Business Coaching For Therapists in 2024 | Why It's Worth It & What to Look Out For
Takeaway
As a therapist, you’ve spent tons of time and energy honing your skills. However, running a successful practice requires more than just clinical expertise. That’s where business coaching for therapists comes in. In this post, I’ll explain why hiring a coach is worth it and what you should look for in a coach.
Choose your own adventure…
Hi—I'm Felicia Keller Boyle,
aka The Bad Therapist®.
I’m a licensed somatic psychotherapist, clinical supervisor, and trainer. I built a 6 figure private practice seeing clients only 3 days a week (without working nights or weekends!).
These days, I’m a business coach for therapists, podcast host, and course creator. I help private practice therapists build their own ideal practices, whether that’s earning money without the insurance headache, having the freedom to travel whenever they want, or expanding beyond traditional therapy to create programs and scalable offers.
“I cannot recommend Felicia highly enough. She is an incredible coach for therapists, especially if you, like me, are a great therapist but don’t know where to start when it comes to running a business. Working with her for almost a year has been a game-changer for my therapy practice. When we began, my monthly income was around $3-4k, but thanks to Felicia’s guidance, I am now on track for a six-figure year in 2023. What I appreciate most about Felicia is her ability to strike a perfect balance between allowing me to lead and center my goals and desires and leveraging her expertise to propel my success. As someone with limited knowledge in business initially, I have become increasingly empowered and knowledgeable through each coaching call in this realm. With Felicia’s support, I am transforming into a confident expert in how to successfully run a therapy practice.”
Here’s what I wish therapists knew about business coaching for therapists and why business coaching is oh so worth it.
If you’d like to learn more about my services, click here.
Why you could benefit from business coaching as a therapist
You have the clinical skills to serve your clients well, but nothing in your training taught you about the business side of private practice.
It’s okay. Most therapists don’t realize they needed to learn about business until they decide to start their own private practice.
Do you want to grow your private practice, increase your income, and get out of the hustle? If so, hiring a business coach for therapists could be your next right move.
A business coach can help you navigate setting up your business, decide what to charge for your services, identify your ideal clients, create an effective marketing strategy, and teach you the mindset tools you need to run a successful private practice.
There are so many decisions to make when you’re a new therapist in private practice and it can be both isolating and overwhelming. Having coaching support means you are not doing it alone. Plus, you’re getting expert advice from someone who has walked the path of entrepreneurship.
Without a coach, you’re often left crowd-sourcing information from your friends or from unqualified people on the internet. You’re getting bullshit advice like, "Well people in this area only charge $100, so you shouldn’t charge above that because you’re just starting out.”
Ummm…excuse me. Is a $100 fee really gonna pay your bills? I didn’t think so.
Please do yourself a favor and NEVER crowdsource advice from your broke, stressed out, overworked therapist friends or strangers on the internet. Please. Just don’t.
I like to say having a business coach is like having the best parts of having a cofounder without the worst parts of having a cofounder. Your coach is there to listen to you, provide support, and genuinely care about and invest in you and your business. All the while, you retain full control and decision-making power in your business.
It’s a win-win!
Everything you need to know about business coaching for therapists
Working with a private practice business coach can help you achieve success as a business owner while living your best life. The best business coaches can help you niche your practice, craft a marketing plan to attract your ideal client, create a schedule that leaves time for your creative pursuits, and help keep you organized. This allows you to focus on turning that great idea into a reality!
There are so many ways to work with a business coach. You can access free resources they create (like my podcast for therapists!), join their membership program, or work with them one on one. There are options at to fit every budget regardless of how much money you have to invest.
Benefits of working with a business coach for therapists
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A good coach has done a lot of their own research and testing. They’ve done the Googling and made the mistakes so you don’t have to. A business coach for therapists has curated the most helpful information into a clear approach and method that they know works. They know how and when to deliver the right information and tools that you need to use to succeed.
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Building a business is never-ending. There are always more things on your to-do list, but you can’t do them all at once! A good business coach will help you decide what to do first and won’t overwhelm you with a "simple" 20-step process. They’ll also advise you on how to reach your goals and walk you through the tradeoffs between various options so you can make the choice that’s right for you.
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If you've set goals for yourself to work on your client onboarding process, create marketing for your niche, or create a more efficient contact form for potential clients but haven't, you're not alone.
Plenty of therapists struggle to take the actions that lead to success even if they have the skills and know exactly what to do. A great coach can help focus on the tasks at hand, track your progress, and keep you accountable for creating the life and practice of your dreams.
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There's a reason why following business checklists doesn't always work. Entrepreneurship is a spiritual pursuit. You'll find that building your private practice will activate all your "stuff." If you have anxiety about money, that's gonna show up. If you have fears about being visible, that's gonna get activated. If you tend to be a perfectionist, you're gonna get triggered.
Every day, I help my coaching clients find strategies to meet these moments with grace, heal their wounds, integrate their shadows, and refocus on their goals. Having a business coach that isn't afraid to go there with you is a must.
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Do you dream of starting group practice, booking speaking engagements, or building that online program? Business coaching for therapists can help with more than building your solo private practice. It can also be a great help in pursuing your big dreams! I have helped my clients start podcasts, build group practices, and secure contracts worth $10,000!
Therapists tend to wait longer than they need to to get help. However, successful, healthy businesses are never built alone. You deserve support in reaching your goals—and you shouldn't have to wait.
You may think you need to hold off on hiring a coach till your business is already making thousands of dollars a month. But almost no other business works this way! Almost all businesses need investments upfront BEFORE the business starts earning money.
Whenever you get support in your business, you decide to say no to these impossible standards. You decide that you get to have support (and, ideally, fun and pleasure) in running your business. YOU are the most valuable asset in your business. It only makes sense to ensure you have everything you need to be successful.
Types of business coaching for therapists
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Group offerings typically include curriculum and access to a business coach in a group coaching context. They can be a great way to start working with a coach you love and get the best bang for your buck.
Plus, learning in a group context can be highly valuable. Of course, you get support from your coach in a group setting. But you also learn from peers who are in the same stage in their business as you. They might be testing solutions that you would never have considered. Plus, group coaching and online courses can be excellent market research if you want to expand your business to include these.
Pros: community learning, confronts your ‘terminal uniqueness’, great bang for your buck, get contact with business coach typically at a lower price point.
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Ready for that high-touch, intimate work with a business coach? Private business coaching is the right option for you. This may be frequent one-on-one sessions with your coach for several months to a year. Or, you might opt for a day-long coaching intensive if you want a lot of support in a short timeframe.
When you work one-on-one with a coach, you know that the support you're getting is ultra-targeted to your circumstances. You may also find that you share differently with a coach one-on-one than you would in a group.
Depending on the exact details of the package, private business coaching could have a "coach in my back pocket" vibe. For instance, many coaches offer not only calls throughout the month but contact between calls via messaging apps. This ensures you get feedback and support in the moment when you need it instead of having to wait an entire week to get your questions answered.
Pros: 100% tailored experience, you have expert eyes on your business, get to learn one on one.
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Self-paced courses, checklists, templates, and scripts can all be super useful for you and your therapy practice. If you have a specific goal in mind or area of your business that needs attention, a lower-cost course or tool could be exactly what you need. If you know you work better with accountability, you could even invite some friends to join you and go through the course material together.
These offers have the obvious advantage of allowing you to go at your own pace. There’s no scheduling to figure out and you can move through the material at the best time for you. If you find a coach that you’re dying to work with but you don’t have the funds to work with them more closely, this can be a way to learn from them right now.
These can be so valuable when you’re just getting started in working with a business coach!
Pros: do it in your own time, lower cost, can be super targeted to your specific needs.
Cost of private practice coaching
Great business coaching is available at every price point. You can generally expect that the more direct contact you have with a business coach, the higher the price point will be.
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Look for a therapist business coach with an online presence, free download, mini-course, podcast or ebook. You will be shocked at just how much quality free support is out there! You do not have to wait to start getting excellent advice from a business coach.
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You can expect to find more robust downloads, starter kits, and some self-paced courses targeting specific areas of building your private practice. At this level, you probably won’t have direct contact with the coach.
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You can expect to find some hybrid group coaching programs where you’ll likely have some degree of access to the coach through group coaching calls and some limited one-on-one support.
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You can typically expect to have a lot more direct contact with your business coach. That may be through one-on-one business coaching, an intimate mastermind, or a high-touch online course with live calls.
As you know, therapy practices charge clients per session. However, most coaches offer "packages" instead of a per-session fee. These packages typically include a set number of sessions or calls, some contact in-between regular calls, and, occasionally, access to tools the coach has created.
Packages are also timebound, meaning they start and end at a specific time, i.e. a 6 month coaching contract. Your business coach will send you a contract that outlines what's included in your package and what's expected of you. This is like the informed consent documents that a therapy client receives.
One-on-one coaching is the most involved, customized support you can receive from a business coach. That’s what makes it pricier. You know firsthand that you can only have so many client service hours in a week!
What to look for in a business coach for therapists
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Are you a new therapist and want to fill your private practice as quickly as possible? Are you years into your practice and need to clean up your business practices so you can decrease your caseload without reducing your income? Have you seen too many therapists burn out and you want to make sure you avoid the big mistakes you’ve seen others make? Do you want to start a podcast, launch an online course, or finally confront your fears when it comes to marketing?
Look for a private practice coach that will help you reach your specific goal. Make sure their services, courses, and programs target your needs.
It’s also okay if you don’t know exactly what your goals are yet. Some therapists decide they want a coach because they want to set a tone in their business journey. They know they want to create something big, industry shifting, and they are refusing the bootstrapping narrative. They are deciding, from day one, that they get to have support on this journey even if they aren’t entirely clear on where they’re headed just yet. This is a totally valid decision and I am personally so excited when I encounter a therapist who is boldly betting on themselves.
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First, you need to give some thought to what you want. You probably want more clients. Or maybe you have all the clients you want but you want more income and free time. These are typical first-tier goals that therapists have for their businesses but they’re just the start.
If you want a quiet peaceful life spent hanging out with your kiddos, look for a coach with kids who has created a successful business. Do you want to be a world traveler running a virtual therapy business from remote places? Look for a coach that has lived as a digital nomad. Do you want to run a business with a blend of offerings from traditional therapy to online courses? Look for a coach who has walked that walk.
Look for a business coach that is running the kind of business that you would like to run. If you want to do therapy and run a program, work with a coach who has done both. If you would love to run high-end retreat, hire a coach that does that and sign up for one of their retreats. It’s all market research!
That stuff is all the "what." The "how" is also important. How do you want to feel in your business? What are your edges and tendencies you want to transform? Find someone who has gone through that transformation.
Or who seems to embody the kind of relationship you want to have in your own business. For instance, if you want to earn a lot of money but don’t want to look like a hustle, look for a business coach who seems to have that relationship in their own business. You will be able to learn “their ways.”
I’m not saying all you have to do is hire a coach who is a carbon copy of what you’d like to become and BOOM! you’ve got it. But this is a great place to start. That said, so many of my clients have different goals than me in terms of how they want to live their lives. What drew them to me and what makes it so much fun to work together, is that we want to hang out together. Which brings me to…
What do you want beyond more money, more clients, or more free time? What do you want your days to look and feel like? How do you want to relate to your business? What kind of impact do you want to have on the world? Look for a coach who models being in their business and the world in a way that you would like to emulate.
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Listen, you and your business coach are going to get to know each other pretty well. It’s important that you like their "vibe," that you actually want to hang out with them, and that you are willing to be coached by them. If you aren’t coming in with a reasonable amount of trust and mutual positive regard and respect, things are gonna be rocky. And honestly, that’s not worth either of your time.
One of the best ways to get to know a potential coach is to dive into their content, especially videos and podcasts. This will feel like you’re in the room with them or on a coaching call. Some may even have "behind the scenes" content that will give you a real window into what coaching with them is actually like.
Obviously, one of the best ways to figure out if you’d like them is to get on a call with them! See if the coach does discovery or sales calls and set one up. Just like finding the right therapist, it’s okay to meet with multiple coaches and see which one suits you best. You can also see if they have lower ticket offers so you can "try them out" in a low-risk way.
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Becoming a therapist is a very particular kind of journey. And honestly, it’s hard to convey to people who haven’t been through it what exactly it’s like. It’s rigorous and heart-wrenching. It tends to produce professionals with a high degree of care and emphasis on quality of work. It also tends to make us overly cautious and even fearful (of our impact on others).
If a coach hasn’t been through that weird gauntlet…they may not "get it."
And don’t even get me started on the weird money stuff that we develop as therapists.
Working with a coach who has both been through that journey AND has done the work to unpack it, can be invaluable. They’ll be able to give your great tips when it comes to healing your own money wounds.
That said, watch out for therapist business coaches who are still stuck in ‘"good therapist conditioning," think that therapists shouldn’t hold wealth, or want to keep you small. These are red flags and you should look elsewhere.
If you have a choice between one of those and a business coach without a background in therapy, I’d go with the latter.
When to start business coaching for therapists
While you absolutely should consider how you will pay for coaching there truly is no ‘right time’ to hire one. In my experience, the sooner, the better.
I’ve had pre-licensed therapists hire me for business coaching at the very start of building their private practices before they were making any money. I’ve also worked with many therapists with established practices who decide to start business coaching because they’re ready to cut back on their client hours, streamline their schedule, increase revenue, and spend more time enjoying their lives outside of work.
Remember, your first purchase with a business coach doesn’t have to be thousands of dollars a month. You can choose an option that fits within your budget and addresses your needs whether that’s getting organized, creating a marketing strategy, or raising your fees.
My offerings and approach to business coaching
I cannot understate the value mentorship has played in my success over the years. That’s why I’m such a big believer in business coaching for therapists. I love co-creating private practice success strategies with clients— from identifying ideal clients and crafting marketing strategies to defining sound practice policies. I love to teach mindset practices and know when strategy isn’t the issue.
“When I started working with Felicia in 1:1 coaching I felt like I was out of control of my own practice. I was on insurance panels, making very little for my time, and in addition to that I had less time to see clients because I was a new mom. I was having trouble finding clinicians to join my practice because the amount I could compensate them as an insurance based practice was not something I would ever agree to myself. I was stuck in this loop of “I need more clients to make more money but I literally have no room for new clients” and was turning people away every week.
Felicia really dug into my money issues with me, and stuck by my side the whole way as I removed myself from insurance panels, broke the news to my clients, and then drastically increased my out of network rates. She held my hand through all of the discomfort of that and held me accountable, and that’s what I needed to make it to the other side of this change that I had been too scared to make for so long.
It’s crazy to think this was all accomplished in one year, but I felt comfortable being honest with Felicia about all of my hang ups and she encouraged me not to compromise what I really wanted. It was the first time I thought about what it was that I wanted for me and my life as a practice ownerI as opposed to what I thought would bring in the most clients. To shift my mindset in that way has made for a much better work/life balance. ”
My approach to business coaching for therapists
I help with what most private practice coaches help with: deciding on your schedule, setting your rates, marketing, and more.
Spirituality
What’s more unique to my practice is my spiritual approach to business ownership. Entrepreneurship is a highly activating and triggering process. We’ll take special care to make sure your business choices feel aligned with your values, and we’ll work through any spiritually challenging moments together.
Pleasure
On top of that, we’ll prioritize on building a business that gives you pleasure now, not when you’ve “made it” (like having your idea of a full caseload). We’ll find ways to introduce pleasure into the very act of growing your business, whether it’s splurging on yourself or setting boundaries that make working in your practice more enjoyable immediately.
My offerings
These are my current offerings for therapists at all stages of private practice.
Liberated Business
Liberated Business is my group coaching program for therapists who want to make more money, feel better, and do more good than they thought they ever could.
“Here to brag that I just supported a new FULL FEE client to their “yes” in a successful sales/intake call! This is my first new full fee client at my new higher-fee level. 🥳”
We cover everything from marketing, to money mindset, to how to make your first hire, all within a group setting with other bad therapists in training.
I offer multiple tracks depending on where you are in your private practice journey. You can learn more about Liberated Business below!
Private coaching
My private business coaching is for therapists who are in a hurry to leave their legacy. If you're ready to go all in on your private practice, my one-on-one coaching container is for you.
“Working with Felicia in her one on one coaching container and during our retreat in Thailand, helped me embody accountability, consistency, and pleasure in my business in ways that I just never conceptualized as possible for myself, a first generation Latina and daughter of immigrants. I was always taught I needed to sacrifice myself for everyone else and to earn money, and even though I knew intellectually that was not true, it was hard to feel that in my heart. Thankfully through my work with Felicia, we found ways to liberate my limiting beliefs and have that translate into tangible results in my business like earning more with working less, creating offerings that I feel good about and sustained by energetically and also monetarily.
Most notably, the support Felicia provided was beyond just mindset, it included practical strategies for sustainability that built the core of my business today and in the future. I cannot recommend Felicia’s services enough. Her ability to hold a person in their process of expansion as a business owner is masterful. If you are looking for a person to support you from a deep level of care and attunement while providing you with expert business coaching, hire Felicia. ”
Private business coaching is best for therapists who feel a strong sense of urgency in building their private practice, and they typically want increased accountability. I like to call myself your "back pocket cofounder," because I'm always there to help you make the big, personal decisions in your business.
CEO days
CEO days are an efficient way to supercharge your business and mindset.
“Although I wasn’t expecting it, I came back from my CEO retreat day a new person.
After some prompting, I took the leap and let Felicia craft a CEO retreat day just for me. It was amazing to experience all the luxurious plans she had in store for me, but something happened within me beyond pleasure. I remember the exact moment—I was getting a relaxing pedicure (in a gorgeous spa hotel) and looking out as the morning sun hit the mountains, and my nail technician asked me “what do you do?” With full confidence, for the first time, I said “I’m a CEO.”
Taking complete ownership by stepping into that role was worth every penny, not to mention all the FUN we had (gifts, tarot cards, lunch, coffee, and more!). It felt amazing to treat myself, and it was all on the biz :)
With my newfound confidence, I boldly took scary steps in my business. I hired people, invested in education and tools without a second-thought, and slept way better knowing that I’m a fucking CEO and I got this. Today, I’m consistently booked out and have multiple five-figure months. What felt like a huge risk at the time was a drop in the bucket compared to where I am now, and I couldn’t be more grateful. Thank you, Felicia!”
You'll experience the accelerated transformation of a day spent showering yourself with fancy meals and gifts, plus hours of one-on-one coaching with me in a luxurious setting.
CEO days have been a gamechanger for my clients, allowing them to fully step into their CEO selves.
Take your private practice to the next level
Ready to get started? Schedule a time to chat with me about your practice!
