Craft Your Practice Method

Platforms versus independent credentialing, and the question underneath the economics. Lisa is on Headway and has a referral link, and Headway is the only one of these platforms she has ever used, which she says plainly at the top. This episode is not a three way comparison and does not pretend to be one. It is about what it does to a person to have her clinical hour priced by a company she will n...

The most useful thing you can do before choosing an insurance panel is ask three therapists in your area what their payers actually pay them. Almost nobody does it, and this episode is about why. Therapists do not talk to each other about money. The silence is cultural rather than chosen, nobody ever wrote it down, and every one of us learned it anyway. It is also worth an enormous amount to exact...

Episode 16: The Paperwork That Costs You Four Months -  The particular fury of discovering that four months of waiting were caused by a document you could have fixed in twenty minutes. This episode is about the emotional experience of administrative failure: why the rage is accurate but the story underneath it is not, why capable clinicians freeze in front of bureaucratic systems that have none of...

Credentialing takes 90 to 180 days per payer, and the hardest part is not the paperwork. It is the months of silence in the middle, where there is no information, no feedback, and no way to tell a slow system from a stalled one. This episode is the psychological companion to the credentialing timeline. Why silence gets read as judgment. Why the wait lands so hard on clinicians trained by years of...

There is a real shift in private practice that catches people off guard: the move from building your practice to running it. Somewhere around the end of year one or the start of year two, the practice starts to run itself. The energy changes, and new questions come up. In this episode I walk through what actually changes when a practice moves into the running phase: - How to recognize the signs th...

The hardest place in private practice is the one where you have done everything you were told to do and the calendar still has too much white space in it. This episode gives a real diagnostic on the four most common reasons a practice stalls: fee misalignment, niche problems, low visibility, and a leaking intake process. The goal is to help you figure out which one is actually happening in your ca...

Episode 12: Marketing When It Feels Like Performing Most therapists do not hate marketing. They hate a particular version of it, the performance-based version that asks them to violate the way they were trained to show up as clinicians. This episode pulls apart what marketing actually is, what findable looks like for a therapist, and the quieter versions of visibility that work over time without r...

Referrals do not come from algorithms. They come from relationships built over time with people who trust your work and think of you when someone in their world needs what you do. In this episode, Lisa Reidsema breaks down how referral networks actually work, who belongs in yours beyond other therapists, and why your reputation is the most durable marketing tool a private practice clinician has. T...

Nobody explained billing to you in grad school. This episode covers how insurance reimbursement actually works in private practice, contracted rates, credentialing timelines, superbills, denial management, and what nobody prepares you for when you're running it yourself. Plus, the questions to ask before you decide which billing model fits your practice. Resources: Launch Lab — Your First 90 Days...

The consultation call, intake process, first session, and ongoing structure aren’t just administrative steps; they shape the entire experience of therapy. In this episode, we walk through the client journey from first contact through the early stages of care and what it actually looks like to build a practice that runs with clarity and consistency. This phase is where clinical work and practice st...

Your policies are not administrative formalities. They're clinical tools that shape the therapeutic container before the first session starts. This episode covers the three policies that matter most in early private practice, why documentation needs to be a system rather than a task, and the real connection between administrative disorganization and burnout. Resources mentioned: - Systems That Sim...

Why does saying your fee feel like a bigger moment than it needs to be? In this episode, Lisa goes into the conversation underneath the number, the beliefs about worth, access, and what money “means” as a therapist. She walks through the worth trap, explains why a sliding scale without a policy creates problems, and describes what it actually sounds like to state your rate without apologizing for...

There are moments in therapy where you genuinely don’t know what to say. The client is looking at you. The silence stretches. And your mind starts scanning for the right question, the right intervention, something to fill the space. It’s uncomfortable. And it’s easy to assume it means you’re doing something wrong. In this episode, I’m walking you through what’s actually happening in those moments—...

If you’ve ever sat in your office wondering where your next client is going to come from, you’re not alone. Many therapists assume referrals will happen naturally if they do good work and create a solid online presence. But the reality is that referrals don’t happen by accident; they happen because specific conditions are in place. In this episode, Lisa Reidsema breaks down the real mechanics behi...

Let’s talk about money. Not the theoretical version of money where we all agree therapists deserve to be paid well. The real version — where you’re sitting across from a potential client, they ask what you charge, and you feel your throat tighten before you say the number. Or worse — you say the number, and then immediately offer a discount before they even ask. Most therapists aren’t underpaid be...

Finding and owning your specialty is one of the shifts that quietly changes everything about how your practice feels. In this episode, Lisa explores what happens when your work stops feeling scattered and starts to organize itself around what’s already working. Early in practice, most clinicians keep their scope broad out of fear,  fear of missing opportunities, fear of limiting themselves, fear o...

Your first three months in private practice set the tone for your entire business. In this episode, Lisa Reidsema, LMHC, walks through a clear 90-day framework: first establishing your foundation, then building systems, and finally beginning visibility and referral efforts. This episode is perfect for therapists who are launching or relaunching their practices and want to move with intention inste...

About This Episode In this episode, we’re going back to the foundation — what it really means to craft a private practice with intention. You’ll learn how to shift from clinician to business owner, identify your core systems, and start building structure that supports your freedom as a therapist. Key Takeaways Private practice success starts with mindset, not marketing. Systems create freedom, not...