Dr. Brian Dixon is back. He owns a seven-figure practice in Texas, built Feel Guide to solve the referral problem he kept running into, and has invested close to $100,000 in business coaching over his career. He knows what he is doing and he does not sugarcoat it.

We talked about how to ask for a consult the right way and why most new clinicians get it wrong, why nothing about building a private pay practice is free and what it actually costs to do it right, what the referral network has to look like in year one and why you cannot skip the pavement pounding even if you are an introvert, what to do when the VC companies start absorbing your clients and you are feeling the fear, why you need to know where you are going before any of it makes sense, and Feel Guide, what it is, how it works, and why you should get on it now before the price goes up.

He also said something that I keep coming back to. If you don't do it, it won't get done. Nobody is coming to save you. Build the thing.

If this episode got you thinking about where you are going and who is helping you get there, let's talk. Book a 90-minute strategy session at privatepaypractitioners.com.

Dr. Brian Dixon: feelguide.network
Feel Guide: feelguide.network
Feel Great: feelgreat.today

I sat down with Alinne Butcher, a licensed marriage and family therapist and founder of Over The Rug Therapy based in Granada Hills, California. Alinne is a trauma-informed, antiracist, attachment therapist who has been in practice for three years and is also a new mom doing all of this with a baby at home.

She also has 37,000 Instagram followers, two completed books, and zero products on the market.

We had a real conversation about what it looks like to build an audience of that size without a plan to monetize it, why she stopped posting, why both books are done and neither one is out, what she is actually afraid of, and what it means to get out of your own way when the people are already sending you DMs asking where the products are.

I told her I want to see the book in 30 days. She said okay.

We also got into her insurance journey, what Kaiser was doing inside her practice that made her feel like she was dancing with the devil, why she left and how the mindset shift made it possible, and what she would say to every therapist who is sitting on something they have been too scared to put out.

If this episode lit something up for you, let's talk. Book a 90-minute strategy session at privatepaypractitioners.com.

Alinne Butcher: overtherugtherapy.com

Instagram: @overtherugtherapy

This week I sat down with Lynn Zakeri, a licensed clinical social worker based in the Chicago area who has been in private practice for over 20 years. She is the 2022 Illinois NASW Social Worker of the Year, has been featured in over 100 national media outlets, and runs a hybrid group practice licensed across 15 states between her and her associates.

She never set out to build a business. She set out to become a really good therapist. The business followed. That has been her philosophy for over two decades and this conversation is proof that it works.

We talked about how she went from school social worker to solo private pay practitioner to group practice owner almost by accident, why she added five associates during COVID in what she calls the best and worst thing to ever happen to her business, what it actually means to deliver what you sell, how she has built long term client relationships that span decades, why she told her son when he started editing her videos that credibility mattered more than going viral, and what doing without feeling costs you when you are juggling everything at once.

She also said something I keep going back to. If you want 10 tips for anxiety you don't need to see me. If you want to know why you keep getting activated, that's what we do.

If this episode got you thinking about the kind of practice you actually want to build, let's talk. Book a 90-minute strategy session at privatepaypractitioners.com.

Lynn Zakeri: lynnzakeri.com

Instagram and TikTok: @lynnzakerilcsw

YouTube: @lynnzakeri4260

This week I sat down with Elena Khazanova and I did not expect to almost cry.

Elena has been doing this work for over 25 years. She started as a massage therapist and craniosacral therapist, went back for her counseling degree, and built a practice that now centers entirely on provider wellbeing. She brings providers together for connection, friendship, networking, and play. And she trains therapists to become CE providers so that the clinical wisdom sitting inside practitioners who are not PESI favorites can actually get out into the world.

We talked about why you do not have to go straight to the APA to become a CE provider, how EFT tapping helped her teach over a thousand therapists a trauma intervention that also protects them from secondary trauma in real time, what it means to build gift bonds instead of trauma bonds in your provider community, why visibility has been the hardest thing for minority and marginalized therapists to claim, and what happens when you get providers in a room together and ask them to talk about their gifts instead of their credentials.

She also asked me what my deepest gift is. And then she asked me what the world would look like if that gift fully flowed into it. I did not see that coming.

And then we talked about the friends I have made in this community who have shown up for me in ways some of my blood family never did. Friends who sat in the bed with me when I lost my daughter. Friends who were officiants at my wedding. Friends I called from the ICU.

We make spectacular friends. This episode reminded me why.

If this episode got you thinking about who is in your corner and who should be, let's talk. Book a 90-minute strategy session at privatepaypractitioners.com.

Elena Khazanova: elenakhazanova.com

This week I sat down with Amanda Chenkin, a licensed professional counselor and certified career counselor based in Baltimore, Maryland. Amanda specializes in career trauma and has been private pay from day one because she was not going to let an insurance company decide whether her work was necessary.

Career trauma is not a phrase most people have heard. But they have lived it. Chronic underpayment. Bullying. Microaggressions. Layoffs. Being stuck in a job that is hurting you because you cannot afford to lose the health insurance. That is career trauma. And it shows up in the therapy room every single day.

We talked about how career counseling and mental health are more integrated than most people realize, why career counseling is a Z code in the ICD-10 and what that tells us about how the system values this work, how she structures her practice around bulk hour packages and extended sessions, what it means to leave a system that is not serving you when financial and career trauma have you convinced it is the only safe thing to hold on to, and why the clients are struggling, the therapists are struggling, and the insurance companies are doing great.

She also made me think about the shirt I was wearing. Every act of change started with someone fed up. That is why we are both here.

If this episode got you thinking about career trauma in yourself or your clients, let's talk. Book a 90-minute strategy session at privatepaypractitioners.com.

Amanda Chenkin: choicecareercounseling.com

Email: [email protected]

Get the shirt: https://www.zazzle.com/fed_up_and_fired_up_bipoc_t_shirt-256653074668722699

This week I sat down with Sarah Benitez Zandi, a licensed clinical social worker and founder of Trauma Wise Healing, a virtual private pay practice serving clients across 12 states. Sarah specializes in helping Cycle Breakers, people who are done repeating the patterns they inherited and ready to build something different.

She built her practice around 90-minute sessions by design. Not because it sounds impressive, but because she kept running out of time doing EMDR and ART in 50 minutes and sending clients back out into the world not fully grounded. The longer sessions changed everything.

We talked about how she found her niche by listening to the Playbook while walking her dogs at 4:30 in the morning, why she left insurance after a year of fighting to get reimbursed only to face a clawback eight months later, what her intensive model looks like and who it is actually right for, and why she said something I keep coming back to. I paid a lot of money for this expertise and I need an ROI too.

We also talked about her podcast Grounded in 10, how she started recording personalized grounding tracks for her intensive clients, and why Insight Timer might be her next revenue stream.

If this episode got you thinking about your own session structure and what you could charge if you designed your practice differently, let's talk. Book a 90-minute strategy session at privatepaypractitioners.com.

Sarah Benitez Zandi: traumawisehealing.com

Podcast: Grounded in 10 on Spotify and Apple Podcasts

Facebook: Notes From The Therapy Room

This week I sat down with Malia Scott, a licensed professional counselor and certified sex and couples therapist based in Lubbock, Texas, and the founder of Rewilding Relationships. Malia specializes in relationship and erotic recovery and has been private pay from day one. She started her PLLC the day she graduated. She knew what she wanted and she went after it.

We talked about what rewilding actually means and where that word came from for her, how she built a practice around sex therapy when you cannot say the word sex on social media, the think global act local networking strategy she applies across Texas, Colorado, and beyond, why she quit drinking a year and a half ago and what that did for her nervous system and her practice, what she witnessed working with sex workers through Pineapple Support, and why the numbers are just not numbering for insurance based practitioners right now.

She also said something I want everyone to hear. Do good work and have good boundaries. That is the whole thing.

Malia has a free webinar coming up on August 27th from noon to 1pm CST called Rewilding Your Practice: The Decision to Leave Insurance. And this fall she is running an eight-week deep dive cohort starting September 10th for therapists who are ready to go all the way into that decision making process.

If this episode lit something up for you, let's talk. Book a 90-minute strategy session at privatepaypractitioners.com.

Malia Scott: rewildingrelationships.com

Free webinar August 27th, noon to 1pm CST: rewildingrelationships.com

Therapist Instagram: @rewildingyourpractice

Practice Instagram: @rewildingrelationships

This week I sat down with Dr. Matt Richardson, a psychologist based in Boston licensed in Massachusetts, New York, Maine, and Florida. Matt specializes in high-achieving millennial gay men navigating body shame, disordered eating, and anxiety. When I saw that niche I knew immediately that this person knows exactly who they want to work with.

Matt opened his doors the same day he got licensed in August 2024. He came in knowing what he wanted to do, transitioned off insurance quickly, and has since completed close to a hundred networking calls in his first year. He is doing a lot of things right. Getting in front of his ideal client in a meaningful way is the work in progress.

We talked about how he built a niche from his own lived experience with an eating disorder, why he struggled to find anyone in the field who understood how these issues showed up in gay men, the networking strategy that is working for him, where LGBT-owned allied health practices fit into his referral picture, what community talks and podcast appearances are opening up, and what it means to make sure you actually get paid when someone asks you to present.

He also said something I love. Research is me search. That is how the best niches get built.

If this episode got you thinking about who you are actually built to serve, let's talk. Book a 90-minute strategy session at privatepaypractitioners.com.

Dr. Matt Richardson: roughwaterspsych.com
Email: [email protected]

This week I sat down with Jacqui Nelson, a licensed mental health counselor and founder of Liminal Psychotherapy in Spokane, Washington. Jacqui specializes in religious trauma, faith deconstruction, identity reconstruction, and childhood trauma. She is also an approved supervisor and is hosting her first retreat this fall called The Slumber Party Retreat.

Jacqui got kicked out of her church at 28. That experience of profound loss, confusion, and identity collapse is exactly what led her to the work she does now. She does not just understand religious trauma clinically. She lived it.

We talked about what it looks like to leave insurance six months ago and not look back, how she dropped half her caseload when she sent that email and then watched new referrals show up anyway, why she pulled a tarot card at a retreat that said abundance and decided to follow that nudge, what private pay has opened up for her beyond the therapy room including groups, public speaking at $2,500 a talk, and a retreat she filled with nine people on her first try.

She also said something about the insurance companies that I think a lot of you have been thinking but haven't said out loud. They are predatory toward the clinician and predatory toward the client.

This one is good. Go listen.

Jacqui Nelson: liminal-psychotherapy.com
Instagram: @liminal-psychotherapy

If this episode got you thinking about your own transition, let's talk. Book a 90-minute strategy session at privatepaypractitioners.com.

I sat down with Amanda Morris, a licensed clinical social worker with 25 years of experience based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Amanda specializes in emotional abuse recovery with a particular focus on autistic, AuDHD, and neurodivergent women, many of whom are late-diagnosed or self-suspected and finally making sense of relationships that left them questioning their own reality. She is an AuDHD therapist herself and brings both specialized training and lived experience to the work.

We talked about the insurance and VC platform landscape and what is actually happening behind the scenes, why she deliberately cut from six clients a day to four and dropped an entire workday, what it looks like to launch an eight-week private pay emotional abuse recovery group, how she structured three payment tiers for her group using SimplePractice, Accelerated Resolution Therapy and why she jumped right in with clients the week after getting trained, the IFS gatekeeping conversation your audience has been having on the Facebook page, and why our ethical responsibility to clients starts with taking care of ourselves.

She said something that I think many of us have thought, “If I am exhausted, resentful, burned out, and poor, am I the best therapist for anyone?" Ain't that the truth.

And then she said something else. "My worst day in private pay beats my best day working for someone else." Amanda, you and I think a lot a like!

If this episode got you thinking about your own sustainability and what your practice actually needs to look like, let's talk. Book a 90-minute strategy session at privatepaypractitioners.com.

Amanda Morris: amandamorristherapy.com
Social: @amandamorristherapy