5 things you must do if you are returning from a break in private practice (or you need more clients)Hello and welcome to the new series of the Business of Psychology podcast and September! The start of the academic year always feels like a new beginning in my mind; I've never gotten out of that cycle and now I've got children at school, it's just reinforcing that idea that September is a month for growth and development and change. So it's actually one of my favourite months of the year and I'm very happy to be coming back with the podcast, and with my private practice this September. 
For anyone who's new to the show, I have just come back from my third maternity leave. My youngest daughter is now nine months old and the time feels right to do a couple of things; firstly, to throw myself back into creating this podcast and the social media content that goes with that, but also to restart my clinical work. I did what most people do I think, and finished my clinical work about a month before I went off on maternity, and it now feels like the right time to step back in and start seeing some therapy clients again. 
But as many of you will know if you're experienced in private practice and you've had to take breaks in your practice, for whatever reason, it isn't as simple as just showing back up and having clients knocking your door down. I am very lucky that I do still have a few people who are waiting to have sessions with me, which is a privileged position, but things are not as busy as they could be. We moved during my break, which means that a lot of my local connections have died off and I've had to start reestablishing some new ones. Also, I have not had the time or the energy to do any marketing at all for the private practice over my maternity leave. Any energy I've had, I've used into keeping Psychology Business School and the coaching side of my work going, mainly because I just didn't have the right frame of mind to be talking about my specialism over that maternity period, and that's because my specialism is perinatal, so it felt a little bit too close to the bone and a bit too raw to be really putting myself out there and talking about that side of my business, so I haven't been. But a few years ago, having a break and coming back like this would have filled me with fear, and justifiably it would have filled me with fear because I wasn't confident that I could get that marketing machine back up and running quickly enough to make me the income that I need to make. Now, a couple of things have changed for me. Firstly, I have a lot of income coming in from Psychology Business School, my membership, my online courses, and the coaching work that I do. So actually, the clinical side of my work isn't required for my own income anymore. I do my clinical work because I love it and also because I'm generating profit to put into pro bono offers and low cost offers for people in my clinical group. So it does feel different to how it did when I returned from my maternity leave a few years ago. However, I think another big difference for me is that I know what works now. I've actually had to set up my practice in different parts of the country after a break four times now. So over the past five years, and four moves, I have learned what works in getting clients into my private practice, and I now feel pretty confident that if I do these five things that I'm going to share with you in this episode, that will bring enough clients into my practice for me to be comfortable and to give some work to my associates too.
So I thought I would share my to-do list because there's only five things on it, but they are the five most important things you need to do if either you're lacking clients in your private practice, or you're setting up again after a bit of a break. I hope that it might help people who are in a similar situation, but also it might help you to do a little bit of an audit and check that you are still...