The Practice of Therapy

Gordon Brewer:
Well. Hello again everyone and welcome again to the practice of therapy podcast. And I'm so happy to have with me today. Alyssa Adams and Alyssa is again, one of those great people I ran into online and started a conversation. And so Alissa, welcome.

Alyssa Adams:
Thank you. I'm really looking forward to be here.

Gordon Brewer:
Yeah. And Alyssa's superpower is really just around helping people leverage their skillsets to maybe move into coaching and doing kind of some of the things that Alyssa and I both are doing here in this whole private practice world. Private practice space are therapists counselors space. So Alyssa is, I start out with everyone. Why don't you tell folks a little bit about your private practice journey and how you've kind of landed where you are.

Alyssa Adams:
Sure, absolutely. I feel like it's been kind of a long and meandering journey as it probably has been for most of us. But yeah, so I right now I am doing a few different things, so I kind of liked the variety, the variety in my work. So I work with therapy clients specifically who have anxiety disorders. And then I have these other coaching elements to my practice where I do business coaching for therapists and other coaches. I do a bit of leadership coaching. And it took me a while to really settle into the idea of like building a business, building a practice where I'm serving people, but the practice is really based around my expertise and not around just like one modality specifically. So I think through a lot of different iterations of kind of what I wanted things to look like, I sort of settled on this place around trying to really build my practice in a way where I'm serving people in a variety of different ways. It's, you know, fulfilling. I'm always kind of tapping into what it is that I want to be doing, how I can help and serve people in different ways and really creating some variety. So it's been cool to step into that and then also help other folks do the same thing around like what can you do outside of the therapy room, right. That would help you kind of expand and grow your practice.

Gordon Brewer:
Right, right. Yeah. And I know as we spoke about when before we started recording is just one of the themes that I think I've run into this year is just the importance of being able to look at other ways to really do something beyond just the therapy room for therapists because you know, that's, that's kind of our bread and butter. But one of the things that quickly happens and that a lot of people discover is, is that they kind of hit a ceiling to some degree about their earning potential and just being able to expand their practices in different ways. Certainly you could start a group practice, bring on other therapists, but just for therapists personally, just being able to expand their knowledge base and just, like you said, their expertise. I guess the question would be what have you found that has worked for you and how you're helping others as well?

Alyssa Adams:
I think one of the things that kind of helped me a little bit as I thought about how to bring coaching onto my practice is really like why coaching, you know, why would I want to add that particular type of arm to my business? And you know, I think as therapists right there, we have such a rich skill set around helping create change and create transformation in people, right? It's, it's really huge part of what we do. So it was interesting to think about like how that can look different under a different umbrella or how do we use some of those skills and translate them into the coaching space. And you know, what's different, what's similar and kind of just really learning about how to help support people in a very different way but yet that you're really well prepared for.

Alyssa Adams:
I really kind of explored why, you know, why add coaching? So I did go back to get some additional training in coaching so that I felt like I could kind of wear a different hat when I'm helping my coaching folks versus when I'm helping my therapy clients. So that was something that was really helpful to me is to be able to conceptualize cases differently, understand how to help and support people in different ways, you know, how do you create change as a coach versus as a therapist. And they're just such interesting like intersections there where you know, you get to really use your skillset but kind of in a different way helping people at different points in their life career.

Gordon Brewer:
Yeah. And I've had that conversation with several other people. I think maybe, I guess the right word is a stigma that we have in our own training, just as therapist in the whole clinical side. There's maybe some, a little bit of adversity against being a coach versus a therapist. And so how did you, how did you kind of reconcile that for yourself? And just thinking about all of that.

Alyssa Adams:
I think, you know, I've tried to bekind of an ambassador into both worlds, right. And, you know, helping coaches who I have as colleagues better understand therapy and what that looks like and how that's different, how to work together. And then also therapists really better understand coaching, how that's different and kind of how we can sort of work together in that space. Yeah. You know, I think, yeah, there definitely is. I think some myths out there too about coaching. I think I think since it is a less regulated field you know, we can sometimes see, you know, folks who maybe don't have a lot of training or experience or background kind of stepping into spaces that feel maybe uncomfortable for. Some of us are feeling, you'll kind of worry some of course. Right? So I think there is also room and space for us to be really well trained as coaches and really understand the parameters of coaching and how to kind of stay in that space when we're in it.

Alyssa Adams:
So I think if we kind of come at it from this like really open place of just better understanding what that actually looks like, what it is, what are some of the skills you know, it was interesting I think to do some coach training around learning the areas of overlap that there are with our existing skill set as therapists and then really stepping into this space around like things that are kind of different, you know, and things that I did not know and that were new to me. So I think always coming at it from that kind of place, being just open and wanting to be curious about it for me has been really helpful. And also as I talked to other folks about it, you know, how can you make this fit and still keep the integrity of your clinical practice as well as the integrity in your coaching space.

Gordon Brewer:
Yeah. Yeah. So what are some of the things that you've landed on with that and just try, you know, I guess a big question that people ask, and I've asked it myself, is how does, how is coaching different than their therapy?

Alyssa Adams:
I think at its most basic, and this is not an exhaustive list, right? There's lots of ways it's different I think. But you know, one of the ways of course is that I always have my diagnosis hat on when I'm working with people as a therapist, right? I'm conceptualizing under the framework, usually have a diagnosis of some type of mental health concern that they've come in for help with. You know, coaching doesn't have that component of course, right? So often we're moving towards a very specific goal you know, wanting to maybe grow their business and get more clients or in the leadership space, they're wanting to communicate with their team better or, or exemplify stronger executive presence when they're meeting with people.

Alyssa Adams:
The topics on the list are usually different to me, at least in my work. For me, what I found helpful, at least in keeping things sort of separation is that my niche areas are pretty different. So then it feels really kind of clean and clear in my head. You know, since I, I've been doing therapy for a long time, right? I sort of, I think I'm kind of wired as a therapist, as many of us are. So to sort of step outside of that, I wanted things to be really kind of clear and different so that the topics would feel very different. How I communicate about them as different, how I think about the person in front of me is different. So I think sometimes coaching have a little bit more of a narrow focus. It's more kind of targeted, in many ways. So those are kind of the ways that for me, I help keep my different hats on.

Gordon Brewer:
One way I've heard it described is with coaching, you're really helping people work on a specific problem versus working on a specific condition. Yeah. You know, our state of being you know, in that you know, coaching someone through a marriage problem, maybe they're having trouble talking about parenting, you could do coaching around, around that issue versus, you know, mayor's therapy, which is really more I'm wearing, I'm an MFT. So I think this way just in terms of marriage, but working on how to make more of an emotional connection within the marriage would be more therapeutic.

Alyssa Adams:
Absolutely. I always think too of like, if we're, we're in a space of processing a lot of emotions or things that have come up or you know, stressors and we're, we're in this place of exploration that tends to be more suited for therapy, right. That's more of kind of a therapeutic umbrella to it. And you know, often we're, we're talking folks who are kind of in a place of suffering and helping them kind of come back to baseline, come back to kind of how they were before. We're coaching, as you said, can be a lot more specific and kind of focused on moving the direction of this particular goal or you know, increasing a skillset in a particular area. I have to say that there isn't overlap at certain times, but the kind of overall focus and direction always feels very different to me.

Gordon Brewer:
I know one of the things that you've been working on is really helping therapists move into the whole area of adding coaching as part of their services. And so tell, tell folks about that and just kind of maybe some strategies around that. And just thinking about, you know, how you help people do that and, and also just ideas around that. Yeah, that's a broad question.

Alyssa Adams:
Yeah. I'll do my best to try to dive in to make that succinct in my answer. So usually when I'm talking with people there are a few reasons it feels like come up over and over again as to why they might want to add coaching. Right? It's either you know, they kind of have a full practice and they're looking for ways to diversify. And I think often we get people who are a bit feeling a little uninspired or feeling like they want to add or infuse their work with some creativity. They want something different. They want to try something kind of new and leveraging their skillset and it's like a really different way. Look, want to work with a different population. So I think, you know, there are all these different kinds of factors that, that I think people bring up when they first start to explore the idea of adding coaching.

Alyssa Adams:
So we'll dive into that a little bit more. Like why they want to add coaching, how they want it to look. You know, and there are so many different types and, and focuses on coaching. We talk a lot about what type they might want to add. And is that similar to their therapy specialization or is it something that's very different? You know, some people kind of have different perspectives on that and what kind of feels right that's for them. And then we're getting really clear on how they want to help people, what they want to kind of target as the thing that they do coaching, kind of niching into that specialty for coaching. And then we're talking a little bit about how to get visible, how to get coaching clients, how to pull those folks into your practice. And I'm also taking people who step or who reach out to your practice and help them go down the right shoot in terms of, you know, is this going to be a coaching client?

Alyssa Adams:
Is this going to be a therapy client? Depending on how similar your specialization areas are. So we're doing a lot of the kind of exploring and setting up of things to help them bring on coaching clients. And then inevitably it turns to, you know, how do I use my coaching skills? How do I not kind of shift into therapy mode or how do I really keep the integrity of the coaching process with someone? So it's kind of the business building pieces and then also the more like clinical pieces.

Gordon Brewer:
Right, right. Yeah. And it's you know, I know for me I've kind of been through this same journey myself where I started a dry, a traditional solo private practice as a therapist and then I added other therapists. And then, you know, I think for me doing what I'm doing with the practice of therapy, it really came out of a passion to help others. Cause I got excited about more about doing more and about helping other people learn what I've learned along the way. And so, as you said earlier, I think it really fits into that whole creative side of being able to, in some ways just kind of give back from our own experiences. Yeah. So I think that's, that's great.

Alyssa Adams:
Absolutely. And I think probably in a similar vein you know, I want people to kind of love their business, right? You know this is, you know, there's that whole piece of the kind of like exit the dental business owner. Like you're here to want to provide services and, and, and serve your clients and you love the work. And sometimes folks don't love the business building side of things, right? So if we can also kind of help them love growth of the practice too that can feel really rewarding in and of itself.

Gordon Brewer:
Right? Well, I think for anyone that goes into private practice or goes into business to be a practitioner, they go into it for a lot of different reasons. But I think a lot of, a lot of times the big reason or the big why that people have is that they want the freedom that offers a, of being you're being your own boss, really setting your own schedule and just having that autonomy that you can't necessarily get when you're working for somebody else at that level. And you know, the other thing too is that I think we need to be you need to have a little bit of an entrepreneurial spirit in order to do well in this, this whole arena.

Alyssa Adams:
Absolutely. Absolutely. And, and to your point, you know, I love helping people really kind of identify as a therapist entrepreneur, right? And how do we think about building that business based on your expertise? Why would you want to diversify? Why might you want to add coaching? Right? Is, is this something that may help increase your profit? Right? So being able to kind of step into that space as an entrepreneur for and look at your business from the subjective perspective around what will, what will help me have more autonomy, have more freedom, have more financial stability can be really opening eye-opening. I think for people when they're kind of allowed to think in that way, allow to see themselves as an entrepreneur, almost giving themselves permission to think about it as a business as well.

Gordon Brewer:
Right? Yeah. I think it's always important to think outside the box and get outside those traditional roles. And, and I think the people that I, you know, I think for the most part people that are able to do that and as I like to say, give themselves permission to do that. They find their work much more fulfilling. And just more rewarding to be able to branch out in that way. So I want to be mindful of your time and thank you for being on here, but tell, tell folks more about how they can get in touch with you and about w the things that you have to offer.

Alyssa Adams:
Sure. Absolutely. So people are welcome to schedule a time to chat with me. They can go to my website@dralyssaadams.com. And that's where I have information about how we can talk one on one. I do a networking group in the DC, Virginia, Maryland, Maryland area for therapists. I have lots of different things going on, so that's the best place to kind of find out more about what's happening with me. And yeah, I'd love to connect with anyone in your audience. Thank you.

Gordon Brewer:
That's great. That's great. And we'll have all this in the show notes and the show summary. Just help people get to it easier. So, well, Alyssa, thank you so much for being on the podcast. I enjoyed our conversation and hopefully, we'll be able to have another one here soon. Thank you so much. I love chatting with you. Yes.