More for Your Money

By Carol D. Goodheart, Ed. D.

There is a lot of trendy talk these days about marketing. But what are YOU buying to support the growth of your own practice? What are the services and products that you value? Increasingly, the Division has been focused on delivering useful materials and services to fulfill your professional needs. In line with that focus, I would like to depart from the more usual column topics that tap the pulse of health care change and psychology’s roles and responses. This column is about value and how to get more for your money.

The “Granddaddy” of all the services we offer continues to be the programming at the APA Convention each August. Of course, the annual APA convention has always been a forum for colleagues to meet and share scientific findings and applications. Our job, as the only Division devoted to the independent practice of psychology, is to make the match between the substance of practice and the business of practice. This year the person responsible for translating the ideas into practice is Robert Wernick, Ph.D., Program Chair. He honed his programming skills closer to home, by assembling creative programming for the Florida State Psychological Association. We are fortunate that Bob has been willing to bring his best program traits to work for the Division, those of being the creative visionary and the practical nudge. I want to thank him publicly for his talent and willingness to go the extra mile.

We have been pouncing on your comments, across the country and across cyberspace, as a signal about how we can provide more value to you. So...for all you independent psychologists, therapists, niche specialists, marketers, coaches, consultants, leveragers, teachers, promoters, heroes and heroines, by any name or title, here is a simple offer that can bolster your practice. For the price of admission at the Boston convention, $165, you can select any of the hands-on practical programs sponsored by Division and use them to improve your skills and make more money than you spent to get in the door. AND you may attend as many of the programs as you have the time or inclination to explore. AND we are having a wonderful party this year at the Social Hour too, to celebrate the inauguration of the Practice Information Clearinghouse of Knowledge and honor the contributors.

Take a look at what the Division is providing in Boston this summer (for the complete program, go to the special section in the middle of this issue). A key element is the addition of people outside of our own field, especially those professionals whose aims overlap with ours. For example, guests will include representatives of the clergy, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, law, and corporate human resources. The more we talk and listen to “outsiders,” the more we improve our referral networks and ability to spread our message. Division 42 convention highlights include:

Invited address, “How Good Do We Have To Be?” by Rabbi Harold Kushner. Rabbi Kushner is the best-selling author of “When Bad Things Happen to Good People” and “When All You’ve Ever Wanted Isn’t Enough.” He is a timely speaker for both professionals and the public who search for meaning in our post-industrial society.

Invited address, “Opportunities and Challenges for Collaboration in Primary Care,” by Thomas Campbell, M.D. Dr. Campbell brings wide experience in working with psychologists and integrating the framework of primary care health teams.

Combined Division 42 and Division 43 Presidential panel, “Collaborative Health Practices: Primary, Specialty, and Community Care.” Both Susan McDaniel, Ph.D., President, Division 43, and I specialize in health psychology. She in a medical center setting and I in an independent community setting. We have invited a physician, a nurse, and a pharmacist to join us. An added short film captures the silliness that can occur when 16 different health care professionals try to collaborate, using disparate language and biases.

Three additional “Collaborative Practices” symposia: Forensics, Workplace, and Family. They are similar in format to the Presidential panel above on health, each with psychologists and invited guest professionals from other fields that are related to the particular niche topic. Chairs for these programs are: T. Richard Saunders. Ph.D., Norma Simon, Ed.D., Patricia Pitta, Ph.D., and Michael Murphy, Ph.D.

Practice Development workshops and symposia. This category includes lots of business of practice topics and represents some interestingly different points of view.

Health workshops and conversation hours. Health is such a broad topic that it leaves room for a wealth of generalist and specific approaches and niches.

We are contributing time also to other groups, in cosponsoring programs we believe will be of interest to our members. Two examples are the new emerging area of Telehealth and, on a different note and in a different format, a Town Hall meeting of Consumers and Psychologists.

At the Divisional business/membership meeting this year we will be adding something new to the mix. There will be an opportunity to honor the “Dirty Dozen,” that amazing group of men (yes, it’s true there were no women in those days) who were the forerunners of the practitioner caucus in APA, at a time when practice was not represented within the governance of APA. Between and among them they moved to make the interests of practice heard. They mentored many of us who have joined them in governance today.

Celebrations and parties contribute to value too. The social hour, which immediately follows the membership meeting, will be a special party this year. It will be a chance to showcase the authors and the latest service of the Division, PICK 42, our Clearinghouse for niche guides and other membership benefits of the Division. See the T. Richard Saunders article for more information on the Practice Information Clearinghouse of Knowledge.

So come join us in Boston this August. Come learn and play with us. If you do, and afterward go home feeling well fed with new knowledge and friendship, and with a few good party favors too, you can feel satisfied. That is real value. See you there.