Why I started Launch your (private) practice

 Hi friends, it's Meagan Hamilton with the podcast, Launch Your Practice. I wanted to spend some time talking a little bit about why I started this podcast, how I came to be in private practice, and how I started my group practice. So I thought dedicating an episode to a bit of an introduction would be a really great way to start, introduce myself and tell you a bit about what to expect during this podcast. please note: that this is a transcript from my first podcast episode so there are some grammatical and phrasing challenges

I was successful in becoming employed with one of my practicum placements following graduation and quickly was, you know, trying to work both for government as well as independently…at that time private practice was more of a side project. Just really starting my private practice very gradually, a couple clients a week type of thing.

I was renting space from a local wellness center and it was going really well. The challenge was that I became less and less happy with where I was working full-time. My nine-to-five job was completely unfulfilling, which was really difficult for me to comprehend at the time because I had been so looking forward to this position. There was very few positions like that available, and once I had finally secured that position and moved my family from one town 45 minutes away to another town for this job, the fact of the matter was is that I was really unhappy and I didn't want to continue in that position. 

So that was a major moment, a really pivotal moment for me. At the time I worked with several colleagues (also therapists) who were really encouraging me to open up a group practice. Perhaps they saw some leadership skills in me and thought that maybe I was brave enough (or wild enough?) to be the one to secure a lease or to be organized enough to help myself and support them. So after leaving my government position, I did work independently a few days a week, and I built my practice to be working three to four days per week, and that was going really well.

And then I decided to start a group practice as well and I did invite some colleagues of mine to join me. I was really happy with how that was going. Very overwhelmed and nervous, as most of us are when starting out, but I definitely had the support of my colleagues and I definitely am a person who will just try to figure things out. So, a lot of YouTube, a lot of articles. A lot of paying for kind of one-off sessions with other people, coffee dates, meetings, just learning from other people how they started, how they built their practice. You know, how they were able to create such a wonderful thing for themselves. And I just kind of picked and gleaned the information that I could to build my own group practice.

And so fast forward, here I am today, four years later. And the business is going SUPER well. The team has grown exponentially, partly due to COVID, as we did have five team members have babies during that time. And with those leaves and the need for services has continued to grow, and so I did welcome in some additional team members. And then when the people on leave returned, the office just has swelled, which has been amazing (and sometimes overwhelming) all at the same time.

So currently, I am a group practice owner. I do very little therapy myself and I oversee, three sites with 17 therapists currently in two cities, two neighbouring communities, here locally in British Columbia. So that's a little bit about my story as far as building my private practice, you know, one client at a time, one contract at a time, and then shifting that dream and vision into supporting other therapists in their practice. And that has been the most fun and rewarding thing for me. And probably one of the biggest takeaways of all of this that I've done is that I support therapists and I really enjoy the business aspect of running a private practice and a group practice. So, the big learning for me has been that I like doing that work more than I even enjoy being a therapist. I have really taken a step back from counselling and therapy and just been really focusing on my family and my own well-being while, you know, supporting my teammates. And that's been amazing. I've really enjoyed the marketing aspect of things and the networking piece and, you know, it's just been such an amazing opportunity. 

What I want to talk on my podcast with you about is some of the lessons and takeaways that I can share with you from my experience in building my private practice. I really wanna spend some time dissecting and learning how I noticed that I wasn't happy in my nine-to-five job with government or agency, maybe that's where you work currently. And I wanna really share what I noticed and what changes I needed to make. And you know, making some of those decisions even when things weren't really certain and I didn't really know how it was gonna go, recognizing that we can take risks and problem solve and if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. But ultimately that we can do really hard things and make really scary decisions and choices and figure things out and work along the way and problem solve and get through those really tough moments. And so I think I am an individual that doesn't wanna just settle and be okay, you know, being adequate with where I am in the work that I'm doing.

And so much of starting my own practice and supporting my group practice is I get to do whatever I wanna do. I get to design my day how I want to. I get to see clients when I want to. I get to spend time doing the fun parts of my business. And I get to make some of those decisions around how I wanna spend my day and what I wanna do with my time as a professional. And that is what I enjoy so much about being an entrepreneur and being in business on my own.

So, I think there were some really pivotal moments in the government work that I was doing where there was a couple incidents in particular where things just did not sit right with me and I was not okay tolerating how things were being handled and managed and how the process of clients accessing services and there were so many things that I wasn’t okay with. And that's really challenging in the system because I certainly do recognize the limitations. But it doesn't mean, or I guess at the time, it didn't mean for me at the time that I had to go along with it or that I was okay with it. And so I created my own solution of building my own private practice and a year later really focusing on building the group practice. And that was an amazing experience for me. 

So what is to come on this podcast? I am gonna really focus on interviewing other therapists as well. Not just talking about my story and what my takeaways are but also interviewing other therapists and learning from them their journey, how they came to be in private practice, kind of what their takeaways were and how they can share their experience with you, as well as highlighting and focusing various topics that I think are really important in being a therapist and an entrepreneur around, burnout, managing our own care, business basics, marketing all the common themes that come up for us as we're navigating this generally overwhelming world of going from graduate school to then being a business owner because that is a really steep learning curve. 

What I do want to ask in return for this content and for the work that I'm investing into this process is for you to share the episodes. To share certain stories or themes, takeaways that you find helpful with other therapists and friends in your own networks. Sharing this information with other helpers allows me to continue to offer this to you. I'm really excited to share with you what I have learned throughout this journey, and I think you'll find the content incredibly helpful.

I do want to remind you that you can find me on @launchyourpractice on Instagram and Facebook. And please know that very soon here I will have an online course available in addition to the one-to-one work that I am currently doing with several of you. So if you do wanna speak more to me about that, please reach out meaganhamilton.com and book a no-charge discovery call to learn a bit more about how I can help you, and I certainly look forward to hearing about what stage of launching your practice you are at as well. I spend time supporting therapists who are new graduates, are just starting out in private practice, or maybe have experienced kind of a rocky launch where maybe one foot still working an agency, one foot is building your private practice, and helping to navigate some of those challenges as well.

Find me on instagram, Launch Your Practice, or at meaganhamilton.com and I look forward to hearing from you.

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