The Business of Psychology

Consultancy and systemic change in private practice with Dr Laura BennetWelcome to the Business of Psychology podcast. Today I'm joined by Dr Laura Bennett, a clinical psychologist with over 20 years of experience supporting children, young people, and their families through some of life's most complex challenges.Since qualifying in 2009, Laura has worked across a range of NHS services, before founding Oasis Psychology in Dorset in 2022. Her practice is a really good example of a specialist service, as Laura specialises in supporting children who are in care, those who have been adopted, and families on the edge of care, focusing deeply on developmental trauma and attachment, and most importantly, supporting the system around the child.Today we are looking at Laura's work beyond the therapy room. Many psychologists and therapists worry that moving into private practice means narrowing their scope to just one-to-one clinical hours. Laura is proving the opposite. She's currently spearheading the Parenting with Trauma Project in collaboration with Dorset Action for Children and Bournemouth University. It's clear from Laura's journey that she's never really stopped at the therapy room and has been working with systems and research and data. So I know that you're going to find her story really interesting, and hopefully inspirational if you are somebody who wants to do a little bit more, or different from therapy in your work.Full show notes and a transcript of this episode are available at The Business of PsychologyLinks for Laura:LinkedIn: Dr Laura BennetOasis PsychologyLinks for Rosie:Substack: substack.com/@drrosieRosie on Instagram:@rosiegilderthorp@drrosiegilderthorpThe highlightsLaura tells us about her transition into private practice after 13 years in the NHS 01:57Laura talks about what she provides through her private practice, Oasis Psychology 5:21Laura discusses how she transitioned into a service that’s less focused on one-to-one work, and more about indirect support. 7:04I ask Laura about her work with Action for Children 21:42Laura gives us her advice for psychologists and therapists who have an idea for a different type of project, but feel a bit stuck 36:37Laura tells us the best place to connect with her 47:34Start Up Your Psychology PracticeAre you tired of just talking about starting your practice but never quite committing?If you’re ready to stop dancing with burnout and finally go 'all in', my 90-day program, 'Start Up Your Psychology Practice,' was made for you. This is a group coaching experience designed to help you ethically replace your full-time salary in part-time hours. We handle everything: from legal compliance and GDPR to attracting your first consistent stream of self-funding clients. No more piecing it together alone.And here is the best part: sign up before the end of May to get £200 off your investment. Let’s build a practice that gives you the freedom you deserve.Apply today: https://psychologybusinessschool.com/lp/start-up-private-practice-bundle/

Why every therapist needs to use social media to improve their SEOWelcome to the Business of Psychology podcast. Today I am changing my tune! I have decided to go back on some of the advice that I have given over the years about social media and the importance of it to the average private practice. I hope that this will be a really helpful episode for you if you are somebody who is feeling the social media fatigue, doesn't feel naturally like it's a good home for you, and it doesn't form a cornerstone of your marketing strategy, and you've listened to my previous podcast episode and come to the conclusion that this is not the way that you need to be winning clients. I hope this will be a useful episode for you because it still isn't, it still doesn't need to be something that takes up a lot of time in your week, and it shouldn't do if your ideal client personas are not people who are going to search for a therapist on social media, and therapy is the main thing that you are selling in your practice. If that’s the case, then I absolutely stand by my previous advice that social media is not something that should take up lots of your time, week in and week out. But I am going to caveat it slightly, and that's because I have been on some training recently about how social media is an important part of optimizing our websites and our digital presence so that we will continue to be found by people on search engines and through AI recommendations. These things are becoming really important, and it just wouldn't be right of me to not bring this to your attention if it's not something that you've been thinking about yet.Full show notes for this episode are available at The Business of PsychologyLinks:The Directory Profile TemplateBusiness of Psychology Episode 111: How to create a great directory site profileSummer School Lesson 5: Directory sitesLinks for Rosie:Substack: substack.com/@drrosieRosie on Instagram:@rosiegilderthorp@drrosiegilderthorpStart Up Your Psychology PracticeAre you tired of just talking about starting your practice but never quite committing?If you’re ready to stop dancing with burnout and finally go 'all in', my 90-day program, 'Start Up Your Psychology Practice,' was made for you. This is a group coaching experience designed to help you ethically replace your full-time salary in part-time hours. We handle everything: from legal compliance and GDPR to attracting your first consistent stream of self-funding clients. No more piecing it together alone.And here is the best part: sign up before the end of May to get £200 off your investment. Let’s build a practice that gives you the freedom you deserve.Apply today: Start Up Your Psychology Practice Why every therapist needs to use social media to improve their SEOThere have been big changes already, and there are more coming, to the way that search engines like Google and Yahoo and all of them really, recommend websites to people searching. They are now using AI in the way that they search our websites to try and work out who we are and to generate AI advice for people who type in questions to their search bars. You'll have seen this if you are using your smartphone to look for help. You will get a load of normal looking search results, but you'll also get an AI generated answer to your question at the top, which will cite various expert sources to give you an answer to your question. I'm sure you'll have noticed like I have, that most people are not going beyond that AI answer because it is generally quite helpful and now, certainly on mine through Google, it's telling me where it's getting its advice from, and I find it much easier to trust than I used to. I think that's the direction of travel and eventually I think we're going to end up in a world where people just ask a question verbally to their AI, whether it’s Gemini, Chat GPT, Claude, whatever they're using, and they'll just take the answer that it gives rather than bothering to look through a page of search results. So we really need to understand how we make sure that we are the expert source that these AI models are using, because if we're not, then we're going to find that traffic to our websites from search starts to decline, if it hasn't already.The good news, because I know that probably sounds a bit scary, is I actually think it's a good thing for us because now AI is so much cleverer than the previous technology that the search engines were using, it's able to piece together our digital presence from wherever we are to understand who we are and the services we offer in a much deeper and better way. We just need to do a few things to make that really easy for the AI to do, and social media is an important piece of that puzzle, because social media can give you a digital footprint which gives AI a really clear indication of who you are, who you help, and what you stand for, so that it understands better, in combination with your website, who to recommend you to when they're searching for help. So I'll talk you through a little bit about how that works and a few really simple things you can do to start helping the AI bots to understand who you are a little bit better so that you're future proofing your search engine optimization.EEAT: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and TrustworthinessThe first thing we need to understand is that search engines already look for EEAT when they're deciding who to serve up as a recommendation to somebody who's searching. That acronym stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. These are the four things that an AI is assessing on your digital footprint before it decides whether to serve you up or to serve someone else up as an answer to a question that somebody's asking. AI search tools like Perplexity, Chat GPT, Gemini, Claude, are crawling the web to find answers to questions. And if your social media or your website has a clear niche specific keyword like 'birth trauma psychologist in Plymouth', and you've got high levels of experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness, then the AI is more likely to recommend you than somebody generic when a user asks for a therapist for birth trauma in Plymouth, for example.The five things we can do to improve our digital discoverability to AI and demonstrate that we have the EEAT it's looking for:The first thing is to have one bio that you use everywhere that contains a primary keyword that you want to be discoverable for. If you think of your bio as a bit like a sticky label that you might put on the front of an old fashioned filing cabinet; it needs to really clearly tell AI what it is that you have inside your cabinet, and it's really important to get that key word right. That key word might be 'birth trauma psychologist in Plymouth' (it doesn't need to be a single word, it can be a phrase), it could be 'neurodiversity specialist', it could be 'CBT therapist specialising in OCD', but it just needs to be really clear and contain the key words that you would like people searching for to get your name associated with.The second thing you need to do is make sure that the bio you've created is everywhere that you are mentioned. You'll have to create a few versions of it, but they should be as similar to each other as possible. You can have a long version of it for the about page on your website - use that same copy exactly for LinkedIn and Psychology Today. Then you'll need to create a much shorter version of it for social media, but it should have the same keywords in it and be as similar as humanly possible, so that bio that follows you around gives you a really clear digital footprint that the AI can understand. Within that bio you want to show off your experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. And if you are following my framework for crafting a good Psychology Today profile (I'll link to the freebie that I have that's going to support you to do that in the show notes of this episode, as well as the podcast episode on the Business of Psychology) you will be demonstrating the experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness that AI is looking for. So make sure that your bio covers those areas and use my framework, because I think that will help you to do that.The next thing that you need to make sure that you're discoverable in this new world is captions that are easy to understand on your social media posts for those bots that are...

How to be a psychologist in the media (amongst other things) with Dr Carolyne KeenanWelcome to the Business of Psychology podcast. I'm really pleased to be bringing you an interview with Dr Carolyne Keenan. You might have heard Carolyne's name if you listen to BBC Radio 1. She makes a big impact with her media work. But the reason I'm really interested to talk to Carolyne is that she shows how it's possible to build a portfolio of different activities, all of which use your skills in different and exciting ways, and to find professional fulfillment through that autonomy that we can have in independent practice. I know how many psychologists and therapists tell me that they feel a bit stuck. Like they're stuck in the therapy room and they don't know how, in their independent work, to step outside of that. I think Carolyne and her journey in independent practice is a really great example of how when we have the courage to step outside, we can make a really big impact.Full show notes and a transcript of this episode are available at The Business of PsychologyLinks for Carolyne:Instagram: @drcarolynekeenanLinkedIn: @drcarolynekeenanLinks for Rosie:Substack: substack.com/@drrosieRosie on Instagram:@rosiegilderthorp@drrosiegilderthorpThe highlightsCarolyne tells us about how her career in psychology began 01:30I ask Carolyne how she went from a quite unpleasant experience to finding a passion that let her do a doctorate 10:55Carolyne talks about how she started stepping out into private psychology 13:14We discuss the difference of opinions around charging for services and cancellation policies 16:14Carolyne talk to us about what her private practice looks like today 26:06We look at the pros and cons of media work 29:15I ask Carolyne about how she plans her social media content 36:34Carolyne tells us where to find her online 42:55Set Up Your Practice For SuccessYou have incredible clinical expertise, but is the 'shame' of the business side holding you back? Staying stuck in a role that’s edging you toward burnout or running a side-hustle that eats your weekends isn't the only way.I’m hosting a free masterclass on Wednesday, 22nd April called 'Set Up Your Practice For Success.'I’ll be sharing my proven 3-part framework: Values, Voice, and Impact. You’ll learn how to design a practice aligned with your life, create systems for an exceptional client experience, and implement a marketing strategy that doesn’t feel 'sleazy.'Join me live for a chance to win a 1:1 strategy session!Register for free at the link below - and yes, there’s a replay for all registrants.Set Up Your Practice For Success Masterclass - Wednesday 22nd April - Book your place here.

What happened when I stopped seeing clients for therapy? How to evolve a business in adversity Welcome to the Business of Psychology podcast. Today is a bit of a different episode for me because I wanted to be honest with you about some decisions that I've made recently that are really personal, but that resonate a lot with decisions that I help some of my coaching clients to make, because it's rare that we go into private practice without some complicating factors happening in our lives.Full show notes for this episode are available at The Business of PsychologyEpisode Links:Episode 19: How psychologists and therapists can use an ideal client avatar to co create and market their servicesEpisode 103: Why you should specialise – old gold that is still importantEpisode 128: Who are you helping? Three ways to specialise your psychology or therapy practiceEpisode 152: Thinking differently about your practice: A tool to put the client firstLinks for Rosie:Substack: substack.com/@drrosieRosie on Instagram:@rosiegilderthorp@thepregnancypsychologistEvolve and Thrive Mastermind Have you been listening to this and feeling like the time has come for you to make a change in your practice? Maybe you are ready to grow with passive or semi passive income. Maybe you are ready to gain more time freedom, have that flexibility you always dreamed of, or expand your impact. If any of that sounds like you, you might be a really good fit for my Evolve and Thrive Mastermind.Our next cohort is starting in January 2026, and it's a small group, six-month coaching experience. The early bird rate finishes mid-December, so if any of that sounds good to you, make sure you check out the details over at psychologybusinessschool.com and book your free call with me now to secure the best price.ShownotesWhat happened when I stopped seeing clients for therapy? How to evolve a business in adversityI've spoken a bit here, and a lot more on my substack, about how I originally went into independent practice really because my children have additional needs. I wasn't aware of that at the time; all I knew was that nursery didn't work and that we didn't have other childcare options available to us. But looking back, nursery didn't work for the same reasons that school is very challenging now. And that was the beginning of me having to learn to evolve and adapt and be a clinical psychologist in a different way, and that's been very much the purpose of my business and what I love to help other people do too. So it felt only right that I should share with you about some of the recent evolutions that have had to be made in my business, my thinking behind it and the kind of strategy that I use every time I have to make a big change in my business. Because it has happened so often that I have developed a bit of a framework for thinking about it and helping my clients through it when it happens to them too. So, I thought it might be useful to share what's happened, but also my framework for thinking through and strategizing my way through those difficult moments that often lead to a change or an evolution in the business. Firstly, I want to acknowledge that there's a lot that I love about independent practice, and I am so grateful that I have this profession that enabled me to set up independently when the NHS wasn't going to work anymore. But it's a paradox because I also felt extremely sad about leaving the NHS. It was 2018, I was very young, I didn't feel anywhere near experienced enough to go into independent practice at that time. So, to an extent, my first journey into independent practice involved a big evolution of identity in and of itself, and I guess that's a context for many of us. Many of us feel a big wrench when we leave the NHS or when we even start to think about potentially leaving our public sector roles. So, I guess independent practice starts from that place for me, and for me it's always held this kind of paradox of opportunity and excitement alongside sadness and loss. I know that that's the case for very many of us in independent practice, and I suppose what I hope is that what I'm going to share today helps me and you, if you find yourself in this kind of situation, to use an actionable framework to find the opportunities and the excitement, even when maybe you wouldn't have chosen the situation that you find yourself in.What's been going on in my businessI'll let you behind the curtain a little bit in what's been going on over the past few years in my business, the harder bits perhaps. As I mentioned, I have children with additional needs and sometimes it's difficult to get those needs met by anybody other than me. I think if you've navigated the SEND system in the UK, then you'll know exactly what I mean by that. A few years ago, my children really couldn't cope with school, so suddenly I found myself needing to go back into the role of being the primary carer all of the time, and there was no space for my independent practice. It was very sudden, I hadn't anticipated that my children would struggle to that extent, that they couldn't be in the school environment. I'd never in my life met anybody that had a child that didn't go to school. I knew it happened for teenagers, I did not know that it could happen for five- and six-year-olds, but it really did. And in fact, it was a problem that lasted for more than a year as we tried to find flexibility and find ways of making school accessible and suitable for them. I should say that compared to a lot of families, we were very lucky. We’re in a lovely school with an amazing SENCO and a really compassionate and strong head teacher who have been flexible in ways that I do not think are normal in mainstream primary schools. They've bent over backwards to support us and that is not the story that I hear from a great many families that I work with. So, just to check my privilege on that one, I know how lucky we've been. But it still took a really long time to help the children recover and to find the adaptations that we could make to make some sort of school more accessible to them. We did get there, but it took all of me to do it. And so in a real hurry, and I'm not proud of how I handled it, because I don't think that I handled it in an optimal way whatsoever, I had to close down my clinical practice. It wasn't the first time it had happened, it happened to many of us in COVID as well, but it felt much more rushed, much more traumatic than that, because I went from expecting that I would be seeing my clients for years to come. I was really excited about the premises that I had, really excited about establishing a service in my local area, and all of that just ended really abruptly when I had this realisation that I'd had to cancel more clients than I'd seen in a week. And I can't overstate how painful it is to know that you're not being the psychologist or therapist that your clients need. As soon as I had that realisation, I knew the only ethical thing to do was complete closure and to hand people over in the best way that I could to other professionals in the area. But it was brutally painful and I still feel waves of trauma thinking about it and talking about it, so that's all I'm going to say about that. It was forced, it was hurried, it was crisis driven, it was not what anyone would hope for. So the practice stayed closed for probably at least 18 months, if not two years, while I just focused on recovering my children. I kept Psychology Business School going, because although there were parts of me that thought let's just retreat from professional life entirely, financially I didn't really have that option, or it would've been extremely difficult for us if I had chosen to do that. But I think more for me, I needed to feel that connection to my profession and to my colleagues and hopefully as anyone who's done coaching with me will know, I really enjoy immersing myself in somebody else's practice and somebody else's struggles, and solving the problems that come up in other people's businesses was the kind of relief from the rest of my life that I needed, and it also meant that I didn't lose contact with the mission that we have as mental health professionals and my professional values. So it was important for me to keep that going during that really difficult period, even though it was also extremely difficult, and I would find myself snatching hours of work at...

Is it time for you to evolve and thrive?Welcome to the Business of Psychology podcast. This episode is all about that stuck on the fence feeling that I think is so familiar to so many of us. That feeling when you know that something needs to change, but you are not sure whether now is the right time to make that change.Full show notes for this episode are available at The Business of PsychologyLinks for Rosie:Substack: substack.com/@drrosieRosie on Instagram:@rosiegilderthorp@thepregnancypsychologistEvolve and Thrive Mastermind Have you been listening to this and feeling like the time has come for you to make a change in your practice? Maybe you are ready to grow with passive or semi passive income. Maybe you are ready to gain more time freedom, have that flexibility you always dreamed of, or expand your impact. If any of that sounds like you, you might be a really good fit for my Evolve and Thrive Mastermind.Our next cohort is starting in January 2026, and it's a small group, six-month coaching experience. The early bird rate finishes mid-December, so if any of that sounds good to you, make sure you check out the details over at psychologybusinessschool.com and book your free call with me now to secure the best price.ShownotesIs it time for you to evolve and thrive?Hello and welcome to the Business of Psychology podcast. This episode is all about that stuck on the fence feeling that I think is so familiar to so many of us. That feeling when you know that something needs to change, but you are not sure whether now is the right time to make that change.I just want to acknowledge that often this happens when my clients are really successful; when they've built exactly what they set out to build, but now something about it just isn't feeling fulfilling or they're struggling with the day-to-day running of their practice, feeling burned out, maybe feeling like they're doing fine, but sort of spinning their wheels in time, and that's how it was for me. On the surface, I had built a really successful private practice. From the outside looking in, people would've seen fully booked, always busy attracting people to my specialism, tick, tick, tick, it all looks great. But in reality, I was really struggling to keep going with that pace of clients because it wasn't giving me the flexibility that I needed in my life, but also it wasn't really allowing me to use my skills as a psychologist in the diverse and interesting ways that I had been able to in my public sector roles. So for a number of reasons, I arrived at this point of feeling like I needed to make a change, but I sat on that fence for quite a while, and it can be quite an uncomfortable place. I've noticed that as I've been doing the calls for our next Evolve and Thrive cohort, which is really exciting, that a lot of people are sitting on that fence. And because the economy is in a challenging place, and I don't think that we're in a really optimistic frame of mind as a generation at the moment, often we might be sitting in that place for a bit longer, really agonising over when's the right time to jump off and do something a bit differently. So I wanted to record an episode to help you think that through. And it's not going to be, “you should always go for it, now is definitely the right time to make a change in your practice”, because actually one of the things that's really important to me as a business coach is that you are respectful of the season of life that you are in, and that you make decisions based on wherever possible, data, good information about the return on the investment that you're going to get. And I don't just mean investment in terms of money, I mean investment in terms of time, your creativity and your emotional wellbeing as well. So, I hope this episode is going to help you. If you are thinking that now might be a good time for you to step into something new, maybe create a new project, something outside the therapy room, or maybe expand and bring on associates, my aim with this episode is to help you think through whether now is the right moment to jump in with both feet and really go for it, or if actually you might be in a season that means that those things are all here for you, they're all going to happen, but they need to happen a little bit later. So I hope you're going to find this useful.I also hope that this episode will demonstrate to you that that evolution is possible, even if it's not the thing for you right now, I think there's a bit of pessimism out there sometimes that maybe we will miss the boat, that they are one to many offers, online courses, that kind of thing are only really available to people that built their audiences back when it was easier, like in 2016 for example, but actually that's not true. I am supporting day in, day out, I'm supporting psychologists and therapists who are doing it right now in this tricky climate and making it work. So I also hope that this episode is going to give you a little bit of that hopeful optimism that I have the privilege of sitting alongside in my coaching practice regularly.Signs that you might be ready to evolve your practiceThere are some signs that you might be ready to evolve your practice that are worth paying attention to. I got these from my existing participants in Evolve and Thrive. The first sign is that you start craving one to many. You start craving more scale and more variety in your work. Maybe you are fully booked or well established, but you really miss using the other parts of your brain that one-to-one therapy doesn't always utilise. And this is how Dr Grace Lee-Brindle, who is currently in Evolve and Thrive described it to me. She noted that after leaving the NHS, she missed other parts of her work. She was well established with one-to-one clients, she's got a brilliant specialism, but she felt like she was ready to branch out and use other skills. So I think that's really important. Dr Kelly Young also shared something on this theme. She said that she wanted to move from a one-to-one, to a one-to-many model to increase the revenue in her practice, but also to make more impact for more people while working fewer hours. So, I guess the takeaway from that is if you resonate with those things, if you feel itchy to use your skills in a different way and you're wanting to make more impact with more people, then that could be a sign that you are ready for that recurring income strategy, and to develop a business model that takes you outside the therapy room.Another theme that came up as a sign that you might be ready to make that change in your practice was a feeling that Dr Melita Ash, another one of our evolve and thrivers, put really well, I thought it was a really nice analogy. She said she felt like she was running fast, but standing still. I guess this is about the issue of sustainability, it's that feeling like I have, that you are working incredibly hard, but the business isn't really growing in a way that gives you any more time, flexibility or financial security. So it can feel a bit like you are running on a treadmill. Melita described it as like running fast, not getting anywhere, constantly working hard and feeling really stuck. And she felt like she needed to come on a program that would give her a structure towards getting unstuck because it can be such a difficult place to be when you are running that fast, that you're exhausted and sometimes unable to think outside of that fast pace of work that you're doing every day. That's something that Dr Victoria Wallace talked about too. She really prioritised sustainability and looking to avoid those boom and bust cycles we can often get into when we are relying on just one-to-one therapy and that referral rollercoaster in private practice.I guess what this tells us is that if taking regular time off or flexibility for family is really important to you, and the business model you have at the moment isn't delivering that, then you really need a plan. Putting more effort into the model you already have is not going to take you somewhere different or more sustainable than where you are right now. So if where you are right now doesn't feel sustainable, if you feel like you're heading for burnout, you have to make a change. Sometimes what I hear from people is that they're sort of waiting to feel better before they make a change. But actually, if we formulate for ourselves in the exact same way that we would for a client, that's like waiting to stop feeling depressed before you go out for a walk. Sometimes we have to put the cart before the horse and get out, make the change that's going to allow us to feel better. So I think that's a really important point. If you're already on the road to burnout, hop off now. Do something different now before you get fully in the pit of it.So sign number three that the current Evolve and Thrivers talked about was feeling like you kind of get stuck in contemplation mode. So maybe you have ideas, but procrastination, peer fear, or imposter syndrome stop you actually executing them. A lot of people talk about this as like shiny object syndrome, like the magpies or butterflies flitting from one

The most critical feedback from our retreat and what we've learned about running events with Dr Claire PlumblyWelcome to the Business of Psychology podcast. I'm really pleased to be here today with friend of the podcast, Dr Claire Plumley. Claire's been on the podcast a few times now, sometimes talking about her experience of working in burnout and writing an amazing book about it. Sometimes we've been talking about the cool and exciting stuff that Claire does in her practice, like EMDR intensives and working with people online. But today we are getting together to talk about our joint venture, a retreat that we ran for the first time last year and we're running again in 2026, because so many of you tell me that you've got a real craving for in-person connection. Getting people together in a room feels like something amazing that we can do to enhance wellbeing, but in-person events feel really different, especially when we've been working predominantly in the online space since 2020. Claire and I thought it might be helpful for us to let you in behind the scenes of what it was like running a retreat and the learnings that we've taken from a super successful one last year, and how are we going to make this year even better based on those.Full show notes and a transcript of this episode are available at The Business of PsychologyLinks:2026 Psychologists Business RetreatGet in touch here.Links for Claire:LinkedIn: Dr Claire PlumblyFacebook: @drclaireplumblyInstagram: @drclaireplumblyTikTok: @drclaireplumblyWebsite: www.plum-psychology.comLinks for Rosie:Substack: substack.com/@drrosieRosie on Instagram:@rosiegilderthorp@thepregnancypsychologistThe highlightsWe talk about our reasons for wanting to run a retreat 01:26We discuss the different skills we brought together, and liaising with the right venue 06:56We look at how we got the right mix of people 13:08We discuss costing an event 16:35We talk about marketing something with this much logistical planning 19:55We look at what will be different for 2026 25:22Claire gives her advice to anyone thinking about planning their own event 35:10I tell you how to find out about the 2026 retreat 37:11Evolve and Thrive Mastermind Have you been listening to this and feeling like the time has come for you to make a change in your practice? Maybe you are ready to grow with passive or semi passive income. Maybe you are ready to gain more time freedom, have that flexibility you always dreamed of, or expand your impact. If any of that sounds like you, you might be a really good fit for my Evolve and Thrive Mastermind.Our next cohort is starting in January 2026, and it's a small group, six-month coaching experience. The early bird rate finishes mid-December, so if any of that sounds good to you, make sure you check out the details over at psychologybusinessschool.com and book your free call with me now to secure the best price.

The most valuable lesson from Evolve and Thrive: The real reason psychologists and therapists burnout and procrastinateHello and welcome to another episode of The Business of Psychology podcast. Today you've just got me, it's a solo show and it's going to be a short and sweet one. Full show notes for this episode are available at The Business of PsychologyLinks for Rosie:Substack: substack.com/@drrosieRosie on Instagram:@rosiegilderthorp@thepregnancypsychologistEvolve Your Practice: The map to more income, impact and flexibilityAre you craving more flexibility in your practice? Maybe you've built something amazing and you're proud of your business, but it's also bringing you to the brink of burnout. Maybe you want to use your skills differently and create recurring revenue outside the therapy room. Whether your priority is financial stability or flexibility, or both, adding recurring revenue streams into your business is essential.If you want time, freedom, more income, and to make a bigger impact for your client group, join me for a free masterclass on Monday, the 17th of November at 11:00 AM and I'll show you how I use my values, voice and impact framework to create income, impact, and flexibility in my own business, and for the hundreds of psychologists and therapists I've supported over the last five years.I'd love to see you there. You can sign up here: https://psychologybusinessschool.mykajabi.com/offers/fnr6d7si/checkout ShownotesThe most valuable lesson from Evolve and Thrive: The real reason psychologists and therapists burnout and procrastinateI wanted to talk about something which has been really troubling me for the past few months, maybe even longer. It's the most valuable lesson that I've learned from my group coaching program, Evolve and Thrive, which is a coaching program designed for people ready to take the next step in their practice. Maybe they've already built something successful and they're ready to move beyond the therapy room or start bringing in different income sources. These are all people that I respect hugely. There is not a single person in Evolve and Thrive that I'm not slightly intimidated by because of their amazing careers and the expertise that they're bringing for their clients. But there has been something really striking that is holding most of the people in Evolve and Thrive back, and what we've spent most of our time on together as a group. I wanted to bring it into the light because I've noticed that almost everybody thinks that they're alone with this, and if you're struggling, you are absolutely not alone with this.I want to start by saying that all the knowledge that we need to be successful in business is already out there. This was not the case when I started this podcast back in 2020, but it very much is the case now. You've got AI at your fingertips to search the web for you. You've got YouTube, podcasts, good old-fashioned books, any question you have, you can find the answer to all of them. And psychologists and therapists are always intelligent people who can find the things that they need if they're looking for them. Despite this, I keep hearing the same things over and over again, the things which are getting people stuck are burnout and a tendency to overwork even when they can feel that that burnout is close, and paralysis or procrastination, often both. I've been coaching other mental health professionals for over five years now, and I've realised that although it kicks in at different moments, for different people, there are two things that hold people back in growing their practices, there are two things that lead to that procrastination pattern and that continuous dance on the edge of burnout, and neither of those is being bad at tech.Sometimes it's that their bodies and minds have acclimatised to a punishing and relentless workload, so a more relaxed working week, the thing they often tell me that they want more than anything, actually it doesn't feel safe, so they avoid it by breaking boundaries, saying yes when they know it should be a no, or never making the time to think about changing their practice.Or maybe they've absorbed stories and identities that they'd have to give up if they created a more comfortable working life for themselves. That ‘suffering public servant’ narrative, the ‘selfless helping professional’, even the ‘on the brink of burnout professional’, they're all identities that we worked hard to wear and giving them up can feel like a rejection of the more positive aspects of those identities. You know, I remember thinking to myself, if I'm not burning out in the NHS, maybe I don't get to feel like the selfless helping professional anymore. Maybe that makes me a selfish helping professional and that doesn't feel comfortable and it's something I wrestled with a lot and continue to; you know, this is not something that you work through once and get to the other side of, and for many of us, that leads to paralysis that looks a lot like procrastination. Because you're torn in two different directions, so staying uncomfortably on the fence instead is safer than pulling yourself apart. For others, it leads to undercharging and often that very real financial fear. When you are riding that rollercoaster of never quite feeling secure financially in your practice, maybe on a good month, it's great, but then the next month is a bit slower and suddenly you are panicking again. That fear then leads to the breaking boundaries, saying yes to everything, ironically, avoiding and never looking at the numbers in the business, or you know, never allowing yourself the luxury of looking for new ways of doing things, or reviewing your financial plan. And so instead, you're maintaining this constant state of near burnout, which is kind of what you got used to. There are other stories too that stop people from building the lives that they want to live. Things like, ‘I'm too old’, or ‘I'm not the kind of person who…’, ‘I'm not confident enough’, ‘I'm not good enough with tech’, ‘I hate marketing’. All of these stories just shut down the things that we think are possible for ourselves. And what I love about coaching is that once these patterns and stories are brought to light, my clients are all really well equipped to tackle them and to support each other as they move through the discomfort of making those changes. It is such a pleasure to work with psychologists and therapists because as a group, we are just as susceptible as anyone else to blind spots and avoidance, but it is absolutely awesome to get to work with people who already have amazing skills and full up toolkits to make that change once they've recognised it and decided to make it.Something I have noticed though, which again is maybe a bit unique to mental health professionals, is that the stories that stick with us, the trickiest ones to move past, are the ones that we've absorbed from our professional culture. The ones that lead to that dreaded peer fear that comes up in at least 80% of my coaching conversations. What are other people, other professionals, usually going to think if we try something new? Am I going to be labelled as money grabbing or a sellout? And the fact is, I can't reassure people that they're never going to face judgment from other psychologists and therapists. Instead, we have to get into our compassionate selves and think about what that judgment and our reaction to it does and does not mean. Together we think about whether the feelings we have about it might be useful because sometimes they are, they can encourage us to seek peer debate over some ethical concerns we have. And you know, I think that peer debate is the only way to resolve ethical concerns when we're working at the frontier and we're trying out new things where there's not an obvious precedent for us to follow. But we also think about what that judgment is most likely to mean in the context it was given. And often when we do that, we recognise that there are many factors well outside of our new product or our new service, or even ourselves, that might have led somebody to make those judgemental comments that they've made. It's so much easier to accept and move through the anxiety that inevitably comes up around judgment from our peers when we can look at it in its full context and think about its true meaning.I hope that gives you some food for thought. If you feel like it's time to make a change in your business, but something keeps holding you back, maybe you've been blaming yourself for continuously burning out, or maybe you've had advice before and are beating yourself up all the time because you haven't felt able to take it. Maybe you've called yourself names like procrastinator, or got frustrated over your paralysis. I just want you to know that it's not unusual, it's not about your knowledge, it's not about your skills, it's not about who you are as a person. It's that you are working through something that is really difficult and that many of us have to work through, over and over and over again, and it's part of the vulnerability of being in business and you deserve support with...

Evolve and Thrive: Starting before you're ready - the Supervisor Platform with Natalie StottWelcome to the Business of Psychology podcast. Today I'm joined by clinical psychologist in independent practice, and founder of a fancy new supervision platform, Dr Natalie Stott. I'm really excited to have her here today because we’re going to talk about the journey of putting something innovative out there into the world, especially something that is designed to support independent practitioners. I think this is really important because it's very often a mindset issue that stops people from getting started with something innovative, and I know Natalie is really well placed to talk to us about those mindset issues that crop up and how we can plow through them.Full show notes and a transcript of this episode are available at The Business of PsychologyLinks for Natalie:Supervisor Platform: supervisorplatform.comLinkedIn: Dr Natalie StottMastering Therapy Podcast: masteringtherapy.comWebsite: www.drnataliestott.comLinks for Rosie:Substack: substack.com/@drrosieRosie on Instagram:@rosiegilderthorp@thepregnancypsychologistThe highlightsNatalie tells us about herself and her practice 01:02I ask Natalie about the problem she saw that needed fixing, that let to creating Supervisor Platform 02:42We discuss the importance of supervision and community 06:33Natalie talks about the difficulties with advertising your services as a supervisor when you are in independent practice 11:36We discuss the importance of visibility and personal branding 20:08Natalie talks about how she pushed through the discomfort of being visible 29:25Natalie highlights the power of feedback 35:40Natalie tells us how to get in touch with her 39:17Evolve Your Practice: The map to more income, impact and flexibilityAre you craving more flexibility in your practice? Maybe you've built something amazing and you're proud of your business, but it's also bringing you to the brink of burnout. Maybe you want to use your skills differently and create recurring revenue outside the therapy room. Whether your priority is financial stability or flexibility, or both, adding recurring revenue streams into your business is essential.If you want time, freedom, more income, and to make a bigger impact for your client group, join me for a free masterclass on Monday, the 17th of November at 11:00 AM and I'll show you how I use my values, voice and impact framework to create income, impact, and flexibility in my own business, and for the hundreds of psychologists and therapists I've supported over the last five years.I'd love to see you there. You can sign up here: https://psychologybusinessschool.mykajabi.com/offers/fnr6d7si/checkout

Set Up For Success 6: The bad news that broke my practice“I’ve got some bad news…”Every military spouse knows that at a certain time of year your partner returning from work and uttering this phrase can only mean one thing… You’ve been posted to hell.This time I was at the end of 38 weeks of solo parenting a toddler through a rough pregnancy thanks to a “surprise” deployment and had just been told we were moving 300 miles “as soon as” I gave birth. I don’t think I took it well.In that moment, the fledgling practice I had built was surely about to crumble around my ears and my children would surely grow up miserable 300 miles away from everyone who cared about them.My despair only got deeper. When my boy was orn he became ill and teh time which would have been spent packing was spent in hospital, watching his tiny body fight. Thankfully, he recovered, the move happened, and, after a few very hard months, it turned out I was wrong. Plymouth turned out to be one of my favourite cities, the children found people to love them locally (I mean, they were adorable) and my business flourished as I embraced technology and threw myself into the local business scene. I learned SO much about how to make a business work because of that “adversity” that subsequent moves felt more exciting than threatening.  Now I use that knowledge to help others create practices that bring them the income, stability and fulfilment they need without the added drama of military life! I've now set up my practice in 4 different locations so, if you are setting up for the first time or perhaps hoping to jump “all in” to your practice, I wanted to share with you the 7 things I’ve learned that I think might help.Relationships are everything, and business and professional networking are essential (listen to this podcast episode: How to network as a mental health professional) A specialism creates resilience, fulfilment and marketing super-power (listen to this podcast episode: Why you should specialise - old gold that is still important).Your fees need to sustain your business for the long term (listen to this podcast episode: How to set your fees in your psychology private practice with “pricing queen” Sally Farrant)Invest in the things your clients will value the most (EMDR training is a definite yes from me) SEO is worth spending time and money on (listen to this podcast episode: How to find your ideal clients in 2025: SEO for psychologists and therapists with Chris Morin)Business is a skill you need to keep learning (don’t be hard on yourself, just get the coach or take the course) Co-create with your clients; they know what they want and value (listen to this podcast episode: Thinking differently about your practice: A tool to put the client first)This is a short one from me today but I hope you will find what you need in the links above if you are facing down the overwhelm at setting or scaling up your independent work. I also hope I will get to see you face to face (online) at the masterclass I am running. Details below!Ready to turn your private practice dream into a reality?Join my free masterclass, "Set Up Your Practice for Success”," on September 8th. I'll share my 3-part framework to help you create a practice that is professionally fulfilling and financially secure, giving you the flexibility you crave without the burnout.https://psychologybusinessschool.mykajabi.com/offers/avzEAAiw/checkoutLinks for Rosie:Substack: substack.com/@drrosieRosie on Instagram:@rosiegilderthorp@thepregnancypsychologist

Set Up For Success 4: Beyond the Scroll: How to Get Your First Private Practice Clients (Without Endless Social Media)If you’ve been spending any time in the online business world, you've probably been bombarded with ads telling you to master Instagram, run Google ads, or become a TikTok sensation. And while those can be part of a strategy, I'm here to tell you something that might surprise you: for therapists, often the most effective marketing isn't what's being shouted about by the noisy online gurus. If you were looking for a therapist, where would you start? Scrolling through Instagram? Probably not. Most of us would start by asking the people we trust: friends, family, and other professionals. This is where the magic of "relationship marketing" comes in. The best time investment you can make in the early days of your practice is to become "top of mind" for the people your ideal clients are most likely to ask for recommendations. This is simple, ethical, and completely aligned with your skills as a psychologist – it's about building genuine relationships! But networking feels gross!Networking feels icky, right? I was totally icked by myself at the end of my first ever networking event. I was heavily pregnant in a room full of suits and had struggled to stutter out a version of my name through the blur of sweat, nerves and heartburn. It felt totally wrong, what was the point of a clinical psychologist talking to two close to retirement managers from a printing company about perinatal mental health?No one in that room needed ME so after my horrendous introduction, I gave up. I focused on the sparkling water and listening to the local small business gossip. The event was a write-off but I might as well hear some interesting stories. And interesting stories there were! Employees were “taking the piss” left right and centre it seemed, some of them not coming in for weeks on end, supposedly many of them signed off with “stress.”Because I’d done such a terrible job of introducing myself no one expected me to contribute so I didn’t really, I just asked questions. I don’t even remember what I said or asked about. I certainly didn’t come away thinking I’d been insightful or helpful, just a bit nosey perhaps!So imagine my surprise when at the end one of the printers came up to me and offered a heartfelt thank you. He explained he’d never considered what “stress” really meant before and that he now understood his own (and I hope his employees!) reactions better. Well I never? It turns out that not everyone knows everything we know! Psychologists and therapists can offer immense value to the community when we offer our expertise, even informally. Plus when you show (rather than tell) someone what you are like as a therapist, they tend to refer to you. I even got a client off the back of that event. Building networks is miles more powerful than social media because:It's a two-way conversation, you will learn from the conversations you haveIt opens you up to collaborations with other professionals or small businesses (and we are definitely stronger together)You become the person that is recommended by a friend or trusted professionalThe principles that make it work1. Local Business Networking: Your Community ConnectionNetworking can be gross if it is done the wrong way but it can also benefit everyone in the room. Local business networking events are full of people who might know your ideal clients. Go with a specific list of professionals or businesses you think would be useful to your ideal client group (e.g., nutritionists, personal trainers, midwives, physios, yoga teachers if you work in perinatal). Your goal? Find out enough about their business to decide if you would refer to them. If you approach it with an intention to give referrals, you'll very often find they want to refer to you too! If an event isn't attracting the right people, don't keep going back out of obligation. Find a different one next month. Your time is precious! 2. Join Local Mental Health Professional Groups: Collaborate, Don't CompeteI’m a firm believer that there's no such thing as "competition" in our field. Sadly, there are more than enough people who need our services. Building a network of other local psychologists and therapists is invaluable. These are the people you can refer to if you're over-capacity or a client needs a different specialism. They can also become a peer supervision group, offering advice and support when you face tricky situations. You can even extend each other's knowledge. It's about raising each other up in pursuit of our shared vision of better mental health. 3. Link Up with Other Health Professionals: Broaden Your ReachThink beyond mental health. Who else might encounter your ideal client? Private GPs, specialists, even school nurses. You can find these people via Google or at networking events. Getting their attention can be tough because they're busy. Think about what you can offer them. Could you put together a short, 20-minute talk on a mental health topic relevant to their patients that they might not know much about? For example, I did this with a talk on the mental health impact of severe pregnancy sickness. This demonstrates your expertise and gives them something valuable, making them more likely to remember and refer to you. My Top Tips for Building Your Network:Be Reciprocal: Always approach networking with the mindset of giving first. If you want referrals, be ready to offer them.Your two-liner: Write and learn a simple, two-line summary of who you are and who you help. You can add to this if you are looking for something specific too. For example, I might say “I’m Dr Rosie Gilderthorp a Clinical Psychologist offering therapy for mums struggling with their mental health in pregnancy. I’d love some help with SEO if anyone has a good contact.” Preparation is Key: What do you want to get out of the event? Are you looking for a new service provider for your business (e.g., a photographer, an SEO specialist)? People are inherently reciprocal. If you work with someone in the group, they and others are more likely to refer to you. Listen and Help Others: This is where you truly shine. Listen genuinely to others' business problems. Offer your perspective, ask thoughtful questions. Your unique psychological perspective will impress far more than a hard sell. You are good at this already, so just let yourself shine.Don't Overthink It (or Procrastinate!): You don't need a fancy website or business cards to start networking. A Psychology Today or LinkedIn profile is perfectly fine as a starting point. Just make sure people have a way to keep in touch with you.Follow Up! This is crucial. Get contact details and nurture those relationships. A quick email, an offer for coffee, or sharing a relevant blog post you've written keeps the connection alive.So get out there, use Google to find three local networking events and commit to attending one per month from September. No social media, just real people.Ready to turn your private practice dream into a reality?Join my free masterclass, "Set Up Your Practice for Success”, on September 8th. I'll share my 3-part framework to help you create a practice that is professionally fulfilling and financially secure, giving you the flexibility you crave without the burnout.https://psychologybusinessschool.mykajabi.com/offers/avzEAAiw/checkoutLinks for Rosie:Substack: substack.com/@drrosieRosie on Instagram:@rosiegilderthorp@thepregnancypsychologist

Set Up For Success 2: Work-life balance, can any psychologist achieve it?“How much are you paying yourself this month?” I probably shouldn’t have wanted to throw the lamp at him when my husband asked me that but in all honestly anything not tied down was at risk on that evening.It seemed so unfair, I’d worked so hard, so many hours in front of clients, in excel spreadsheets, manually typing invoices and (of course) agonising over my inferiority as a therapist and, despite having a huge caseload, I was paying myself far less than I earned in the NHS. In fact, it was looking a lot like minimum wage.All of the self-flagelating thoughts were running through my head. Had I been reckless with money? Was I incompetent? Stupid? Bad at business? But the truth was none of those things. I had one core problem: I didn’t take myself or my expertise seriously enough. I didn’t believe (deep down) that I deserved a healthy business so I didn’t educate myself on what it took to create one.That’s why we need to work on our minds as well as our spreadsheets when we set up in private practice, especially if we need to replace our old incomes. I’m here to help you do that so you don’t have to *almost* commit a criminal offence to work it out.What is a “healthy” business?In the first year of my practice I would describe the business as unhealthy in all areas. It wasn’t meeting my financial needs and it wasn’t allowing me to flourish professionally. In fact, it was leading me closer and closer to burnout as I went to sleep every night wondering how on earth I was ever going to replace my NHS salary in my tiny windows of childcare.Coming through the other side of this experience made me re-think the platitudes around work-life balance. This experience taught me that when we say work-life balance, what we really mean is are we making “enough money” in the amount of time we want to spend working? For that reason, work life balance looks completely different in different phases of life depending on your relationship to work, your other responsibilities and your financial situation. When I was 25, working 50 hour weeks for £26,000 looked like good work-life balance for me. I ran marathons, had an active social life and cats. Fine.At 35 if you had asked me to work a 50-hour week I would have literally drowned in nappies, school emails and overwhelm. There is no one-size-fits-all all business template that will bestow you with work-life balance. Finding the right balance for you requires understanding your own personal and professional values, your financial needs and designing a business model that allows you to live with enough of both.The bit most of us missSo, rather than giving you practical stuff as you read this on your sun lounger (I really hope some of you are doing that) I want you to stick with the mind today. If you are planning a new independent practice I want you to jump into it really clear on what it needs to give you professionally and financially to allow you to feel healthy.Here are some journal prompts to help:Think of 5 pivotal moments in your career. For each one consider - what motivated you at this point of your life and what did this experience leave you with? You might want to think about learnings, passions, experiences, skills and perspectives gained. What is the common thread that runs through these important experiences? How have they shaped you as a professional? What abilities do you have that created your best work during these moments? When did you feel that you were most, in-flow and using your natural talents? Is there anything you should be doing more of in your career now to experience more of that feeling of being in flow and using your natural talents? How much money would make you feel comfortable, free and at ease? Is it hard for you to answer that question and if so, why? I hope that gives you some pause to reflect, whether you are starting up for the first time, scaling up to go “all in” after years of juggling employment and business life or just opening yourself up for a potential business re-design.Let me know if you got any aha moments!Ready to turn your private practice dream into a reality?Join my free masterclass, "Set Up Your Practice for Success”, on September 8th. I'll share my 3-part framework to help you create a practice that is professionally fulfilling and financially secure, giving you the flexibility you crave without the burnout.https://psychologybusinessschool.mykajabi.com/offers/avzEAAiw/checkoutLinks for Rosie:Substack: substack.com/@drrosieRosie on Instagram:@rosiegilderthorp@thepregnancypsychologist

Building a diverse and successful associate practice in 2025 with Dr Esther ColeWelcome to the Business of Psychology podcast. Today I'm joined by Dr Esther Cole, the clinical director and founder of Lifespan Psychology, which is a proudly diverse and thriving associate practice. She's here today to talk to us about what it takes to build a thriving associate practice, particularly in the more challenging context we find ourselves in in 2025. This is a must listen if you are somebody that is thinking about building your team and expanding your impact through associate work. Esther is also an impressive psychologist in her own right. In 2020 she won the BPS Early Career Award for a book that she initiated and co-edited on pediatric acquired brain injury. Esther has a great passion for helping people who may not always feel confident to come forward for therapy and may not always be well served by the therapy on offer, and that's part of the reason that she set up her podcast ‘Breaking Through Therapy’, which I think is amazing.Full show notes and a transcript of this episode are available at The Business of PsychologyReferences:10x Is Easier than 2x: How World-Class Entrepreneurs Achieve More by Doing Less by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy We Should All Be Millionaires: A Woman’s Guide to Earning More, Building Wealth, and Gaining Economic Power by Rachel Rodgers Links for Esther:Breaking Through Therapy Podcast: www.lifespanpsychology.co.uk/podcastBOSS: www.lifespanpsychology.co.uk/coachingWebsite: www.lifespanpsychology.co.ukLinkedIn: Dr Esther ColeInstagram: @lifespan_psychologyFacebook: Lifespan Psychology - The Diverse PracticeLinks for Rosie:Substack: substack.com/@drrosieRosie on Instagram:@rosiegilderthorp@thepregnancypsychologistThe highlightsEsther tells us about her podcast, Breaking Through Therapy 01:20Esther tells us about herself and her career, and how she came to set up an associate practice 02:39Esther talks about the most common mistakes she’s come across in associate practice 16:12 I ask Esther how we can encourage dedication from our associates 20:29We discuss recruitment and how to find the right people for your practice 26:42We talk about the skills you have to develop as a manager 34:10I remind people to listen to the Breaking Through Therapy podcast 44:29Evolve and Thrive MastermindAre you a psychologist or therapist with a thriving practice, but you're feeling stuck? Do you dream of more predictable income or more time for your family and maybe the ability to make a wider impact in mental health? I get it. You are passionate about helping people, but the business side can often feel really overwhelming.You've probably tried it all; podcasts, books, maybe even some short term coaching. But maybe you're still struggling with procrastination, indecision, or just not knowing how to create a passive income stream.If that sounds like you, I've got something really exciting to share with you. I've been developing it for a while and I'm really excited about it. It's called the Evolve and Thrive Mastermind, and it is designed specifically for psychologists and therapists like you that have a thriving private practice already, but are desperate to bring some passive or semi-passive income into their practice so that they can make more impact in the world and maybe have more flexibility in their life as well.This program includes mastermind sessions with me and guest speakers, a Clarity and Values day retreat to hone in on your ideal client and the offers that you should be making to them, and the creation of a personalised business and marketing plan. So you will leave the Mastermind with everything that you need to make your plans a reality. You'll get tangible results out of this. So you're going to come away with documents, like your business plan, your marketing plan, and your sales emails, all written. Plus you'll get ongoing support and a community of like-minded professionals to keep you accountable and raise you up when you need it.So if now is the time to stop feeling held back by uncertainty, and you are ready to really grow your impact and your income with a clear strategic plan, then the Evolve and Thrive Mastermind is the right place for you. So to learn more and take the next step, come over to psychologybusinessschool.com and look for the Evolve and Thrive Mastermind.This could be your opportunity to transform your practice and give you more flexibility in your life.Join the Waiting List for Our Growth Courses and Coaching here.