Private Pay Practitioners Premium Podcast

Dr. Lauren Chase first came on the podcast in November 2025. She was seeing 20 to 25 clients a week, mostly insurance, with a plan to drop Blue Cross Blue Shield and Aetna in 2026. She joined our community that December. So I asked her back to tell us how it went. She dropped BCBS in April. She raised her rate from $200 to $225. She's at about a 50/50 split between Aetna and private pay right now...

Gary Hominick and I share a niche. He works with men navigating problematic sexual behavior and the betrayal it leaves in relationships. We do not talk to many people who do what we do, so this one was personal for me. He is a licensed professional counselor and CSAT based in Texas and the founder of Aletheia Counseling TX. He built a solo practice after almost nine years in community mental healt...

Acelli Crippen-Kok started private pay, got scared, and went back to insurance. She was honest about every bit of it. She is a licensed professional counselor and supervisor based in Cedar Park, Texas, and the founder of Solid Ground Counseling and Wellness. She specializes in working with women navigating people-pleasing, generational trauma, complex trauma, anxiety, and chronic guilt and shame....

Jay Hess named the practice First Brick as a nod to the Stonewall riots. If you know, you know. If you don't, now you do. Jay is a licensed clinical social worker based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and the founder of First Brick Counseling. The practice is fully private pay, in-person only, from day one. Every single decision flows from what the LGBTQ plus community, and specifically transgender a...

Dr. Brian Dixon is back. He owns a seven-figure practice in Texas, built Feel Guide to solve the referral problem he kept running into, and has invested close to $100,000 in business coaching over his career. He knows what he is doing and he does not sugarcoat it. We talked about how to ask for a consult the right way and why most new clinicians get it wrong, why nothing about building a private p...

I sat down with Alinne Butcher, a licensed marriage and family therapist and founder of Over The Rug Therapy based in Granada Hills, California. Alinne is a trauma-informed, antiracist, attachment therapist who has been in practice for three years and is also a new mom doing all of this with a baby at home. She also has 37,000 Instagram followers, two completed books, and zero products on the mark...

This week I sat down with Lynn Zakeri, a licensed clinical social worker based in the Chicago area who has been in private practice for over 20 years. She is the 2022 Illinois NASW Social Worker of the Year, has been featured in over 100 national media outlets, and runs a hybrid group practice licensed across 15 states between her and her associates. She never set out to build a business. She set...

This week I sat down with Elena Khazanova and I did not expect to almost cry. Elena has been doing this work for over 25 years. She started as a massage therapist and craniosacral therapist, went back for her counseling degree, and built a practice that now centers entirely on provider wellbeing. She brings providers together for connection, friendship, networking, and play. And she trains therapi...

This week I sat down with Amanda Chenkin, a licensed professional counselor and certified career counselor based in Baltimore, Maryland. Amanda specializes in career trauma and has been private pay from day one because she was not going to let an insurance company decide whether her work was necessary. Career trauma is not a phrase most people have heard. But they have lived it. Chronic underpayme...

This week I sat down with Sarah Benitez Zandi, a licensed clinical social worker and founder of Trauma Wise Healing, a virtual private pay practice serving clients across 12 states. Sarah specializes in helping Cycle Breakers, people who are done repeating the patterns they inherited and ready to build something different. She built her practice around 90-minute sessions by design. Not because it...

This week I sat down with Malia Scott, a licensed professional counselor and certified sex and couples therapist based in Lubbock, Texas, and the founder of Rewilding Relationships. Malia specializes in relationship and erotic recovery and has been private pay from day one. She started her PLLC the day she graduated. She knew what she wanted and she went after it. We talked about what rewilding ac...

This week I sat down with Dr. Matt Richardson, a psychologist based in Boston licensed in Massachusetts, New York, Maine, and Florida. Matt specializes in high-achieving millennial gay men navigating body shame, disordered eating, and anxiety. When I saw that niche I knew immediately that this person knows exactly who they want to work with. Matt opened his doors the same day he got licensed in Au...

This week I sat down with Jacqui Nelson, a licensed mental health counselor and founder of Liminal Psychotherapy in Spokane, Washington. Jacqui specializes in religious trauma, faith deconstruction, identity reconstruction, and childhood trauma. She is also an approved supervisor and is hosting her first retreat this fall called The Slumber Party Retreat. Jacqui got kicked out of her church at 28....

I sat down with Amanda Morris, a licensed clinical social worker with 25 years of experience based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Amanda specializes in emotional abuse recovery with a particular focus on autistic, AuDHD, and neurodivergent women, many of whom are late-diagnosed or self-suspected and finally making sense of relationships that left them questioning their own reality. She is an AuDHD the...

You did not set your rate to hurt anyone. So why does it feel like you need to apologize for it? In this one I am getting into where that apology comes from, what it is costing you, and what changes when you stop leading with sorry. Maybe it's time to explore in a 1:1! Book today at privatepaypractitioners.com

I sat down with Melissa Guttman, a licensed creative arts therapist, music therapist, and founder of IFS Witch in New York. Melissa specializes in trauma therapy for highly sensitive women in midlife recovering from narcissistic abuse. She uses IFS, Brainspotting, music therapy, and spiritual modalities including astrology and intuitive development. But what made this conversation so rich is what...

Natalie is back. And this one went somewhere I did not expect. Natalie Milom is a licensed clinical social worker, EMDRIA certified EMDR trainer, ICEEFT certified EFT therapist, the first Black EFT supervisor in Georgia, and the CEO of Potential Realized. She also just got approved to offer her own EMDR basic training, EMDR for the Culture, which centers anti-Black racism and what it actually look...

Your headshot is doing something on your website and your directories right now. The question is whether it is doing something good. In this one I am getting into why your photo is part of your marketing, what it communicates before anyone reads a single word, and what to do if it is not working for you. SMILE

Most therapists freeze when a client pushes back on the rate. In this one I am getting into why that moment does not have to derail you, what is actually happening when a client says they cannot afford it, and what to say that is honest, boundaried, and does not send you into a spiral. Enjoy!

This episode contains strong language This week I sat down with Kayla Schubert Wirth, a licensed clinical social worker, EMDR therapist, and founder of Grit and Grace Psychotherapy in Pennsylvania. Kayla opened her practice, was full before she unlocked the doors, hired five W2 staff four months later, got pregnant two weeks after signing a five year office lease, closed the group practice, went f...

I sat down with Dr. Matthew Strobel, a licensed clinical psychologist and founder of Navesink Psychological Services in Red Bank, New Jersey. Matt has built an 11-clinician group practice from the ground up, starting from a misunderstanding about office space that accidentally launched his career as a practice owner. He is also the co-founder of Practice Together, a program helping therapists buil...

This week I had two guests at the table and we went deep on the one topic most therapists avoid until it becomes a crisis. Money. Amber Dugger is the founder of Profit for Keeps, a system that combines personal finance and business cash flow strategies using Profit First and YNAB to help entrepreneurs become permanently profitable. Maren Londahl-Smidt is a licensed clinical social worker, Profit f...

I sat down with Shajuan Alexander, a licensed clinical social worker and supervisor based in Houston, Texas, and the founder of The Culture of Health. Shajuan specializes in therapy for Women of Color in healthcare, runs three clinical supervision groups with 16 supervisees, teaches immigration evaluation training through her program IEGA, and coaches clinicians on building income beyond the thera...

This week I sat down with Danielle Sampson, a licensed clinical social worker, perinatal mental health certified therapist, group practice owner, and the creator of Small Town SEO and the Private Practice Visibility System. Danielle is based in Buffalo, New York. You know, the place where everyone said you could never charge premium rates. She charges $250 an hour and she is full. She did it by fi...

Most Psychology Today profiles say the right things in all the wrong ways. Warm. Empathetic. Collaborative. Safe space. And somehow, none of it tells anyone whether they're in the right place. In this minisode, I break down exactly what PT prompts therapists to write, why following those prompts makes you sound like everyone else, and the three-part structure that actually converts profile visitor...