Peak performers in any field believe in their vision and in their ability to carry it out. As psychologists, have we lost our vision and our ability to carry it out in this changing consumer-driven market? We have many problems facing our profession today. There are unique issues to be addressed at each developmental stage of practice. Early career psychologists are coming out of school and find that they lack the skills for the business side of practice and did not expect the difficulty involved in establishing either a fee-for-service or third-party reimbursement practice. The demographics are also shifting for many ECP’s. More are non-traditional age, have a family and multiple financial responsibilities. Those who have been in practice for a number of years have different obstacles having seen a different side of managed care. They have seen it be more “user friendly” and once saw it as a viable way of making a decent living. More recently, they have seen a gradual decrease in their incomes, an increase in the amount of paperwork, and a decrease in work satisfaction.

My vision for psychologists in independent practice is to establish financially viable and fulfilling practices even in the current market. There are many steps to take that will move us toward that goal. First, we need to increase the availability of information and mentoring support for psychologists at all developmental stages of practice. The infrastructure for expanding these goals is already in place for Division 42 but needs to be expanded. Part of accomplishing this goal is learning how to assess your local markets/communities and determining how to match your practice to the local needs and to your style. We need to learn how to be business people in addition to psychologists. Second, we need to educate and encourage a mindset in one another to get involved in national efforts that will protect the long-term success of our practices. Third, we can gain more by collaborating with other divisions that are specific to particular practice areas. Our practices are two-fold. We have a content area we specialize in and we have a business (practice) that has goals and plans to ensure our success. Our division is the leader in practice and we can further benefit by expanding our content areas that meet our market needs by collaboration with other divisions and combining our expertise.

In some aspects, I am mid-career and in other aspects, I am early career. I offer the division expertise related both. I received my masters a number of years ago and proceeded to work in mental health facilities and in the administration and management of mental health organizations. I later returned to school for my PhD and in the process, developed an understanding of the current ECP issues and current trends in our field. During the past few years, I’ve actively worked within Division 42 to accomplish the goals of making practice an enjoyable, viable profession. While a member and Chair of 42’s Marketing and Public Education Committee, I wrote marketing modules for application to practice, offered classes on practice-building, and continued to collaborate with others within APA to enhance services for practitioners. I am currently the Convention Program Chair and see how convention programming can be a valuable tool for making practice a thriving option for psychologists. In 2006, I was the Chair for the Task Force on Expanding the Business of Psychology. Psychology is still a valuable and viable profession. However, we need to work together to learn how to position our practices to be successful businesses in a new consumer driven marketplace!

Dr. Morris is a clinical psychologist, Board Certified Family Psychologist (ABPP), School Psychologist (NASP), on the American Board of Medical Psychology, (APA) Certificate of Proficiency in Addictions Treatment, and the Board Secretary and Newsletter Editor of the ABPP Academy of Family Psychology. He served on APA Council, was a founding member of the Rural Committee, and Finance Committee of APA.  He is the past Chair (11 years) of the Div. 42 Hospital & Health Care Facilities Committee, as divisional advocacy coordinator Div 43 & 43, and is the current Missouri Insurance, MC Committee Chair & Past MoPA President, a recipient of the Heiser Award for distinguished psychology practice advocacy on a national level and has been involved in many successful state and national legislative and rule and regulatory change agendas. 
He sees an average of 30 outpatients and inpatients for psychotherapy each week, and does weekly neuropsychological, forensic, and psychological evaluations.

He has been a book editor, APA Books, and published in ethics, professional practice, neuropsychology, health and mental health policy, and training (see Psychology Critiques; Kunen, S., Niederhauser, R., Smith, P. O., Morris, J. A., Marx, B. (2005), Consulting and Clinical Psychology for a sample of his works.

Dr. Morris is currently a graduate student in RxPMS of Alliant University (expected graduation Spring of 2007). He is a founding board member of APA Division 55 and was on the original APA Level I and II workgroup on psychopharmacology.
Dr. Morris also operates a management consulting firm (Morris & Morris, Inc., (see Morris & Morris section of this web site: http://www.cmhconline.com/Morris.htm), has owned and built psychiatric hospitals and mental health facilities, has written and negotiated CONs and supervised accreditation with Medicaid, Medicare, JCAHO and other certifying bodies.  He has been involved in clinical program development and evaluation for over 20 years, has written and managed federal, state, and private grants and contracts, and has been a consultant to health facility sales and valuation.  

He has served on the Board of a doctoral psychology school, as the Vice President of a Professional School of Psychology, and as the Director of Training for a Professional School.  He has taught psychology and economics in university and college settings at the graduate and under graduate level. He is an MBA and has served on the board of health care and training and investment corporations.  Dr. Morris is a Senior Partner of CMHC, Inc., a community mental health center owned and operated by psychologists.

His downstream goals for the division include taking a more active leadership role in collaborating with states on identifying practice obstacles and goals and providing direct and targeted technical assistance, matching resources, and using our connections to move mutual state and national practice agenda’s forward. His upstream goals include working increasingly actively with CAPP and the Practice Organization to target divisional talent and recourses with them to achieve keystone victories that can be generalized to other states or sectors of the industry. He will encourage the shift of Conventions and Educational activities of the division to parallel with national practice expansion and defense targets and to recruit and train action oriented committee chairs and members with set benchmarks and goals that can be monitored and the resources given them to succeed in their set practice enhancement goals. He will attempt to get close planning and advocacy linkages with various psychological associations and board certification societies to find mutual goals and organize mutual sharing of resources and activities to increase cohesion, homogeneity, and shared vision in the Body Practice.