Therapist Clubhouse A Podcast For Private Practice Entrepreneurs With Annie Schuessler

Today I’m talking about how to run engaging and effective group calls in your signature program, rather than calls that leave people bored or frustrated or just not showing up. When I say PROGRAM, I’m talking about a niched, outcome oriented, structured container. Your program might be a workshop, retreat, group coaching program, course, or some hybrid of different formats. These are the kinds of programs that are always in demand because they actually help people make significant transformations. I’m not talking about flimsy self-led courses here. I’m talking about programs where your participants get to interact with you in a meaningful way. Therapists and healers make the best programs. We’ve got training and experience in how to help people get from point A to point B. We know how to work with resistance, emotions, and all of the other things that make change difficult. If you’ve been a participant in a lot of programs, you know that some group leaders have no idea what they’re doing! You as a therapist o

The fact that you are providing a real and nuanced process rather than a quick fix is actually not a problem. It’s how you’re going to attract the right folks to your work. Therapists and healers work with me to create high quality, niched programs beyond private practice. The people I work with have a ton of integrity. What I mean by that is that the people I work with really give a shit about the work they do and the programs they create. They care deeply about the people they help. As they’re getting clear on their niches, I hear something like this from many of them: “I like to help people with deep and nuanced transformation rather than quick fixes or practical tips. I worry that people are just looking for the practical solutions.” This thing tends to happen: Once you’ve chosen the topic of your signature program, you might start noticing Reels, Tiktoks or articles with simple tips to solve the problem you help people with. Some of those tips are useful, or even sufficient for some people. But those are

If you want to work in a different way, but you feel like maybe it’s too late to start your own signature program or you regret not starting sooner, this episode is for you. In the last couple of years I have done a LOT of things that I had thought maybe it was too late to do. So I feel you. One of those has been returning to roller skating. You know the proverb. The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is now. For me, the best time to return to roller skate would have been 30 years ago. The next best time just happened. I went to roller discos as a kid in the early 80’s from about age 8 to 10 and I felt so alive and joyful. Skating felt like flying and dancing at the same time. I was part of a little crew of girls who skated together. We got sparkly T shirts with roller skates on the front and abbreviations of our names on the back, just to save money on the letters. A couple of my birthday parties were at the roller disco. When Dolly Parton, Donna Summer or Blondie came on I would

I help therapists and healers who have private practices to add a second part to their business models. I show you how to create a niched and outcome based program that you can get known for and offer to people all over the world. Learn more about that and get on the notification list at https://rebeltherapist.me/create. I would love to see your name on that list. You’ll get informed as soon as enrollment opens, which happens very soon. I realized I need to tell you something today: Even if you are doing your marketing right, you probably won’t enjoy it all of the time. This is sort of a part 2 to my last podcast episode. Here’s a summary of that in case you didn’t hear it or you’d like a quick recap: Reactive marketing is when you feel like you urgently must take action to make more money, to get more people to sign up for your work, or to fix something that seems broken in your business. You know you’re in reactive mode when you believe you’ve got to do something NOW to market your work. If lots of your mar

I help therapists and healers who have private practices to add a second part to their business models. I show you how to create a niched and outcome based program that you can offer to people all over the world. Learn more and get on the waitlist at https://rebeltherapist.me/create. I would love to see your name on that list. You’ll get informed as soon as enrollment opens next month. I’m gonna talk about my houseplants for a moment, but this episode is really about how to create effective marketing practices. I had a moment of freak out with my houseplants the other day. I looked up and saw that a group of my plants under the skylight by my home office were very sad and thirsty. One of them looked like it had been receiving too much sun for a few days. I grabbed my watering can immediately, watered them, and moved the over-sunned plant to a different spot. Phew! I’d solved the immediate and obvious problems. That’s reactive plant care. Of course sometimes it’s necessary to get reactive, just to keep my plan

I love encouraging healers and therapists to think deeply and creatively about what their work could look like. I often say: Step out of default thinking for a moment and give yourself permission to dream into what you want to create. Who are you serving? How are you working with them? What work do you no longer do or do less of? What does your day look like? Who are you collaborating with? In this episode I got to talk to 2 sisters who dreamed up a way to work differently by creating a business together! Meet Kaitlyn and Meghann Ellis. Meghann Ellis is a therapist with over 18 years experience and has a specialty in complex trauma, EMDR and dissociative diagnoses. She has combined forces with her twin sister, Kaitlyn Ellis, who is an Occupational Therapist and pelvic floor specialist with over 20 years of experience. Together they run Twin Root Wellness Here’s some of what we talked about: Combining the skills of an Occupational Therapist and a mental health expert in one program Choosing the niche of pregn

This is a short episode and it’s really about you giving yourself permission to do the work that is going to feel most joyful and sustainable for you. I’m going to talk about two different roles we might choose for ourselves as therapists, healers and coaches: A catalyst who helps people through a big and clear change in a particular area of their lives. OR An integrator who helps people grow and maintain changes over a long period of time in many areas of their lives. I know there’s a lot of overlap and nuance between these 2 roles. Therapists I work with who want to create signature programs beyond private practice often want to be in the role of catalyst more of the time, and long-term integrator less of the time. They’re feeling over-full on the long-term work of helping their clients day-by-day, week-by-week, month-by-month and year-by-year. They value that long-term work and are honored to get to do it, but they fear that if they keep doing it full time, they’re going to burn out, or maybe just not love

Some people create the program they needed for themself. As you move through a challenging situation and you grow from it, learn about yourself, and find community, you realize: “This did not need to be QUITE this hard! I want to create a process or a container to help people move through this with more support.” If you also happen to be a therapist or healer, you may realize you’re uniquely equipped to create something really effective and powerful. My guest Robin Gibler did just that when she created a program for moms with ADHD. Robin is a licensed professional counselor specializing in maternal mental health. As a mom with ADHD herself, she is passionate about providing education and support for other women to create their own version of what motherhood looks like and care for kids who may also be neurodivergent. Here's some of what we talked about: What ADHD feels like for moms who are overburdened by the impossible cultural standards of motherhood Why moms with ADHD often feel: “I must not be trying ha

At first this will seem like a story about my online yoga instructor. But it’s really a story about making your business more sustainable by stopping unnecessary and exhausting emotional labor. First of all, I know what you’re thinking. It’s so unexpected to hear about a 52-year-old white woman doing yoga. Kidding. This past fall I was getting back into yoga after several years away. I started with a 30-days-of-yoga video series by an instructor. I sensed that I’d like her in real life. She had spunk, made kind of inapropriate jokes, wore fun rocker outfits, and had good banter. She even had a sweet dog who joined her on the mat. It took me about 3 months to get through all 30 videos. When I was done with those, I wanted to do more of her videos. I searched her name on YouTube again, and a different instructor came up. I started trying one of this new person’s videos. It was OK, but this person wasn’t telling jokes. Her voice was lower. There was more silence. I was kinda pissed. I called my partner over and

Join me for a Free Open Coaching Call on Thursday, May 9th at 11 am PT. A recording will be available if you sign up. Grab your seat at https://rebeltherapist.me/question. Do you identify with the word neurodivergent? Or not? Either way, stay with us. In today’s episode we’re talking about getting curious about yourself, the way your particular brain works, and what that means about what kind of business will really work for you. You’ll hear my guest and I both talk about some big changes we’ve each made to our work lives in order to honor our operating manuals. I loved hearing how Jennifer gave herself permission to close her therapy practice and create a new business as a consultant instead. And if you’re wondering how to use LinkedIn effectively, you want to hear Jennifer break it down. Meet Jennifer Alumbaugh, MS. They are here to help change the cultural narrative for late identified Autistic and ADHD founders, executives, and professionals. She built Expansive Expressions in order to create and deliver

Today I’m talking about the most effective way to fill a signature program beyond private practice: Creating and nurturing Ideal Referral Partnerships. If I were to coach my clients to do only ONE kind of marketing, this would be it. Another word for this is networking. You’re probably already doing this, but you might not be doing it very strategically. When I meet someone who says they don’t do any marketing, but they’ve got customers or clients, I know they HAVE been marketing. They just didn’t see their behavior as marketing. I often find out that the marketing they’ve been doing has been networking. If you have relationships with people who refer to you, even if you don’t do any of it on purpose, you’ve been marketing. Maybe you’ve been networking with colleagues you met at trainings, at agencies you worked at, or from working with the same client at some point. You hit it off with these folks. Some of these people have referred clients to you or introduced you to other people who referred clients to you

If you fear bothering people with your marketing, this is for you. I recently got the worst email I’ve opened in over a year. I’m gonna share the actual email with you and I’m gonna share my internal reactions and the decisions I made after. In the context of life, this email is really NOT that bad at all. No trigger warning necessary. I’m sharing this because I know many of you are really afraid of getting an email like this. I’m hoping hearing about my experience will help you feel less afraid of getting an email like this. I’m hoping that you feeling less afraid will help you make aligned decisions. I’ll explain all of that in a moment. The email I’ll share was a response to one of my sales emails promoting Create Your Program, the high touch program I run 3 times a year. Here’s what the email said: “Way too many emails with not much info. Blocking your email and please remove me from your waitlist. Feels like clickbait.” I said “ouch!” My partner looked over my shoulder and said “that’s not nice!” I had a

I’ve had a hard time figuring out how to talk to you about this. I never want to be a dream killer. Or a bummer. If you’re thinking of creating and launching a signature program, I want you to do it. AND I’m gonna talk about one of the hardest parts of that today. Then I’ll talk about how to handle this hard part. I promise. In Create Your Program, I help a small group of therapists create their high quality, high touch, niched programs. And then I help them launch those programs so that they can actually start making money. Those programs bring these entrepreneurs significant ongoing incomes. Some folks choose to shrink or close their therapy practices or leave their agency jobs once their programs are established. AND…one really hard part of that whole process is launching the program, especially for the first time. Launching basically means sharing your program with people. Launching involves two really hard things: being more visible and asking for help. You have to be visible when you launch because you

Lea had been helping people with self-compassion for years, but when she started using art journaling in her program, it came together in a more powerful way. Now she teaches art journaling in every session of her signature program, Everyday Self-Compassion. Once she integrated this practice into her program, she fell even more in love with her work. She’s got a feeling of presence, joy and even goofiness. I deeply resonate with the need to feel like my full self as I do my work. How about you? You’re about to hear how she transformed her program over the last several years, why she loves running it, and why she’s got fewer therapy sessions in her schedule. Lea Seigen Shinraku is an artist, teacher, licensed therapist and founder of the Center for Creative Self-Compassion. Through her transformative program ~ Everyday Self-Compassion ~ she helps people who struggle with self-judgment connect with their innate creativity and joy, so they can feel more calm, connected, confident and playful in meeting the uncer

Do you ever dream of creating a program you’ll love running over and over again? My guest Amy has run her program, Grief Medicine, at least 9 times now. Sometimes people wonder if focusing on grief brings her down, but you’re going to hear why working with folks around their grief brings her inspiration and joy. As you listen to this conversation, one thing I want you to notice is how much Amy enjoys running this program and never seems to experience it as a grind. You’ll hear how she created her program and how she continues to fill it after so many iterations. And by the way, it’s mostly NOT through social media. Meet Amy Hyun Swart, a therapist, writer, children's book illustrator, and entrepreneur who has been leading grief gatherings, rituals, and courses since 2015, both in-person and online. She was introduced to the healing power of grief work by way of her own life experience, the traumatic loss of a parent at an early age. As a grief activist, Amy views grief as a critical ingredient to move through

Today I’m gonna talk about one of the fastest and least stressful ways to start a group program. Let’s say you’re excited to run a signature program beyond your private practice, and you know you want it to be a small group. I relate. I LOVE running groups. Just a few reasons you might be in love with the idea of creating a group program: Participants benefit from each other’s wisdom and feel less alone. You make more money. A sense of accountability is often bigger in a group. Groups give you energy. You’re gifted at running groups. In a group, you get the richness of discussion. Let’s imagine this is you. You’ve written up a sales page or registration page for your program. You’ve told everyone you know all about it. You’ve sent out emails to your small but growing email list. You’ve posted on instagram, in FB groups and anywhere else where it’s appropriate to post. You’ve reached out to every single colleague who might make a referral. You’ve even reached out directly to a handful of people who you think

Maybe you plan to double or significantly increase your income this year. If you’re in private practice, you might look at the numbers and think you should double your sessions. And you totally could. People are out there looking for a therapist exactly like you. You might feel like adding sessions is your ONLY option to increase your revenue. That’s not true. You’ve got other options. Check in and be honest with yourself. Will adding to your client load exhaust you or head you towards burnout? If you’re already seeing 12 clients or 15 clients and you’re starting to feel a bit of dread around sessions…do not double your sessions. On the other hand, If your’e excited about filling up your private practice further, follow that excitement and do it. Like I said, there are plenty of people who need a therapist like you. If you’re like SO many therapists I know, you might have the time in your schedule to add more sessions, but you don’t have the capacity in other ways. You don’t have the energy, the self-care pra

As this episode goes live, registration for Create Your Program is open. This is my process to help you create and launch your signature program beyond private practice. If you’d like to start growing another part of your business and make money in a new way, this is the best time to jump into Create Your Program. If you register by Sunday, January 7th, you’re going to get lifetime access to a bonus training that has helped grads of CYP to fill their programs. Go to https://rebeltherapist.me/create now to register. I can’t wait to see you inside. Today I want to talk about a few really important things that set apart the people who launch programs and succeed from those who wish they had. Here are 3 things people who succeed with their programs are WILLING to do. 1: Be willing to work through discomfort in your marketing. My last guest, Samantha Fox, is great at this. Just like most people who sign up to work with me, Samantha was really nervous about getting more visible and sharing her work with large audie

Samantha has shrunk her therapy practice way down and is no longer taking new therapy clients. She’s delighted that her business has transitioned to mostly her coaching programs. She’s found that she’s got abundant energy and love for serving in this way. AND…Samantha has discovered that even the free stuff she provides on social media and on her site helps many queer women live truer lives. That’s just ONE of the ways that the work she’s doing now is a much better fit for her life than a full time therapy practice was. As a sexuality coach, Samantha Fox works with women worldwide to support them as they discover that they are not as straight as they might have thought. She’s developed an experiential method called Unbox Your Sexuality that creates a monumental transformation. The method helps women in unpacking, unlearning, and relearning schemas and narratives that we carry with us due to being born into a patriarchal society. Here's some of what we talked about: Why Samantha is happy she’s shrunk her ther

We’re sharing one of our favorite episodes as an encore this week. How do you create and fill a group program? How do you navigate a full therapy practice at the same time? We’re about to go behind the scenes and find out exactly how my guest has done it. Meet Sonya Brewer, a trauma specialist and relationship expert who specializes in creative life and relationship design for overachieving trauma survivors and their partners. She created Badass Boundaries, a 12-week group mentorship program for overachieving trauma survivors. Here's some of what we talked about: Sonya’s framework to help trauma survivors transform their relationship to boundaries Creating Badass Boundaries, her 12-week group mentorship program for overachieving trauma survivors How Sonya helps people befriend their bodies as they do boundary work The benefits of offering 1:1 asynchronous coaching in the program How she filled her program Sonya’s advice about running valuable and joyful free workshops (engage with your participants!) How and