It’s tempting to look at other therapists, coaches or creators and think:

“It’s easier for them because they’re bigger.”

But what we often forget is that every established business once started small.

In this solo episode, I reflect on the early days of my own private practice and Therapy Growth Group as we approach its sixth birthday. I talk about fear, comparison, visibility and the courage it takes to keep showing up when you’re still finding your feet.

Because behind every “overnight success” are usually years of small steps, awkward beginnings and learning as you go.

I also explore why helping just one person still matters, why growth can actually be easier to manage when it happens gradually, and how success often looks very different from what we imagine.

Whether you’re just starting out in private practice or feeling discouraged because your audience, client list or confidence still feels small, I hope this episode encourages you to keep going.

In this episode:

• Why comparing yourself to more established therapists can stop you taking action
• What people don’t see behind business growth
• The importance of courage over confidence
• Why helping one person still counts
• How consistency builds confidence over time
• Why starting small can actually help you grow sustainably
• The ripple effects that can happen when you keep going

I also share:

• The story behind starting Therapy Growth Group
• What six years in business has taught me
• Why I still feel fear even now

Training mentioned in this episode:

• Five Ways to Attract New Clients
• Exploring Your Niche
• Ask Me Anything

You can find details of all current training here:

https://josephinehughes.as.me/training

If this episode encouraged you, I’d love it if you shared it with another therapist who needs reminding that starting small still counts.

Setting up in private practice? Download my free checklist HERE

Need ideas for how to get clients? Download my free handout 21 Ways for Counsellors to Attract New Clients HERE

You can also find me here:

The Good Enough Counsellors Facebook Group

Josephine Hughes on Facebook

Josephine Hughes on YouTube

My website: josephinehughes.com

Keywords: private practice growth, starting a counselling business, success in therapy practice, building confidence as a therapist, therapy marketing strategies, finding your niche in therapy, private practice challenges, therapist training and development, encouraging small businesses, client attraction strategies, therapy visibility, successful counselling practices

The information contained in Good Enough Counsellors is provided for information purposes only. The contents of this podcast are not intended to amount to advice and you should not rely on any of the contents of this podcast. Professional advice should be obtained before taking or refraining from taking any action as a result of the contents of this podcast.

Josephine Hughes disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on any of the contents of this podcast.

I opened up my little app that gives me affirmations and it says, I feel so lucky that my business is helping people.

And that spoke to me so much, because when we think about success, we can get caught up in the maybe smaller goals and forget about the bigger picture.

My bigger picture has always been about making a difference to people's lives.

I think it's really important, however small or large your business is, is.

Is to keep your eye on what it's really about.

Welcome to Good Enough Counsellors, the podcast for growing a private practice without the pressure to be perfect.

I'm Josephine Hughes, counsellor and creator of Therapy Growth Group, helping you get the clients you want and create the practice of your dreams.

There's a saying that it took me 20 years to become an overnight success, and that's something that I think we often ignore when we look at people who seem to be doing really well.

And I've had this happen to me recently is a few people have said to me, well, it's easier for you because you've got an audience, you're bigger, so you're someone who can do things quite easily.

And the thing about that is it actually doesn't account for the fact that I have been doing this for a while.

And so it's so easy for us to look at other people, isn't it?

And it feels like, especially when we're struggling, it can feel like it comes so much easily to other people.

And so what I wanted to share today was it doesn't come easily all the time, and it does take time.

And I'd really like to share some encouragement with you.

We all have to start somewhere.

And if we worry about the fact that we're only small and everyone else seems to be doing it really well, then that can stop us from starting.

So I really want to encourage you, even if you're just starting out and it feels like it's a real treadmill at the moment.

And I feel confident that I can talk to you about this because that's where I started as well.

I was terrified.

And I've continued to be terrified over time.

But how did I get here?

And what is in that for you?

That's what we're going to talk about today.

And I was thinking about how I got started Obviously, I started my private practice and then later on I got to the point where I felt I was read to start doing some training.

Well, when I say I felt I was ready, that's actually a lie.

I never feel like I'm ready.

But I was lucky.

I was surrounded by other therapists who I'd met where I shared my room, and when I said to them, oh, I'm thinking about doing some training on this subject, they all said, yeah, I'd come along.

And someone else said, yeah, you can use my room, it's big enough, you can train people there.

And with great fear and trembling, I started to do some training.

And that's how I got started on this journey.

And gradually it turned into an online thing.

And then six years ago, I started Therapy Growth Group, which had been at the back of my mind to do something like this, but it was the fact that I ran a free visibility challenge for people and it was so successful that they wanted to continue.

And that's how Therapy Growth Group was born.

And at the time of recording, we are just coming up to the sixth birthday and I'm amazed.

And actually, you know what?

I do feel quite proud of myself that I am still going.

And I'm not saying this to boast, but just to say that whatever you do, whatever endeavour you're involved in is.

It does take consistency, it does take dedication.

And so when people say to me, oh, it's easy for you, I think, oh, if only you knew.

If only you knew what's gone on behind the scenes and how I've had to do things that have been really difficult.

For example, doing things like that early course where, honestly, I was just full of fear and trembling to stand up in front of a group of my peers.

But once I got people booked on, I had to do it.

And I was really lucky that they were very encouraging.

And I think this is often what we forget, is that people are often far more encouraging than we give them room for.

But I think with any stage of work, it's always hard because we're stepping out and it means that we might fail.

And quite often the failure is something that appears to be quite public and we have to be prepared for people to see us fail, and that's a really hard thing to think about.

But I think there's also a part of us that might have ideas about what success looks like and we can forget what success can actually mean.

And the person who inspires me with this thought is Gabby Bernstein, who I follow, and she said the very first talk she ever gave, she went along and she had one person attend, but she thought to herself, I'm going to make this the best session that I can make it for this one person.

And I know when we're running something, you know, we want more than one person to attend.

But if one person does attend, wow, they are really lucky because they get that dedicated time with you.

And I think we have ideas of success, what success actually means, and we can overlook actually what it can mean to the person that we're helping.

And this is something that I think is actually the answer to our fears and the answer to thinking, oh, this is too difficult, oh, I'm only small.

Oh, I can't do this is to actually focus on the people that we're helping.

And I've just written down a few examples of what this could look like, even if it feels that you're not very big.

So, for example, you know, one of the things that might be a sign of success for you is getting a client to come along to a counsellor counselling session.

But I'd say it's successful if someone actually contacts you.

That is absolutely brilliant.

If you've got that far of someone getting in touch, that's a really good sign.

And it's possible that you could help them just by having a conversation about what counselling involves.

They might not be your client, they might go off, they might not do counselling or they might go to someone else, but you'll still have helped them.

You might be doing some social media posts and you think, oh, you know, they're not bringing in clients and that's what success means to you.

But it could be that one person reads that and they're encouraged by it and it helps them carry on with their day and feel better.

And I think that's success as well.

So I think the really important thing is to just keep focusing on how you can help people at every stage of the journey.

You don't have to be reaching lots of people.

That comes with time.

And I think the advantage of starting small is that you learn and you learn how to cope with things.

So, for example, when I first started out running my Good Enough Counsellors group, I didn't really know a lot about boundaries on social media.

But as the groups got bigger, I've had to introduce boundaries.

And as it's got bigger and bigger, I found holding the boundaries, yes, there are still challenges, but I'm probably far further along the road of being able to hold the boundaries than I would have done Right at the beginning, because I've grown as the group has grown.

And I think, you know, when you're starting small, it's easy to look at other people and wish that you were where they are.

But you can't cut out that learning.

You need to take those steps so that you can meet the challenges as you go along.

Because otherwise it can be really overwhelming and it can set you back.

I always remember working with somebody who wrote an absolutely brilliant profile, but the result of that is that she got inundated from day one.

And we sort of think to ourselves, oh, it'd be really wonderful to have a full private practice straight away.

But yeah, I mean, that's really great if you can handle it.

But for some people, you actually need to take it a bit more slowly so that you've got time to bed in your routines, to bed in your onboarding process, for example.

So sometimes spending starting small can actually be really advantageous.

I was set a challenge recently and it was to do a positive affirmation each morning.

And I opened up my little app that I've got that gives me affirmations and it says, I feel so lucky that my business is helping people.

And that spoke to me so much because that's really what I'm about.

Love to help people, love to make a difference.

Would love, love, love the work that I do here, mean that you can get more clients so that more clients get therapy.

That's my long term aim, is to help people get therapy.

And that's one of the ripple effects of what I'm doing.

And it is honestly such a joy to me.

And I think sometimes when we think about success, we can really lose sight of what it's really about.

We can get caught up in the maybe smaller goals and forget about the bigger picture.

So for me, my bigger picture has always been about making a difference to people's lives.

And this is why I think it's really important, however small or large your business is, is to keep your eye on what, what it's really about.

As I say, that's my particular aim.

And I think it's possible to help people at every stage of the journey.

And I think when you've got that at the heart of what you do, the money will flow in.

And it's sometimes hard to believe that.

But if you go out there and you do stuff and you create value, people will pay you for the value that you're creating.

So I'd really, really like to encourage you, however small you are, that if you keep going.

If you keep taking the steps, if you keep your courage up.

And remember, courage isn't the absence of fear, it's acting in spite of the fear that's there.

If you carry on being courageous, you can build a business too, and it can have effects that you never imagined.

So one of the things that I'm feeling a little bit sad about is that my daughter, who has been editing this podcast for more than two years now, she's got a job, she's got a podcasting job.

And so she's not going to be doing my audio editing any longer.

Help.

And I'm quite sad about that.

I'm quite sad to be losing that lovely working relationship that we've got.

But that's been one of the unexpected ripple effects of my business.

You know, she got into podcasting because she was skilled in audio engineering.

And my podcast producer, back when I did gloriously unready, needed someone to be an editor, and that's what my daughter did.

And then she did some work for me as well.

And gradually, over time, she'd gained enough experience to get work.

So sometimes you just never know where this journey is going to take you.

And one of the people that really inspires me is my local colleague, Samantha Ashdown.

And I always remember Sam saying to me, this was years ago now.

She said, oh, one day I'd like to be where you are.

In other words, with a full private practice.

Honestly, I promise you, Samantha has surpassed me in so many ways because she has opened training, she's opened up low cost counseling, she's providing placements for people, she's providing rooms for therapists, she's providing training for people.

And I just look at her and think, wow, you're absolutely amazing.

And I could look at Sam and say, look, you're so much bigger than me.

But I think it's not about that.

It's actually about celebrating the fact that when you get started, if you keep going, you can achieve these sorts of things.

So I'd really like to encourage you that whatever stage of the journey you're at, you may look at others and think, oh, gosh, you know, it's easier for them.

But remember, they found it difficult too.

And they're probably still doing things that they cringe at.

I know I am.

I still cringe at doing things.

So please, please, please don't think it's easier.

It's just different.

But as you go along, you learn the tools to cope, and that means it does become.

It's not easier in terms of it being less scary, but you get better at handling that thought that it's scary and you just do it anyway.

Just before I finish, I'd like to give you a little reminder that I am currently offering training to people that you can access without having to come into therapy growth group.

So they're one off training sessions.

I've got three running altogether, one on five ways to attract new clients.

And that's a real sort of signature training where I share how you can make yourself more relevant to potential clients.

I've got a workshop on niching and that's all about exploring whether or not you'd like a niche and what your niche could be.

And then I've also got one that is filling me with fear because I'm not quite sure how it's going to work out.

But that's an ask me anything session where you can just turn up and ask me questions and I will help you out.

You can find all of those by just going along to Josephine Hughes as me training.

I'll pop that link into the show notes.

But what I'd really love you to take away from this session is that however small you are, don't dismiss yourself.

Don't assume that everyone else is starting confident, however they might outwardly appear.

A lot of people say to me, oh, you're so confident.

If only you knew.

If only you knew what was going on underneath.

Keep going.

However lacking in confidence that you feel, just keep taking little tiny steps.

Because those small steps, if you keep going and keep going and keep going, they do add up.

And then before you know it, you're there with the podcast and a group.

I mean, there's nearly 16,000 people and good enough counsellors now.

So you may.

It's amazing what you can actually do.

And I really do say this hand on heart, if I can do it, I believe you can do it too, because I'm no more special than anybody else.

I just keep going, really.

So you may be building something that's far more meaningful than you can possibly imagine at the moment.

Believe me, it's true.

Thanks for listening.

I'll see you next week.

Thanks for listening.

Do come and join my Facebook community.

Good enough counsellors.

And for more information about how I can help you develop your private practice, please Visit my website, JosephineHughes.com if you found this episode helpful, I'd love it if you could share it with a fellow therapist or leave a review on your podcast app.

And in closing, I'd love to remind you that every single step you make gets you closer to your dream.

I really believe you can do it.