Rob Reinhardt | Your Private Practice Contingency Plan | TPOT 127
The Practice of Therapy Podcast with Gordon Brewer
Release Date: 05/04/2020
Gary Katz | Build a Group Practice on Connection, Not Chaos | TPOT 388
The Practice of Therapy Podcast with Gordon Brewer
🎧 Ready to Grow Your Practice Without Losing Your Soul? This Episode’s for You. In this episode, Gordon sits down with Gary Katz—psychotherapist, group practice owner, and intimacy expert—who’s scaling his business across state lines without sacrificing connection, clinical quality, or his sanity. Gary opens up about what it really takes to grow a group practice that feels good, not just on paper, but in your body, your calendar, and your team culture. From building tight-knit pods of therapists to letting go of perfection and people-pleasing, this conversation is packed with honest...
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Edy Nathan | Supporting Clients Through Complex Grief in Private Practice | TPOT 387
The Practice of Therapy Podcast with Gordon Brewer
Let’s talk about grief. (I know—what a fun little opener, right?) But hang in there, because Edy Nathan doesn’t talk about grief the way most people do. There’s no clinical detachment or textbook jargon here. Edy speaks from the kind of deep, personal knowing that only comes from living it. She lost her partner at 27—a heartbreak that didn’t just shatter her world, but reshaped it completely. Instead of stuffing it down or soldiering through, Edy got curious. She studied grief, sat with it, wrote about it, and eventually made it her life’s work. Today, she helps others see grief...
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Kerry Thomas | Mood, Food, and Medicine in Private Practice | TPOT 386
The Practice of Therapy Podcast with Gordon Brewer
What if your private practice could be a place where people stop trying to fix themselves—and start actually feeling what’s going on inside? In this powerful episode, Kerry Thomas pulls back the curtain on her 25-year journey in mental health, sharing how a personal wake-up call challenged everything she thought she knew about therapy, medication, and what it really means to heal. We talk about the connection between nutrition and mood, why numbing emotions isn’t the answer, and how private practice therapists can stop pathologizing normal human experiences. This one’s...
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Julie Herres | Private Practice Tax Changes Ahead | TPOT 385
The Practice of Therapy Podcast with Gordon Brewer
Let’s be honest: when someone says “Let’s talk tax law,” most of us want to fake a Wi-Fi outage and run for cover. But when Julie Herres joins The Practice of Therapy Podcast, you actually want to lean in. Somehow, she manages to make the ever-shifting sands of tax policy sound (dare we say it?) friendly — like a conversation over coffee with a really smart friend who also color-codes her spreadsheets. So, what’s happening with taxes in 2025? Buckle up, practice owners, because there’s a whole lot of “maybe” in the air. But Julie’s here to help us wade through the...
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Dori Lewis | Should you Consider Integrating Psychedelics into Trauma Work in Private Practice? | TPOT 384
The Practice of Therapy Podcast with Gordon Brewer
What if the path to healing trauma isn’t just through talk therapy, but through carefully guided psychedelic experiences? In this episode of The Practice of Therapy Podcast, I sit down with Dori, an experienced therapist and psychedelic facilitator, who shares her deeply informed perspective on the nuanced, responsible, and transformational use of medicines like ketamine, MDMA, and psilocybin mushrooms. Dori doesn’t just follow trends—she’s been on the frontlines, participating in research, working underground before legalization, and now helping clients access inner healing...
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Tamar Blue | Creating a Safer Space for Peer Support and Digital Therapy | TPOT 383
The Practice of Therapy Podcast with Gordon Brewer
Are you ready to discover a powerful new way to support your clients—and yourself? In this episode of The Practice of Therapy Podcast, Gordon sits down with Tamar Blue, founder of , a revolutionary platform that empowers therapists, coaches, and mental health advocates to create secure, community-driven support groups online. Whether you're a provider looking to scale your services or someone seeking a safe space to heal and connect, this conversation is packed with insight, innovation, and heart. Don’t miss this inspiring story of how one woman turned a passion for peer support into a...
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Steve Bisson | Let the Work Find You: Niching with First Responders Through Podcasting | TPOT 382
The Practice of Therapy Podcast with Gordon Brewer
What Happens When the Work Finds You? Steve Bisson didn’t plan to become a go-to therapist for first responders—but sometimes, purpose arrives without a roadmap. In this episode, Steve shares how a chance encounter on a crisis team back in 1999 set off a chain of events that led to a passionate, purpose-filled career. From riding along in police cruisers to launching a podcast that speaks directly to the hearts of firefighters, paramedics, and law enforcement officers, Steve’s story is a powerful reminder that when you say yes to the work that moves you, incredible things happen. Whether...
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Jeremy Zug | Private Pay, Insurance, or Hybrid? Decide For Your Private Practice | TPOT 381
The Practice of Therapy Podcast with Gordon Brewer
What if the two most important questions in your practice— 'Is this financially viable?' and 'Am I doing the work I love?' — didn’t have to compete? In this eye-opening episode, Jeremy dives deep into the strategic crossroads every private practice owner faces, especially when considering whether to take insurance, stay private pay, or explore a hybrid model. He breaks down the real numbers, state-by-state reimbursement differences, and the often-overlooked red flags in insurance relationships—like sneaky non-quantitative treatment limitations and the true cost of claim denials....
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James Marland | Stop Trading Hours for Income: Scalable Growth in Private Practice | TPOT 380
The Practice of Therapy Podcast with Gordon Brewer
Are you tired of the “time for dollars” trap—where every vacation, sick day, or even slow week hits your bottom line? In this episode, James Marland gets real about the burnout that comes from trading hours for income and why the solution isn’t just slapping together an online course. He dives into what it really takes to build something scalable and sustainable—without losing yourself or your sanity in the process. Whether you’ve toyed with the idea of creating a course or you’re just craving more freedom in your practice, this conversation is a must-listen. It's honest,...
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Dr. Robyn Miller | Preparing For The Worst: Professional Wills in Private Practice | TPOT 379
The Practice of Therapy Podcast with Gordon Brewer
What happens to our clients when we’re suddenly not there to care for them? In this powerful and eye-opening episode, Dr. Robyn Miller dives into the difficult but essential topic most therapists avoid: what happens when a therapist dies or becomes incapacitated. With compassion, clarity, and deep professional insight, Dr. Miller reveals the ethical, legal, and emotional chaos that can follow when we don’t have a solid closure plan in place—and how TheraClosure offers a dignified, comprehensive solution. If you’re a mental health professional who’s ever told yourself, “I’ll...
info_outlineIn this episode, Rob Reinhardt from Tame Your Practice joins Gordon to talk about the importance of having a contingency plan in private practice. First, Rob explains the difference between a contingency plan and a professional will. Plus, he reveals the first things you will need to do when thinking about your contingency plan, including considering who will be on your emergency response team. Rob highly recommends having another mental health professional on your team, rather than a family member. Later, Rob speaks about all the things you will need to inform your emergency response team about. If you need more assistance with your plan, get Rob’s book Private Practice Preparedness: The Health Care Professional’s Guide to Closing a Practice Due to Retirement, Death, or Disability (use code WF44M for 15% off the ebook).
Meet Rob Reinhardt
Rob Reinhardt, LPCS, M.Ed., NCC has his own successful counseling practice and is CEO of Tame Your Practice. Known for his expertise in reviewing and recommending EHRs for therapists, Rob previously worked in Information Technology for over ten years and has lived around technology his entire life.
Contingency Plans for Private Practice
Mental health professionals usually don’t have a contingency plan. If something happens to a private practice owner, what is the spouse going to do? The owner is in charge of helping all of these people get informed about the situation. Plus, there are all of the records to deal with. There’s all of this business to take care of. If there were no plans, an attorney would have to help them through it.
It’s not just what happens when you die; there could be lots of reasons that you need a contingency plan. For instance, you need a plan in case you decide to retire or in case you find some fantastic job opportunities that you can’t turn down. What if your family decides to move across state lines? That would change everything. You might have to take an extended leave of absence to care for an ill family member. There’s any number of reasons that draw you away from your practice and require you to have this plan in place.
Well, there are not many resources out there for private practice owners to create the plan. And that’s when Rob decided to sit down and write Private Practice Preparedness: The Health Care Professional’s Guide to Closing a Practice Due to Retirement, Death, or Disability with Nancy Wheeler. They talk about how to make the plan and provide some templates that you can fill in your information and have that plan.
Professional Wills
Many people talk about a professional will in this context. The reason Rob doesn’t say professional will a lot, and instead, he talks about a contingency plan is because the professional will tends to be focused on if you die. Plus, it also tends to be focused on the business aspects of private practice. Some people do incorporate other things into the professional will, but not everything will be covered. For instance, what if somebody needs to get into your G Suite? What if somebody needs to get into your EHR? These are the kinds of details that often aren’t included in something like a professional will. So, make sure you’re covering all these things that someone would need to address if someone else has to care of business. There are so many things that you do that are connected to your practice that are in your head. However, you never really bothered to write down or explain it to anybody else.
Starting Your Contingency Plan
Get Rob’s book, Private Practice Preparedness: The Health Care Professional’s Guide to Closing a Practice Due to Retirement, Death, or Disability, and go through it. Rob would step back and make a list of all these things that he does. Including all of the things that he doesn’t even really think about. They’re second nature to him. Think about what are all the things that you do, and if you weren’t there, who would do them? As you are making a list, think about doing these things, how are you doing them, and what are you doing them with?
In other words, what tools are you using? Are you using G suite a lot? Some people have electronic health records, and they have bank accounts for their business. So, make a list of what are all the tools that you use, and how do you access those tools? Then, it can get even more detailed. So one example is electronic health records. We’re talking about protected health information here. It may not just be enough that somebody has your login and password information. You may want to have them set up in that EHR as a confirmed user. And in fact, some of the electronic health record systems have that as part of their programs.
Rob advocates firmly using two-factor authentication. So that means you’re not just entering a username and password, but you’re often entering a code that you either receive via text or through an authentication app. It’s an extra layer of security to be sure that if someone gets your username and password, they can’t impersonate you and get into this sensitive data.
Plus, who is your emergency response team? That’s the terminology Rob uses in his book. How is your emergency response team going to get that authentication data? The key is that you identify these workflows, how do you access the information, what information do you use, and how do you make sure that your emergency response team knows all of this? When Rob says an emergency response team, that could be a team of one, it could be a team of 10. It depends on your practice and what your needs are and so forth. So a solo practitioner may only have a team of one or two people to back them up.
Emergency Response Team
You want to identify your emergency response team, whether that’s an individual or a group of people, and you want to make sure you talk to them, and you set an agreement and give them everything they need to know. So, at a moment’s notice, they can jump in and take over. Many people do mutual agreements. They will be your backup, and you will be their backup. Get that established so that they know that they’re the backup; it should never be a surprise. Plus, they should know where to find the information if they need to jump in and take care of business.
Also, make sure they are a mental health professional. Some people want it to be their family members. Especially when you’re talking about a professional will, it may be fine and well, but it’s essential to consider having a knowledgeable mental health professional take care of business. They have the clinical knowledge; they have the experience of things like HIPAA and ethics that a family member is not likely to have. They’re going to step in and know what’s essential and how to take care of the records. That’s a crucial facet of deciding who’s going to be on your response team.
Another reason why it’s crucial to have a mental health clinician involved in this emergency response team because they may be providing some counseling as they help transition people to a new care provider. What does this emergency response team need to do? Apart from your day to day routine activities, how are they going to communicate this to clients? It’s essential to have already identified some clinicians that would be a good fit for the particular clients that you work with. Make sure those clinicians are aware that they are a part of your transition plan. Those clinicians need to know how to contact your clients, what to tell them, and the list of providers to make them aware of.
Being transparent… Some of the resources below use affiliate links which simply means we receive a commission if you purchase using the links, at no extra cost to you. Thanks for using the links!
Rob’s Resources
Creating Income From Products in Private Practice
Electronic Health Records in Private Practice
“Tame Your Practice”
Therapy Tech with Rob & Roy
Describe Cards
Other Resources
LastPass
Join the G-Suite for Therapists Users Group
Money Matters in Private Practice | The Course
G Suite for Therapists | The E-Course
Session Note Helper
Cool Resources
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Meet Gordon Brewer, MEd, LMFT
Gordon is the person behind The Practice of Therapy Podcast & Blog. He is also President and Founder of Kingsport Counseling Associates, PLLC. He is a therapist, consultant, business mentor, trainer, and writer. PLEASE Subscribe to The Practice of Therapy Podcast on iTunes, Stitcher and Google Play. Follow us on Twitter @therapistlearn and Pinterest “Like” us on Facebook