Starting out in private practice is a bit like stepping off an already questionable ledge and trusting the floor will culminate around your feet in the exact layout you need it to. It’s exciting. Terrifying. And full of a whole bunch of stuff they never told you about in training.
Now, I feel I need to add a disclaimer – this is not a ‘guide’ from an ‘expert’. I’m still in it. Building, refining, making mistakes. Still occasionally Googling ‘is this tax deductible’ at 1am. But, if you’re at the beginning of your journey (such a cliché description, sorry), here are some things I’ve learned that might just make it a bit smoother.
- You Don’t Need to Have It All Figured Out
The chairs don’t have to be perfect. Your website doesn’t need five pages of perfectly sculpted SEO-optimised content. You don’t need a pristine binder full of crisp worksheets. Clients aren’t looking for polished and shiny, they’re looking for you. Your presence, your humanity, your life experience, your understanding. You already have that. Lean into it.
2. Build a Life, Not Just a Caseload
Before you even think about how many clients you want, ask yourself this: what do I want my week to actually look like? Take into consideration family time, admin, personal interests, breathing space between clients that doesn’t involve inhaling a herbal tea and some hummus over the sink (no? Just me?). Then, work backwards.
Once I knew how many hours of myself I wanted to offer out into the world, I looked at my outgoings (supervision, insurance, room hire, CPD, etc) and figured out what I needed to earn to stay afloat. Divide that by the hours I wanted to offer – there was the basis for my fee.
3. Boundaries Aren’t Optional – They’re Ethical
If I can’t hold boundaries – time, payments, communication – how on earth can I expect my clients to learn how to hold theirs? A little bit like parenting, sometimes it’s not ‘do as I say’ but ‘do as I do’. Modelling behaviours can be just as (if not more) important than discussing them.
From a more ethical standpoint? If I let one client ‘slide’ because ‘I know them so well’, ‘they’re usually so good’…that’s not compassion. That’s favouritism. It’s giving someone special treatment – because I like them? Ick. Not ethical – human bias and entirely not mine to act on.
I have no way of knowing who’s telling the truth, or who’s struggling more. I’m not here to play god. My job, and yours, is to hold the same standard, with kindness and consistency.
4. You’re Allowed to Charge What You Need
Yes, we have to talk about it – the money stuff. Often a tricky subject for those in helping professions, and hotly debated almost all of the time in therapy and counselling communities. It can sometimes feel like the very nature of exchanging money is an antithesis for the actual work.
I’m here to tell you – undercharging doesn’t make you more caring – it just opens you up to burnout. Read that again. If you’re financially struggling, you can’t do your best work. Your needs matter, let them be part of the equation. You won’t win any awards for self-sacrifice.
If you feel that your fee creates a barrier for a demographic you’d like to work with? There are lots of charities who’d snap your hand off if you offered them a couple of hours of your time a week (try Frontline 19, for example). You can also have a couple of sliding fee spots – there are options. Just don’t undersell yourself and drown in the process.
5. Marketing Isn’t Boasting – It’s Visibility
Shouting from the rooftops about how qualified, talented and awesome you are giving you the heebie-jeebies? Understandable, but – all you need to do is let people know you exist. Speak in your own voice, share what you care about, show your space, yourself. People connect to people and they can’t connect to you if they don’t know you’re out there. Join the directories, see which ones you get the most enquiries from, utilise the free guides on the directories…take it from there.
6. Find a Bloody Good Supervisor
Not just any old supervisor, ok? A bloody good one. Politely step away from those who nod emptily like a bobblehead or who miss your metaphors by a mile. You need someone who gets how you work – and challenges you, gently, but firmly, from that place. Someone who is equal parts supportive and questioning. Someone who remembers what it’s like to be at the beginning. Without this? You’re basically just the therapist version of one of those inflatable arm guys outside a car showroom. Anxious energy, yes. Contained? Not so much.
7. Get Comfortable Saying ‘I’m Full’
Ok bear with me here. Practice saying this, feeling it. We’re not manifesting (because pseudoscience) but this is about teaching yourself that you’re allowed to have limits. You don’t owe everyone your evenings. Your capacity is just as important as the work you’re doing – and arguably, one impacts the other.
8. You Will Feel Like an Imposter – Welcome!
Every. Single. Therapist. (including me, regularly me, in fact) I have ever known has felt like a fraud at some point. Use this feeling to keep improving. Complacency is the real danger – not imposter syndrome. But there’s a fine line. A good supervisor, or a solid community of therapeutic colleagues, can help you stay on the right side of it. Hold yourself accountable. Stay curious. Keep learning. But don’t let that weigh you down – it’s just as important to step away from this world every now and again and let your self, and your thoughts, just ‘be’.
9. Trust That It Will Build
A dear colleague, with much more experience than me, once said to me whilst I was on the cusp of a wtf am I doing moment – ‘if you build it, they will come’. Now, I’m not religious, and I know the line’s from a film about baseball (or ghosts? Or both?), but the sentiment holds.
If you build something with care. Stay aligned to your values. Show up consistently – it will grow. Not overnight. Not quickly, necessarily. But steadily. Gently. Solidly. And you will grow too.
A Note on Starting With Support
I was incredibly fortunate when I started out – I found myself in a space (thanks to my bloody good supervisor) that already had a sense of community, options to accept referrals and the kind of bumping-into-each-other-in-the-kitchen support that makes all the difference when you’re having an existential crisis on a Thursday morning.
That experience shaped what I’ve since created. So if you’re at the beginning, and wondering where to land – if that’s needing a room to rent, or just somewhere to find a sense of therapeutic community whilst you find your feet – you’re always welcome here. The door’s open, the kettle’s on, the herbal teas are waiting.
Final Thoughts
You don’t have to do it all today. You don’t need fifteen clients by Friday.
If you’re building something that reflects you – your ethics, your passion, your rhythm – you’re already creating the right foundations for when you jump off that ledge.
And if you need someone to remind you that we’ve all been here, once, or that you’re not secretly inflatable – you know where to find me – contact me via my website or reach out on Instagram where I share more therapy-related content for those in practice.
Insightful Life 
Leave a comment