Four Mindsets That Will Help You Be Successful in Private Practice
You may have heard of the “scarcity mindset” by now - the idea that when you believe everything is limited, you become limited. Let’s look at it from a business perspective.
With an abundance mindset, you believe there's plenty for everyone. You believe there is enough time, money, wealth, love, and happiness to go around. You're optimistic about the future. You navigate obstacles easily because you know something abundant is just around the corner. You make decisions based on the Big Picture rather than a single snapshot in time. You’re comfortable taking risks. You don’t feel the need to control everything.
With a scarcity mindset, you believe everything is limited: time, money, resources, and love. You worry about the future because you believe you won’t have enough. As a result, you focus a lot on what could go wrong. You see the world as dangerous and unforgiving, so you go to great lengths to gain control over your time, money, resources, and relationships. All your decisions are fear-based.
The scarcity mindset breeds a critical inner voice and insecurity. It can drive you to integrate your view of the world (there isn’t enough) into a personal identity (I am not enough). Scripts like “I am not a good therapist” and “I won’t get any clients” may lead to lowering your fees, over-relying on insurance referrals, and having loose boundaries with clients. You “play it safe” with business decisions, rather than take thoughtful risks that align with your values and create growth opportunities.
Over time, scarcity leads to resentment towards yourself and your clients. You resent yourself because you’re devaluing your work and not setting a good example for your clients. You resent your clients because your loose boundaries and low fees reduce their commitment to the work. The scarcity mindset causes stress, burnout, and career-ending health problems. It’s an ugly cycle.
A Real-Life Example of the Scarcity Mindset
A few years ago I noticed my scarcity mindset showing up. Here’s what happened:
In preparation for moving my practice from Seattle to Gig Harbor in 2016, I started networking several months ahead of time, updated my website to reflect the new location, and sent heaps of announcements out to referral sources. Right before moving day, I began to worry about getting referrals in a community where I didn’t know anyone. My fears about becoming homeless took over and I submitted applications to join two insurance panels.
I spent the next 2 years with an overflowing practice, but with no additional income to reflect the additional time spent with clients. With insurance rates so low, I took a 28% pay cut, and to make up for it, I took on more clients. I was upset with myself for putting myself at risk for burnout. Because I was attracting clients who weren’t paying for their therapy (their insurance company was), I resented them when they didn’t prioritize the work or cancelled appointments. In addition, my energy was so limited that I put aside other important things, like self-care and professional development.
Here's the thing: Business success depends on embracing an abundance mindset. Financial well-being is fundamentally tied to positive expectations of the future.
Here are the abundance mindset practices I follow now. I try to remember that the mindset is a practice. You have to keep doing it for it to become more natural.
You Won’t Become Poor By Giving
This is at the top of the list because I believe generosity is the most critical thing you can do for your business. But let me explain this before you go handing out free therapy.
Being generous is about giving a piece of yourself or offering your time and expertise. It’s about inviting the new therapist down the hall to your professional group. It’s about helping a fellow provider get more clients. It’s about connecting peers who share the same passions and values. It’s about empowering your colleagues through a simple word of encouragement and inspiration when it matters the most. All without expecting something back.
Being generous is not about getting loosey-goosey with your cancellation policy or handing out sliding scale slots without restraint. Those things can hurt clients. Instead, ask yourself, “How can I help someone else to be successful?”
Confidence Doesn’t Grow On Trees
Confidence is not something you have or don’t have. If you ask successful business people about how they got the confidence to do the hard things, most of them will tell you they didn’t feel confident. They had fear, but they did the important thing anyway. In fact, fear shows up because the thing you want to do is important and meaningful.
Don’t wait for confidence to show up before you take action. You’ll be waiting forever. Remember that you can act with confidence without feeling confident. Just notice the fear and do the thing anyway.
You Aren’t Failing - You’re Just Not Done Being Successful
You’ll probably screw up. It’s typical, and to be expected, especially when something is a source of stress or frustration. Just know that setbacks and failures are part of the process, not barriers to the process. Failure isn’t in the way, failure is the way.
Smell the Damn Roses
Look around. Check out your office. Your bookshelf. The degree on the wall. Your cute plants and that awesome rug you got from Overstock.com (that’s where I get my rugs, in case you were wondering). Take a look at your list of clients. That business license. Think about the big win one of your clients had today. Notice the awesome relationships you developed with other providers.
The feeling of success doesn’t just show up and stick around. It’s transient. So unless you attend to it and savor it, you won’t notice it. You’ll end up in a futile and endless chase where nothing you do makes you feel successful enough.
So look around. You’re doing it. You have your own practice. That’s the shit.
In closing, an abundance mindset is not all about money - it’s about confidence in your clinical skills, feeling energized by your work, and providing more for your clients. It’s so you not only create abundance for yourself but for others, too. You will level up your practice, and you will also impact and inspire others to follow suit, which includes your clients, colleagues, family, and community.
There is no limit to the value you can create so long as you have the willingness to create it.
