Private Practice Skills

After a consult call with a new potential therapist who charged the morning of the therapy session, I found myself in a deep dive seeking the answer to this question: is it ethical for therapists to charge in advance of session?

Thank you to Paubox for sponsoring this episode. Paubox makes HIPAA-secure email and forms easy and streamlined. Check them out here:

https://hubs.la/Q04k58tL0

*Get $250 off your first year with Paubox with coupon code "SKILLS"

*Bonus Deal:* If you add the Paubox badge to your website you get an extra $100 off your first year - that means you can get your whole first year free if you apply both deals!

Links Mentioned:

r/therapists: "Do you charge your clients before or after the session?"

https://www.reddit.com/r/therapists/comments/1dilgg3/do_you_charge_your_clients_before_or_after_the/

Quora: "What are the ethical implications of paying for therapy sessions in advance?”

https://therapistsexposed.quora.com/What-are-the-ethical-implications-of-paying-for-therapy-sessions-in-advance

Quora: "Do all therapists require their clients to pay up front before starting treatment/therapy sessions?"

https://www.quora.com/Do-all-therapists-require-their-clients-to-pay-up-front-before-starting-treatment-therapy-sessions

Quora: "Should a therapist ask for payment up front or at the end of the session?"

https://www.quora.com/Should-a-therapist-ask-for-payment-up-front-or-at-the-end-of-the-session

Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct

https://www.apa.org/ethics/code

AAMFT’s Code of Ethics:

https://www.aamft.org/AAMFT/web/Action-Advocacy/Code-of-Ethics-New.aspx

LINKS:

*Some links are affiliate links. A percentage of purchases come back to me and help my channel immensely!

👉 FREE Guide: Start a Private Practice in Counseling: https://tinyurl.com/y9ek9en8

👉 All my filming gear: https://kit.co/privatepracticeskills/all-my-gear

This podcast is geared toward therapists of all kinds, including psychologists, MFTs, LPCCs, social workers, and others in the clinical counseling field. Welcome to Private Practice Skills! I’m Dr. Marie Fang, psychologist in private practice. I post videos offering tools I learned the hard way about starting and growing private practice so that you don’t have to.

Website: www.privatepracticeskills.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/privatepracticeskills

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/privatepracticeskills/

This podcast is not intended as professional or legal advice. Be sure to seek the services of a professional if you are in need of them.

I recently reached out to a therapist for myself and realized how much the entire intake process sets the tone of the therapeutic alliance.

In this episode, I share some suggestions for how we can hold a therapeutic frame with potential clients before the therapy starts. Not only will it improve the client experience, but setting accurate expectations can help clients make an accurate decision before consenting to therapy, and clients are less likely to cancel before the first session (like I did!).

Thank you to Paubox for sponsoring this episode. Paubox makes HIPAA-secure email easy and streamlined. Check them out here:

https://bit.ly/pps_paubox_spotify

*Get $250 off your first year with Paubox with coupon code "SKILLS"

*Bonus Deal:* If you add the Paubox badge to your website you get an extra $100 off your first year - that means you can get your whole first year free if you apply both deals!

Links Mentioned:

Article: "Premature discontinuation in adult psychotherapy: a meta-analysis"

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22506792/

Article: “The Nature, Timing, and Symptom Trajectories of Dropout from Transdiagnostic and Single-Diagnosis Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety Disorders"

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8531532/

LINKS:

*Some links are affiliate links. A percentage of purchases come back to me and help my channel immensely!

👉 FREE Guide: Start a Private Practice in Counseling: https://tinyurl.com/y9ek9en8

👉 All my filming gear: https://kit.co/privatepracticeskills/all-my-gear

This podcast is geared toward therapists of all kinds, including psychologists, MFTs, LPCCs, social workers, and others in the clinical counseling field. Welcome to Private Practice Skills! I’m Dr. Marie Fang, psychologist in private practice. I post videos offering tools I learned the hard way about starting and growing private practice so that you don’t have to.

Website: www.privatepracticeskills.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/privatepracticeskills

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/privatepracticeskills/

This podcast is not intended as professional or legal advice. Be sure to seek the services of a professional if you are in need of them.

It’s the start of a new series: The Most Fundamental Therapy Skills Explained. Woo! Today we’re kicking off the series by talking about active listening.

Thank you to Paubox for sponsoring this episode. Paubox makes HIPAA-secure email easy and streamlined. Check them out here:

https://bit.ly/pps_paubox_spotify

*Get $250 off your first year with Paubox with coupon code "SKILLS"

*Bonus Deal:* If you add the Paubox badge to your website you get an extra $100 off your first year - that means you can get your whole first year free if you apply both deals!

Links Mentioned:

Video: My Story of Sudden Hearing Loss:

https://youtu.be/DYQJKKnbxFk

APA’s Definition of Active Listening:

https://dictionary.apa.org/active-listening

Rogers, C. R., & Farson, R. E. (1987). Active listening. In R. G. Newman, M. A. Danzinger, & M. Cohen (Eds.), Communicating in business today (pp. 580–593). D. C. Heath & Company.

https://books.google.com/books/about/Communicating_in_Business_Today.html?id=PJ24PAAACAAJ

Article: “Active Listening”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK442015/

Article: "Coregulation of therapist and client emotion during psychotherapy”

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7233481/

LINKS:

*Some links are affiliate links. A percentage of purchases come back to me and help my channel immensely!

👉 FREE Guide: Start a Private Practice in Counseling: https://tinyurl.com/y9ek9en8

👉 All my filming gear: https://kit.co/privatepracticeskills/all-my-gear

This podcast is geared toward therapists of all kinds, including psychologists, MFTs, LPCCs, social workers, and others in the clinical counseling field. Welcome to Private Practice Skills! I’m Dr. Marie Fang, psychologist in private practice. I post videos offering tools I learned the hard way about starting and growing private practice so that you don’t have to.

Website: www.privatepracticeskills.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/privatepracticeskills

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/privatepracticeskills/

This podcast is not intended as professional or legal advice. Be sure to seek the services of a professional if you are in need of them.

We all know that social media is messy. In this episode, we explore two questions that have been taking up space in my brain lately:

1. How much pseudoscience is spread by respected therapists with HUGE platforms, even amongst fellow therapists (think: psychologists with longstanding bestsellers)
   
2. How harmful we are to each other in the comments. Why do we dogpile on each other so hard? Why are therapists just as culpable of piling on each other? Is speaking to each other this way online effective? And importantly: is there a better way?Thank you to Loretta J. Ross’ for her work on Calling In - links to her work referenced below!

Thank you to Paubox for sponsoring this episode. Paubox makes HIPAA-secure email easy and streamlined. Check them out here:

https://bit.ly/pps_paubox_spotify

*Get $250 off your first year with Paubox with coupon code "SKILLS"

*Bonus Deal:* If you add the Paubox badge to your website you get an extra $100 off your first year - that means you can get your whole first year free if you apply both deals!

Links Mentioned:

Loretta J. Ross’ TED Talk: "Don't call people out -- call them in”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xw_720iQDss&t=850s

Loretta’s book: "Calling In: How to Start Making Change with Those You'd Rather Cancel"

https://amzn.to/439WHfC

(this is an affiliate link)

Article: "Addressing misinformation about mental health with patients”

https://www.apa.org/topics/journalism-facts/misinformation-mental-health

Article: "An experimental online study on the impact of negative social media comments on anxiety and mood”

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-10810-8

Article: "Online disinhibition mediates the relationship between emotion regulation difficulties and uncivil communication"

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-81086-7

Article: "The online disinhibition effect”

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15257832/

Article: "Calling IN: A Less Disposable Way of Holding Each Other Accountable”

https://www.bgdblog.org/2013/12/calling-less-disposable-way-holding-accountable/

LINKS:

*Some links are affiliate links. A percentage of purchases come back to me and help my channel immensely!

👉 FREE Guide: Start a Private Practice in Counseling: https://tinyurl.com/y9ek9en8

👉 All my filming gear: https://kit.co/privatepracticeskills/all-my-gear

This podcast is geared toward therapists of all kinds, including psychologists, MFTs, LPCCs, social workers, and others in the clinical counseling field. Welcome to Private Practice Skills! I’m Dr. Marie Fang, psychologist in private practice. I post videos offering tools I learned the hard way about starting and growing private practice so that you don’t have to.

Website: www.privatepracticeskills.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/privatepracticeskills

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/privatepracticeskills/

This podcast is not intended as professional or legal advice. Be sure to seek the services of a professional if you are in need of them.

Lots of private practice therapists are seeing a drop in referrals lately due to an array of factors, including the ongoing growth of big tech therapy and AI-based services. It raises the question: is private practice still sustainable?

In this episode, I share my personal take: private practice isn’t going anywhere. And, if we can stay grounded in our roots of offering specialized, individualized, dynamic therapy, we can differentiate ourselves from big tech therapy.

I share my take on this in this episode. What do you think? What pieces did I miss?

Thank you to Paubox for sponsoring this episode. Paubox makes HIPAA-secure email easy and streamlined. Check them out here:

https://bit.ly/pps_paubox_spotify

*Get $250 off your first year with Paubox with coupon code "SKILLS"

*Bonus Deal:* If you add the Paubox badge to your website you get an extra $100 off your first year - that means you can get your whole first year free if you apply both deals!

Related Episodes:

"Trying AI Therapy (I'm a Psychologist)”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jqpxi_oCpYc

"Beat Big Tech Therapy by not Playing Their Game”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKrlL6oxUX4

LINKS:

*Some links are affiliate links. A percentage of purchases come back to me and help my channel immensely!

👉 FREE Guide: Start a Private Practice in Counseling: https://tinyurl.com/y9ek9en8

👉 All my filming gear: https://kit.co/privatepracticeskills/all-my-gear

This podcast is geared toward therapists of all kinds, including psychologists, MFTs, LPCCs, social workers, and others in the clinical counseling field. Welcome to Private Practice Skills! I’m Dr. Marie Fang, psychologist in private practice. I post videos offering tools I learned the hard way about starting and growing private practice so that you don’t have to.

Website: www.privatepracticeskills.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/privatepracticeskills

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/privatepracticeskills/

This podcast is not intended as professional or legal advice. Be sure to seek the services of a professional if you are in need of them.

I typed into Google "why do therapists..." and let Google autosuggest what it thought I wanted to ask. The suggested questions were interesting! Sometimes curious, sometimes controversial, I tackled these questions in this episode.

Thank you to Paubox for sponsoring this episode. Paubox makes HIPAA-secure email easy and streamlined. Check them out here:

https://bit.ly/pps_paubox_spotify

*Get $250 off your first year with Paubox with coupon code "SKILLS"

*Bonus Deal:* If you add the Paubox badge to your website you get an extra $100 off your first year - that means you can get your whole first year free if you apply both deals!

Links mentioned:

Prior Episode: "Why Does my Therapist Do That?”

https://youtu.be/rN3MYbFwWLM

NPR: "Finding a therapist who takes your insurance can be nearly impossible. Here's why"

https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2024/08/24/nx-s1-5028551/insurance-therapy-therapist-mental-health-coverage

Average Therapist Salary on Indeed:

https://www.indeed.com/career/therapist/salaries

"Certified Life Coach: What It Means and How to Become One"

https://www.coursera.org/articles/certified-life-coach

Reddit Post on Life Coaches:

https://www.reddit.com/r/therapists/comments/1pqc60p/for_fun_i_obtained_details_on_how_much_life/?force_seo=1

LINKS:

*Some links are affiliate links. A percentage of purchases come back to me and help my channel immensely!

👉 FREE Guide: Start a Private Practice in Counseling: https://tinyurl.com/y9ek9en8

👉 All my filming gear: https://kit.co/privatepracticeskills/all-my-gear

This podcast is geared toward therapists of all kinds, including psychologists, MFTs, LPCCs, social workers, and others in the clinical counseling field. Welcome to Private Practice Skills! I’m Dr. Marie Fang, psychologist in private practice. I post videos offering tools I learned the hard way about starting and growing private practice so that you don’t have to.

Website: www.privatepracticeskills.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/privatepracticeskills

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/privatepracticeskills/

This podcast is not intended as professional or legal advice. Be sure to seek the services of a professional if you are in need of them.

Here's a little dose of positivity for you :)

Sometimes we can get so deep into the parts of our profession that are messy that I'm helped by reminders of all the meaningful work we're doing too. Enjoy!

Thank you to Paubox for sponsoring this episode. Paubox makes HIPAA-secure email easy and streamlined. Check them out here:

https://bit.ly/pps_paubox_spotify

*Get $250 off your first year with Paubox with coupon code "SKILLS"

*Bonus Deal:* If you add the Paubox badge to your website you get an extra $100 off your first year - that means you can get your whole first year free if you apply both deals!

LINKS:

*Some links are affiliate links. A percentage of purchases come back to me and help my channel immensely!

👉 FREE Guide: Start a Private Practice in Counseling: https://tinyurl.com/y9ek9en8

👉 All my filming gear: https://kit.co/privatepracticeskills/all-my-gear

This podcast is geared toward therapists of all kinds, including psychologists, MFTs, LPCCs, social workers, and others in the clinical counseling field. Welcome to Private Practice Skills! I’m Dr. Marie Fang, psychologist in private practice. I post videos offering tools I learned the hard way about starting and growing private practice so that you don’t have to.

Website: www.privatepracticeskills.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/privatepracticeskills

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/privatepracticeskills/

This podcast is not intended as professional or legal advice. Be sure to seek the services of a professional if you are in need of them.

Does anyone else feel like things have been extra hard for therapists in 2026? In this episode, I asked therapists to share their top struggles of 2026, because I wanted to know if something different is going on lately.

I was surprised to find a much wider gamut of top therapist struggles reported compared to when I made similar episodes in the past.

What do you think? Does it feel extra difficult to be a therapist? Or, are these just the same struggles we’ve experienced before but just in slightly different packaging?

Thank you to Paubox for sponsoring this episode. Paubox makes HIPAA-secure email easy and streamlined. Check them out here:

https://bit.ly/pps_paubox_spotify

*Get $250 off your first year with Paubox with coupon code "SKILLS"

*Bonus Deal:* If you add the Paubox badge to your website you get an extra $100 off your first year - that means you can get your whole first year free if you apply both deals!

Episodes Mentioned:

Private Practice Marketing Playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLi4iw1FZZYrAaqD-YMZm_Hc5WSZMq5WSB

15 Alternative Career Options for Therapists:

https://youtu.be/jdsKse4Yf1w

What if you Get Bored as a Therapist?

https://youtu.be/FqxBN8DaxsE

5 Tools That Help Me Avoid Therapist Burnout:

https://youtu.be/ujI6bHACnFU

The Therapeutic Aspects of the Initial Phone Screen:

https://youtu.be/mXEciH3PZ5Y

LINKS:

*Some links are affiliate links. A percentage of purchases come back to me and help my channel immensely!

👉 FREE Guide: Start a Private Practice in Counseling: https://tinyurl.com/y9ek9en8

👉 All my filming gear: https://kit.co/privatepracticeskills/all-my-gear

This podcast is geared toward therapists of all kinds, including psychologists, MFTs, LPCCs, social workers, and others in the clinical counseling field. Welcome to Private Practice Skills! I’m Dr. Marie Fang, psychologist in private practice. I post videos offering tools I learned the hard way about starting and growing private practice so that you don’t have to.

Website: www.privatepracticeskills.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/privatepracticeskills

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/privatepracticeskills/

This podcast is not intended as professional or legal advice. Be sure to seek the services of a professional if you are in need of them.

It's been over a year since I took at the top posts on the r/therapists subreddit. Since I've been living under a rock, I thought it would be a good time to take a look at the top posts from the therapists subreddit from the last year.

Check out the r/therapists subreddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/therapists/

Thank you to Paubox for sponsoring this episode. Paubox makes HIPAA-secure email easy and streamlined. Check them out here:

https://bit.ly/pps_paubox_spotify

*Get $250 off your first year with Paubox with coupon code "SKILLS"

*Bonus Deal:* If you add the Paubox badge to your website you get an extra $100 off your first year - that means you can get your whole first year free if you apply both deals!

LINKS:

*Some links are affiliate links. A percentage of purchases come back to me and help my channel immensely!

👉 FREE Guide: Start a Private Practice in Counseling: https://tinyurl.com/y9ek9en8

👉 All my filming gear: https://kit.co/privatepracticeskills/all-my-gear

This podcast is geared toward therapists of all kinds, including psychologists, MFTs, LPCCs, social workers, and others in the clinical counseling field. Welcome to Private Practice Skills! I’m Dr. Marie Fang, psychologist in private practice. I post videos offering tools I learned the hard way about starting and growing private practice so that you don’t have to.

Website: www.privatepracticeskills.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/privatepracticeskills

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/privatepracticeskills/

This podcast is not intended as professional or legal advice. Be sure to seek the services of a professional if you are in need of them.

In this episode, I share some simple tips to help your therapy practice get recommended by AI. You don’t have to be tech-savvy to implement these! GEO marketing tips for therapists:

Niche down

Don’t have AI write for you

Emphasize one geographic area on your homepage

Create separate services pages

Phrase headers as questions

Highlight your credentials

Use internal links to guide AI

Give a summary at the top of each page

Establish listings on directories

Thank you to Paubox for sponsoring this episode. Paubox makes HIPAA-secure email easy and streamlined. Check them out here:

https://bit.ly/pps_paubox_spotify

*Get $250 off your first year with Paubox with coupon code "SKILLS"

*Bonus Deal:* If you add the Paubox badge to your website you get an extra $100 off your first year - that means you can get your whole first year free if you apply both deals!

Past episodes on niching:

"5 Ways to Find Your Therapy Niche”

https://youtu.be/FU1eHRDwkus

"Develop your Niche in Private Practice”

https://youtu.be/bh6bJRb7iwQ

Article: "AI Content Generation for SEO: Pros, Cons & How to Use It"

https://neilpatel.com/blog/ai-create-content/

LINKS:

*Some links are affiliate links. A percentage of purchases come back to me and help my channel immensely!

👉 FREE Guide: Start a Private Practice in Counseling: https://tinyurl.com/y9ek9en8

👉 All my filming gear: https://kit.co/privatepracticeskills/all-my-gear

This podcast is geared toward therapists of all kinds, including psychologists, MFTs, LPCCs, social workers, and others in the clinical counseling field. Welcome to Private Practice Skills! I’m Dr. Marie Fang, psychologist in private practice. I post videos offering tools I learned the hard way about starting and growing private practice so that you don’t have to.

Website: www.privatepracticeskills.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/privatepracticeskills

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/privatepracticeskills/

This podcast is not intended as professional or legal advice. Be sure to seek the services of a professional if you are in need of them.