15 ways to create more flexibility (and passive income) in your psychology or therapy practice 

Every psychologist or therapist I speak to in Psychology Business School or Do More Than Therapy wants the same thing. To help people without burning themselves out. I very rarely have a coaching call where the words “work-life balance” are not mentioned. We often turn to private practice when we feel most desperately in need of improving our work-life balance. When we feel the scales have tipped and we are close to burnout. But I hear from many people who return to employment having concluded that the stress of running a private practice was not worth it. So, what does work-life balance actually look like for mental health professionals in private practice? Is it really achievable?

Can a psychologist or therapist in private practice really achieve work-life balance?

For me the answer is a definite yes, because I know it is possible, but with a caveat… I don’t really think it is possible to have good work-life balance if you are following the traditional private practice model of just seeing 1:1 clients. I say that because even if you follow Sally Farrent’s pricing strategy (and I fully recommend that you do) there are only a finite number of hours in the week and you will need to spend quite a few of them in front of clients in order to pay your bills. That makes it very hard to take a break when you need one, sick days become very costly and fitting in that pediatricians appointment for your child becomes very stressful as you know how much taking a morning off will impact on your take home pay this month. 

We will all define work-life balance differently. For some it might mean only working two days a week, for others it might mean working five days a week but never working in the evening. I personally think of it as the balance between living my professional values and a good week is one where I don’t have to make too many painful compromises.  What it means to you will depend entirely on your preferences, obligations and commitments. However, flexibility in your work is key to achieving whatever working pattern you desire.

You will have seen me writing a lot recently about creating online courses and how courses can help you to develop some passive income. One of the benefits of courses is that they can continue to bring money into your practice even when you cannot physically be there and that is how I have personally brought flexibility into my working life. However, I feel it is important to make it clear that there are actually lots of different business models you can use to create that elusive work-life balance. It is important to pick the one that best suits your definition of work life balance and the way you like to work. Forcing yourself into creating courses, for example, if the thought of it makes you want to die of boredom is not going to work. In this podcast I will run through some of the business models that can bring you flexibility so you can work out which one is most likely to help you create the life that feels balanced to you:

A psychology/therapy practice with associates. 

For a good example of how to do this see my podcast episodes with Melanie Lee and Shabnam Berry-Kahn who have both developed successful associate based practices.

Physical resources. 

For a good example of this take a look at the big hitters like The School of Life who have a huge amount of stuff available to buy for professionals and clients and Carolyn Spring who develops useful trauma resources, digital and physical for both professional and personal use. 

Consultancy. 

For a good example of a psychologist using a consultancy model go back and listen to (or read) my podcast episode with Susie Ballentyne. 

Authorship. 

On their own books rarely make a lot of money however they can keep a steady stream of income coming into your practice and are a great authority builder to combine with other options in this list. Check out our episodes on self publishing a book with expert, Tim Lewis, for some practical guidance and the episodes with Dave Lee, Lucy Russell and Amy Izyky for inspiration.  

Therapy or coaching for teams or groups. 

Although this is still a big time commitment you may be able to reduce your “therapy hours” by setting up a group. For a good example of how this works in private practice listen to my episode with Christine Hamilton. 

Memberships. 

This is a model where people pay you (usually monthly or annually) for ongoing access to something valuable. This could be courses or masterclasses you produce, coaching calls with you, a community of like minded people. Most commonly it is a combination of all those things. I run the Do More Than Therapy membership which is a monthly membership for psychologists and therapists who want to reach more people and make more impact on mental health without burning themselves out. Probably you if you have read this far! I offer a community, weekly coaching calls, and a library of masterclasses and courses teaching people how to get passive income projects (online courses, books, podcasts) off the ground and market them effectively. For more information on how the membership world works, tech etc I would check out the Membership Geeks. They have a great podcast and membership which takes the terror out of the whole process. 

Paid content creation. 

Platforms like Patreon and Kofi both allow you to put podcasts, blogs and other content behind a pay wall or accept voluntary contributions from those who are grateful for your work. This is unlikely to become a main source of income for you but can often create enough revenue to keep a passion project going or to get you started while you create something bigger in the background. 

Teaching/lecturing (University posts, working for another training establishment).

Research posts at a University.

Creating software or apps for professionals or clients. 

Take a look at what Asha Patel is doing with Innovating Minds and EduPod for inspiration.

Online courses: Live training for professionals. 

For example Psychology Business School is an online course for professionals looking to set up in independent practice. That involves teaching weekly live classes, creating resources and running coaching calls to help people as they build their practice. Other training for professionals can look like one off workshops or even team or group supervision. Dr Lindsay McMillan is a Do more Than Therapy member who has just started offering training and consultation to professionals on her specialist subject of gender disappointment. It is often easier to create training for professionals than for your client group while you are building your audience and authority in your specialism as you likely already have people in your network who could benefit from your expertise and they already know you are qualified and good at what you do.     

Train the trainer or a franchise model. 

If you have created something that others might want to pass on to their teams or wider organisations. Or indeed a model that is so useful the whole world needs to get trained in it then you could consider training others to deliver your training! This could be a great way of expanding the reach of your ideas without spending too much of your time physically delivering training. It works best when you have developed your training package and have good evidence that it is effective. Mental Health First aid is a well known example of this.

Online courses: Live workshops for a client group. 

Once your know your specialism and you have spent plenty of time getting to know your ideal client group you are in a good position to develop an offer that allows you to help several people at once. This will look different depending on your client group but can be a very rewarding way of working as you can charge a relatively low cost to each participant but still earn well for your time. This can allow you to reduce your therapy hours significantly once you find a workshop that works well for your client group.  

Online courses: Pre -recorded online courses for a client group. 

Marianne Trent, Lucy Russell, Chris Irons and myself all have examples of these that you can check out. They are great for helping people who have either previously had therapy and are embedding existing skills into their lives or people who don’t need therapy yet but are looking for self improvement. They can also work well to teach basic psychoeducation or stabilisation techniques ahead of a course of therapy.  

Online courses: Pre-recorded online courses for professionals. 

Think Psych Wire or the courses that I produce in the Do More Than Therapy membership such as our brand new “Roadmap to a successful online course.” It is important to think through carefully whether a topic and/or client groups would work better with live interaction or pre-recorded materials and this question is a focus topic in “the roadmap to a successful online course” for that reason. An obvious advantage with pre-recorded courses is that you can have as many people on them as you want and people can literally join them with no input from you so, once they are working well, they can bring you regular income through the year.

I hope that has given you some ideas for ways that you can make your practice more sustainable going forward. If online courses, live, pre-recorded for professionals or clients, seem like a good fit for your practice and values then download my free quickstart guide to creating an online course now. Once you have the guide you will be automatically added to the waiting list for a free workshop I am running on February 15th 2022 to help you start outlining the content for your online course. I promise it is possible to get that flexibility you crave in your life and I’d love to hold your hand through the process. 

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Do you dream of creating an online course? Are you desperate to reach more people but sceptical that you can ACTUALLY make it work? 

The truth is a lot of online courses do fail but that isn’t because the content is bad. It is because the marketing strategy sucks. The truth is your marketing isn’t a separate thing. Talking to the community you want to serve should be part of the development of the course. 

Getting to know them, giving them free resources and building relationships WHILE you build your course in the background is the key to success that most psychologists and therapists launching courses miss. 

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