it accessible. So, can we get honest about what it takes to do this work? Here is a link to our free how to set fees training for therapists where we will dig into ethics and give you a clear formula for setting a sustainable fee.

Are you accepting sustainable reimbursements from insurance companies?

Why are therapists in Conway, AR getting reimbursed 40% more for the same CPT code as a therapist living in Los Angeles, CA? We can tell you it is not related to the cost of living. The truth is, insurance companies decide their reasonable and customary rate based on what therapists will agree to and based on making profits. In fact, according to Becker’s Payer Issues the top 5 insurance companies had profits of more than 40 billion dollars after paying their providers. Have you gotten clear on what your average fee or reimbursement rate needs to be in order to sustain. The truth is, the insurance companies are required to have available providers. They are not required to pay well. But, of course, in places where there are fewer therapists willing to say yes to low reimbursement rates, the rates will shift.

Are You Undervaluing Your Labor?

 Over the last several years we have seen online mental health tech companies come in and disrupt the mental health space in some good and bad ways. They helped normalize therapy. They helped normalize online therapy. But, in many cases they normalized very low contract rates for independent contractors, as well as putting advertising over quality of care. If you feel angry at what online mental health tech companies are doing there is only one solution. Do not give them your labor. Without access to boundless, cheap labor these companies cannot continue to underpay therapists.

While we believe multiple streams of income can be great- it is SO important that you focus on having one solid, sustainable source of income first. Often even additional sources of income come out of a balanced life and some stability. Otherwise, we will just keep replicating the therapist’s way of being overworked and underpaid.

As a member of AAMFT, you get special discounts for Business building help from zynnyme. You can learn more about how we help and your discount here.

Why You Don't Want to Be a Therapist Anymore

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

I stared at a stack of yellow files, all waiting for my review to be sent to Medicare for payment. Piles of notes and treatment plans made my soul sink. I didn’t go to school for this, pushing paper and unrealistic expectations and quotas on other therapists. I was worn out, irritable, tired and no longer finding joy in the work that I once had loved so much.

That’s when the thought hit me, “I don’t want to be a therapist.”

But I had invested so much time and energy to get here. Even after looking into other grad programs for a medical career, I decided to try shifting how I was doing the work and began a business on my own. 

Private practice was my last-ditch effort to fall back in love with my career.

Maybe you’ve felt it before, that inkling that something isn’t right or is creating a level of discomfort that you aren’t sure how much longer you can tolerate. Truth is, we have more people leaving our field than entering it. But why? Why do we really not want to be therapists anymore and is there anything we can do to change the course?

Reason #1 You Don’t Want to be a therapist: The mental health system is set up for burnout.

For all of us in this mental health field, we were born out of systems that do not serve us. Working for unpaid internships and practicums, and acquiring high student loan debt. All while the powers at be KNOW we are in fact some of the worst paid masters degrees. We come out of graduate school already set up for stress and overwhelm.

Add to that the weight of people’s lives that we serve, being told we are responsible for the outcomes when the resources of the system are so limited. The system is the cause of a lot of their mental distress, much of which we can’t do anything about.

When we wrote the book on Therapist Burnout, we realized that many people thought burnout came from just feeling stressed about work. Burnout in the mental health system is almost always  seen as a personal weakness, instead of a normal response to a broken system. In order to heal burnout one of two things needs to happen. One,  the system has to change or, two, we have to change how we interact with the system.

For example, I left my government job because it was causing burnout. I created a practice from there that supported my needs as well as for my clients. Changing the setting made all the difference in me continuing on my path as a therapist. Suddenly I truly loved being a therapist again, and I felt inspired to help other therapists find their love again too. It was like a switch flipped.

I know private practice isn’t the path for everyone, and that is ok. For those who don’t want to take the entrepreneurial route, can you change the system from within? it’s going to take push back, setting new boundaries and speaking up all in the name of self care to heal the burnout. The truth is, your labor is incredibly valuable! We are taught often that we are expendable, but truly our work is invaluable.

Reason #2 You Don’t Want to be a therapist: Private practice is failing you.

But what if you are already in private practice and you don’t want to be a therapist anymore? Private practice is the dream for a lot of therapists. It signifies independence and freedom. Often that freedom is sucked away by fears around marketing, low paying insurance companies with horrendous clawbacks, tech companies that take advantage of therapists and their clients and overwhelm with learning how to be a business owner. It is a lot and nobody learns these skills in grad school.

Many therapists go into their private practice with the same mindset they had in their agency work and replicate processes and ways of doing/being that often continue the harm they were trying to leave, such as unrealistic sliding scale fees, overworking, documentation that is over and above what is needed, and accepting any potential client who calls. Any chance to deviate from those norms has often led to being shamed by peers who tell them that what they are doing can’t be done or is unethical, such as charging a rate for therapy that allows them to live beyond the poverty line.

Side note: The sliding scale fee structures that we bring from non-profit organizations are often based on millions of dollars worth of grants that allow for pro bono or sliding scale spots. Those sliding scales aren’t appropriate, or sustainable for most for profit models without extensive grants. In fact, mental health attorneys advise AGAINST sliding scales in private practice for legal and ethical reasons. You can learn more about the law, ethics, and legal advice in free How to set fees training.

Before you end your career as a therapist, first look at what you created with this private practice and ask yourself:

• Is this really working for me? It is so easy as therapists to stay checked out focusing on everyone else. What is your body, mind, heart, and spirit saying about your life right now? Is work and personal life in balance and truly aligning with your values?
• Am I making a livable private practice salary? You may need to relook at your financial plan to ensure you have a fee that is viable for your needs to live in your community with balance and health.
• Am I doing things that don’t make sense and drain me? Whether it be your documentation processes or billing, look at how you have been running your process and see what you can streamline, eliminate or delegate.
• Do I have support in private practice? Private practice can be isolating. We have seen many therapists go back to employment simply because they felt so alone in private practice. You want community in your personal life and in your business. For your private practice, that might mean getting involved in a local AAMFT chapter, inviting colleagues out to get together, signing up for group case consultation and more. You may need some direct guidance and support from an expert, whether that is clinical or in the realm of running a business. You don’t have to do everything on your own.

Once you look at these questions you can either choose to make adjustments or you may decide that private practice isn’t for you. That is all ok. The goal is to create a way of working that really lights you up, not sucks you dry. Private practice may not be for you or your private practice may simply need some adjustments.

Reason #3 You Don’t Want to be a therapist: Obligation is dictating the focus.

The style of working or the way you offer your services might be coming from a place of obligation and not conscious creation. You do what you have been taught to do or feel you must do. You know when you were taught that a 45-50 minute session is the standard of care. Sure, for billing insurance companies it is, but that doesn’t mean that is proven to be what is needed for great clinical outcomes with the clients you like to work with and how you like to work.

Many therapists who don’t want to do this work anymore are really no longer wanting to do the work in a way that doesn’t fit them. Yet, we are raised to fear losing our license so heavily that we become paralyzed with our innovation and creativity.

We have helped many therapists engineer clinically outcome focused services that break the mold of traditional therapy. From walk and talk therapy, intensives, retreats, longer sessions, shorter sessions, it’s all a perfect opportunity to really evaluate if the service you are providing is one that you believe in and do good work in.

Reason #4 You Don’t Want to be a therapist: Clients are draining.

Another reason you may want to quit being a therapist is because of who you are doing therapy with. This is not to blame or shame the client. This is to simply explore that you may have said ‘Yes” to working with people who are not a good fit. Or, something for you has shifted and who you once loved to work with, is no longer the case.

How does this happen? There is often an unspoken code that if you are a helper and a healer, you do not discriminate or turn people away from healing. That would be cruel! You can’t be a good therapist unless you are truly willing to help anyone that comes through your door.

It could be argued that it is quite the opposite, the more clarity you have leads to better clinical outcomes and is better for the clients for you to refer out than to work with them from a half hearted or burned out place. People get better clinical outcomes when they have a focus, speciality or passion behind who they are serving.

Take Sam for example. They loved doing couples work but after their own recent divorce, they find working with couples to be absolutely challenging. We would never suggest that Sam just suck it up and work through it. Instead, we recommend Sam to honor the challenges and changes in their own life and to see where else there might be passion for them to see clients - such as with individuals. Ask yourself if the clients you are working with are ideal for you and make a commitment to only working with those who you feel drawn to support out of ease and confidence, not fear or scarcity.

Reason #5 You Don’t Want to be a therapist: Avoiding the feeling and projecting the solution.

You might be blaming the work of therapy for dissatisfaction in your life that is sourced from elsewhere. Instead of giving ourselves space to feel our feelings and understand the sadness, yuck and muck we can tend to look at our work as what is wrong and what needs to be fixed.

“I went to work today and I just didn’t want to hear another person talk about their pain.”

You can’t address an internal issue from the outside. It has to come from within.

Sure, this could be because you don’t want to do therapy, or it could be that you aren’t well resourced in your own life due to stress and other circumstances. But then it can quickly turn into “the solution could be a career change”.

I can’t count how many times people have come to me wanting to quit, and then with time and feeling they realize what is really going on are things in their personal life - all very valid and real stressors.

Before you jump ship, look at your life and what it is asking of you. Does it need more time and attention, compassion and love so you can then make a decision about your work from a place of grounded confidence and not exhaustion from your daily struggles?

Please don’t go.

Or at least, before you do consider whether your environment or system needs a shift. If you still feel a change is necessary, know that the lessons learned will enrich your next journey. Creating a fulfilling career is about discovering or even inventing paths that bring joy to your life.

Need assistance? Our Business School for Therapists, operational since 2010, has aided thousands of therapists in finding their passion and navigating the financial aspects of their practice. We're here to support you in this journey.

Recession Proof Your Private Practice

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

As therapists, our job is often to sit with people’s fears and anxieties. But what happens when WE are anxious? With growing uncertainty about the economy and global crisis happening many therapists are asking themselves whether owning a private practice is truly sustainable during a recession. Today, we want to talk about some real data, and real options to recession proof your private practice as a therapist.

"Wait, does that mean you think we are going into a recession?" Whether we go into a recession next month or in the next decade, we want to share what every therapist who plans to grow, launch, or maintain a private practice should do to recession proof their private practice. Ultimately, we aren’t financial analysts, and even they can’t always agree!

So, why do you get to talk about recession proofing private practices?

In 2008, Miranda over at zynnyme launched her cash-pay private practice during the recession in one of the worst-hit cities in the United States. And guess what? It flourished. Kelly built her practice during the recession in a city saturated with therapists.

We know every recession is different, but we think there are lessons we can bring forward from our pasts that help us to navigate our futures.

Defining a Recession

A recession, by definition, is “a period of temporary economic decline during which trade and industrial activity are reduced, generally identified by a fall in GDP in two successive quarters.” Effects of a recession often include high unemployment rates, defaults on loans and mortgages, and a flurry of public policy decisions related to managing the change in cash-flow AND attempts to stimulate the economy.

Worst Jobs During a Recession

According to Yahoo Finance and their analysis of employment data from the downturns in 1990-91, 2008-2009, and 2013, the following were the worst jobs to hold during the recession: tradesmen (plumbers, construction, etc.), manufacturing workers, CEOs, drivers, farmers, and finance workers. While many therapists “feel” like mental health and helping professions are the first to go and the least needed, this actually doesn’t align with the data.

A Recession-Proof Business

In fact, every list of recession-proof industries we could find (like this one) included healthcare. Some lumped mental health in with physical health; other lists listed psychologists, social workers, and others as the jobs least impacted by previous downturns and recessions.

Statistics Are Great, But What Happens in Real Life?

Here’s a bit of Miranda’s story: I quit my county job with amazing benefits in the spring of the height of the 2007 recession after receiving a clear message from my higher power that it was what I was supposed to do (it was literally written down on a slip of paper!). I was already teaching and had jobs at a local junior college and at a local university. In October, I started a cash-pay private practice. People thought I had lost my mind.

I hadn’t been licensed long enough to get on insurance panels. I knew VERY little about how to run a business. And I had a child that I was nursing at home. I built my business, designed my website, and learned online marketing during my child’s two naps during the day. He didn’t sleep well at night (and if he skipped a nap during the day, the nighttime restlessness got even worse).

I knew what I was supposed to be doing, so I kept my blinders on and just took one small step at time, day-by-day and week-by-week. I had a great clinical reputation at the local psychiatric hospital and with agencies, but people I respected said they’d only start referring to me once I was on insurance panels… you know, the ones I couldn’t get on because I hadn’t been licensed long enough.

I figured once I was eligible for insurance panels, I’d consider them if my practice wasn’t full or growing. Then, guess what? It grew! People hired me, they came to see me. Couples on unemployment budgeted for couples counseling while living with their parents because their relationship was EXTRA important during the recession.

That cushy county position with the great benefits that I left? They started doing furloughs and reducing benefits, and my old coworkers had to manage with decreased income while I was able to adjust my income. In fact, my spouse’s industry was eventually impacted by the Great Recession, he was laid off, and I was able to adjust my business plan and hours to ensure that we could pay our mortgage while he went back to school.

Make More, Work Less

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

Make More and Work Less as a Marriage and Family Therapist

As a marriage and family therapist, you’re too often expected to accept low-paying opportunities with long working hours and few areas to improve your income. In fact, Monster.com posted the top ten worst-paid jobs requiring a master’s degree… and 50% of them were related to our counseling, psychology, and social work!

We know how much you work — especially as trained MFTs ourselves — and you deserve more than having to do free work for nonprofits and agencies while pre-licensed, only to continue getting paid so low as an MFT that you consider doubling your hours or getting a second job.

The bottom line: You DON’T have to listen to what professors, supervisors, and fellow therapists claim you “should” be doing when it comes to working hours and pay. There’s nothing unethical or illegal about being paid a sustainable wage or working sustainable hours!

So, are you suggesting MFTs should start a solo or group practice?

If you’re looking to build a sustainable, fulfilling career where your schedule is flexible and your income allows you to pay off your student loan balances, start saving, and maybe even purchase your own home, then private practice is definitely worth considering!

But we’ve noticed a lot of problematic trends since becoming private practice business coaches back in 2010, and a survey we sent out to private practice therapists in 2023 really emphasized what we found to be true for many of the people coming to us for guidance.

When you consider the average of the 400 responses we received, private practice therapists expect to be working 47 weeks a year while supporting 18 clients every one of those weeks and charging an average of $155 per session. That doesn’t sound so bad to many of you. But, let’s look at the reality of what can often happen when we take what we learned in underpaid and overworked positions.

Therapists are out there with session fees as $50. Some therapists aren’t charging for sessions at all. Some therapists are going over on every session they provide. And many therapists are still drowning in paperwork and struggling to find what works for them. Let’s look at what that all translates to based on the average person who responded to our survey.

Going over clinical sessions, survey respondents were unknowingly working an extra 4.3 clinical weeks per year unpaid by not ending sessions on time or charging for going over in sessions. In other words, you could be losing more than $11,000 per year to client sessions where you’re working overtime and not charging for it.

And, to make things worse, therapists who aren’t immediately completing their documentation (and instead procrastinating — because who really enjoys writing out progress notes?) work an average of nine extra unpaid 32-hour workweeks per year!

Oh, and did we forget to mention the average policy of not charging for no-shows and late cancellations, even though you said you would? Well, that’s another $5,500 per year of income lost.

Here’s what this all means:

 

Meditations for Marriage and Family Therapists

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

We know you’ve likely found or created great meditations for your clients. But, what about for you, what about meditations for therapists?

Meditations for Marriage and Family Therapists

As a marriage and family therapist, you help clients reconnect with their mind, body, and spirit. But when you’re not serving your community, how much time do you take for YOU?

It’s easy to dismiss your own needs when you’re prioritizing those of others, though we encourage you to push back against the narrative that you have to neglect yourself to truly support your clients. And that starts with integrating self-care into your regular routine.

Below, we’ve included some meditations for marriage and family therapists.

They’ll encourage you to slow down and reconnect with yourself at a pace that works for you, covering topics of gratitude, self-love, detachment, and money.

Give yourself permission this week to move away from the doing and embrace the simply being. Then, check out one or more of the powerful meditations below, led by Kelly Higdon, LMFT. We can’t wait to hear how they’ve impacted your life and business!

Gratitude Meditation

Without a clear, sustainable vision and plan, the day-to-day experience of running a marriage and family therapy practice can feel like it leaves no space for other areas of your life. That’s when you begin to focus more on the routine and all of your to-dos, losing sight of what matters most.

It’s time to remind yourself of all the people and things that contribute to your well-being. Maybe it’s as simple as the last meal you had. Or it can be about a relationship you value that brings a lot of joy into your life. Whatever it is, pause for a moment to really reflect on it and feel the appreciation for the role it’s played in your life, bringing you more energy and inspiration.

Take a moment to experience gratitude for your life and how it’s connected to others. How even the most seemingly “mundane” things are a gift and made possible by the communities that surround you — even if you might not always realize it in the moment.

Check out the gratitude meditation here!

Self-Love Meditation

After you’ve taken some time to reflect on the things you’re grateful for — as a marriage and family therapist AND as a human being with the power to influence the lives of others — it’s time to experience that power by sending some love out into the world (and to yourself).

There’s love within you, and it can be accessed at any time.

Shift your focus from what hasn’t been done and what needs to be done and start replacing all that built-up negative self-talk and shame with the grounding feelings of love.

You have a lot to offer as a healing professional, but don’t limit your strengths to the transformational work you do with clients. Because you’re deserving of love regardless of whether you serve the people in your life.

The simple truth is that each and every one of us has value.

Sometimes, it’s a matter of giving yourself the same love that you give to others — and deeply feeling and knowing you deserve that love just as much as them.

Check out the self-love meditation here!

Detachment Meditation

As much as we value gratitude and self-love, we also recognize there’s a time and place for detachment and untangling from the barrage of thoughts that can show up in your mind.

Whether it’s thinking back to a recent session with one of your marriage and family therapy clients that didn’t go as well as you’d hoped or ruminating on the difficulties you’re experiencing in your personal life, practicing detachment allows you to distance yourself from those thoughts.

Instead of being stuck in a cycle of anxiety, considering all the “what-ifs” and things you could do differently, the practice of detachment lets you observe each of your thoughts like they’re flowing down a river, acknowledging their presence and letting them go.

Remember: It’s not about judging your thoughts.

Even if your thoughts bring up feelings of discomfort, allowing them to be there and accepting them for what they are is what allows you to process them — and ultimately let each one of them go through their natural flow until they pass and plateau in intensity.

Check out the detachment meditation here!

Money Meditation

Your journey toward wealth as a marriage and family therapist happens at your own pace. It’s one-of-a-kind, based on your experiences, and it’s okay if you don’t have it all figured out yet. But don’t forget to recognize the progress you’ve made along the journey.

Think about your solo or group practice as a seed. From an outsider’s perspective, it doesn’t look like much is happening. And yet, as someone who’s constantly giving it the attention it needs to grow and flourish, you recognize its expanding potential. Then, one day — maybe when you’re starting to question if it’s all worth it — you see the positive outcomes of your efforts.

Your life and business may be growing without you even realizing it. The process may be slow, and sometimes even a bit frustrating (we totally get it!) but know that there’s value in your efforts. Maybe it’s a few months, or maybe it’s a few years. Eventually, though, as the income from your values-aligned practice reaches new levels, you’ll realize it was all worth it.

For now, it’s all about celebrating where you’re at and where you’re going.

Check out the money meditation here!

Share Your Thoughts on The Marriage and Family Therapist Meditations

How did these meditations for marriage and family therapists help you and your practice? Let us know your experiences below and whether you’re interested in us creating more meditations for you in the future! In the meantime, click here to learn all about our Starting a Counseling Practice Success Stories and Starting a Private Practice podcasts + where to subscribe for more!

P.S. If you’ve found any of these meditations to be valuable, know they don’t have to be a one-time listen. Incorporate space for reconnecting with your mind, body, and spirit on a regular basis — even if it’s outside of the context of your private practice business hours.

Costs for Starting a Marriage and Family Therapist Practice

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

You have your degree, supervision hours, training experience, and licensure… but what about a Marriage and Family Therapy private practice? Even though you’ve already invested a LOT of money into your education to become the kind of therapist who makes a real impact on clients, you feel completely out of your element when it comes to the business side of things.

And then there’s the dreaded question:

How much is a Marriage and Family Therapy practice actually going to cost!?

The good news: Much less than you might expect. In fact, all of the money spent on getting you to where you are today in your profession is the greatest expense you’ll need as a therapist. Yes, it’s true that you’ll need to invest some money into private practice, but it’s totally doable.

In fact…

Your Marriage and Family Therapist practice costs LESS than most businesses.

That’s right — you don’t need hundreds (or even tens) of thousands of dollars to start a successful, values-aligned private practice. It’s all about starting for a low cost and growing as you build a steady caseload of ideal clients to learn from and serve.

So, let’s get right to it!

Here’s how much starting a Marriage and Family Therapist practice really costs…

Checklist: Cost of Starting a Marriage and Family Therapist Private Practice

To make this easy for you, we’re going to cover things one at a time. You’ll be able to check off each of these items once you have what you need, so you can avoid confusion and overwhelm.

Alright, here we go…

1. A Physical or Virtual Marriage and Family Therapist Office

Whether you prefer to see clients in person or with secure, HIPAA-compliant telehealth software for online sessions, you need some kind of private space to practice therapy.

If you choose to go the in-office (or hybrid) route, look into subletting an office for $100-200 or less per month. The specific number depends on the area you’re practicing in, of course, but you’ll likely find it’s a lot more affordable than you might’ve expected!

Plus, you won’t have to pay for expensive furniture and may even negotiate a deal where you only start paying for office space after you start seeing clients. My personal experience as a Marriage and Family Therapist was that I only paid for the space when I had clients, and there was an hourly fee that only went up to a max of $75 for a couple night’s worth of rent per month.

Investment: $200/month
> Download our free Office Space Checklist for your private practice 

 

90 Day Business Plan for Private Practice Therapists

Guest Blog: by AAMFT affinity partner zynnyme

As a private practice therapist, you need a business plan.

But not just any plan. You want to create one that grows with your business and reconnects with those deep parts of you that give you the energy to make your plan a reality. Because private practice success looks different for everyone, and you want to be in genuine alignment with who you currently are — NOT the “you” from months (or even years) ago who had different goals.

Many therapists in private practice who develop an initial business plan, focus on a business plan that outlines broadly what they’ll do over the next 3-5 years. Then, that business plan collects physical or virtual dust as they start actually running their business. Often, the business plan and the day-to-day operations are completely disconnected from each other.

That is why we recommend starting with a 90-day business plan. It keeps things focused on things you can achieve and implement over the next 3 months. It helps reduce the overwhelm. And finally, it turns it from a dusty document to a game plan, so you know what you’re doing and WHY -- week by week and month by month. 

An effective 90-day business plan involves eight key elements:

• Your vision for life and practice.
• Your schedule and organization.
• Your documentation.
• Your processes.
• Your financial plan.
• Your niche and messaging.
• Your private practice website.
• And your marketing plan.

Let’s cover each of these areas in more detail…

Private Practice Vision

This is the foundation of your business.

As a reminder, it’s okay to change. In fact, depending on how long you’ve been in solo or group private practice, that might be exactly what your business needs to reach that next level!

When you’re creating your ideal vision, you want to include not just time for your practice but also time for your life. Journal about your one-of-a-kind strengths as a therapist — or, if you have some people in your life you can ask, share a survey with them (even if it’s anonymous).

It’s all about identifying (or reconnecting) with your core values.

Schedule and Organization

Just like your vision — you’ll notice a trend here! — you want to create a schedule that includes time for the impactful work you do AND your personal life. Figure out a way to organize your plan and tasks that works for YOUR brain and learning style. This isn’t one-size-fits-all!

And don’t forget to get your calendar organized. If you have multiple calendars, ensure they’re all in sync with each other. We personally recommend software like Google Calendar where you can have a virtual record of everything you need (and want) to do and easily make updates.

Private Practice Documentation

Do you have a way of doing your notes that allows you to finish in 5 minutes or less? Do you have a clear informed consent with a clear cancellation policy?

We recommend a 48-hour cancellation policy at minimum, but feel free to set up something like 72 hours in advance if that works better for you. The goal here, like with all the other parts of your 90-day business plan for private practice, is to create something sustainable.

And speaking of sustainable… we recommend a paperless office.

The less you have to lock away in filing cabinets, the more ease of access (and, for many private practice therapists, peace of mind) to your business and clinical documents.

Setting Your Therapy Private Practice Salary

Guest blog post by: Miranda Palmer at zynnyme

Let’s face it, you were called to do this work. You believe in the power of relationships and systems, and you’ve invested years and tens (or hundreds) of thousands of dollars into your training to deeply help heal systems and families.

But what happens when you sit down and do the math and realize what you’ve trained and worked so hard for won’t actually pay the bills (much less give you an option for retirement or reducing your hours at some point)? The truth is, most of us haven’t done that math. In fact, some of you chose this career so you could AVOID all that math. And yet, here we are. You’re noticing that your paychecks aren’t stretching as far, and your savings account is dwindling.

If that’s you, you aren’t alone. Marriage and Family Therapy and other counseling degrees are among the worst paid Master’s degrees in the United States. But, it does NOT have to be this way. In fact, many therapists make a sustainable income with their degree in private practice as either private-pay or an insurance-based practice.

So, what’s the big difference between therapists who are paid well and ones that aren’t? Is it their value as humans? As therapists? Their outcomes? Their location? I’m going to go out on a limb and say no. While location and other factors may impact insurance reimbursements, cost of living, etc., the biggest impact is therapists’ understanding of finances and making conscious choices about what they say “yes” and “no” to.

Therapy is priceless. Each one of you is priceless. However, when the bulk of therapists say “yes” to insurance reimbursements that fall below the poverty line, then insurance companies have no reason to increase reimbursements. When therapists shame other therapists who’ve done their math and charge a sustainable fee, then we lose as a profession both in connection and in our ability to do the work if those therapists feel shamed out of the profession.

Unlike work at nonprofits, it’s the responsibility of the owner of the practice to set the salary and benefits in their private practice. Unfortunately, many private practice owners set the salary without accounting for expenses, time off, time required to work on the business, retirement, or other benefits that are built into W-2 employment for other agencies or businesses.

So, a therapist who sets their income goal at $100k annually, for example, might consider that their salary. But, in a business, gross income and net income are VERY different. Many therapists average close to 40% in expenses, which drops that quickly down to $60k in a salary. However, that $60k salary in private practice is NOT the same as $60k in W-2 Income. You’re taxed at a higher rate for that income AND that $60k needs to include benefits.

Therapists often also set their available hours to work with clients based on their responsibilities while working for another organization. In most organizations, billing, scheduling, cleaning, bookkeeping, marketing, etc. are outsourced to others. In a private practice, however, it may initially be just one person who’s responsible for all aspects of running the business. A therapist who easily saw 30 clients a week at an agency and worked a total of 35 hours may find that even 25 clients a week translates to 50-60 work hours per week.

So, how do you set your salary in private practice?

You need to get clear on the number of hours you want to work per week both in the chair and out of the chair. If you want to work 32 hours per week, for example, I’d recommend starting with a clinical goal of no more than 60% of those hours. So, in this case, a max of 19 clients a week.

You need to explore the weeks you’ll work per year. How many weeks do you need to plan on being out due to illness, vacation, taking care of loved ones, attending clinical trainings? Setting your fee based on this can have a HUGE impact on your bottom line. If you work with families or children who take summers off or you find you have a summer slump, you might also work this number into your total weeks worked per year.

You need to get clear on the costs of starting a business and expenses, including your need for a salary and benefits. Technology, internet, office space, malpractice insurance, retirement, clinical training, etc. There’s a LOT to starting a private practice – it’s a business, after all. Simply setting a random fee without understanding what’s involved is not going to have the impact you hope for! Take some real time putting costs together for your unique situation and practice to develop your gross income goal.

You need to understand the tax implications of being a business owner so you don’t end up with 15% less than you thought you would after accounting for self-employment taxes!

As a VERY rough starting point, you need to look at your gross income and divide that by the number of weeks worked per year. That lets you know what income you need to bring in weekly on the weeks you work on average. After that, you take the weekly average and divide it by the number of clinical hours you want to work.

Feeling a little overwhelmed? You’re completely normal! We believe this is something best done with support and as part of a community. Our next AAMFT-sponsored training, we’ll dive into this for an hour in more detail with lists of expenses to plan for and answering your burning questions about insurance, sliding scale, and more! Click here to register today.

3 Ways to Market Your Private Practice for $0

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

No private practice has an unlimited budget, no matter if you’ve been open for six months or six years. Marketing your practice website is one area where the costs can really pile up if you’re not careful.

For example, you can spend as much money as you want on Google Ads but there’s no guarantee that you’ll see a return if you don’t consider your strategy carefully. (And even then, there’s no guarantee!)

That means it’s important to make the most of your money wherever possible until you get a better feeling for what works for you and your unique practice. Here are our quick suggestions on zero-dollar ways to market your private practice website. 

Free Ways to Market Your Private Practice

Social Media Marketing

One of the best things about social media marketing is that it’s totally free to get started. Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter don’t charge you any more than an individual person to open an account for your private practice and start making public posts.

Not only that, but a regular and thoughtful social media marketing strategy can build awareness for your brand and even improve your website’s search engine optimization (SEO), making you more visible to Google search engine users.

Click here for more great Social Media Marketing strategies!