Grief is something every one of us will face at some point, and yet most of us have no idea what to say when someone is hurting.

In this episode, I'm joined by Shelby Forsythia, a grief coach, author, and host of the Grief Grower podcast. Shelby shares her own story of profound loss and how it shaped the work she does today, helping people navigate grief in a way that actually honors what they are going through.

We talk about why so many common phrases miss the mark, what grieving people are really experiencing beneath the surface, and how grief doesn't just affect your emotions, it changes your identity. Shelby also breaks down the three simple phrases that can completely shift how you support someone in pain.

If you've ever felt unsure of what to say, or worried about saying the wrong thing, this conversation will give you a clearer path forward.

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Meet Shelby Forsythia

Shelby Forsythia (she/her) is a grief coach, author, and podcast host. In 2020, she founded Life After Loss Academy, an online course and community that has helped dozens of grievers grow and find their way after death, divorce, diagnosis, and other major life transitions.

Following her mother's death in 2013, Shelby began calling herself a "student of grief" and now devotes her days to reading, writing, and speaking about loss. Through a combination of mindfulness tools and intuitive, open-ended questions, she guides her clients to welcome grief as a teacher and create meaningful lives that honor and include the heartbreaks they've faced. Her work has been featured in Huffington Post, Bustle, and The Oprah Magazine.

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Thinking about starting a private practice in 2026? There's a lot to consider… and it's not as simple as it used to be.

In this episode of The Practice of Therapy Podcast, I'm joined by Brandy Mabra, who brings nearly two decades of experience across private practice, corporate healthcare, and entrepreneurship. We dig into what's really happening in the industry right now—from AI and changing business models to profitability and long-term sustainability.

If you're wondering whether now is the right time to start (or grow) a practice, this conversation will help you think more strategically about your next move.

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Meet Brandy Mabra

Brandy Mabra is the CEO of Savvy Clover Coaching & Consulting and a CEO coach for private practice owners in healthcare.

Brandy has over two decades of business management and leadership experience. She has worked in diverse business climates and has turned hot mess practices into well-oiled, profitable machines. She has spent her career building, scaling, and leading 9-figure practices and now uses her skill set to help women private practice owners grow their businesses with sustainability and profit in mind.

Brandy earned her bachelor's degree from The Ohio State University and a Master's in Health Administration from A.T. Still University. She is a Certified Professional Coach and Master Energy Leadership Practitioner, receiving her credentials from the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC).

She has been part of the Entrepreneur Leadership Network and has been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, Entrepreneur, PopSugar, Create & Cultivate, and several well-known podcasts. Brandy is also the host of the top-ranked CEO podcast, CEO Conversations: The Private Practice Podcast.

She is the founder of Private Practice CEO™, which empowers her clients to fully step into their role as CEO—building practices with streamlined operations and engaged teams that can run without them.

Brandy loves to travel and spend time with her family. She believes you can't build a business on fumes—and that CEO breaks are required.

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Thinking about starting a private practice… but feeling unsure where to begin?

In this episode, Katie Piura shares the mindset shifts every therapist needs to make before launching (or growing) a successful practice.

From burnout in agency work to building something aligned and sustainable, Katie breaks down the real challenges therapists face and why being a great clinician isn't always enough.

We also get into the business side of private practice that grad school never taught you, including money mindset, marketing, and why asking for help might be the most important step you take.

If you've been thinking about private practice but feel stuck, overwhelmed, or unsure... this conversation is for you.

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Meet Katie Piura

She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with over 10 years of experience in behavioral health, specializing in culturally competent mental health care, trauma-informed care, emotional wellness, and child, adolescent, and young adult populations. As a bilingual clinician and trainer, she has led workshops, courses, and media education segments across a range of settings—from Latin media outlets to universities. Her work centers on serving diverse communities, with a focus on first- and second-generation immigrants, Latinx populations, and youth. She provides accessible, evidence-based education in both English and Spanish.

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What if the thing keeping your clients stuck isn't what they're talking about… but what they're avoiding feeling?

In this episode, I'm joined by Tanya Dantus, and we dive into a really practical way of helping clients move through what's actually underneath the surface. Tanya shares her RIFRA Method, which stands for Root, Impact, Feel, Reflect, and Act, and how this process helps clients stop intellectualizing and start creating real change.

We talk about why so many people struggle to access their emotions, how that shows up in therapy, and what it looks like to guide someone through it in a way that feels safe and doable. There's also a great conversation around boundaries, validation, and how early patterns continue to show up in work and relationships.

If you've ever felt like your clients understand their issues but still feel stuck, this one will give you a different lens and some practical tools you can start using right away.

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Meet Tanya Dantus, LMFT, SEP

Tanya Dantus is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner who specializes in working with high-functioning women navigating relationship patterns, people-pleasing, and emotional disconnection.

Her work integrates relational therapy, depth psychology, and somatic approaches to help clients move beyond insight into lasting, embodied change.

She is the creator of the RIFRA Method, a framework that helps clients understand the roots of their patterns, process emotional experience, and take aligned action. She is also the author of The Power of No, which brings this work to a wider audience of women ready to reclaim their voice, safety, and self-trust.

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Thinking about taking insurance in your private practice or trying to figure out a better way to handle out-of-network clients?

This is one of those decisions that almost every therapist wrestles with at some point. On one hand, insurance can help fill your caseload and make therapy more accessible. On the other hand, the admin work, lower reimbursement rates, and constant back and forth can leave you feeling stretched thin and frustrated.

In this episode, I'm joined by Mark Florian, founder of Deputy Care, and we get into what is really happening behind the scenes with insurance, superbills, and out of network billing. We talk about why so many therapists start on insurance panels and then eventually want to move away from them, and what makes that transition so difficult.

We also unpack the hidden friction in the system, from denied claims to clients struggling to get reimbursed, and how all of that can impact both your income and your clients' ability to stay in therapy.

If you've ever felt stuck between wanting to help more people and wanting to build a sustainable private practice, this conversation will give you a lot to think about.

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Meet Mark Florian

Mark Florian is the Founder of Deputy Care, a platform dedicated to helping private-pay clinicians increase patient retention by eliminating the "administrative dread" of insurance.

With over 15 years of experience building the technological "plumbing" of healthcare, Mark has served as the CTO of Advekit and was an early engineering leader at Zocdoc.

Today, he is on a mission to "kill the superbill," replacing outdated PDF receipts with automated "payment floating" technology that allows patients to access their out-of-network benefits instantly.

Mark's unique perspective sits at the intersection of high-scale health tech and the deeply personal relationship between therapist and client.

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Private pay versus insurance is one of the biggest decisions therapists face, and honestly, it's also one of the most misunderstood.

In this episode, we're breaking down what therapists often get wrong when thinking about these two models. It's not just about money or convenience. It's about how you want to run your practice, who you want to serve, and where you're willing to spend your time and energy.

If you've been going back and forth on whether to take insurance, go private pay, or try a hybrid approach, this conversation will help you think about it in a much clearer way.

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Meet Avivit Fisher

Avivit Fisher is a marketing strategist and the founder of REdD Strategy, a boutique consultancy that helps therapists and private practice owners attract private-pay clients through clear positioning, ethical marketing, and sustainable systems. With over a decade of experience in brand strategy and healthcare marketing, she works with clinicians nationwide to build practices that stand out, grow intentionally, and align with their values.

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What happens when you open the floor and let your audience ask anything?

That's exactly what we did in this episode, and the questions did not disappoint.

We're diving into the big ones therapists are quietly asking right now.

Is AI going to replace us? Are companies like BetterHelp helping or hurting the field? And how do you actually stand out when clients can talk to a chatbot instead of a human?

I'm sharing my honest thoughts on where all of this is headed, what most therapists are getting wrong about AI, and why the human connection in therapy still matters more than ever.

If you've been feeling unsure, frustrated, or even a little threatened by the changes happening in our industry, this episode will help you step back, rethink the problem, and approach it with clarity instead of fear.

Plus, I'm answering real listener questions and giving you practical ways to navigate it all as a practice owner.

This is one of those conversations that might challenge how you've been thinking about the future of therapy.

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Rethinking Depression | Hidden Brain Podcast

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Most of us know the feeling. You pick up your phone to check one thing and suddenly twenty minutes have disappeared. For many people, this has become a daily pattern, and it is starting to show up more and more in therapy sessions.

In this episode, I sit down with Eli Singer to talk about digital overwhelm and the complicated relationship many of us have with our phones and devices. Eli has spent years working in the digital world, including building one of the early social media agencies in North America. After stepping away from that work, he began focusing on helping people develop healthier relationships with technology.

We talk about why so many people feel stuck when it comes to changing their phone habits, and why the issue often has less to do with willpower and more to do with confidence. Eli also shares his Offline Now Matrix, a simple framework that helps people understand where they are in their relationship with technology and what kind of support they might need to make a change.

We also get into how these issues show up in therapy, the difference between habit and deeper emotional drivers behind phone use, and why digital overwhelm is becoming an important area for therapists and coaches to pay attention to.

If you have clients who struggle with screen time, digital burnout, or feeling constantly tethered to their devices, this conversation will give you a helpful way to start thinking about it.

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Meet Eli Singer

Eli Singer is a Toronto-based founder, coach, and author focused on digital wellbeing. After years in digital marketing, he built Offline.now to help people and families reduce digital overwhelm without detox extremes. His work centers on a shame-free framework called the Offline.now Matrix and a directory of digital wellness professionals.

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Marketing can feel uncomfortable for a lot of therapists. Most of us were trained to be neutral, private, and to keep the focus on the client. So when someone tells you that you need to show up on social media or talk about your work publicly, it can feel a little strange.

But visibility matters more than ever when it comes to building a private practice.

In this episode, I'm joined by Jazzmyn Proctor, a therapist, podcaster, and marketing mentor who helps clinicians show up online in ways that feel authentic and sustainable. Jazzmyn shares how she started building her presence while still in grad school and how social media became a natural way to grow her practice and connect with the right clients.

We talk about the tension many therapists feel between being a "blank slate" and being visible online, how to find a marketing style that fits your strengths, and why you do not have to be everywhere to grow your practice.

If social media has ever felt intimidating or overwhelming, this conversation will give you a practical and realistic way to think about marketing your work.

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Meet Jazzmyn Proctor, M.S., LGPC, NCC, CTP

Jazzmyn Proctor, M.S., LGPC, NCC, CTP, is a mental health therapist specializing in trauma-informed, attachment-based therapy under the supervision of Dr. Jennifer Kaufman Walker. She earned her master's degree from Hood College. During her time in graduate school, she was actively involved in community initiatives, including serving on the board of directors for Annapolis Pride. Jazzmyn believes strongly in working to create meaningful change both inside and outside of the therapy room.

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Couples therapy can be some of the most rewarding work we do as therapists, but it can also be one of the most challenging.

Many couples don't reach out for help until things feel like they're falling apart. By the time they sit down in your office, there are often years of resentment, hurt, and miscommunication built up beneath the surface.

In this episode, I'm joined by Dr. Wyatt Fisher, a psychologist and couples therapist who has spent years refining his approach to helping couples work through those deeper issues. Wyatt shares how his own personal and professional experiences shaped his work with couples and why he eventually moved away from the traditional weekly therapy model.

We talk about the power of marriage intensives, how addressing resentments first can change the entire course of therapy, and some of the practical tools he uses to help couples rebuild connection and accountability. Wyatt also shares how he's structured his practice to include intensives, coaching, classes, and conferences to create a more comprehensive model for helping couples.

If you work with couples or have ever wondered how to structure therapy so couples can make real progress faster, I think you'll find this conversation really interesting.

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Wealth & Worth Within CEO Financial Clarity Corner

Use the promo code "GORDON" to get 2 months of Therapy Notes free

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Meet Dr. Wyatt Fisher

Dr. Wyatt Fisher is a licensed psychologist who has specialized in marriage counseling since 2004. He holds a master's and doctorate in clinical psychology and helps couples repair their relationships through practical tools and structured approaches to resolving resentment and rebuilding connection.

Dr. Fisher's passion for helping couples began after experiencing his parents' divorce as a child and later navigating significant challenges in his own marriage. Through years of intentional work and healing, he and his wife rebuilt their relationship, which now informs both his personal and professional perspective on marriage.

In addition to his private practice, Dr. Fisher hosts the Dr. Wyatt Marriage Podcast, where he shares practical advice and strategies to help couples build stronger, healthier relationships.

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