Starting a private practice and marketing your practice can create exciting, frightening, and daunting challenges for early career psychologists. With adequate planning and time devoted to this endeavor, you can build a successful and rewarding practice.

• As finances and income disruption are often concerns in starting a practice, there are a few possibilities to consider. If you are already employed full-time, you might consider subletting an office for an evening or two a week, or on a Saturday. Many therapists are not in their offices every night during the week or on Saturdays, and may welcome the extra income opportunity. The drawback is that this limits when you can see clients, and you cannot personalize the office making it really feel like yours. Another possibility is to ask your employer if you may go to part-time status in order to have more flexibility to see clients, and more time to devote to building your practice.
• Contact other psychologists where you would like to start your practice. If you are not familiar with any, you could simply look in the yellow pages to see if there are any psychologists who list your areas of practice and interest. Request an informal meeting for coffee or lunch. Other psychologists who have been in practice for a while can be a valuable resource for information regarding the market in your particular geographical area. You may also have the opportunity to develop a nice friendship/mentorship.
• If you are interested in developing a practice free from managed care, it is possible, even for early career psychologists! However, your geographical location may dictate how feasible this is. When I started my practice, I was determined to have my practice be free from managed care. I saw too many supervisors and senior psychologists become frustrated with the limits being set on their practices. I once spent an entire supervision session with a former supervisor with her on the phone on hold with an insurance company trying to obtain additional sessions for a client in crisis! I obtained several very helpful ideas from the book, "Saying Good-Bye to Managed Care" by Sandra Haber, Elaine Rodino, and Iris Lipner (Springer Publishing Company). I highly recommend it. I particularly like the idea of developing a practice brochure. There are many examples in the book with different layouts and information. Many other useful ideas in the book to get you started. To keep costs down, you can buy software for your computer and do it yourself, using good quality ink and paper. This would also be cost-effective if you think that anything in your practice might soon change, such as your phone number, or adding a fax machine number. I use PrintShop for my brochures and business card. I print my business cards on Avery #8871 Clean Edge Business Cards. They provide a nice clean edge and look professional.
• Network with other professionals from different disciplines who can refer to you. If you work with children, you could network with pediatricians, preschools, and elementary schools. You could write a letter to every pediatrician, preschool, and elementary school in your area utilizing the phone book, along with a business card and brochure, to announce the opening of your practice. It would be helpful to then followed up with a phone call to introduce yourself to the area, and request a meeting if they have the time. If you are granted a meeting, be sure to bring more of your business cards and brochures. You may also want to bring additional material, such as APA brochures, or any advice columns or other material that you may have written. All you need are a few strong referral sources. Follow up and build relationships with the ones that appear interested. If you do not work with children, target other professionals who can refer to you (psychiatrists, cardiologists, chiropractors, clergy, etc.).
• Don’t be shy about informing everyone in your personal life about the opening of your practice and how clients can reach you. Include friends, current and previous colleagues, and former professors.
• Offer to give a free workshop at a local library, school, senior center, community facility, etc. on a topic of interest. This can also be suggested in your letter or in a follow up phone call. For example, for a preschool, you may offer to give a workshop on positive discipline techniques.
• Do you like to write? You could contact the editor of the newspaper to suggest a weekly or monthly article related to mental health. This would help to get your name out there and provide readers a sense of who you are through your writing.
• Become involved with your local psychological association. It would be helpful if this was as local as possible, such as by county, so that you can meet your local colleagues. In addition to providing a social outlet, we often get referrals that we need to refer out for one reason or another. It would be helpful for local colleagues to be familiar you’re your specializations and knowing you personally through your attendance at meetings. If you do not have an association in your area, you could start one by placing an ad in your state’s psychology journal.
• Consider developing a niche and obtaining additional training. Do you have any experience/training in the area of child abuse and neglect? If so, you may be able to get a contract with your state child protection agency to conduct parenting/psychological evaluations, psychotherapy, and/or parent training for court-related child protective matters. All of the paperwork to develop a contract could take time. This could be a fulfilling area that could keep you very busy, without any involvement in managed care! Other possibilities are conducting educational/psychological learning assessments, neuropsychological evaluations, pre-bariatric surgery psychological evaluations, police fitness for duty evaluations, and social security disability evaluations, among others.
• If you have the time, consider volunteering as a mental health resource consultant. Some possibilities are at a local United Way chapter, domestic violence shelter, preschool, or church. Your time and expertise are free, but it provides the opportunity to expose you to other professionals in your field, as well as people in the community. And it simply feels good to volunteer!
• Consider placing an announcement in the local paper, specifically stating your areas of specialization. Although this is not likely to result in many referrals, just one referral can cover the cost of the ad! You may want to consider including a picture of yourself.
• Consider location. Some things to consider are noise level, traffic in the building, privacy, access to the building, access to major highways, and parking.
  Starting and marketing a practice can feel intimidating. These suggestions are not meant to overwhelm you, and certainly you do not need to all of them to have a successful practice. Pick and choose what suits you.

Make a timeline, set small goals, and you’ll be on your way!

Dr. DeLong can be reached at 908-832-7380 or email at peggydelong@comcast.net