Choosing a business coach in the mental health industry can be daunting.  It seems like a new tech company is springing up every week demanding the attention of therapists and presenting themselves as the solution for all therapy practice problems.  

But real business solutions and business coaching that really makes an impact aren't found in shiny apps funded by venture capitalists.

No matter how far into the Jetson era we go, I firmly believe that solutions will always be the most effective when they are presented by real people who have a real interest in the populations they serve.  

That's true for the therapy you provide your clients and true for business coaching for therapists just like you. 

That's why I've put together this guide to how to choose a business coach to help you build or grow your mental health practice.  

How to choose a mental health practice business coach:

Your business coach should have expertise in the therapy field

You can find generalized business coaches in a variety of places: they are all over LinkedIn, popping up in your Facebook feed, and you can even get free business advice from organizations like the SBDC.  However, general business coaches aren't going to understand the therapy industry in some key ways: 

Client Retention: any business coach can give you some tips on client retention, but they aren't going to understand how to do so in line with the code of ethics for your licensure or understand how to build therapeutic alliances that involve so much more relationship building than just "good customer service."   A business coach that specializes in therapy practices will be able to train your therapists on both administrative tips and building therapeutic alliance to increasing client retention in an ethical way. 

Therapist Compensation Plans: any business coach can run the numbers, google industry standards and tell you how much you'll make if you pay your therapists X percentage, however they won't understand some of the more tricky nuances to that equation.  Are your therapists working only for you or is your practice their third job?  Are they licensed or pre-licensed?  How many sessions per week are they doing?  How do you ask them to do more without getting accused of promoting therapist burnout?  What if they are seeing mostly couples rather than individuals?  Is their rate high enough for the local market?   A mental health business coach will understand these nuances and help you develop a compensation plan that makes therapists happy and keeps your practice profitable.  

Intake Coordination: any business coach can give you a list of some good customer service practices your intake coordinator should be implementing, but they aren't going to understand the importance of screening clients to make sure they are a good match for the modalities and specialties of your therapists, which is a huge part of client retention as mentioned above.  A seasoned therapy practice business coach should have a proven intake coordination script that presents the IC as an expert guide who leads the client through a smooth process, anticipates questions before they are asked, and provides all the information they need to feel confident booking their first session with their perfect match therapist.  

Your business coach should care about therapy

This one hits close to my heart.  As someone who has been to both individual and couple therapy using a variety of modalities and surround myself with people who appreciate therapy, I love being able to advise my coaching clients based on a personal understanding of the client's perspective.  If you're trying to figure out, "How would my ideal client read this website copy," shoot it to me.  I've probably been your ideal client or know your ideal client personally. 

Don't be afraid to ask a potential business coach about their personal therapy experience. 

Your business coach should have experience actually doing the work they are coaching you how to do

This is the difference between business coaching as a distant, advisory role vs. business coaching with hands on operational help.  Your therapy practice business coach should be able to say they:

• Have been an intake coordinator, a practice manager and/or an operations manager for successful therapy practices. 
• Have hands on experience developing policies, operating procedures, making key decisions, and thinking through all the nuances of running a therapy practice. 
• Have been left to run the practice in the practice owner's absence. 
• Worked directly with marketing teams, accountants, lawyers, and state and federal agencies on behalf of the practice owner. 

I'm proud to say that I can say all of the above, and would love to put those skills to use for you, not only as a coach, but to build or rebuild your operational structure so that your team has everything they need to make your practice profitable. 

Your business coach should have strong listening and reflecting skills

Just as listening and reflecting is important in the therapy room, it's important in the business coaching room as well.  You have concerns, fears, hopes and dreams for your practice and you need a coach that will hear and understand what you're trying to build and why you're trying to build it in order to best serve you.

A client mentioned to me recently that he was concerned about raising his rates because he didn't come from money growing up.  I was able to really hear and reflect that fear.  Therapists don't always charge what they are worth- sometimes because of beliefs about helpers not being worth as much- but sometimes because of engrained childhood beliefs about money.  Growing up with no running water or electricity, I can honestly say I understand this mindset, have overcome it, and would love to help you do the same.  

Your business coach should provide you with templates, worksheets and scripts

Anyone can learn how to talk for an hour and make it sound good, but you you should look for a business coach who has put some thought and effort into creating resources that directly address the problems you have running your therapy practice. 

For example, these are a few of the resources I provide my clients: 

• Intake coordination script and email templates
• Ideal client avatar worksheet
• Metrics tracking dashboard
• List of blog posts every therapy practice should have
• Client retention training materials for therapists
• Client surveys
• Job descriptions
• Compensation plans

Your business coach should be adaptable to your needs

As a business coach with all of the experience listed above, I have a standard package and a proven method for helping therapists.  However, it is very important to me to always customize these standard operating procedures for the unique needs of the practice with which I'm working.  A solo practice doesn't need everything the practice with 30 therapists needs and might not be ready to invest as much.  The practice that focuses on couple therapy is going to have unique challenges that the EMDR/Trauma practice does not, but the trauma focused practice might be in a location that serves a specific demographic we need to consider.  Each practice is as unique as the founder, the therapists, and the clients that make it a living, breathing ecosystem.  Make sure you hire a business coach who can give you a clear path and actionable steps to take that are customized to your unique needs. 

Your business coach should know what metrics to track and how to track them

You can't know if you're going in the right direction if you don't know where you've been and where you are now.  KPIs or key performance indicators are business metrics that help us understand the health of the business at a glance.  Once you've calculated the KPIs of your practice as it stands currently, your business coach should be able to make recommendations for improving those numbers with specific goals and a proven path to success. 

A few KPIs to track: 

• Retention Rate
• Conversion Rate
• Assignment Rate
• Rate of Consult calls attended
• Profit per Therapist
• Cancellation Rate

Your business coach should offer you an option to help you implement your plans

So you've found a coach who cares about therapy and therapists, has expertise in the mental health field, listens to your needs, adapts their coaching plan accordingly, and is tracking your metrics.... but you're still stuck doing all the implementation.  You still have to learn everything the coach is teaching and then do it yourself or translate it to your team.  

This is the difference between business coaching as a distant, advisory role vs. business coaching with hands on operational help. 

I customize my services to the needs of my therapy practice owners:  

• Just want coaching?  You got it!  
• Want training for your existing operations manager on more efficient systems and better leadership skills? Can do! 
• Setting up your systems and processes and helping you hire a team that I train to take over?  I do that too! 
• Fully running the business side of your practice so well that you can take a few months off and come back to more profit?  That's my VIP Client service. 

I hope this guide to choosing the right business coach for your therapy practice has been helpful!  Whether you end up working with me or another coach, I wish you all the best in growing your practice.  Thank you for the good work you do helping people with their mental health!  

If you'd like to spend 30 minutes with me seeing what coaching would be like, please schedule a consultation call! 

Warmly, 

Emily Ferguson

Founder of Confident Private Practice

P.S. I'm proud to say that no part of this blog post was written by AI.