Business Consultations

I remember what it was like to build a practice without knowing exactly what I was doing.

How much should I charge? Should I take insurance? What should my cancellation policy be? How do people actually find me? What EHR should I use? What do I need to do before I see my first client? What happens when a client doesn't pay? How much of my time should I spend on marketing?

There isn't one right answer to most of these questions. There are just a lot of decisions, some of which matter much more than others.

I've built and run a private pay, solo psychotherapy practice for years, and eventually growing Seattle Counseling Center. I've learned a lot about the practical side of making a practice work: marketing, rates and fees, insurance, policies, systems, boundaries, and the small business decisions that don't get covered in graduate school.

I also know what it's like to make a decision and later realize I would do it differently now. That's useful experience to have in the room when you're trying to make your own decisions.

We can talk about things like:

Getting started

• Setting your rates

• Deciding whether and when to take insurance

• Choosing an EHR and setting up your practice systems

• Business structure and basic practice setup

Getting clients

• Marketing yourself without feeling like you're constantly selling

• Your website and online presence

• Referral sources

• Figuring out why your calendar isn't filling

Running the practice

• Cancellation and payment policies

• Client boundaries

• Insurance and billing questions

• Difficult business decisions

• What to prioritize when there are a hundred things you could be doing

Let me help you think through your stuck points.

$200 / 60 minutes

Clinician Consultation

I especially enjoy talking with therapists about cases that have gotten complicated.

The treatment that has started to feel stuck. A rupture you're unsure how to address. A boundary that suddenly feels less clear than it did last week.

My clinical work is grounded in relational and psychodynamic psychotherapy, with particular attention to attachment, the therapeutic relationship, transference and countertransference, and the clinical frame.

When I consult, I'm interested in what is happening between the therapist and client as much as what is happening to the client.

Clinical consultation might be useful when you're thinking about:

• Transference or countertransference

• A difficult therapeutic relationship

• Ruptures and repairs

• Boundaries and the clinical frame

• Treatment planning or a treatment that feels stuck

• Risk and ethical questions

• Termination

• Strong reactions to a client

• A clinical decision you're not sure about

This is consultation, not supervision for licensure. It is designed to be something you can use when you need it: one conversation, or an occasional return when another case brings you back.

$200 / 60 minutes

Who you’ll be talking to

I'm Jennifer Petty, a therapist and the owner and director of Seattle Counseling Center.

Most of what I know about private practice came from actually having one.

I started as a solo therapist and have spent years figuring out how to make a psychotherapy practice work in the real world: finding clients, setting fees, working with insurance, writing policies, managing the business, and eventually building a small group practice.

Clinically, my work is relational and psychodynamic. I'm interested in the parts of therapy that aren't always straightforward: what happens in the relationship, what gets communicated indirectly, where we get stuck, and what our own reactions might be telling us.

I've learned a lot. I also don't think I've figured everything out. That's part of what makes consultation useful.

Bring me the question and I’ll see how I can help.