Thriving Over Surviving: Growing a Practice without Burn Out Curt and Katie interview Megan Gunnell, LMSW, coach, and Founder and Director of Thriving Well Institute. We explore: What changes are therapists facing as they grow their practice in the telehealth age? How do therapists scale their businesses and what should they be aware of? Can a therapist and their practice thrive, or does something have to give? All of this and more in the episode. Interview with Megan Gunnell, LMSW and Founder & Director of Thriving Well Institute Megan Gunnell LMSW, is Founder and Director of Thriving Well Institute which aids therapist in building the private practices of their dreams. Megan offers a series of courses and individual coaching to aid therapists in expanding their private practices through building group therapy programs, building online courses, creating in person retreats, and even how to build a group practice. Megan teaches therapists how to build not only their practices but themselves up. Megan has been a practicing clinician for over 20 years working as an individual therapist in addition to her coaching and advisory work. Megan started her work as a music therapist, a passion which she still carries to this day.  In this podcast episode we talk about how therapists can build their practices without burning out. With the increase in telehealth therapy options, therapists are confronted with a unique problem. How does a therapist build their practice with so many therapeutic options out there, while simultaneously avoiding burn out? Curt and Katie connect with Megan Gunnell to discuss how therapists can make sure they, and their practices, thrive. “So there are some benefits now, because therapists don't have to just compete with, you know, their audience in a small zip code, they can really expand...” - Megan Gunnell How can therapists’ network as telehealth therapists? Your potential client base has now become the whole state. Focus on designing your online real estate and increase your SEO. Joining local Facebook groups of therapists can help expand your referral base. Speak to specific client issues on your website that you specialize in. Avoid template and more generalized language in websites and marketing material. Make your website unique but clear in what you work with. What is scaling and how does it avoid burn out? For many therapists, caseloads have increased dramatically over the past couple years Scaling is more about pivoting than it is creating passive income. Looking to expand your practice into a group practice can help alleviate referral loads. Some therapists can avoid burn out by diversifying their workload and reintegrating natural talents such as creativity. Getting into community, especially with other therapists, is a great way to avoid burn out. There is still a need for single-focus private practices. What can therapists do to scale their businesses? Be in tune with out motivated you are to scale your business; ask how committed am I? Consistency is key. Have a willingness to make mistakes and take risks. Don’t be afraid of failing; use moments of failure to motivate you. Be open to learning new things like tech, marketing, or automation. Be realistic of your capacity to take on learning sometimes complicated or frustrating systems that might help your business. Don’t be afraid of showing who you are as a person as you build out your practice. It can be scary to expand your practice, and many therapists want assurance, but there is no one way to expand – it’s individual to your unique practice. It can take support to expand your practice; reach out to your community for help. “There's absolutely nothing wrong with a single focus, one dimensional private practice where you're just doing one on one client work, there's nothing wrong with that, I want to normalize that, and you can make a great living, you know, and not burnout. But for me, I wanted a different rhythm of my weeks.” – Me