Outreach and Marketing

by Laurie Kolt, Ph.D. Kolt Consulting, LaJolla, CA

Here is some valuable information learned by the American Psychological Association (APA) and also by the Los Angeles Consortium of Psychological Associations (LACPA). Despite well-designed and expensive ads placed across the nation by APA and in Southern California by LACPA, they did not bring in the expected return.

Why? The reasons are not completely known. But other focus group studies may be pointing to the answer.

What they found was that people respond to a story with emotion that helps them see the impact of psychotherapy on their lives. For example, how do you cope with infertility, recover from grief, increase self-esteem or alter unhealthy lifestyle patterns?

When someone is dealing with a personal challenge, there is a lot of emotion going on. If they can identify with someone who had their problem, they can begin to say, "Hey, I'm not alone with this. Now I know there is help and now I know where to find it."

How do you actually do this? Your message can be conveyed by how you communicate during a speaking engagement, in a community article or when you talk to a community referral source or even through the local media. Various defenses including denial, anger, fear and even low self-esteem can keep people away from therapy for a long time. But when someone hears your message it may be the next step in their process, to help them become ready to enter therapy. Whether you want to give psychology away, gain visibility in your community or build your practice, telling a story is an effective way to reach the public.

Be a Powerful Communicator

To become a powerful communicator, you must take your clinical knowledge and transform it into something that the general public can understand and identify with. Developing this communication style will also help you refine your clinical concepts and intervention strategies. Other research over the years confirms that rapport between therapists and client is a good predictor of positive outcomes. This "pre-therapy rapport" skill is something that all clinicians should learn in graduate school and in continuing education classes to truly be accessible to the public.

Educating the pubic and referral sources in this way does not come easily or naturally to most clinicians. The opportunity as well as responsibility to educate the public and related organizations about the value of psychotherapy rests largely in the hands of mental health professionals in each community.

1.Pick one of your clinical specialties

2.Update your research and clinical knowledge.

3.Understand the needs, challenges and interests of potential clients

4.Translate clinical issues and needs into nonpsychological jargon.

5.Include emotions, vignettes to help listeners identify with the problems and also feel hopeful that change can occur.

6.Tell them how to locate a qualified therapist, support group or organization.

7.Assess your skills in sharing your expertise through vehicles such as seminars, workshops, networking, writing, radio and TV news formats.

8.Set goals to learn communication skills through coaches, continuing education classes and role models.

Look psycho-dynamically at yourself. Also examine the behaviors, issues, values and life decisions you have made that may get in the way of your reaching your practice potential.

Put a check next to each one that applies to you.

	_____	Insecurities centering around: _______________
	_____	Fears stemming from: ________________
	_____	Difficulty seeing myself "out there" in the community
	_____	Fear of failure or success
	_____	Fear of being sued if I am too visible and take risks
	_____	Focusing on anger at managed care and not my goals
	_____	Professional burnout
	_____	Being cynical about my clients, my community, etc.
	_____	Being cynical about my profession and where it is going
	_____	Feeling sad or guilty that I am spending too much time away from my loved ones
	_____	Feeling bad that I am not making the money I that want to
	_____	Fear of doing something embarrassing in a public speaking or media forum

As a result of what I have learned, here are three things that I am willing to do to either re-set or achieve my current practice goals.

1. __________________________________________

2. __________________________________________

3. __________________________________________

Dr. Kolt is a clinical and organizational/industrial psychologist, marriage and family therapist and career development researcher. She is the author of numerous practice building and goal setting training manuals and has written over 100 articles on the topic. If you have questions or comments, Dr. Kolt can be reached by email (LJKOLT@aol.com) or phone (858- 456-2005)