5 Things Blocking The Growth Of Your Group Therapy Practice
Do you feel like you’re constantly hitting a wall with your group practice? Are you implementing all the strategies you’re “supposed” to implement and don’t understand why you aren’t growing? Here are some things you may not have considered before.
You are trying to grow before policies and procedures are in place. As practice owners, we are often focused on the day to day of client care and lose sight of the foundational needs of our business. A Policy and Procedure manual is one of those foundational tools that creates safety for all aspects of the business and provides a foundation upon which we can build everything else. This is a living document that we get to build and adjust as time goes on and as scenarios pop up for our companies. Are you looking for a ready made template that you can edit to fit your business? Click here for ours.
You keep all of your business processes in your head but they aren’t written down anywhere. Practice owners often do absolutely everything themselves early on. Clean the toilets, schedule the intakes, troubleshoot the EHR - everything falls into our laps. The issue with this is that it is hard to grow when we are in the weeds and not looking over the whole field. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are the answer to this. Every successful business has a set of SOPs governing every aspect of their business. These are also living documents that are updated regularly as processes change. The intention is that anyone at any time can step into a role and perform that role effectively using the SOP. If you need help with a starting point, we have ready made templates outlining all aspects of the day to day operations of a business. Click here to learn more.
Your team is a group of individual practitioners, not a team of clinicians. Most of us started out by bringing in contractors to see the overflow of clients as our practices grew. Transitioning from an independent contractor model to an employee model may be simple on paper, but culturally takes a full overhaul. Developing your clinical model is one of the most foundational steps to create a true team of clinicians that are working towards the same goals and using the same language. If you need help figuring out what that is for your company, we can support you with 1:1 Business Strategy Sessions to develop that framework.
You are trying to do it all alone. Isolation is one of the biggest illnesses to plague therapists in private practice, and building a group therapy practice doesn’t necessarily solve this. Owning a practice can be a lonely, isolating experience leading to burnout and many “I quit” letters written to yourself on Post It notes. If you want support building your business, problem solving through issues with other practice owners from all areas of the country, and learning from the experience, strength, and hope of others, consider joining our next Group Business Coaching cohort.
Your past is getting in the way of your present. As healers we are incredibly skilled in identifying the blocks getting in the way of our clients’ growth. We often struggle to see those same blocks in ourselves. Amber Tolbert Consulting offers 1:1 Executive Healing Coaching Sessions for practice owners across the country to support identifying and removing underlying blocks getting in the way of our professional abundance. We also offer Group Healing for Practice Owners to therapy practice owners across the country to support moving out of isolation and into safe connection with others who desire to move into more alignment.
While this journey can be lonely at times, you are not alone and support is available. Reach out today for a free 30 minute consult to see how Amber Tolbert Consulting can support you on this journey.