Libsyn Directory

Dana McNeil & Nancy Ryan | Getting Confident For Successful Couple's Practices | TPOT 142

The Practice of Therapy Podcast with Gordon Brewer

Release Date: 08/24/2020

What Growing a Group Practice Really Takes | Whitney Owens | TPOT 453

The Practice of Therapy Podcast with Gordon Brewer

Growing a private practice takes more than adding clients and hiring therapists. It also means learning to delegate, trust your team, and let go of doing everything yourself. In this episode, Gordon Brewer welcomes back Whitney Owens, founder of Water’s Edge Counseling and Wise Practice Consulting. Whitney shares her journey from solo therapist to group practice owner, including the challenges of building a leadership team, navigating staff turnover, and creating systems that support growth. Gordon and Whitney explore how confidence develops through experience, why clear values matter in...

How Therapists Can Practice What We Preach About Mindfulness | Debi Trent Brown | TPOT 452

The Practice of Therapy Podcast with Gordon Brewer

Therapists spend a lot of time encouraging clients to slow down, practice mindfulness, and become more aware of what they need—but practicing those same things in our own lives can be much harder. In this episode, Gordon talks with Debi Trent Brown about mindfulness beyond meditation, the importance of creating small moments of joy, and what it means to live more authentically. They explore how the “rules” we pick up from family, culture, and society can quietly shape our choices, why pausing before we respond can help us better understand ourselves, and how consistency—not...

How to Make More Impact Without Adding More Clients | James Marland | TPOT 451

The Practice of Therapy Podcast with Gordon Brewer

What happens when being “successful” in private practice starts to look a lot like burnout? In this episode, Gordon talks with James Marland about the three traps that can keep therapists stuck in one-on-one work: the clock trap, calendar trap, and couch trap. They unpack why being fully booked isn’t always the same as being free, and how tying your income, time, and impact entirely to client hours can eventually become exhausting. James also shares practical ways therapists can begin thinking beyond traditional one-on-one work through workshops, courses, trainings, and other resources...

Supporting Postpartum Moms Through Private Practice | Hannah Short | TPOT 450

The Practice of Therapy Podcast with Gordon Brewer

One of the things I’ve learned over the years is that the work we feel most drawn to often has some connection to our own experiences. That doesn’t mean our story becomes the center of the therapy room, but it can absolutely shape the populations we care about, the problems we notice, and the kind of practice we want to build. In this episode, I talk with Hannah Short about how her own experiences with eating disorder recovery and postpartum helped shape her clinical niche. We also get into thoughtful self-disclosure, creating a practice where clients feel genuinely understood, moving from...

Branding Your Private Practice: How to Stand Out and Get Found | Ritu Riedweg | TPOT 449

The Practice of Therapy Podcast with Gordon Brewer

When therapists think about branding, it’s easy to immediately think about logos, fonts, colors, and websites. But your brand is so much more than what your practice looks like online. It is also the feeling people get when they encounter you, the story they associate with you, and ultimately, whether they feel like they can trust you. In this episode of The Practice of Therapy Podcast, I had the pleasure of talking with Ritu Riedweg about personal branding, marketing, and what therapists can do to make their practices easier to find and easier to connect with. Ritu brings an interesting...

Working With High-Risk Teens in Private Practice | Katie K. May | TPOT 448

The Practice of Therapy Podcast with Gordon Brewer

Working with high-risk teens can feel overwhelming, especially when self-harm, suicidal thoughts, emotional dysregulation, or repeated hospitalizations are part of the picture. So how can therapists provide both compassion and structure without letting fear drive the treatment? In this episode, Gordon talks with Katie K. May about working effectively with high-risk teens and their families. Katie shares why validation matters, how therapists can provide strong clinical leadership, and why caregiver involvement is such an important part of the process. They also discuss proactive safety...

Why Rapport Matters More Than Ever in Private Practice | Nora Anger | TPOT 447

The Practice of Therapy Podcast with Gordon Brewer

Building rapport isn’t just about helping clients feel comfortable. It can play a major role in whether they trust you, open up, and keep coming back. In this episode, I sit down with Nora Anger, LPC, to talk about building stronger therapeutic relationships in private practice. We discuss what clients really want from their therapists, common reasons they leave therapy, thoughtful self-disclosure, creating safety and trust, and how to balance compassion with challenging clients when they need it. Resources Mentioned In This Episode Meet Nora Anger Nora Anger, MS, LPC, is a...

Is Your Private Practice Too Dependent on You? | TaVona Denise | TPOT 446

The Practice of Therapy Podcast with Gordon Brewer

What happens to your private practice when you step away? In this episode, Gordon talks with TaVona Denise about what her Private Practice Vitality Report revealed about owner dependency, burnout, delegation, and the systems that keep a practice running. They explore why hiring more staff doesn’t always create more freedom, how to tell if your practice still depends too heavily on you, and the simple 30-day question that can uncover exactly where your systems need work. If you want to build a practice that can grow without requiring you to be involved in every decision, this conversation is...

The Systems Your Private Practice Needs to Run Smoothly | Lisa Permar | TPOT 445

The Practice of Therapy Podcast with Gordon Brewer

A private practice can look successful on the outside and still feel exhausting behind the scenes. Clients are showing up, revenue is coming in, and everything appears to be working, but the owner may still be answering every question, fixing every exception, following up on loose ends, and carrying far too much of the practice in their own head. In this episode, Gordon talks with Lisa Permar about the small, repeated friction points that quietly drain a practice owner’s time, attention, and energy. They explore how everyday tasks around intake, scheduling, billing, documentation, and team...

Private Practice Money Mistakes That Could Be Costing You | Margo Masri | TPOT 444

The Practice of Therapy Podcast with Gordon Brewer

Your private practice may look profitable on paper, but does the money actually feel available? In this episode, Gordon talks with Margo Masri, founder of Heartfelt CFO and Tax Services, about the financial decisions that can quietly create cash flow problems for private practice owners. They explore the risks of over-hiring, ignoring taxes, taking on office space too soon, and trying to grow without fully understanding the costs involved. Margo also shares why practice owners need to know what they personally need to live on, build financial systems that can grow with the business, and...

More Episodes

In this episode, Dana McNeil and Nancy Ryan speak about how to be a successful couple's therapist. A couple's therapist needs to be compassionate and connect with the pair. Plus, a couple's therapist has to control the room and not be afraid to make mistakes. If you're looking for a private practice niche, couple's therapy can be an excellent tool for your practice. However, if you find out that couple's therapy is not your specialty, please refer to another therapist. Tune in for more tips about couple's work!

Meet Dana McNeil, LMFT

Dana McNeil is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and is the founder of a group practice called The Relationship Place located in San Diego, California. Dana’s practice specializes in couples’ therapy and utilizes an evidence-based type of couples’ therapy which is known as the Gottman Method. Dana is a certified Gottman Method therapist and Bringing Home Baby instructor. Dana’s practice works with all types of relationship issues from pre-marital counseling, dealing with the aftermath of extramarital affairs, partners working through addiction recovery, the military deployed families, parents of special needs children, LGBTQ, and polyamorous clients.

Dana has been featured on many relationship podcasts and in publications such as the Business Insider, Authority Magazine, Eat This-Not That, Parade, Oprah Living, Martha Stewart Living, Ladders, AARP and is the resident relationship expert on the Cox Communications show “I Do”.

Meet Nancy Ryan, LMFT

Nancy Ryan is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and is the founder of a group practice called The Relationship Therapy Center in Roseville and Fair Oaks, California. Nancy's practice specializes in couples therapy and she is a Certified Gottman Therapist. Nancy's practice works with all types of relationship issues from pre-marital counseling, all types of couples, divorce, and uncoupling, affair recovery, sexual issues, and codependency. Nancy has been featured in the media and in publications such as the Psych Central, Bustle, Elephant Journal, Marriage.com, KFBK News Radio, Fox 40 Sacramento, and Cox Media "Main Street Living".

Client Ambassadors

Do you want to talk about money while you're in the session? It is better to have someone else talk about business aspects with your clients. That way, the therapists do not need to ask their clients for the money. When you go to medical practice, the doctor doesn't ask you for the money; there is a separate person. Having a buffer is enormous.

Handle The Room In Couple's Therapy

You have to be the presence that carries hope and the demeanor. Internally, therapists could be thinking that it's a mess. However, it should never come out in the room. Both partners need to be able to feel like you're on their side. There is a way for you to get the couple to talk to one another. It would help if you were a therapist for the relationship, not for each individual. When one person is talking and sharing, look at the other partner's face, and see how they react.

Call Out Emotions

If someone is aggressive, there needs to be a pause, so you remain in control of the room. When someone is aggressive, then they are not tuned in to the other person's body language. As a therapist, you need to show them what is happening with their partner. A therapist needs to be brave enough to call out emotions. It's a talent that you have to learn because sometimes you get it wrong. It would help if you were comfortable with correcting yourself and making mistakes. There's a dance that happens when you're a perfect couple's therapist.

Normalize Couple's Therapy

Couples aren't in therapy because they can't figure things out. Couples are in therapy because no one teaches them about the couple's communication. Couples should be in therapy because they need to learn the tools. A therapist should also relate to their clients – we all have struggles. A therapist can talk about conflict at their house. That way, the couple will start to feel safe.

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!