For those of you who have been struggling with how to get clients and market your practice in a comfortable and effective way, you may want to check out the 2009 Annual Series of Private Practice from the Inside Out.
The 2009 Annual Tele-Series begins October 21, 2009 from 10-11:30 am. The remaining eleven sessions will be held at the same time on the following Wednesdays: November 11, December 9 and 30, 2009, January 6 and 27, February 17, March 10 and 31, April 21, May 12, June 2 and June 23, 2010. You can get more details here.
The 2009 Annual (face-to-face) Series begins October 23, 2009 from 10-11:30 am. The remaining eleven sessions will be held at the same time on the following Fridays: November 13 and December 11, 2009, January 8 and 29, February 19, March 12, April 2 and 23, May 14, June 4 and 25, 2010. All sessions will be held in Park Meadows / Highlands Ranch, Colorado. You can get more details here.
Hello Tamara, I will complete my Masters in Community Counseling in May of 2010. I am very interested in improving my networking abilities. I have no experience in this. Please give me your advice, and I will begin with whatever it takes, Thanks, Brian P. Enclade
Hi, Brian! Thanks for checking in. Congrats to you for almost completing a great community counseling program at Adams State University! I am familiar with the program.
What I have found is that many counselors naturally network and don’t realize it. Think about it. If you plan to sit and speak with total strangers all day long, you have (or will soon have) the ability to draw people out of their shells and, most likely, way beyond where they thought their comfort zones would be. THAT is an amazing skill that most people don’t have but counselors do! On the other hand, I often meet therapists who meet people easily but fail to network strategically. What that ends up looking like is a hamster on his wheel . . . spinning and spinning and getting no where. And, that’s why I decided to start this blog.
Since you’re still in school and already thinking about these things, you are way ahead of most of your peers. Graduate school is the perfect time to begin your networking. Here are some of the things that you can do right now:
Carve out time in your busy schedule to work on your networking and marketing skills on a weekly or even daily basis now.
Check out my episodic series, The Therapist’s Networking Guide.
Get business cards made now and pass them out liberally.
Likewise, you want to begin collecting business cards from other mental health professionals, your peers in school, your professors, and other allied health professionals.
And, most importantly, meet other professionals and let them know what your interests are in and how you might be able to tie your interests to theirs.
Brian, I hope you’ll stay in touch and stay tuned in to Private Practice from the Inside Out! I’ll be posting more useful tips soon!
Yes, Please include me on your email list, Brian P. Enclade