Staying Grounded During a Period of Panic with Colleen

Colleen specializes in helping people in the Sacramento area who live with bipolar disorder, anxiety, depression, or chronic stress learn coping skills to reduce the impact of symptoms, invest in positive self-worth, and create a long-term wellness plan.

How are you pivoting or supporting your community during Covid-19?: I moved to telehealth over a weekend by completing an online continuing education course on the law and ethics of telehealth, wrote an informed consent for telehealth and emailed it to all my clients using my EHR so they could sign it electronically to provide a seamless experience for my clients in moving from in-office appointments to telehealth. Telehealth has actually improved my self-care practices, as I've been going out into my backyard during my lunch break to eat, and then do a bit of yoga stretching, exercise, and/or gardening for relaxation. By the time I have my next set of clients, I feel much more refreshed and ready to support people who are very impacted by the pandemic.

Your experience with Bootcamp in one sentence: BSB vastly increased my knowledge about all things business and process and gave me encouragement, inspiration, confidence, and a wonderful community of like-minded healers.

How were you feeling before you signed up for Bootcamp?: Overwhelmed newbie.

What did your private practice look like before Bootcamp started?: I had just started my private practice a couple of months before I joined Bootcamp and had about ten clients, all but one were on insurance panels.

How do you feel after Business School Bootcamp for Therapists?: The first round of BSB left me feeling inspired, informed, supported, and overwhelmed. As I continued to complete successive rounds of Bootcamp, I became more confident and secure in my abilities and knowledge to build a successful business to support my ideal clients, while also creating time and space to take care of me!

How have your private practice and life changed after Bootcamp (processes, clinically, work-life balance, financially)?: I've gained so much clarity about my needs in all areas of life and have created a much more balanced work-life plan. I've refined my practice policies and continue to do so regularly, which helps with keeping balance (it amazes me that so many of my colleagues don't have clear boundaries around ending work, especially using text with clients at all different times of the day and weekends, too).

My schedule has evolved over the years from any time of day Monday through Friday, to any time four days a week, to 9am-6pm four days a week, to current schedule of 10am-6pm three days a week. I make sure I don't see more than six clients a day and always take an hour break after three clients. I'm very clear with myself and my clients on what my boundaries are around office hours, payment, and availability for appointment times, responding to calls and emails, no texting, implementing my late cancellation policy, providing a credit card for their file, etc. I moved from paper files in the first year to using EHR which streamlines the intake process as well as progress notes and payments. Clarifying and discussing boundaries with clients is clinically supportive for my clients as well as myself. I moved from 75% insurance and 25% private pay to 80% private pay and 20% medi-cal insurance as a way to give back to my community and provided much needed mental health services to low income clients. I also increased my private pay fee to balance out the lower pay that medi-cal insurance reimbursement pays. I make sure I stop working at a certain time, don't work on the weekends, and keep my work schedule consistent to ensure I have time for exercise, meditation, and relaxation.

What would you say to someone else who is on the fence about joining Business School Bootcamp for Therapists?: I've said "DO IT!" many times to colleagues, and three of them have signed up! I let them know how it's helped me to learn every aspect of business from websites, marketing, policies, clinical outcomes, finances, and includes my personal life needs, which is the whole package! It's so great to have business coaches who are therapists because you really get the touchy feely part of who I am as a therapist as well as teaching me the nuts and bolts of how-to videos, etc.

What do you wish you had known about private practice before you started?: That I need to approach it as a business and not just being a therapist, and that running my own business was going to challenge me and all my insecurities (maybe it's best that I didn't know that before I started :-p ).