The Practice of Therapy

[00:00:00] Gordon Brewer: This episode is sponsored by therapy Notes, therapy notes.com. Be sure to check them out and be sure and use the promo code Gordon, G-O-R-D-O-N, and you can try them out for two months for free.
For the past 20 plus years, I've been working in the mental health field as a licensed therapist. Private practice owner, coach, and consultant, and I've learned a lot the hard way and I don't think you need to do the same. Hi there, I'm Gordon Brewer and welcome to the Practice of Therapy Podcast, part of the Site Craft Network, a podcast.
Whether you're just starting out expanding your practice or looking for fresh inspiration, this podcast is here to support you in your journey. Each week we explore the real world challenges and opportunities that come with building and growing your private practice from marketing and money management to f.
Ethics, client care and self-care. We cover it all. You'll hear from leading experts, seasoned clinicians, and innovative voices in the mental health and allied health fields, all sharing their insights and strategies to help you thrive in your practice. So let's jump in and get to today's. Episode of The Practice of Therapy Podcast.
Well, hello everyone and welcome to the podcast, and this is episode number. 400 of the Practice of Therapy podcast. And thank you for joining me for this special episode. I'm really thrilled to have made it to 400 episodes already and I was just reflecting, you know, a little bit about. Kind of the elu evolution of this podcast and the practice of therapy in general, and it's not been done by myself.
I've had so much help from so many people along the way and had, have had just so many great guests on the podcast and people that have influenced me in my life and my. And you're gonna get to hear from a lot of those folks here today on this particular episode, this special episode. You know, when I started the podcast back in 2017, which that's hard to believe, it's been around, we've been around that long.
There were not that many private practice podcasts that were out there now. There's a lot of 'em and a lot of great ones out. There, and a lot of those people have become great friends of mine, particularly through the podcast network that I started the Site Craft Network. And you're gonna get to hear from a lot of those folks in this particular episode.
But one of the things about being in private practice is that there's so many different ways in which you can go about doing what we do. And so. The, the goal of this podcast has always been to share resources, to give you good information about the different aspects of running a private practice. And also we've been delving into some of the clinical side of things with running a practice, particularly in the mental health field and learning some more things with there.
And so I am a constant consumer of knowledge and I always love. Learning new things and I love being able to share that with folks through this format and through this platform. And so again, thanks for joining me for this special episode. You probably noticed that if you've been listening to the podcast for a while, we've changed some things up a little bit different intro music there and we've changed the updated the cover arc and that sort of thing, so be sure and check that out.
And one thing I do wanna say in this particular episode and just the my how, my heart is just overflowing with gratitude for so many people and just helping me in this journey. And just not only, not only in my, in my practice, my private practice, Kingsport Counseling Associates. Just shared with me over life's ups and downs.
Uh, if you've been listening to the podcast a while, you've known that I've gone through some hard times in, in the last few years and people have been so supportive of me and just really, I'm grateful for that. And one person in particular I want to just express a lot of gratitude for is my assistant Rachel.
And Rachel has been with me pretty much from the beginning. I think she started helping me with. Getting the editing and show notes and all of that sort of thing, and really working hard behind the scenes at about episode 25 or 30. I can't remember exactly. You're gonna get to probably hear from Rachel in this particular episode.
But again, I just want to just let Rachel know how grateful I am for her and. Without her, I could not do this. And so I just wanna say that and let people know about that. So big out, shout out to my assistant Rachel Bond for being with me through the years and all the ups and downs. So, and she is the, she's the mastermind behind the scenes for this particular platform.
So in this episode, what we're gonna do is you're gonna get to hear from a lot of my former guests and people that I've, I'm associated with over the years, and they're gonna be just giving some tips on running a private practice from their perspective and the different things that go into that. You know, like I said, I've been.
Doing this for a while. I started my private practice back in around 2005, 2006, and it's grown from a solo part, a part-time solo practice up to, you know, I've got a small group practice now with five clinicians working for me and one admin person, and so. As I like to say, I've learned a lot the hard way.
And so part of the goal of this podcast is to share with you those resources, get those tips, and just give you lots of things to think about and learn from. And we've done, and, and I mentioned that we've, we've moved into starting to share some clinical topics. As well. And so I, I consider myself a lifelong learner and so it's just been really great to kinda get some perspectives on different clinical things as well as we've gone through all of this.
And so, yeah. And so this platform, this podcast is here for you and I'm glad you're part of the journey. One thing I will mention too is, is. That a big thanks to our sponsor of the podcast Therapy Notes. You've, you've been listening to the podcast for a while. You know, they've been a big supporter of this podcast.
You know, it takes some, some money to put this out there, and so with their support, we're able to get this out every week and be of support to you there. Therapy Notes is one of the leading electronic health record systems for mental health providers. I use it in my practice and absolutely have so much confidence in it, so check it out.
Practice of therapy.com/therapy notes. And so you'll hear more about that here later in the episode. But as we get started, I guess one of the things that I'd like to share is just maybe kind of my tip for being in private practice is, you know, when you're first, especially when you're first getting started, I think it's so important to remember to never compare your starting point.
To someone else's middle point or ending point. And I think a lot of times people really struggle with imposter syndrome around being in practice, but I want you to just think about all the knowledge you have and really give yourself credit for that knowledge and just being able to learn how to apply it.
As I say, over and over again, I've learned a lot the hard way. And guess what? You're gonna learn a lot the hard way as well. But I'm here to help guide you along the way. And my guests are here to guide you along the way in making your practice successful in all aspects from the, the business side of things and from the clinical side of things, and just being able to make your practice thrive.
So, yeah, so that would be my, my one tip. I've got a lot more if you ask me, but I'm not gonna go into it here because we've got lots of great. Comments and, and things from people that are gonna share their knowledge. So let's jump into this special episode of the Practice of Therapy podcast. This is episode number 400.
[00:09:22] Rachel Bond: Hi, this is Rachel Gordon's podcast assistant and I wanna share the platform. Gordon Trusts for his own practice therapy notes. Therapy Notes is the highest rated EHR practice management and billing software for mental health professionals. It's an all-in-one system for scheduling notes, billing, and secure client communication.
And if you ever need help, their 24 7 customer service is always just a call or email away their latest update therapy fuel. Uses AI to streamline documentation, generating progress notes, creating contact notes from client messages. And even summarizing client history forms, saving therapists hours every week.
Are you ready to give it a try? Head to therapy notes.com. Click start My free trial and use the code Gordon to get your first two months free. CY therapy notes is the most trusted EHR and the one Gordon chooses for his practice. Please enjoy the rest of the show.
[00:10:38] Julie: Hi, Gordon. Congratulations on. 400 episodes of the Practice of Therapy. I am so happy that there's such an amazing resource out there for a therapists in private practice, and I'm honored to have been a guest multiple times on the podcast. Uh, I'm Julie Harris from Green Oak Accounting and Firm that exclusively serves therapists in private practice and the Therapy for Your Money podcast.
So my tip, my number one tip for private practice owners right now in 2025 is. You have to know your numbers, specifically your financials. This is a time where practice owners are really being squeezed from all sides. You're getting, uh, increasing expenses. Your clinicians are asking for more money than ever before, and.
Insurance reimbursements are just not rising to the occasion here, and so it's harder than ever to make money in private practice. That means it's just a dangerous time. So you've gotta know what your financial numbers are, and you have to be looking at them on a regular basis to make sure that your practice is okay, because when you're a business owner, when practice owners are business owners.
Your primary responsibility is to ensure the survival of the business. And to do that, you need to make sure that the business is making money. That's how the math works, right? You have to bring in more money than it costs to run the business. That's how you keep it alive, uh, living and kicking and serving your clients for another day, week, month, year.
We're a decade to come. So again, congratulations, Gordon. Uh, you are such an amazing, um, friend to me and, and just such a, a beautiful presence in this industry. I wish you all the continued success. Congratulations on 400 episodes.
[00:12:19] Uriah: Hey Gordon, congratulations on 400 episodes of the podcast. That is just amazing. You've been doing this for so long, and I just wanna thank you for your generosity and your support for all therapists in private practice. Amazing. So my name is Uriah Guilford and I am a therapist and a group practice owner.
And I'm also the owner of Productive Therapist, where we help the therapists get more done so they can have more fun. And primarily what we do is provide virtual intake coordinators to help sign up new clients for the therapists in the practice. And my one best tip is something that I've been working on for so many years and I love doing, which is delegating.
So no matter where you're at in your practice, it's, it's really helpful and important to find your strength and focus on those things. Focus on what you do best and then find ways to delegate as much as you can. Whether that's help with building your website or handling your bookkeeping, or maybe managing your intake process, productive therapist.
Um, it's really helpful. It just allows you to have more free time to focus on what you do best and get the most out of your time and energy and money for that matter. So make sure that you delegate so that you don't burn out. Doing all of the things for your practice that you need to get done. I hope that's helpful and again, congratulations, Gordon.
400 episodes. You are amazing.
[00:13:45] Chris: Hey there, this is Chris McDonald and I am host of the Yoga in the Therapy Room podcast and I also own a private practice in North Carolina. I wanna say a big congratulations to one of my favorite people, Gordon Brewer, for 400 episodes. As a fellow podcaster, I know the amount of work and time energy that goes into that.
I see your passion all the time for helping therapists with private practices, and God knows we all need that support. And way to go for you, and I wanted to offer a private practice tip. One thing that I regret when I started was not networking enough with other clinicians. I have found that has been the biggest point for growing my private practice is.
Really networking and building community with other therapists, and I know a lot of you don't like to network, and I get it, a lot of us are introverted, but I encourage you to consider seeing networking as making friends. Making connections. Make a reframe for yourself because I will say this, I have made some of the most amazing friends from networking and we still keep in touch to this day from even a year ago, all the way to about eight years ago.
So just know that there are. Ways to make networking more accessible and easier for yourself and just get out there and do it. I highly encourage that. Congrats again, Gordon. I hope you have a great day.
[00:15:25] Steve: Well, hi everyone. My name is Steve Beal, my host, a podcast by the name of Resilience, development and Action on the Site Craft Network, and I was on Gordon's show on episode 2 62. The podcast was called Finding Your Way Through Therapy. Then now it's called. Resilience development in action. I was on the episode 3 82 to talk about this niching and being a podcaster, being a therapist has brought me a lot of different experiences and being on.
Gordon's podcast, not once, but twice has been such a blessing. You've also seen me on the YouTube lives that we've done, so go see those if you haven't seen those. But you know, what I really believe in is that, you know, 400 episodes, I, I've done half about half of that, and I know how much dedication it takes.
So nevermind 400 episodes. Those are years and years of dedication. Gordon is probably one of the most soft spoken. Straightforward person I've ever met. And what I mean by that is he is very, I'm much more of a loud mouth than he is number one. And that's not a bad thing, it's just differences. But number two, he tells you what it is and he's maybe soft spoken, but he's very direct.
And when you listen to his podcast, you get all the information you need plus, and he will tell you what he believes in, what he doesn't believe in. And what I truly believe also is Gordon gives people space, and that's why I think his podcast is absolutely amazing. Congratulations on 400 episodes of The Practice of Therapy.
Now, if I had one message and one thing I would like to share what all of you that Gordon really brought to me, but also I think. Everyone should know about if they ever do podcasting or whatever they decide to do. Private practice, group practice is, you know, knowing what you bring to the table. I think that what happens is we tend to forget.
We think about all these little details that needs to be done, but we forget what we bring to the table, which is enthusiasm, what we like, what we love. I think that that's what Gordon has always reminded me is that I bring a different point of view in him, like I said, but at the same time, he really always respected that and I think that my enthusiasm and his demeanor has just been a great combo, and that's what I would say to bring to any private practice, grew, practice or podcast.
You wanna start? I think this is a great advice for everyone to follow. Even if you don't do any of those things in your life, always remember that you know what you bring to the table. So that's great. Gordon, congratulations buddy. I know we talked a lot before. We're gonna continue talking in the future, but one to say congratulations and good luck.
For the next, what, 400 episodes maybe. Gordon.
[00:18:08] Avivit: Hi Gordon. Congratulations on the 400 episodes. That's an amazing achievement. Thank you so much for all the content that you put out there for your amazing podcast, and thank you so much for giving the platform for other people in the industry, people like me who want to help therapists thrive. I'm Avivi Fisher.
I'm the owner of Red Strategy, a marketing consultancy for therapists and private practice, and I help therapists fill their caseloads with private pay clients. So obviously my tip for private practice owners would have to. Do it with marketing and the most important marketing tip that I can offer you is building your email list.
Make sure that all this traffic that you bring from Google and all this interest that comes to you from social media, from uh, maybe podcasts and so on, converts to your email subscribers of potential future clients. This allows you to fill your caseload on your terms. I hope it was helpful. Congrats again on 400 episodes.
I'm so. Happy for you.
[00:19:23] Daniel: Hey Gordon. Congratulations on episode number 400. That is just amazing. You are, you're one of the OGs when it comes to great podcasts for this great community of private practice owners. You were one of the first people that I connected with and also just really supported. What I was doing at the time.
And so I'm Daniel from private practice elevation.com, and we help therapists and private practices really reach their ideal client through beautiful, modern and professional website design and development, as well as search engine optimization to be more visible and get found by your ideal clients.
And so I guess for one tip that I want to give is not so much of a tip, but something I've just been really thinking about lately is. It is just this mindset of how your website is more than just information. It's more than just a digital brochure, but it's really often the first therapeutic interaction that a potential client is going to have with you and your practice.
So think about how can you really serve and be there for those clients via your website. What that means is making things easy to navigate, making things. Easy to find the information that they're looking for, and also thinking through your intake process from reading content, whether that's a blog post or information about a specific service, to making it clear what they're supposed to do next, and then the follow up, because you want to have, people have just an amazing experience from the get go of just viewing your website.
Establishing that trust and that really sets the stage for great therapeutic work and having folks come in, you know, for the first time being ready to work with you and trust you and really, you know, get to the answers that they're searching for a little bit more quickly. So that's my tip, that's my mindset and just something I'm thinking about lately.
Congrats Gordon. Appreciate you.
[00:21:26] James: Hello, this is James Marland, of course Creation Studio and host of the Scaling Therapy Practice. I help therapists create income flow with the expertise they already know without adding extra grind or one-on-one sessions. I wanna say congratulations to Gordon for his 400th episode. Honestly, Gordon, I can say I wouldn't be where I am now without your support and encouragement and friendship.
Thank you so much for all you do for the community. My tip for private practice owners is find, find or create a group of people that you can get along, get together with who know you. Who can, you can support them and they can support you in a community because it's really, it's really difficult to do hard things like build a private practice, hire people, add more sessions, expand or even deal with some of the difficult times.
It's hard to do that all by yourself, and you can go much further with a group of people who know you, who understand you, who get you. Who actually really believe in you and see your potential even before you see it yourself, or even before you believe it yourself. So find that group of people and get involved.
You're not gonna regret it.
[00:22:53] Whitney: Hi, Whitney Owens here. I'm the owner of Water's Edge Counseling based outta Savannah, Georgia, as well as Wise Practice Consulting. Gordon, congratulations on the 400th episode of the Practice of Therapy. That was actually how I first met you, was through your podcast, and I couldn't believe when I finally got to meet you in April of 2018.
And you have been a dear friend of mine ever since. So the practice advice that I'm gonna give had to come outta your mouth coming here on the episode because it meant so much to me and it's a memory that sticks in my mind as we were out on the dock at Lake Lure and I was talking about a difficult situation that I was in in my life, and you just straight up said, Whitney, you have got to let that go and you have got to move on.
In private practice, there are so many issues, so many people that come up. Sometimes the best thing to do is to let it go. So thank you Gordon, for always speaking wisdom and truth into my life. And may you continue to have many more episodes on the Practice of Therapy Podcast.
[00:24:02] Christy: Hey, congrats Gordon on 400 episodes, so amazing. My name is Christy Pennon and I am a multi-passionate person. I am the owner of the Inspire Accounting and Consulting, a multi-location group practice here in Louisiana. I also love to support group practice owners with my practice bestie Steph Corporal through the practice collab.
And I'm a podcast host of inspiring possible, helping people crush their dreams and really make, make a life that they feel is meaningful. But if I would give a favorite practice tip, it would be just keep going. Just keep going. Just keep going. Kinda like Dory, just keep swimming. Things can be hard sometimes they can be challenging.
But if you just keep going and you keep on asking questions, find the right people to support you, you can make your practice dreams a reality. So congrats again, Gordon. So excited for you as you continue to help all of us along this journey.
[00:25:08] Stephanie: Gordon, 400 episodes. Congratulations. I am so excited for you. I am beyond impressed. At 400 episodes though, not surprised at all. You're an impressive person, but happy to be part of the community and share a tip. I was thinking about this and. It's kind of hard, but I think my tip, whether you're a solo practitioner, group practice owner with two or three people, or 20, 25, is to know your numbers.
That will drive so much good decision making. It will keep things clear, but gut feelings can sometimes lead us astray, but data can sometimes also support. Gut feeling. So if something feels off about calls, be tracking the calls. If something feels off about somebody's caseload, make sure you are tracking retention and things like that.
But knowing your numbers is going to make you successful. And so that is what I say to all practice owners. Again, solo or group or just anything in between. Congratulations. And here's to another 400. Bye.
[00:26:18] Jamey: Hey, Gordon. Congratulations on your 400 podcast episode. My name is Jamie Schreyer from Practice Freedom. You. I was just remembering how much fun I had when I was on your podcast and we were, we were getting into it, getting into what it takes to actually build a practice, getting into what it takes to mentally be prepared.
To build something that should be our greatest endeavor because your business provides you the the best possible life. It's the best possible investment that you have. Better than stocks, better than real estate. Your business is that. So what is a private practice tip that I have? I guess it would be as you go, the business goes.
So how do you. Protect your energy. How do you protect your time? How are you putting up borders? To protect your space because when you get overwhelmed, when you get inundated with emails and questions and stuff, we tend to be very reactive and we don't make good decisions, which later on comes back to bite us.
So protect your time. Free up your, get more energy so you can make better decisions and build your practice. Congratulations again, my man,
[00:27:43] Kerry: Gordon Brewer. Congratulations on your 400th episode, my friend. What an incredible accomplishment that is as I am learning right now. Way to go. My favorite practice tip, there's two of 'em that are kind of competing in my brain, but I think the most important one, make sure you take really good care of yourself.
Make sure that you are a living embodiment of all the things that you wish your clients were doing. So eating well, getting exercise, drinking lots of water, getting very nutrient dense, food taking really good care of you. Because you can't give from an empty well,
[00:28:25] Rachel Bond: hi, practice of Therapy podcast. I'm Rachel Gordon's podcast assistant, and I've been working behind the scenes with him since 2018. Today, I just wanna say a big congratulations on reaching 400 episodes. I've watched this podcast evolve from the editing desk week after week. Gordon shows up with such consistency and heart.
It's clear how much value this podcast has given to the private practice community. Even though I'm not in private practice myself, I've picked up on my own practice tip through podcasting. Consistency matters more than perfection. When you keep showing up, people notice that's been true for this show, and I know it's true for practice owners too.
Here's to the next 400.
[00:29:25] Gordon Brewer: Well, folks, I'm so grateful to all the people that joined me on this particular episode. They are dear friends, and I've really. Enjoyed getting to know most of them over the years. Like I mentioned, most of them, all of them really that have been, that are on this episode of being guests before, and you'll get to hear more from them later down the road because they're just good people and I'm so grateful to them for all the kind comments they made about.
The podcast and about what we're doing here because I feel like it's, hopefully you are, you're finding it this way as well. Just a great support to you along the way, and I would encourage you to go over to the website and just kind of look, look around at all the elder episodes. There's 400 of them here.
Folks, so there's a lot to listen to. But if you'll go to practice@therapy.com and just check it out, and also if you're ever interested in working with me individually, I'd love to talk with you about that. That's something that I've been focusing on this past year is just doing more and more individual consulting.
I just really enjoy developing those relationships and being able to just do more intensive work with people around building their practice. Figuring out the different aspects of things that where they might feel stuck and that sort of thing. But you can check it out by going to just practice of therapy.com and just click on the link there for coaching and consulting, and I'd love to hear from you around all of that.
And also, as I mentioned earlier, big thanks to Therapy Notes for being a sponsor of this podcast. I really couldn't do it without them, and I'm so glad they have been with me over these years. They are the leading electronic health record system for mental health providers. As I've said before, that they're who I use in my practice and.
Constantly impressed with all the new features they continue to add. There's now AI capabilities within that platform, just in helping you streamline the whole process of writing clinical notes and doing evaluations and all the different things that we need to do. Clinically on the back end and just running the practice and being able to handle all the things.
Therapy notes, helps you schedule people. It helps you has a patient portal. It's got telehealth capabilities. It really has everything you need to run your practice on the back end. So be sure and check 'em out. Practice a therapy.com/therapy notes. And use that promo code, just Gordon, G-O-R-D-O-N, and you can try them out for two months for free.
So again, folks, thanks for joining me in this special episode and thanks to all my friends that join me as well on this particular episode. They, they are truly great people and I'm so glad that they are part of my life. And hopefully you feel the same of them being a part of your life even it's. Even if it's just through listening to this podcast.
So take care folks. We've got lots of great episodes planned. So we're episode 400 is just a, a milestone and much more to come. So take care folks. Enjoy and do take time to follow us or subscribe to the podcast. Wherever you might be listening to us,
you have been listening to The Practice of Therapy podcast with Gordon Brewer, part of the Psych Craft Network of podcast. Please visit us@practiceoftherapy.com. For more information, resources, and tools to help you in starting building and growing your private practice. And if you haven't done so already, please sign up to receive the free private practice startup guide@practiceoftherapy.com and to find more great podcasts like.
This one, please visit the Site Craft network@sitecraftnetwork.com. The information in this podcast is intended to be accurate and authoritative concerning the subject matter cover. It is given with the understanding that neither the hosts, guests, or producers. Our rendering, legal, accounting, or clinical advice, and if you need help in these areas, be sure to find the right professional to help you with these things.