Our Guest
Dr. Kimberly Grocher, Ph.D.
Dr. Kimberly Grocher is a psychotherapist, executive coach and a yoga/mindfulness meditation teacher who helps her achieve optimal health & wellness by any means necessary. She is also the primary coach for the Private Practice Startup where she helps her fellow therapist start and grow their private practices. Kimberly currently practices in NY, NJ, FL, & MD.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kimberlybondsgrocher/
Transcript for this episode:
Josh: hello, welcome back to the Therapist Collective Podcast. I am super, super excited about my guest. She is actually my, one of my coaches for my private practice. Uh, Dr. Kim, oh, I’m always saying your name right. Kim Grocher. Grocher, yep. Grosher. Okay. Dr. Kim Grosher. She’s a psychologist, executive coach, uh, yoga mindfulness meditation teacher who helps her achieve optimal health and wellness by any means necessary.
Sounds aggressive. I love it. Um, she is also the primary coach for the private practice startup where she helps her fellow therapists start and grow their private practices. Um, currently practices in New York, New Jersey, Florida, and Maryland. Awesome. I’m so glad to have you here, Kim.
Dr. Kim: Thanks so much. I’m so happy to be here.
Just one clarification. I just want to, uh, I’m a psychotherapist by way of my license in clinical social work. So just kind of represent for my social workers, you know?
Josh: Awesome. I’m, I’m developing a huge amount of respect for social workers. Just the mindset that a lot of people have going into social work and the care for underprivileged and people who are, you know, generally oppressed.
Um, I know that’s not everybody obviously, but I just love that that’s what drives a lot of people to move into social work. And the more I get to know social workers through. through this podcast and, you know, just my colleagues, so much appreciation for you guys.
Dr. Kim: Thank you. Thank you. Social work is a special field.
Yeah, definitely that, that systems perspective and understanding how the systems that we live in and work in affect us individually and how they play a role in our individual issues. So whether we’re working at that, what we call like a macro level or. What most of us psychotherapists do, which is what we call micro, like direct, you know, there’s still so much interplay between both spheres.
And so being able to understand that and integrate that into the work with our clients, I think is really special.
Josh: Okay, but we’re here to talk about private practice. Yes. And, you know, why, if people are on the fence, maybe they’re working in agency or they’re doing something else and they’re considering private practice, why should they consider jumping into this and, and how to go about doing that?
So can’t wait to hear from you on that. I want to take just a quick break so that we can have a word from our sponsor and then we’ll dive right in.
Okay. So, Dr. Kim. Yes. Thank you. In a word or a sentence, why should someone go into private practice if that’s something that they’re just kind of teasing out in their mind. If they’re, if they’re thinking about it, why do you, why would you recommend it to them? Well,
Dr. Kim: I think private practice has so many benefits, right?
So, first and foremost, thinking about the therapist in question, right? You get to design. This business based on what you want, you know, based on your lifestyle based on your, your family and other obligations in your personal life. You get to decide who you want to work with. You know, I think so many of us come up in a community mental health or agency type setting, which I’m not knocking because I think there are a lot of benefits, um, to working in those environments.
But I don’t know if the way they operate these days is sustainable long term. And I think a lot of us begin to fall into this mindset of like, You know, I must see a tremendous number of clients each week, and this feeling depleted and not having time for my life, my friends, my family, my children, my whatever, at the end of the week is just a part of this career that I signed up for, and so if I’m really going to be this counselor, psychologist, psychologist.
Social work or whatever that I said I was going to be, this is, this is a part of the job. And so it’s not about the money, it’s about giving of myself entirely. For the benefit of other people. And I don’t think that’s a healthy mindset,
Josh: right? Yeah, to put it plainly Right, don’t hold back here. Dr. Kim. No, I agree and I love what you said about it not being sustainable long term Mm hmm.
I know that there’s people who want to be able to just show up to their job Do the work and then go home, which is not typically what happens if you’re a private practice owner. Uh, it can, but you have to work really hard to get to that point just because, you know, you’re a small business owner if you, if you’re doing private practice.
So a lot of challenges there, but the idea of grinding it out without having a whole lot of say so. Right. Um, that’s, that can be really discouraging. Exactly. And we don’t want people to get, um, Kind of disillusioned with with the, you know, the counseling that they’re providing because they don’t like where they’re working.
Dr. Kim: Exactly. Exactly. You know, something else you said you mentioned like diving in. Right. And so that’s 1 thing I want to kind of remind people is that you can dive in full time, you know, you can definitely quit your job, start your practice. Totally possible. But also if that’s not where you are right now, you can always dip your toe in
You can dip your toe in the water, you know? Yeah. You can see what it’s like, maybe a couple of evenings or one weekend, day a week, or depending upon your schedule, you know, you know, starting off with one or two clients. Mm-hmm. .
Josh: Yeah. I’ve got a friend who, um, is leaving, uh, she’s just left her work at the va.
And that’s something that she’s really trying to find that balance, right? She wants to be able to spend more time with her kids as well. Um, but, you know, she’s, she’s able to just work as much as she wants to. If she wants to work more, she can. I’ve got another friend. Who, you know, he’s really toiling with it, but in order for it to work for him, he has to go full time.
He’s the primary, or almost the sole wage earner in his family, and the idea of going from full time agency work with full time benefits to being all on his own, that’s a little scary for him, right? Yeah. There’s a, there’s a lot of fear associated with With doing that. And what does that in between look like?
Right. We can’t just put our job one day and have full caseload the next day. So you mentioned mindset. How do we overcome that fear that might keep you from choosing to go out all on your own?
Dr. Kim: Honestly, I think the biggest thing that we can do to overcome that fear is finding community. Really being around other people who have done it, who are doing it.
Maybe getting some coaching. I always like to use this metaphor when I was younger, well up until maybe about a decade ago, I played soccer for many years. And so one of the things I remember my high school coaches always telling us is always try to play with people better than you are. Yeah. Always try to play with people further ahead than you are, because you’re forced to play up.
If you’re just hanging back with people who are not doing it, who are, you know, maybe afraid like you are, and just kind of, you know, like, not telling you to get rid of those people in your life, not at all, but maybe starting to find people, again, who are on the path, who have done it. To kind of talk to you about their experiences, how they’ve overcome things.
So it starts to become a new normal for you when something, when we are in a community of people who are just doing a thing, it’s kind of like, Oh, well, this is just the next step. We don’t necessarily have to think about, well, you know, how do I do this? I’m the only one, blah, blah, blah. That can make it a lot harder.
So finding a community, um. Finding coaching, um, can be really helpful with helping you to overcome that fear.
Josh: Yeah. Because chances are the people that you are surrounding yourself with have been there, right? Exactly. They’ve dealt with that. They’ve got a success story on the other side of it. That tells, that can inspire you to say, okay, you know, if, if they can do it, so can I, right?
Exactly. If Josh can go out on his own. Yeah. Anybody can.
Dr. Kim: Yeah, but that’s a good point though, right? Like finding people with different circumstances too. Like you said, you mentioned your two friends who have different realities. Right. Um. And so the path looks different for each of us. So finding a variety of people with different life circumstances that are doing it to say like, okay, well, if they can do this, I can do this.
Josh: Yeah. Yeah. But I love the idea too, that you mentioned about just surrounding yourself with people who are more advanced or further along or, you know, better in the, you know, in the sense of not better as a person, of course, but just better, you know, they’ve got more business sense or they, they’ve, they’ve got skills and areas that you want to grow in.
Um, I think that’s one of the reasons that I’ve loved our, our coaching group so much is that, um, you know, twice every two months when we get together, I get to sit and listen and I always walk away feeling like, yeah, I can do that. And that’s part of where. the therapist collective, uh, came from actually, uh, Kim was, was a conversation that you and I had a couple months ago and you started talking about podcasting and getting yourself out there.
Um, and certainly don’t feel like I’ve arrived in any sense. This is just getting going, but, um, without that nudge from, from you and from the others in the group, but you know, it may not have, may not have happened. So. And now I’m excited as we’re, as we’re getting this going. So thank you for, for being the inspiration that brought this about.
Dr. Kim: You’re so local. I’m so excited to hear that that conversation inspired you and this, and this is what has come of it. So I’m very excited for you.
Josh: So as, as you work, uh, coaching people who are wanting to get started, uh, what do you notice some of the, the most dominant challenges being, you know, when, when you are helping people to overcome those initial steps, where do you find people getting stuck, the most discouraged, and then how do you help them to move through that?
Dr. Kim: Sure. So I think some of the places where people get stuck, definitely what we just talked about is mindset, you know, and fear and wondering if I can do this, how should I do this? Um, I know for a lot of social workers, I’m not sure if it’s the same in the other, uh, therapy and counseling professions. But, you know, there is a lot of judgment sometimes around going into private practice.
You know, it’s kind of like, well, you’re, you know, you’re not really serving all the people you said you would serve or we’re supposed to serve. You know, I would say, um, what you think of when you think of social work, right? So, uh, I think there’s a lot of trying to overcome that judgment or realizing that judgment is really a myth.
Um, there are a lot of different ways to serve people and a lot of different avenues to do it. Um, so I think those are some of the biggest hurdles. Next up is What’s the first step?
Josh: Right. How do I begin?
Dr. Kim: Exactly. Like, what, what do I need to be doing first? Am I, am I getting clients? Am I filling out psychology today pages?
Am I actually starting a business entity? And how do I do that? Um, is it the paperwork? Like, uh, who am I working with? Is it getting on insurance panels? You know, um, Okay. Yeah, like, what is, what, what do I need to be doing first? I think then the next thing is, especially when it comes to marketing, thinking you have to do all the things.
Oh my gosh, like, Everybody has a podcast. I have to do a podcast. I have to have all these directory profiles. I have to have this website. I have to have Google ads. I have to have Facebook ads. I have to be, have a robust, um, social media presence. And then on top of that, I have to have some type of Facebook group, but I have to, and it’s like, and so how do I do all this and see clients?
Yeah.
Josh: Right. End of my life. Yeah. Yeah. I, I’m guilty of chasing the shiny objects and, you know, wanting to do it all, um, for sure.
Dr. Kim: I think we all are. Yeah. We all are. I definitely have.
Josh: Yeah, we, we, we see something, you know, like, um, one of the shiny objects that I chased and immediately, uh, actually caught some flack from my, my teen daughters.
Like I was like, Oh, I’m, I’m going to be a tick tock therapist. I’m not going to be doing these live videos and I was inspired because I saw some guy doing them and it was funny and I’m not a naturally funny person, I don’t think, but I was just like, okay, I could do that. And so I downloaded TikTok and my daughter had my phone.
She’s like, why do you have a TikTok? And I was like, Oh, I was thinking of doing this thing. And, and she kind of. You know, it was a little discouraging, but then I was like, I probably don’t need to be investing in that right now. So I’ve got some other things going on, but yeah, I can totally see how the overwhelm of all the options and all the things that could be really difficult.
Dr. Kim: Exactly, exactly. So going back, like you said, you asked me the second part of your question was how do I, you know, how do, how do you. Coach people to overcome it, right? How do you help them overcome it? So we talked a little bit about how to overcome the mindset stuff. Um, but with the getting started, uh, one of the things I often talk about is, you know, starting, I do think it’s important to start with building your business foundation, right?
So wherever you are, like, cause we’re all in different states, we’re all in different jurisdictions, finding out what kind of entity you need to have to have a practice, right? So I’m based in New York, so you can. Start a practice in New York as what they call a sole proprietor, right? So just you, you have your license to practice and that’s your independent clinical license.
Let me make sure that’s clear, um, to practice. And so you can get started with that, that enables you, but that’s New York, right? It might be different somewhere else. And then also with. You know, having a business entity versus being a sole proprietor, there are certain benefits. So I think it’s worth it to talk to an accountant or do a consultation, um, with, uh, An attorney in your area, just to make sure that you’re starting off on the right footing and it’s not something you have, you, you know, you get far along and then you’re having to backtrack and go and fix and, you know, because then once you’re kind of rolling, it’s really hard to go back sometimes.
Josh: Right, right. No, I think that makes a lot of sense. And, and obviously that’s going to vary. You know, uh, state to state, I know here in Texas, they, um, for a long time, um, licensed marriage and family therapy associates could actually run their own business. Um, and so that’s kind of how I got started in 2013, but then I decided to become an LPC intern as well, which they call it LPC associates now.
Um, but once I finished that, I was no longer allowed to operate my own private practice. And so I had this business, but I, I couldn’t counsel under it. So I had to find a site to sponsor and the rules changed depending on the licenses and that’s changed now. I mean, um, they’ve just approved LPC associates to, to be able to, to have their own practice, but you know, that’s a, that could be a costly mistake if you jump on board without really researching what your, you know, state regulations and what your licensing board allow or don’t allow.
So that’s a really good point.
Dr. Kim: No, thanks for sharing that example. It is. I, I really think that’s the first step, you know, like, like you said, figuring out the business entity, but also figuring out your licensure. Like, does your current license allow you to have a private practice in your state? Right. Yep.
And if there are certain requirements for you to have a private practice, maybe you need supervision, maybe you need to be under somebody else, like finding that out and setting that up. Yeah.
Josh: Yeah. Yeah. No, I think that that’s a good first step. Um, that way you’re not putting in a ton of work on the business before you, before you even know, is this going to be a reality, you know, or am I going to have to wait two years before it can be a reality?
Dr. Kim: Exactly. Exactly. Then I think the next thing is the malpractice insurance. So making sure you have some type of, um, professional liability insurance. So, those first few steps are really, if we’re building a house, right, it’s like… Putting up your foundation and your in your fence, right?
Josh: Oh, I love that.
That’s a great analogy.
Dr. Kim: Yes, protecting yourself. Like what are we going to protect it? Exactly. That’s perfect.
Josh: Yeah. Yeah. And once you’ve got that in place, that’s when we kind of start building. Okay, what do we want this to look like? Right? We’ve got the important parts in place now we can we can shape it.
Mm hmm. How, how we’re wanting.
Dr. Kim: Right. The, the, after those steps, I think it’s, it becomes more simultaneous, you know, so you might be doing a couple of things at, um, at one time. So maybe you are sitting down and figuring out who you want to serve. Right, who you want to work with and that may not be very clear in the beginning and that’s okay.
And I know we talk a lot about ideal clients and really niching down and understanding that somebody that’s just getting started and really getting a feel for having their own clients. You know, it may take a little bit before you get to that niching. Piece. Right? So you get to that ideal client piece and that’s okay.
Yeah. Um, yeah. What else? I think, um, figuring out who you wanna serve, figuring how you wanna get paid. So are you doing insurance , right? That’s important piece. Yeah. That, and that is a whole podcast episode in itself. So I’m not gonna absolute say yay or nay, but like figuring out if you wanna do. Insurance or you’re going to be strictly private pay or you’re going to be out of network and all those nuances and I think that’s where having community or a coach can be really helpful with teasing that out, figuring out where you’re going to do your practice.
Yeah. Are you going to be virtual? Are you going to be in an office? If so, figuring out where that office is going to be. Or if you’re doing it virtually, finding a HIPAA compliant platform. Yeah.
Josh: Yeah. A lot of, a lot of logistics there and just the structure of it. One of the things that I appreciate about, uh, the private practice startup is that, um, Kate and Katie who, who run that, uh, that business, and they’ve got a podcast of their own, which is amazing.
There’s. 300 something episodes in and every single one is relevant. Um, one of the things that they always talk about is, um, having a good system in place. Yes. And so as you’re, as you’re doing these things and as you’re, as you’re building the structure, it’s really important that, um, that you’re figuring out a system that’s going to work so that at, at whatever level of, of, uh, of entry point, you know, that your, that your potential clients have, that there’s a plan for it.
Um, what I found when I was first getting started is I didn’t have much of a system. And so it, as my business grew, not having a system, it felt so cobbled together and so like disheveled that by the time it became too much and something wasn’t working, trying to overhaul. You know, it was just a lot of work.
And so being a little bit of strategic, uh, on the front end, you know, to know you’ve got a system in place, what’s your system for, you know, renewing your license? How are you going to be reminded of that? Cause I can’t tell you how many times I’ve, um, like try to get my continuing education units in like the day that my renewal, it was due and I’m scrambling.
It’s like, okay, get a system. For, you know, incorporating these things that are, that are routine so that every month I’m getting the hours. So I’m not having to get 30 hours and 24 hour day doesn’t work.
Dr. Kim: Exactly. No, having systems is so important. And, uh, no, I love Kate and Katie and the private practice startup because of that, because they offer so many fabulous resources. On getting started and getting your systems in place. And like you said, they helped you. They helped me too, with really systematizing my practice in a way that I was able to walk into my practice full time from my job.
Josh: Yeah. I do think that their podcast also contributed to the, uh, the shiny object syndrome too, because I’ve listened to a podcast. I’d be like, Oh yeah. They make that sound easy. Not realizing that there’s a reason they’re on the podcast is because they’ve spent years perfecting this. Um, and so you really have to kind of weed out, okay, this is a, this is a someday not yet type of project.
Um, but again, having a system for storing those ideas for you to come back to later, I think is really important as well. Yes, absolutely.
Dr. Kim: Absolutely. So how do you store your ideas?
Josh: How do I store my ideas? So I use Trello. Are you familiar with Trello? Yep. Oh, I love Trello. I wish it were HIPAA compliant.
That’s the only thing about it. Um, because I, I do use it for client inquiry tracking. But we, we code the, the entries. So basically what Trello is for my listeners that may not know is it’s basically a project management, uh, system. And so one workspace is going to have multiple lists. And so I have a social media, um, workspace where I’ve got, you know, things that I’m wanting to post and projects that I’m working on.
I’ve got another workspace that I use for just. You know, links and websites that I want to remember, I’ve got another one that I use for affiliates. You know, if I, if I have a subscription somewhere and I’ve got an affiliate link that way, I can just quickly go and grab that. So basically it’s, it’s kind of like a, like a file cabinet.
Restoring all of the things that I don’t want to have to remember, um, I can just go to my Trello and it’s right there. And I try to keep it all organized that way.
Dr. Kim: Oh, that’s awesome. I love Trello. I love Notion. Um, I’ve tried Asana. I, I, um, I like this was my chasing the shiny objects because I love Tech and I love apps and I love new things and so I had to kind of step back from all of it and so now I basically use my, um, Google workspace because that is HIPAA compliant through my email and my business, but, um, and, and Dropbox, you know, and I have a business subscription to Dropbox.
So between the two of those, that’s what I use to kind of store my ideas, track, uh, necessary resources and tools and documents and things like that. But I like your, I like your Trello setup, but I’m trying not to, as you’re talking, I’m like, Oh, I want to, I want to try.
Josh: Well, let me know. I’ll give you my affiliate link.
No, it’s, it can be overwhelming. And that was the other thing that I realized is that chasing all these shiny objects. I mean, most of them are all subscription based. Right. And so it may not seem like a lot to to add another, you know, 125 a year, you know, product subscription, but those things kind of add up.
And especially if you’re just getting started, you really have to decide what’s the most important thing right now for what I’m bringing in and how much I need to take home to my family. You know, what’s the, you know, what, what do I need to afford at this stage of my business? And that’s, I think that’s difficult to know sometimes.
I mean, the, the last thing that I would give up is, is my EHR, um, platform. Like if I had to stop paying money for, for everything but one thing, that would probably be it. Obviously my license and, you know, the things that, that I’m required to have. But, um. Yeah, that’s, that’s what I would keep. I let go of Trello if I had to, but can’t get rid of my EHR.
Dr. Kim: Just want to clarify for people who are listening, who may not be familiar with all of these or getting confused. So what we were originally talking about was like ways we kind of keep ourselves organized with our ideas and kind of some of the business stuff on the backend, the electronic health record.
I’m so glad you brought that up. Cause that is a very important. I think first step, first investment is figuring out how you’re going to keep track of your clients and their data and the paperwork. And so having a really good HIPAA compliant electronic health record is key for sure.
Josh: Absolutely.
Absolutely. Um, I, I think that the, the cost, um, of having something is totally worth it. Like when I first started, I was, I mean, I have a computer that I felt was pretty safe from hackers. It was, I had an encrypted drive and you know, I was storing all of my files on that drive because I didn’t feel like I could afford a hundred dollars a month or.
It’s less, they have, they have plans that are less, but, um, you know, there’s ways to do that. It’s just not very efficient and it’s more difficult to keep organized. And so I think. I use SimplePractice because it really is pretty simple, in my opinion. It just has it all. It has all the things right there that I would spend more time trying to configure, you know, a system on my own.
It’s just all built in.
Dr. Kim: Exactly. There’s so many, um, good ones out there, and I think it’s, you know, I know a lot of people use SimplePractice and like it. TherapyNotes, TheraNest, um, some other ones. I use JaneApp. Which I am loving. Uh, mm hmm. Uh, JNAP is a Canadian based company, but it’s great. So, it’s, uh, for therapists, as well as, uh, physical therapists, um, medical doctors, um, chiropractors.
You know, so many different, um, helping and healing professions, so. Yeah. But there are a lot of good ones out there, so we encourage everybody to go out there and find the one that works for you.
Josh: Find the one that works for you, yeah, of course, of course. And, you know, there aren’t any EHRs sponsoring this, so we can say, check them all out, right?
Exactly, exactly. Yeah, so, man, yeah, as I’m, as we’re talking through all this, I keep thinking, okay, we could do another episode on just that. We could do, you know, um, there’s a lot here to cover, but I think coming back to, What are the basics, obviously making sure that your business is legit, making sure that you’re, you’re on par with your licensing board.
Those are, those are two non negotiables. And, and from there, it’s just structuring, structuring your business system in a way that’s going to make sense for your clients to, to jump on board. And, uh, you know, ultimately it’s about the clients. And so all of the marketing stuff, um, You know, if you had a flood of 20 clients come in in one week, but you don’t have a great way of keeping them organized, right?
You’re not going to be doing them a good service.
Dr. Kim: Exactly. It’s kind of like going back to the house metaphor, right? Like you. Have this property now, and you’re like, oh my gosh, I wanna have a party. How do I get people to come? Right. And it’s like, first of all, you need to figure out where they’re gonna sit.
right? .
Josh: Yeah.
Dr. Kim: That’s a tend to be, have walls. Yeah. You know, so like, the question really is, okay, I, I want to get clients. What do I need to have in place to receive these clients?
Josh: Yes. Yes. 100%. Mm-hmm. . Um, and, and I think that that’s, It’s like, it’s easy to chase the shiny objects because sometimes that’s a little more fun than the, than the administrative kind of details of, you know, just how to, how to run it.
Um, but it can be really overwhelming because there’s so much out there. Yeah, exactly. But when you get to that point where you’ve got your system in place and you can start thinking about. Okay. How do I get 20 new clients this week? You know, that’s where we get into some of the more, uh, involved and costly type of, type of things.
Dr. Kim: Possibly costly.
Josh: Possibly costly, right?
Dr. Kim: Possibly. Doesn’t have to be. Yeah.
Josh: That’s right. There’s a lot of inexpensive or free ways of marketing yourself. We may need to do another podcast episode on that. Yeah. If you’re getting started, you know, here, here’s how you can market for free. You know, what does that look like?
Because there’s, there are a lot of options out there. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So let’s say somebody’s, you know, they’re, they’re, they’ve got everything in place. You know, they’re, they’re a legit business. They’ve got their system. Um, how are you, how would you suggest that they maintain? a healthy practice attitude beyond, beyond all the systems and the marketing and everything like that.
Just the day in day out, you know, this is their job now. Um, if they’ve gone through the effort of creating this, how would you suggest that they work to maintain Practice health,
Dr. Kim: their practice health.
Yes.
Josh: Their individual health, their practice health. Um, right. So it doesn’t get, it doesn’t get overwhelming to burn out type
mode. Yeah.
Dr. Kim: Oh, so many thoughts here. Okay. They may not be in order, so bear with me. Okay, that’s all right. One is, I think, first understanding what your burnout symptoms are.
Okay, good. Right? Because burnout can really creep up on us. So understanding what that looks like for you, um, and being aware. I think having your own therapist or coach or kind of, uh, or maybe it’s a peer Consultation group to kind of go to, to kind of bring your burdens, bring, bring the things that are on your mind that you’re, you’re dealing with and helping you to kind of tease it out because private practice, if you are a solo practitioner, um, can be quite isolating, right, which is different than working for an agency where if you were in person, or even sometimes if you’re working virtually, you can kind of make appointments to meet with your, uh, Yeah.
Colleagues or I know when I worked in agency, we were always going to each other’s offices between sessions. If we could just like, oh, my God, you know, and that and those things. They seem small, but they are so helpful for helping you relieve your stress and kind of reset. So figuring out. Who you can go to, who you can turn to, to kind of help you reset on a regular basis is really, um, I think important.
Also, looking at your schedule and checking in with your body and yourself at the end of the day, like how, how many clients feel right to you? So, like, I think a lot of us have been trained to see… You know, we do what we got to do, so we will see however many people we need to see a day, right? Um, we are trained to show up and give, right?
But you also have to check in with yourself at the end of that day or throughout that day and see, like, What, what feels right for you? You know, um, is this too much? Am I noticing that at the end of the day, I don’t really have energy for my spouse, my kids, you know, the rest of my life. And I’m just always in recovery mode.
So when I have, what number of clients feels right? Let me just play around with maybe having four clients today instead of eight. And how does that feel? Right. And, and of course there’s, you know, concerns about. finances and how much you’re bringing in and things like that. And then that’s where the conversation around your fees come into play and also your schedule.
You know what I mean? So are you working five or six days a week? Are you doing this two or three days? So. That, and I, and again, that could be its whole episode, right? And that’s really individual to the person. But I think looking at how much you’re putting out every day, and how that affects you, and also how you’re pouring back into yourself.
So making sure you have hobbies, making sure you have outlets. This is above and beyond. You’re a therapist, you’re a coach, you’re a peer consultation group, but like, what else do you have going on in your life that you can lean into, that’s play, that’s fun, right, um, that helps
you de stress.
Josh: Yeah, for sure.
No, I’m so glad you mentioned that. And that was something that, um, Libby and I were talking about in the last episode is, you know, surrounding yourself with people who are going to help you to grow. But I think also kind of what you’re touching on is surrounding yourself by people who can maybe provide a little bit of accountability and check in with you and that you can just talk about, you know, this is, this is a real struggle or, you know, Um, you know, help me see what I’m not seeing about, you know, what’s not working right now.
Self care I think is really huge. And when we’re trying to build something like a private practice, it’s really easy to overextend creating this, this, um, this system because we feel like that’s what we need to do. And being able to come back and check, is this really working for me? Is this serving, you know, the larger goals?
Is it sustainable? You know, if, if you’re, if you’re thinking, you know, ahead, you know, what if we did have 20 clients come in, where do I, where are those limits and how do I enforce those? How do I tell people no? Um, I just had a conversation with my, my assistant this morning, there’s somebody that’s trying to, to get scheduled and they’re, you know, wanting me to open some appointments up on Saturday or Sunday or late in the evening, sometimes when I, I just can’t.
Right. And it’s hard saying no, because I was really looking forward to working with them. But if I start compromising on those things, where does it end? Where does it stop?
Exactly.
Dr. Kim: No, you could, you know, um, Yeah. You can’t for other reasons and I think sometimes even if you can and you don’t want to, that’s a good enough reason.
Josh: Sure.
Yeah, yeah. And what gets communicated with the clients is maybe a separate thing, right? Because there’s there’s I want to and I’m willing to and those are two different things. Sometimes too, so. Exactly. No, I think that’s, that’s a great answer to, to that question about keeping your practice healthy is, you know, ultimately we’re talking about boundaries, which of course we teach our, our clients to have, but, um, modeling that and doing that in our own lives, equally important.
Exactly. I’ve had some 12 hour days where I saw 12 clients and it, it’s awful.
Dr. Kim: Yeah, it’s, uh, I know for me. I have some colleagues who can do it and do it well, and that works for them, but for me that is not sustainable. That is not, I cannot, I cannot, that’s way beyond my limit. So understanding and respecting your limit is important.
And understanding that just because you have white space on your schedule doesn’t mean that it needs to be filled.
Josh: Yeah. Oh, that’s such good advice. I like the way you put that too. Yeah, very good. Okay, this has been so awesome having you here and you’ve shared some really wise words and you know, I hope that people listening, you know, who are thinking about this feel inspired.
How can people get in touch with you if they’re interested in, asking more questions or if they, they want coaching from you is, is that an option and what’s the best way to go about doing that?
Dr. Kim: Sure. Definitely. So I coach therapists through the private practice startup, so they can reach out to me at coach at the private practice startup.
com. You can also go to the private practice startup. com and click on coaching and all my information will come up there. So, yeah. Do the, for therapists, I go that route for other professionals. I, uh, work in my private practice, you know, my private coaching practice. Um, and so that is Kimberly Bond’s grocher, G R O C H E R.
com. So you can visit me there. Yep.
Josh: Perfect. Awesome. Well, thank you so much again for joining me on the show and I look forward to having you back again sometime. I hope that you’ll decide to join us.
Dr. Kim: Thank you so much. Thanks for having me, Josh. I’m so excited for you and I was very happy to be here today.
Josh: Thank you.