Tiffany Duffing | The Road to Growth: Building a Purpose-Driven Private Practice | TPOT 355
The Practice of Therapy Podcast with Gordon Brewer
Release Date: 11/04/2024
The Practice of Therapy Podcast with Gordon Brewer
What do we miss when a diagnosis becomes the whole story? Dr. Travis Heath joins Gordon Brewer to explore how narrative therapy helps us understand the stories clients tell about themselves—and the stories their families, communities, and culture tell about them. Together, they discuss how labels can both offer clarity and limit understanding, why slowing down matters in therapy, and how curiosity can open up new possibilities. Travis also shares ways therapists can reflect on their sessions, question familiar assumptions, and move beyond simply listing a client’s strengths to hearing the...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
info_outlineIn this episode of The Practice of Therapy Podcast, Tiffany dives deep into the intricate relationship between anxiety and gut-brain interactions. She explains how anxiety can affect the gut in ways that aren’t always obvious, with some people experiencing clear GI issues, while others may have subtle gut disturbances without noticeable anxiety. Through relatable examples, Tiffany illustrates how thoughts, self-talk, and physical symptoms are interconnected, highlighting the bidirectional communication between the brain and the gut. Beyond the science, Tiffany also shares key insights for private practice owners on building a meaningful, community-focused business, offering evidence-based services that meet unaddressed needs. Whether you're curious about the mind-body connection or looking for entrepreneurial advice, this episode offers valuable takeaways.
Resources Mentioned In This Episode
- Read the full show notes here
- Use the promo code "GORDON" to get 2 months of Therapy Notes free
- Start Consulting with Gordon
- The PsychCraft Network
- The Practice of Therapy Community
- Mental Health Wear TN
- Tiffany’s Website
- Tiffany’s Instagram
- Tiffany’s Facebook
Meet Tiffany Duffing
Tiffany Duffing, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist, U.S. Army Veteran, and the co-founder of GI Psychology, a practice specializing in treating children, adolescents, and adults with various GI disorders. With a passion for serving her community, Dr. Duffing specializes in the integrative framework that pulls from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Clinical Hypnosis. She has successfully achieved therapeutic goals with children aged nine and above, adolescents, adults, and couples. Her areas of focus include gastrointestinal disorders, chronic pain, insomnia, and anxiety.
For Tiffany, empowering patients to create comfort is her biggest priority. Starting from the first intake session, Dr. Duffing focuses on listening actively and relaying what they have said to them to ensure complete understanding. In her career, Dr. Duffing has embraced the health psychology model, emphasizing the collaboration between psychologists, physicians, dietitians, and nurses to address the whole person.
Dr. Duffing maintains active involvement in the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis (ASCH) and the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis (SCEH). She is also a volunteer Board member of the Association of Northern Virginia Clinical Psychologists (NVCP). In addition to her clinical work, Dr. Duffing serves as president of GI Psychology and ensures the practice's commitment to providing comprehensive mental health services for patients with complicated gastro-psychological conditions.
Guided by her dedication to the field, Dr. Duffing's professional commitments lie within her innovative treatment approach and the importance of her patients' well-being. She continues to inspire and benefit individuals seeking relief from their symptoms, contributing to a healthier and more hopeful future for patients and the mental health community.
To learn more about Dr. Duffing and her work at GI Psychology, visit the website or connect with her on LinkedIn. Her professional journey continues to inspire and benefit individuals seeking relief from their symptoms, contributing to a healthier and more hopeful future for patients and the mental health community. For more information on Dr. Duffing or to learn more about GI Psychology’s unique approach, please visit gipsychology.com.