Previous Associates now thriving in their own practice :)

Aileen Uy, LCSW-Link to website-www.autherapy.life

Jennifer Leupp, LCSW-Link to website-www.jenimarie.org

Sam Silverman, LMFT-Link to website-www.samsilvermantherapy.com

Tiffany Wright, LCSW--Link to website-www.tiffanywrightmsw.com/psychotherapy

Lira Ravenel, LMFT-Link to Psychology Today Profile

Cleo Oubre, LCSW-Link to Psychology Today Profile

Janna Zangger, LCSW-Link to website-https://www.safespacewithjanna.com

Tenesha Garcia, LCSW-Link to website-https://www.trueteawitht.com

Barbara King, LCSW-Link to website- https://www.barbarakingtherapy.com

Mariam Dion, LCSW-link to Psychology Today Profile

The Private Practice Model

The goal: To create your own mini practice while learning and accruing clinical hours for licensure with the intention to shift into your own practice once licensed. To be as independent from my business in order to operate on your own once our work together is over. To understand and feel confident in being your own business owner and a great therapist all at the same time.

Types of people who enjoy working in private practice: those who value freedom and flexibility in their work life balance. Those who are open to varying financial structures with clients to have bigger caseloads and diversifying clinical and financial interests. Private practice is more free flowing and more connected to the economy and market of clients themselves, however if you specialize in 2-3 things you generally will do well (ie set yourself apart from the generic therapist out there). Generally people only work 10-20 hours (so part time hours but full time pay so they can go about their lives in a balanced way with other interests etc). *Group practice models typically provide a lot of traditional benefits and consistent pay structures. However, this comes with most of those business’s having higher requirements and work caseloads etc which I have seen to lead to burnout etc.

Technicals: The private practice financial model is that you hold autonomy as a mini business person in what you choose to charge each client per your financial needs in your life. Your choice of this rate is based on the full clinical hour including note and documentation time. Private practice session fee rates include any other time you may spend on the case (Ie notes/documentation/consults etc). I value equality and egalitarian perspectives in private practice and want to work with people who want to build a mini practice under me (flexibility and freedom are important in this). The financial structure rounds out to what most consider a “50/50 pay” of which you are paid every 2 weeks as an enrolled part time W2 employee per BBS standard of supervision.

Example: You chose to charge 125 as your rate. You earn 62.50 for that case per clinical hour, 60k annually, if 20 sessions a week at this rate. Most range from 40k-70k depending on how you charge and how many clients you see. Some see 4 clients per week, some have seen 25+ per week with varying fees for clients. I also strongly encourage the biweekly model if it is clinically appropriate so you nor client is stressed about money and each week is full. On average, it takes 3-6 months to build a strong caseload depending on your flexibility with taking sliding scale rates and speciality. The less clients you see you will be at the bottom of this number, the more you see in a week you will be at the higher end. Even when licensed, the ebb and flow of the income ranges from 50-80k also (pre taxes). Being self employed in a private practice setting usually attracts people who want to work for themselves and not for others and a lot more freedom and autonomy in their lives.

The reality of being self employed is that paid documentation time is counted in your fee that you charge the client. So the same goes here in this model, notes and documentation are expected to be done within the clinical hour and/or with client or during supervision (50-53 min session, 7 min to briefly document in EHR) and be accounted for in your rate you choose. We talk about how to document in succinct and manageable ways. However, reality is private practice has free flowing structures in real life so sometimes you may choose to do them outside of this literal window. If that is your choice consider that it is part of the fee you have chosen to charge the client for your time to work on their case. Per ethical and clinical codes of conduct documentation must be done per the BBS and part of the quality of standard of clinical care we must uphold. If this is a challenge, let me know and we can problem solve (usually is how you write the note and time management in session. ie end on time and have EHR ready and complete note within 5 minutes, not long at all).

Supervision hour is paid at minimum wage $18 if you chose to attend to count clinical hours in a week

Per CA standard: 40 hours of sick time per calender year is accrued 1 sick hour per 30 clinical hours, paid at a lower rate than clinical rate (we discuss how to reschedule clients when sick if possible to not disrupt clinical care). Most never really use this as they have freedom and flexibility to rearrange schedule to still see clients within the week depending on what is the reason for using the sick time. Health first and the reality is in private practice client care needs to be balanced also. Consult with me if you need to talk this part through.

Per CA standard to offer retirement options: I provide a voluntary Annual membership to Ellevest (a female owned financial company for current retirement options such as 401k, IRA etc, financial planning programs and ability to have a SEP IRA when you are full self employed, no matching. We talk about how to create your own structures within your mini business such as taxes and pto etc.

Bonus Benefit: Access to CE credit program with over 600 trainings annually that include the ones you need for BBS renewals etc.

I am not able to offer health insurance-most of us (including myself) use Covered CA or other routes for health insurance.

*All consults, outside of session documentation time, research, trainings, can be counted towards BBS hours so there is value and reward in in identifying that for your professional development but not required by my practice. Also this is to be factored in your chosen rate you charge clients in private practice.

The other “50 %” cycles back into the business in order to operate supervision. This goes to monthly IRS taxes that I am required to pay to just host employees, state standard Workers Compensation I am required to have, EHR costs, office costs, time and dedication to supervision and being available to you at all times if you want or need support, my time to do the billing and administrative HR tasks like calculating and running payroll, balancing the books, etc. Saving towards your sick time if you choose to use it, if not used again this is cycled back into the program. Trainings that we do and I pay for annually for you. I honestly do not make a profit at all as it cycles back into the business to have supervision exist. I carry my own caseload for my own income

Excited to learn more if working together would be a good fit.