How do you network without being awkward, salesy, or draining your energy?

In today's episode, I'm sharing a version of networking for therapists that feels less transactional and a lot more powerful: hosting your own networking event. When you create the event, everything changes. You have a clear reason to reach out to colleagues, you get to choose the kind of gathering that fits your energy, and you make it easier for other people to remember who you are and what you do. And believe it or not, this can be simple and easy.

We'll talk about why local referrals still matter while online marketing and algorithms keep changing, what makes networking feel so uncomfortable in the first place, and why a full practice is not a reason to disappear from your local community. I’ll also give you ideas for making an event fit your actual energy, whether you would rather host six people over dinner or invite a bigger group somewhere casual.

If networking has always felt salesy or exhausting, this episode will help you create a version that feels generous and realistic enough to keep doing.

• Why therapist networking can feel transactional before the first conversation even starts
• What it feels like to be the person who can make exactly the right referral
• How to approach another practitioner when you want to build a referral relationship
• Why hosting your own event can feel easier than asking strangers to meet one on one
• How to choose a gathering that fits your energy, capacity, and appetite for planning
• Why local relationships still matter when algorithms and online buyer behavior keep changing
• Why a full caseload is not a reason to stop building your referral community
• How group practice owners can help local providers get to know the clinicians in their team
• How to secure wins in your first events, even if they feel small

• Get my freebie and join the email list: The Magic Sheets
• Instagram: @the_bad_therapist
• Website: www.thebadtherapist.coach

• 5 Ways to Feel Less Lonely in Therapy Practice (Without Joining Another Facebook Group) [Ep 167]: a companion episode on building the professional relationships and support your practice needs

"And remember that hosting the room means that you're the first name multiple providers think of rather than one of many that they might not even remember." - Felicia

Your calendar can look packed while your income tells a different story. Clients come every other week, summer cancellations open holes you can't replace, and a crowded roster creates more admin. On paper, your therapy practice looks successful. In reality, it may not support the life you built it for.

In today's episode, I'm asking you to look past client count and assess what's actually happening in your business. We'll examine the gap between a busy practice and a profitable one, why another income stream won't repair a leaky foundation, and what to consider before changing your fees or therapy cancellation policy.

Those changes can feel wasteful after you've worked so hard to attract clients. They also involve real uncertainty. Some clients may leave, others may stay, and you can't predict every response. You can assess the risk, communicate clearly, and use your clinical skill without pushing anyone toward a choice that isn't right for them.

If the end of summer brings enough relief that you stop looking at the problem, this episode will help you see the cycle before another year passes. Press play to decide what a more stable practice requires from you now.

Topics covered on this episode:

1. Why a packed calendar can create a false sense of safety when income remains unstable
2. What client count misses about attendance, pricing, admin load, and the health of your practice
3. The risk questions to ask before changing your fees or therapy cancellation policy
4. Why passive income won't repair a practice that keeps leaking revenue
5. How “good therapist” conditioning and sunk-cost thinking make necessary business changes feel wasteful or uncaring
6. Using clinical skill to hold honest money conversations while respecting each client's choice

Resources from this episode:

• The Fee Formula: Felicia's course on setting fees, strengthening policies, and building a more stable private practice

Connect with Felicia:

• Get my freebie & join the email list: The Magic Sheets
• Instagram: @the_bad_therapist
• Website: www.thebadtherapist.coach

Related episodes:

• How to Get Off Insurance and Build a Cash Pay Practice Without the Income Dip [Ep 163]: Felicia's framework for assessing financial risk before leaving insurance

Quote:

"More clients don't necessarily equal more money, especially if they're low frequency or low fee." - Felicia

The more you've built, the harder it gets to want the next thing. You've crossed milestones a past version of you only dreamed of and instead of momentum you're finding yourself busy with the safe stuff, the tasks you've already mastered, while the thing that would actually move your practice forward keeps waiting.

If you've been asking yourself, "Why am I not motivated?" this episode is for you. I’ve seen the pattern in myself and some of my most successful clients: the mundane, comfortable tasks robbing us of our next level goals. Today I'm showing you why the old fuel that got you here won't get you to the next level.

We'll look at why the urgency that pulled you out of scarcity isn't available anymore and how hiding in mastery can look exactly like productivity. The strategies that built your first six figures were built for different stakes, and that mismatch is fixable.

By the end of this episode, you'll choose the one move that matters this week for that next-level goal and know how to keep busyness at bay so you can make real progress. Tune in!

Topics covered on why am I not motivated:

1. Why the next goal feels harder to want than the last one, even when you're more resourced than ever
2. How low motivation disguises itself as busyness: the mundane, already-mastered tasks that feel urgent but aren't
3. The stages from resistance to boredom, and how hiding in mastery keeps you coasting instead of growing
4. Why the strategies that built your first six figures were built for different stakes, and why external accountability matters more now, not less
5. The one awareness exercise that starts the shift: name the scary goal you're circling and the task you're substituting for it

Connect with Felicia:

• Get my freebie & join the email list: The Magic Sheets
• Instagram: @the_bad_therapist
• Website: www.thebadtherapist.coach

Resources from this episode:

• Liberated Business: www.thebadtherapist.coach/liberatedbusiness
• Income and Emotional Well-Being: A Conflict Resolved: the PNAS study by Killingsworth, Kahneman and Mellers behind the money and happiness research Felicia references

Related episodes:

• A Time Blocking Method for Therapists Ready to Build Their Next Offer [Ep 177]: the calendaring episode to revisit when you're ready to make the change
• The Five Growth Stages Every Successful Therapist Goes Through [Ep 171]: the stages episode that maps moving from resistance to mastery to boredom

Quote:

"You need different fuel to move you to your next level of goals, not just more of the old fuel, because that's just not gonna work anymore." - Felicia

Your caseload is full, but the idea for your next offer has been living in your notes app for months. You think about it in the shower or while walking the dog, but it still isn’t real. That may feel like a time problem. It’s usually a decision problem.

In today’s episode, I’m sharing a time blocking method that helps you see what it will actually take to build your next offer. I’ll show you why thinking about a course, group program, intensive, or retreat can feel like progress without producing any, and why putting the project on your calendar makes every compromise visible.

We’re also looking at the business underneath the calendar. If you’re underpricing your therapy, granting reschedules, or saying yes to work you decided was off the table, your practice may not have enough room to support the next thing. A new offer can’t rescue a practice you’re not yet willing to optimize.

This episode will help you see where your time goes, protect space for experimentation, and make the pricing and boundary decisions that create more freedom. You don’t need perfect clarity before you begin, you need a block on the calendar and the willingness to show up.

1. Why thinking about your next offer can feel like progress without making you accountable to a calendar
2. How a protected project block makes you choose whether to move it, delete it, or defend it
3. What putting client work, admin, and life obligations on the calendar reveals about your actual capacity
4. Why underpricing, client reschedules, and broken boundaries prevent your practice from making room for something new
5. How showing up to create and experiment moves the offer out of your head and into the world

• Get my freebie and see how much money you can make (and vacation you can take) with my revenue stimulator: The Magic Sheets
• Instagram: @the_bad_therapist
• Website: www.thebadtherapist.coach

Related episodes:

• Quarter Two Planning: How to Stay Accountable & Consistent in Your Business Goals (Ep 110)
• Grow Your Private Practice with a 90 Day Sprint (Ep 101)

“The freedom you want is actually downstream of the discipline that you’ve been avoiding.” - Felicia

Opening a group practice can feel like the obvious next step once your private practice is full and you’re turning away potential clients every week. But too often, therapists make that decision from a place of scarcity instead of strength, and that’s exactly why it backfires.

In today’s episode, I’m sharing the three questions I wish every therapist would answer before hiring their first clinician. If you can’t confidently say yes to all three, opening a group practice probably isn’t your next best move—at least not yet.

I'm diving into whether you genuinely have an abundance of time and money (or just enough demand to feel busy and stretched), what consistent long-term demand really looks like, and the identity shift from clinician to business owner that catches so many therapists by surprise.

If you’re thinking about expanding into a group practice, these three questions will help you decide whether you’re truly ready and give you a roadmap for what needs to happen first.

Topics covered on Opening A Group Practice:

1. The one financial question that decides whether you're expanding from strength or scarcity
2. Full private practice isn't always the green light for opening a group practice
3. The uncomfortable gut check: would you feel excited or a little sick handing your favorite clients to someone else
4. The identity shift nobody warns you about, and why it lights some therapists up and wrecks others

Resources from this episode:

• Liberated Business: www.thebadtherapist.coach/liberatedbusiness
• Website: www.thebadtherapist.coach

Connect with Felicia:

• Get my freebie & join the email list: The Magic Sheets
• Instagram: @the_bad_therapist

Related episodes:

• Growing Your Group Practice: Why Your First Hire Should Be A 'Mini-You' w/ Nicole McCance [Ep 124]
• What You Need to Know Before Hiring a Team Member for Your Private Practice [Ep 17]

Quote:

"A group practice adds complexity, it adds responsibility, and it adds overhead before it adds freedom." Felicia

Taking time off as a therapist feels borderline reckless, even though your clients disappear for two weeks every summer without a flicker of guilt. Summer arrives, the cancellations roll in, your calendar opens up, and instead of enjoying the space you feel that dread I call the summer slump.

Good therapist conditioning taught you that being available equals being dedicated, so stepping back feels like letting people down, and underneath it sits one big fear: if I am not in the room, my business will fall apart.

In today's episode, I'm diving into what has to be true for time off to feel safe, the revenue streams and coverage that make it possible, and how to build the business around the life you want rather than the other way around.

If your clients can vanish for two weeks and everything keeps running, it might be time to ask why you can’t. Let's find your date.

Topics covered on How to Take Time Off as a Therapist:

• The reason taking time off as a therapist feels so scary in summer, and why your vacation ends up feeling twice as expensive
• Good therapist conditioning and the belief that constant availability is what makes you dedicated
• What has to be in place before time off feels safe instead of like a gamble
• Why most therapists build their practice backwards, and the order that finally fits your life

Connect with Felicia:

• Get my freebie & join the email list: The Magic Sheets
• Instagram: @the_bad_therapist
• Website: www.thebadtherapist.coach

Quote:

"If your clients can disappear for 2 weeks and everything's fine, it might be time to ask why you can't." Felicia

Ready for a private practice success story that’ll light a fire under you? In this episode, I’m joined by Ben Sollenberger, who left his full time corporate operations role and built a nearly full private practice, on track for six figures, in just a few months of joining Liberated Business!

Ben shares the pivotal moment he stopped playing it safe, the mindset shift that helped him tune out the doubters, and the strategic moves that sped up his growth. From leveraging his corporate background to learning a new skill set, his journey is full of unexpected turns and practical takeaways. If you're on the fence about starting your own private practice or wondering if it's really possible to succeed quickly in today's market, Ben's journey might just be the nudge you need to finally make your move.

More about Ben Sollenberger:

Ben is a resident in counseling who specializes in counseling men in their 20s and 30s. In addition to loving counseling, Ben continues to enjoy working as a contractor in business operations, his first career.

Topics covered on Private Practice Success Story:

• How Ben found a big gap in the mental health market and used it as a key element in his private practice's success story
• The surprising ways Ben’s corporate background helped him (and also didn't fully prepare him) for private practice
• The exact moment that convinced Ben to finally take the leap into private practice after months of hesitation
• Ben's clever Psychology Today profile hack that helped him stand out in a saturated directory
• The strategic investments Ben made that led to his private practice filling quickly
• The dual income strategy Ben uses to feel more confident and calm while building his therapy business

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Liberated Business: https://www.thebadtherapist.coach/liberatedbusiness
• Hold Space Creative

Connect with Ben Sollenberger:

• Website: https://www.virginiatherapyservicesforyoungmen.com

Connect with Felicia:

• Get my freebie & join the email list: The Magic Sheets
• Instagram: @the_bad_therapist
• Website: www.thebadtherapist.coach

Related episodes

• Liberated Business: How to Transform Your Private Practice in Six Months [Ep 63]

Quote

“ It's definitely not gonna work out if you don't have that blind trust in the universe.” - Ben Sollenberger