How to Build and Market a Thriving Fee-For-Service Private Practice Outside Managed Care

Opening statement by Ofer Zur, Ph.D

For over 20 years I have argued that psychotherapists, when acting strategically and deliberately, can build a thriving fee-for-service private practice outside managed care.

While most therapists in private practice recognize that they need to market their practices, most of them avoid it like the plague.

The most general principle of marketing is that people will pay and do pay for what they value, whether it is health, looks, sex, computers, etc. As a result, they readily pay for cosmetic dentistry, diet programs, clothes, Prozac or Viagra. This means that if people value what we, psychotherapists, have to offer, they will pay for our services. Today’s clients do see themselves as “consumers” and do not want to be viewed as mentally ill or broken.

The Competent Therapist:

• Is an emotionally healthy and balanced person with a wide range of interests and connection to community and to life of the spirit.
• “Cleans up” relationships to money, business, and entrepreneurship.
• “Shows up” and be can be real, self-disclosing, and emotionally present with clients.
• Is expert in diverse orientations, methods, and techniques.
• Is flexible with touch, gifts, home-visits, leaving the office, bartering, etc.
• Uses humor and is neither cold or rigid, nor dogmatic.
• Manages time, money, billing, etc. very well.
• Exploits managed-care systems by explaining to clients about the potential risks posed by managed care to their privacy and to health and life insurance.
• Doesn't pathologize normal and existential concerns, such as grief, life transitions, or spiritual or existential voids.
• Conducts short-term, intermittent-long-term therapy with individuals and their families throughout their life spans.
• Becomes an effective consultant for life issues and an expert on developmental, familial, communal, and other existential and spiritual issues.

Marketing 101

• Present yourself as an expert by
  • Writing articles in local newspapers and giving free lectures and presentations.
  • Mediating conflicts in schools and/or churches or facilitating dialogues and/or forums.
  • Being a visible expert in your community.
• Be a “helpful expert” not a “beggar of referrals”
  • You can help teachers, ministers, physicians, and education boards.
  • You can be an expert helper to schools, hospitals, and community centers.
• Develop a Web Site
  • Provide free, helpful, and useful information and resources.
  • Give the readers a sense of who you are as a person beyond your formal CV.
  • Add components, such as blogs, podcasts, videos, chat rooms, etc.
  • If you are low-tech, hire a competent and responsive web site developer.
  • Update your site regularly.
• Develop your Niche/s
  • Develop a niche/s by becoming an expert on the topic/s.
  • Penetrate your market by writing articles, giving free lectures, helpful podcasts, videos, blogs, etc.
  • Send helpful and professional e-newsletters (not self-promoting.)
  • Learn how to use Internet social networking for marketing.

Private Practice Resources:

• Free articles
• Private Practice Handbook
• Essential Clinical Forms
• Online courses on Private Practice Management

Please, share with us your marketing and other private practice development ideas by posting your comment below, (please, no complaining about the economy or “mangled-care”) and please send no more than 250 words, and your comment will be moderated for language and commercialism. Add a Comment Now. If you have suggestions for more blogs, please email us at info@zurinstitute.com.