Dear Division 42 Colleagues and Friends,

Recent discussions on the Division 42 listserv have focused on problems faced by some experienced independent practitioners whose practices have been suffering lately after years of success. Many helpful strategies and suggestions were shared by our Division 42 colleagues. Further, as a result of this discussion Division 42 has created Colleague to Colleague (known as C2C), a mentoring program designed to assist our members experiencing such difficulties. Below you will find the announcement of C2C along with information on how to participate either to receive mentoring from a colleague or to serve as a mentor yourself. I hope this will be a very active and successful program for our members. Please participate and help make it a success. I’ve also included below a recent posting of some strategies and suggestions for revitalizing one’s practice provided by C2C coordinator, Frank Froman. I hope this will be of value to all members.

Best wishes to all - Jeff

Colleague to Colleague
 
Division 42 is pleased to announce the creation of a mentoring program to assist experienced colleagues who are experiencing difficulties in their practices as a result of changes in the marketplace and the practice environment.  Some colleagues find that their previously successful practices and methods of running their practices are no longer effective.  Learning a new approach to running a practice and learning new skills needed for success in practice may be daunting and anxiety arousing for these challenges.  Additionally, despite years of success, the impact of changes in the practice landscape may leave some practitioners feeling confused, concerned, and doubting their abilities. 
 
Division 42 is fortunate to have a number of members who have learned to modify their skills, practice strategies, and the focus of their practices to adjust successfully to changes in their local business environment.  While guidance provided via the Division 42 listserv is of great value, some colleagues will find more personalized assistance and guidance of greater benefit. 
 
Colleague to Colleague will pair volunteer mentors with colleagues wishing to improve or strengthen their practices.  Each will be informed of this and they will be provided with contact information for each other. Mentees will contact their volunteer mentors to an e-mail and/or telephone relationship.  The goals will be to provide emotional support, information, and guidance to assist the colleague through the process of self-analysis, planning, decision-making, and action to move forward to reinvigorate their practices and move forward toward a successful practice once again.  No specific time requirements are set and all mentoring relationships are conducted by mutual agreement by the two parties.  This is not a clinical supervision relationship and all participants do so on a voluntary basis. The existence and content of the mentoring relationships will not be disclosed by Division 42.  Division 42 will serve the role of coordinating this program by procuring volunteer mentors and pairing them with colleagues requesting assistance. 
 
All those interested in receiving such mentoring from a colleague and all those willing to volunteer to serve as mentors please contact the mentoring program coordinator, Frank Froman, at frankf@ADAMS.NET  .  If you have any special requests such as areas of expertise desired please let Frank know and he will assist with the process of pairing colleagues in these mentoring relationships.
 


My Practice is Dying!

You're 60. And all your life, you've done increasingly great things with your patients/clients. And now, the flow of them is down and the trends don't look good. What do you do?

Here are a few ideas. They're but a starting point in the process.

1. Talk to a colleague. We're told to do that if we're in trouble with licensing, or when we get stuck in a nasty case. Well, this is yet another time to do so. Much to gain by honest reflection.

2. Look at your style of practice. If the guy down the street gets depressed people in and out of treatment in 6 weeks, and you take 6 months, look at that from a consumer's point of view.

3. Be willing to hustle again. We started practice by doing some hustling. It's important that we continue to do so.

4. Make some contacts in the referral world, but have something specific to offer. "I treat panic disorder...it's my specialty", or whatever you may do. People bond skills and needs together. Don't expect physician referrals if you present as a generalist these days. Have one or more spiffy specialties that you can discuss.

5. Make your referrers feel great! Write them after each referral. Make the letters positive, and BRIEF. They won't read more than a paragraph or two anyway.

6. Advertise regularly. Back to a small newspaper ad. A bold appearance in the Yellow Pages if that seems justified. Better yet, a small ad listing your specialty.

7. Get a bunch of the niche brochures from div. 42 and read them. If there are some that seem like fun, find out where training is available to learn them, and get that training.

8. Go to conventions, workshops and gatherings. Keep learning and becoming exposed to new ideas if you can afford to. 60+ people can learn new things. Just yesterday, I learned that I have to proooofread my stuff more carefully.

9. Therapy is a business. If you're not as attuned to business as you'd like, talk to a business consultant about practice development.

10. Maintain your personal appearance. Stay as fit as you can be. Look sharp. Be sharp. Use Gillette Blue Blades.

11. Go to your State Psych meetings. Find out what others are going through and what they're doing.

12. If it's your survival, look at M.C. and see what they can do for you. Some of the plans have actually become less nasty thanks in part to our very members who have helped them learn to be nicer.

13. Do non-traditional things. There is more to therapy than 1:1 in an office.

14. With kids receiving fewer antidepressants, families will have to take them to a therapist for help. In England, this fact alone has created a long waiting list for therapy. It's coming here too.

15. Join a therapy group. Solo practitioners joining together may do better than singles.

16. Fight fear and despondency with the same advice you'd give others.

17. Eat a gallon of ice cream or 5 pounds of fresh potato salad every day.

18. Forget 17. I was just being stupid. But eat some chocolate. Good, dark chocolate. It won't fix anything, but after eating some, you'll feel better for a little while.

19. Don't fall into the trap of blaming the system. That will disempower you. Neither should you blame yourself. Neither helps. It'll give you some cheap protective self framing, but do nothing to improve your lot.

20. Look at where you live. If you can't do any of the above, think about alternatives to being a clinician. Is this the time in life to become a bouncer at Hooters? Is it time to move? To retire? To take on just a few clients and really live the rest of your years doing totally different things long put off?

There are hundreds of other ideas waiting to be added by your fellow clinicians, and I hope that they will. This is an important topic.

Frank

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