Insurance audits used to be rare. Now AI systems built into insurance company billing platforms are flagging patterns fast, and codes like 90837, multiple sessions per week, and long-term maintenance therapy are all under closer watch. For mental health professionals who rely on these codes regularly, that shift can raise real questions about what actually holds up under review.

In this episode, Kym sits down with Beth Rontal, LICSW, founder of The Documentation Wizard and a nationally recognized expert in clinical documentation. Beth breaks down what's driving the rise in AI-assisted audits, the specific language that supports medical necessity, and how the "golden thread" connects diagnosis, treatment plan, and progress notes into documentation that stands up to scrutiny.

In This Episode, We Cover:

• Why AI is accelerating insurance audits and which billing patterns it's trained to flag.
• The exact language that helps justify medically necessary 90837 sessions.
• How to document session start and stop times so notes hold up under review.
• What Z codes are and why they matter for supporting a diagnosis.
• The golden thread that ties diagnosis, treatment plan, and progress notes together.
• When and how to justify billing for multiple sessions per week.
• Where rating scales fit into an audit-ready chart, and when they're optional.

Connect with Beth Rontal:
90827 Documentation Made Simple: https://bit.ly/dw-berries
Website: https://documentationwizard.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/documentationwizard
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@documentationwizard
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DocumentationWizard
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/documentation-wizard/ 

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Join the Berries Community - A dedicated space for mental health clinicians to connect, share insights, and grow together. Look for Berries AI Official Community on Facebook at www.heyberries.com/community

Brought to You By Berries:
Ready to stop dreading your notes? Berries is your AI assistant for mental health professionals. Save time, stay compliant, and get back to the work you love. Learn more at heyberries.com.

If your usual marketing playbook has suddenly stopped filling your caseload, you're picking up on something real. What worked reliably for years, referrals, directories, a decent website, isn't carrying the same weight anymore, and most mental health professionals are left guessing at what actually changed.

In this episode, Kym talks with Danielle Swimm, LCPC, business coach for therapists, and founder of The Entrepreneurial Therapist, about what's shifting in marketing right now and what's still worth your time. They get into how AI search is changing the way people find a provider, which old-school strategies are quietly making a comeback, and what it actually takes to build income beyond one-on-one sessions without running yourself into the ground.

In This Episode, We Cover:

• Why marketing that worked for years is falling flat in 2026.
• How to show up when someone asks an AI platform for a provider recommendation.
• What actually builds credibility with search bots, and with clients, on your website.
• Why weekly blogging is no longer the move, and what's replacing it.
• The backlink strategy Danielle says has never stopped working.
• How to know when you're ready to hire help or add a new revenue stream.
• What it really takes at home to create the capacity for a business to grow.

Connect with Danielle Swimm:
Website: https://www.theentrepreneurialtherapist.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/entrepreneurialtherapist
Podcast: https://www.theentrepreneurialtherapist.com/podcast
Newsletter: https://www.theentrepreneurialtherapist.com/newsletter

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Join the Berries Community - A dedicated space for mental health clinicians to connect, share insights, and grow together. Look for Berries AI Official Community on Facebook at www.heyberries.com/community

Brought to You By Berries:
Ready to stop dreading your notes? Berries is your AI assistant for mental health professionals. Save time, stay compliant, and get back to the work you love. Learn more at heyberries.com.

Most mental health professionals settle into a fee early in their career and never really question it. $120 an hour, $150 an hour, whatever felt normal when they started, and the ceiling just becomes the ceiling.

Kym sits down with Allyson Clemmons, a social worker who sees about 10 clients a week, charges $400 a session, and earns over $180K a year from her private practice while living abroad in Mexico. Allyson works with mental health professionals who want to move past the belief that meaningful clinical work and real money can't coexist, and in this conversation she walks through how she actually built the practice most therapists assume isn't possible.

In This Episode, We Cover:

• Why therapists are taught to see service work and profit as opposing goals.
• How a pandemic insurance clawback pushed Allyson to drop insurance for good.
• The pricing jump from $89 an hour to $400 a session, and what happened in between.
• Why positioning, not modality, is what actually justifies a premium fee.
• The case for specializing in one problem instead of staying a generalist.
• What happens internally the first few sessions after raising your rate.
• Why Allyson doesn't market to a specific income bracket.

Connect with Allyson Clemmons:
Website: https://www.allysonclemmons.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/allysonmarkets 

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Join the Berries Community - A dedicated space for mental health clinicians to connect, share insights, and grow together. Look for Berries AI Official Community on Facebook at www.heyberries.com/community

Brought to You By Berries:
Ready to stop dreading your notes? Berries is your AI assistant for mental health professionals. Save time, stay compliant, and get back to the work you love. Learn more at heyberries.com.

Scaling a group practice can feel like it forces a choice: chase the growth and risk losing sight of why you started, or protect your values and stay small. Most mental health professionals who build past solo practice hit this tension somewhere along the way, especially when the offers start coming in.

In this episode of Between Sessions with Berries, Kym talks with Dr. Anahita Lake-Khosravi, a psychologist, business coach, and mom of three who scaled a group practice to two million dollars in under three years and recently sold it on her own terms. Anahita walks through the mindset shifts, the money decisions, and the boundaries that let her grow a practice without compromising what mattered most to her.

In This Episode, We Cover:

• Why the belief that you have to grind constantly to make good money doesn't hold up.
• How Anahita evaluated a buyer based on fit and values, not just the highest offer.
• The three ways to pay clinicians, and why she never recommends starting with a salary.
• What changed when she moved her team from a split to a flat-rate pay structure.
• How she physically separated work time from family time while running the business from home.
• Why she and her husband flipped traditional roles, with him staying home while she built the practice.
• Her approach to bringing AI into a practice without compromising client privacy.

Connect with Anahita Lake-Khosravi:
Website: https://www.empoweredlivingcollective.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-anahita-banoo/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EmpoweredLivingCollective/ 

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Join the Berries Community - A dedicated space for mental health clinicians to connect, share insights, and grow together. Look for Berries AI Official Community on Facebook at www.heyberries.com/community

Brought to You By Berries:
Ready to stop dreading your notes? Berries is your AI assistant for mental health professionals. Save time, stay compliant, and get back to the work you love. Learn more at heyberries.com.

Most mental health professionals are running a mental Rolodex between sessions, trying to remember what a client said three sessions ago while staying present for what they're saying right now. Add a full caseload, insurance-driven documentation, and a body that doesn't always cooperate, and that load gets heavy fast.

Kym is joined by Kristine Hoestermann, LICSW, mental health innovator, and founder of RARE., a brand built around rare, chronic, and invisible conditions. Kristine most recently served as Head of Mental Wellness at Cabana, where she led development of scalable mental health programming, including the Balanced Self™ framework, and helped build AI tools for clinicians. She also hosts her own podcast, You're Always Fine, and brings a rare combination of clinical expertise and lived experience with chronic illness to a conversation about what actually eases the pressure mental health professionals carry.

In This Episode, We Cover:

• Why treating clients like a blank slate can quietly damage the therapeutic alliance.
• Why she started disclosing her diagnosis in every discovery call.
• How spoon theory explains why some sessions cost more than others.
• How a health crisis led to a patented, accessible sweatshirt for infusion days.
• Where AI actually reduces cognitive load without replacing clinical judgment.
• Why discharging clients between hard seasons might not be the best model for continuity of care.
• How becoming an AI safety reviewer is turning into a new income stream for clinicians.

Connect with Kristine Hoestermann:
Website (RARE.): https://findyourrare.com
Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/youre-always-fine/id
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinehoestermann/
Instagram (RARE.): https://www.instagram.com/findyourrare 

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Join the Berries Community - A dedicated space for mental health clinicians to connect, share insights, and grow together. Look for Berries AI Official Community on Facebook at www.heyberries.com/community

Brought to You By Berries:
Ready to stop dreading your notes? Berries is your AI assistant for mental health professionals. Save time, stay compliant, and get back to the work you love. Learn more at heyberries.com.

Most mental health professionals are trained to provide therapy, not to run a business. Billing, scheduling, marketing, and documentation pile up fast, and without a system in place, it's easy to end up managing a practice that runs you instead of the other way around.

In this episode, Kym talks with Nicole Lacherza-Drew, PsyD, founder of CouchSide Coordinators, a virtual administrative support company built for therapists and wellness providers. As a licensed psychologist herself, Nicole has lived the same overwhelm she now helps other clinicians solve. She and Kym get into how to figure out what to hand off first, where automation actually earns its place, and how AI fits into daily practice management without taking over the parts that make the work yours.

In This Episode, We Cover:

• Why most clinicians are trained to do therapy, not to run a business.
• The real reason so many practice owners hesitate to bring on help.
• A simple way to decide what's actually worth delegating first.
• How to build SOPs even when nothing is written down yet.
• Where automation quietly takes work off your plate.
• Why chasing what worked for someone else's marketing can waste time and money.
• How to track your own time honestly before deciding what to change.

Connect with Nicole Lacherza-Drew:
Website: https://www.couchsidecoordinators.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/couchsidecoords/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CouchSideCoordinators/

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Join the Berries Community - A dedicated space for mental health clinicians to connect, share insights, and grow together. Look for Berries AI Official Community on Facebook at www.heyberries.com/community

Brought to You By Berries:
Ready to stop dreading your notes? Berries is your AI assistant for mental health professionals. Save time, stay compliant, and get back to the work you love. Learn more at heyberries.com.

When a client cycles through medication after medication with no real improvement, it is easy to label them treatment-resistant and run out of ideas. Referring out to a psychiatrist often just means more trial and error, with no clear answer for why nothing seems to be working.

Kym sits down with Dr. Steve Rondahl, founder of Axon EEG Solutions and a naturopathic doctor who has analyzed more than 50,000 brain scans. Steve explains how objective brain data can show what is actually happening in a client's brain instead of relying on subjective symptom checklists, and why two people with the exact same diagnosis can need completely different treatment approaches.

In This Episode, We Cover:

• Why two clients with the same diagnosis can have completely different brain patterns underneath.
• The real story behind a client whose panic symptoms did not match what her brain scan actually showed.
• How brain data helps validate clients who have been told nothing seems to work for them.
• Why some treatments fail before they even have a chance to help, and how to know in advance.
• What it takes to bring brain scan technology into your own practice, regardless of your background.
• Why patterns mental health professionals often see as problems can actually be strengths in the right environment.

Connect with Dr. Steve Rondahl:
Website: https://axoneegsolutions.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-steven-rondeau-aba2028/
Book - Think Like a Brain: https://www.thinklikeabrain.com/

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Join the Berries Community - A dedicated space for mental health clinicians to connect, share insights, and grow together. Look for Berries AI Official Community on Facebook at www.heyberries.com/community

Brought to You By Berries:
Ready to stop dreading your notes? Berries is your AI assistant for mental health professionals. Save time, stay compliant, and get back to the work you love. Learn more at heyberries.com.

If you've sunk hours into Instagram or TikTok content hoping it would turn into new clients, you know how draining that cycle can be. Between chasing hooks, filming, and reposting when nothing seems to land, it's worth asking whether there's a better use of your time.

Kym sits down with Margaux Flood, LCSW, group practice owner, and marketing strategist for private practice clinicians who are done DIY-ing their growth. Margaux built a fully booked practice in seven months, scaled to $15K plus months, and expanded into a group practice by leaning on messaging and SEO instead of social media. She breaks down what's actually working for her clients right now, and where most mental health professionals go wrong before they even realize it.

In This Episode, We Cover

• Why niching down to a highly specific ideal client works better than trying to appeal to everyone.
• The common website mistake that makes potential clients scroll right past you.
• Why social media may not be the best use of your marketing time as a licensed clinician.
• What to know before assuming insurance panels aren't worth taking.
• The mindset shift Margaux says most new practice owners need before they can grow.
• Where Margaux draws the line on using AI in her business, and where she won't touch it.

Connect with Margaux Flood:
Private Practice Powerhouse: https://www.margauxflood.com/private-practice-powerhouse
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therapywithmargaux

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Join the Berries Community - A dedicated space for mental health clinicians to connect, share insights, and grow together. Look for Berries AI Official Community on Facebook at www.heyberries.com/community

Brought to You By Berries:
Ready to stop dreading your notes? Berries is your AI assistant for mental health professionals. Save time, stay compliant, and get back to the work you love. Learn more at heyberries.com.

Independently owned group practices are disappearing, and it's not always because owners are doing something wrong. Insurance companies and venture capital have moved deep into group practice ownership over the past few years, and mental health professionals across the country are watching clinics they used to know get bought, merged, or folded into something bigger.

In this episode of Between Sessions with Berries, Kym sits down with Dr. Lisa Lovelace, founder of Synergy eTherapy and a licensed clinical psychologist across Minnesota, New York, Wisconsin, and PSYPACT states. Lisa has been teaching mental health professionals how to build online group practices since 2014, and Synergy eTherapy has been organically recognized by Forbes for the past three years. She and Kym dig into how the group practice landscape has shifted since COVID, what the different ownership models actually look like from the inside, and where Lisa thinks things are headed next.

In This Episode, We Cover:

• Why insurance and venture capital buyouts are changing who owns group practices.
• The real differences between a traditional group, a membership model, and a collective.
• Why closed insurance panels are pushing more mental health professionals toward collectives.
• What prompted Lisa to add in-person office space to an online-first practice.
• How multi-state licensing opens up options for group practices and the professionals who join them.
• The AI tools Lisa and her team actually use day-to-day.
• What Lisa tells mental health professionals who are trying to figure out which model fits them.

Connect with Dr. Lisa Lovelace:
Website: https://www.synergyetherapy.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/synergyetherapy/
Email: [email protected]
Lisa's courses: https://synergyetherapy.mvsite.app
The Nitty Gritty of Multistate Private Practice Expansion https://kymtolson.kartra.com/page/multistate

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Join the Berries Community - A dedicated space for mental health clinicians to connect, share insights, and grow together. Look for Berries AI Official Community on Facebook at www.heyberries.com/community

Brought to You By Berries:
Ready to stop dreading your notes? Berries is your AI assistant for mental health professionals. Save time, stay compliant, and get back to the work you love. Learn more at heyberries.com.

Building a family while running a private practice can feel like a math problem with no clean answer. Sick kids interrupt session days, maternity leave threatens months of income, and caseloads built around trauma work don't always leave room for the unpredictability that comes with parenting. For mental health professionals thinking about starting or growing a family, the question isn't just clinical; it's logistical, financial, and deeply personal.

Ashley Comegys knows this terrain from the inside. She's a licensed clinical social worker, the owner of a multi-state online therapy practice for women, a military spouse who has relocated her practice three times, and the host of The Therapist Mom podcast. In this conversation, Ashley shares how she built a business flexible enough to survive cross-country moves and three maternity leaves, what she considers before taking on certain client populations, and the AI documentation shift that finally got her notes under control.

In This Episode, We Cover:

• How Ashley built a fully online, multi-state practice around three military relocations.
• Why private practice offers real flexibility for parents, without pretending the deeper challenges disappear.
• What to think through before choosing a niche if you're planning to grow your family.
• How Ashley prepares clients and sets up a transition plan before going on leave.
• Why financial planning matters just as much as clinical planning when preparing for maternity leave.
• How switching to an AI documentation assistant helped Ashley catch up after her third child.
• Ashley's advice for building a practice that fits your life instead of building your life around work.

Mentioned in the episode:
Maternity Leave Playlist: www.raisedtoempower.com/maternity-leave-playlist

Connect with Ashley Comegys:
Website: https://www.raisedtoempower.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/raisedtoempower/
Podcast: https://www.raisedtoempower.com/podcast

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Join the Berries Community - A dedicated space for mental health clinicians to connect, share insights, and grow together. Look for Berries AI Official Community on Facebook at www.heyberries.com/community

Brought to You By Berries:
Ready to stop dreading your notes? Berries is your AI assistant for mental health professionals. Save time, stay compliant, and get back to the work you love. Learn more at heyberries.com.