Starting a Private Practice is where we talk with therapists who built businesses that hold up in real life, not just on a spreadsheet. No hustle scripts, no pretending the field is easy right now.
This one is a three-year check-in. Whitney was last on the show at the beginning of 2023. Since then she bought two commercial buildings, opened a second location, built a leadership team, and watched roughly fourteen clinicians walk out the door in about eighteen months. She is a private pay group practice owner in Savannah and a consultant, so she is living the turnover problem and coaching other owners through it at the same time. Kelly asks her the uncomfortable version of every question: what is actually working, what did you get wrong, and what are you telling people who are scared enough to get on insurance panels they do not want.
If you have been quietly wondering whether it is you or whether it is the market, this is the episode.
What You'll Hear
00:00 Introduction and Practice Evolution
02:57 Challenges in Private Practice
06:01 Managing Staff Turnover and Retention
08:59 Building a Leadership Team
11:59 Creating a Culture of Growth
14:58 Adapting to Cultural Shifts in Therapy
18:09 The Future of Therapy Practices
19:09 Identifying Money Leaks in Therapy Practices
21:57 The Importance of Tracking Marketing Efforts
24:20 Optimizing the Intake Process for Success
26:04 Navigating Cash Pay Practices
28:01 Reflections on Insurance Panels
30:05 Excitement for Growth and New Developments
32:13 The Shift Towards Sustainable Business Practices
About Whitney
Whitney is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Georgia and the founder of Water's Edge Counseling, a private pay group practice in Savannah that she started in 2014 and has since grown across two locations. She earned her master's in professional counseling from Richmont Graduate University and has been seeing clients since 2009, in residential, inpatient, and group settings before going out on her own.
She also runs Wise Practice Consulting, where she works with faith-based practice owners at every stage, from launching a solo practice to scaling a group. Her definition of faith-based is wide: it does not require you to be overtly faith-based, only that faith is part of your life somewhere. She hosts the Wise Practice Podcast and runs a community and mastermind groups for practice owners.
Find her at watersedgecounseling.com and wisepracticeconsulting.com, or reach her at [email protected].
Resources Mentioned
Want the Kind of Support Kelly and Whitney Talk About?
Business School for Therapists is our flagship program for therapists ready to build a practice that supports the life they actually want. It is a blend of live coaching and self-paced curriculum, plus a community of clinicians who normalize niching, real fees, and clinical depth. Twenty years in, it is the work we wish someone had handed us when we were spending our own weekends figuring this out. Learn more: zynnyme.com
Listen, Subscribe, and Leave a Review
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/starting-a-counseling-practice-with-kelly/id1398391639
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7K8TQ13vJL4L3IvtWLLXV3
Stay Connected
Website: zynnyme.com
Blog: zynnyme.com/blog
Instagram: instagram.com/zynnyme
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/2456942
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Facebook: facebook.com/kellyandmiranda
