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It’s been 60 degrees in Salt Lake this week and it feels like Spring is in the air! The shift in weather gets me itching to start organizing the house, cleaning up the yard, and doing a little spring cleaning. I’ve also been thinking about doing a little spring cleaning on the inside too.
Since being named the#1 online depression influencer by Sharecare.com I’ve had the chance to guest blog on their website and reach a larger audience with my mental health tips. I’m thrilled about this new guest blog.
Last month I spoke at my first Deseret Book Time Out For Women event in Layton, UT on the topic of developing your most authentic self. Too often I see women in my therapy practice who neglect themselves because they believe the myth “Taking care of myself is selfish.”
Watch this vdieo clip from my presentation to see what I have to say…
Mariama Kallon & meMaking new friends at TOFWMe, Chrislyn Barnes, Emily Watts, & Mercy River
I hope to see you at an event this year. Check out my events calendar here
I have wholeheartedly embraced social media to build my therapy practice and to educate the public on important emotional health and family relationship topics.
Technology and social media have allowed me to grow my private practice free of managed care during difficult economic times. Facebook is the #2 referral source to my private practice website, topped only by Google. A common challenge for private practice therapists is learning to effectively manage social networks in a way that maximizes their time and draws people to their practice.
People often ask how I stay on top of posting and interacting regularly on my social media networks. Just to give you an idea, I manage 3 Twitter accounts, 8 Facebook pages/profiles, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Ping.fm, 3 Ning accounts. One of my favorite social network management systems is HootSuite, a social media dashboard. Although I can’t manage all of my accounts from HootSuite, I can manage the largest networks. I pay only $5.99 per month which includes the ability to add one “team member” to can access and manage my social network accounts. Read more
Peek into a work day in the life of private practitioner and licensed clinical psychologist Marla W. Deibler, Psy.D. Founder and Director of The Center for Emotional Health of Greater Philadelphia, LLC. Her outpatient behavioral health group practice specializes in the treatment of anxiety and obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders.
She’s also a wife and a mother of three children and has found a nice work/life balance working 2.5 days per week at her clinic, and spending time the rest of the time home with her children. Thanks to email, phone, and text, Dr. Deibler operates her business remotely “in spurt” during the days she’s at her home. And apparently, she doesn’t sleep much!
Here’s a day in the life of one of Dr. Deibler’s “work” days: Read more
Do you find yourself feeling responsible for the emotions of your loved ones? When your child or spouse is sad or disappointed, do you feel like you’re somehow responsible to make them feel better? This quote is for you!
Remember that it’s not your job to make anyone happy. You can’t make anyone feel anything. You can, however, support loved ones by listening to their pain or disappointment and validating it.
It’s your job to take responsibility for your own emotions.
Relying solely on direct clinical hours may leave private practitioners financially vulnerable to income instability. Since client hours in private practice can vary greatly depending on the time of year, state of the economy, number of new referrals, and several other factors, developing multiple income streams can help you to create a more stable income. “By having the other income streams in place, I have been able to be less susceptible to the ebbs and flows that occur in private practice during difficult economic times,” says The Rev. Christopher L. Smith, LCAC, LMHC, LMFT. In addition to providing income stability, diversifying your professional activities with multiple income streams allows therapists to explore a variety of interests, to express creativity, and to get paid for their passions.
In addition to clinical hours, I own and serve as clinical director of a private therapy clinic where I oversee and supervise 10 therapists, write for PsychCentral and other publications, work as a relationship and emotional health media contributor, do public speaking, provide consultation to therapists building a private practice, and I’m currently writing my first book. Curious about what other private practitioners are doing to add to income stability I reached out to several successful colleagues to see what additional income streams they’ve developed. Here’s a sampling of what other therapists are doing to diversify their professional life and achieve greater income stability.
If your child expresses anger, sadness, fear be sure to make fun of them, tell them not to feel, and dismiss their emotions. Withhold love whenever they express emotion, especially vulnerable feelings. Another tactic is to express more intense emotions than they are showing so they’ll stop feeling and focus on comforting you.
2) Set inconsistent rules
Never talk openly about your expectations for your child’s behavior. Make your child guess what the ground rules are and change them constantly. Be sporadic and unpredictable in giving consequences and punishment.
3) Ask your child to solve your problems
Share all of your worries, concerns, and relationship problems and ask them to solve it for you. Always present yourself as incapable of taking care of yourself and your child.
I let a camera crew film two therapy sessions for the TV series “Secretly Pregnant” airing tonight at 10:00 PM ET/8:00 PM MT on Discovery Fit & Health. While I have a lot of TV experience I’ve never been this nervous about it. I think it’s because I have NO idea how the therapy sessions will be edited and I don’t know how much of the sessions will actually be included in the episode. Oh, and this is national TV, not local TV.
Therapy session for Secretly Pregnant
How did I get on national TV?
One word: Google. Several months ago I got a call from a NY based casting company who had found my practice information online, saw that I had TV experience, and that I specialized in working with women’s emotional health and relationships. They asked if I’d be willing to do some pro bono therapy on camera with a Salt Lake City woman for a women’s health documentary show about women who are hiding their pregnancies. I agreed and the next day a producer, crew, and new client “Jen†came to Wasatch Family Therapy to film the first of 2 sessions for the show.
Thanks for your fantastic response to my roll call for private practice therapist using Twitter! Therapists from all around the globe have joined the list. I’ll will continue to add therapists to the list so feel free to join anytime by commenting on that post.
I wanted to do the same thing for Facebook Business pages to help you connect to other like-mined therapists to share resources, ideas, practice building tools, and referrals. Only licensed mental health therapists will be listed.
Here’s what you need to do to join the Facebook List…
Post a comment below and include the following information:
Facebook page name &Â page link (Facebook business page, not personal profile)
your name & credential
your city & state
specialty areas
As the comments come in I’ll post comments and paste your info in the body of this post below to make it easy to click through and “like” the Facebook pages listed. I look forward to connecting with you. Feel free to forward to colleagues. Read more
I recently blogged about ways to use Twitter to build your private practice, and encouraged you to tweet your elevator speech/basic practice message in 140 characters or less. Those posts got me wondering, “How many therapists in private practice are actively using Twitter?”
So, I’m taking a roll call to help you use Twitter to connect with other like-minded therapists around the world to share ideas, resources, and referrals. Only licensed mental health therapists will be listed.
Here’s what I’d like you to do…
Post a comment below and include:
twitter handle & link
your city and state
specialty area
As the comments come in I’ll post comments and paste your info in the body of this post below.
