Every therapist defines success differently, and this show exists to prove it. Each episode, we sit down with a clinician who built something that fits their actual life, not the version of private practice they were handed in grad school. No formulas. No magic bullets. Just real decisions, real tradeoffs, and the reasoning behind them.
This episode is one we keep thinking about. Corrie is a psychologist in the Chicago area doing complex trauma work, EMDR, and deep support for neurodivergent adults and the parents raising neurodivergent kids. She started her practice on one insurance panel because she did not know there was another option. Then she noticed something: the depth of the work she wanted to do, and the caseload size required to make that panel sustainable were fundamentally incompatible. She could not bring her best self to every client, every day, at that volume. So she rebuilt.
What follows is a genuinely honest conversation about ableism in practice design, why she names her smaller caseload out loud to her clients, how parental burnout became her niche without her planning it, and what it took to finally build a course after years of listening. If you have ever wondered whether your capacity is a limitation or just information, start here.
What You'll Hear
- 00:00 Welcome, and why success looks different for every therapist
- 00:57 Why private practice, and the long road through two doctoral programs
- 03:22 Bridging out: community mental health, a short stint in group practice, then solo
- 04:31 Starting on one insurance panel and why it felt like the only option
- 05:59 Depth work, complex trauma, and what her nervous system was absorbing
- 06:32 The subcontractor problem: one panel, no access, no room for anyone else
- 08:28 How the niche actually formed: EMDR, neurodivergence, trauma of marginalization
- 11:18 Why she moved to working with adults and parents exclusively
- 12:42 Ableism in practice design and normalizing a smaller caseload
- 14:29 Why parents cannot locate the source of the strain accurately
- 16:03 From a full caseload to something scalable
- 21:58 Defining neurodivergence and the rise in adult identification
- 25:52 What it actually takes to build a course
- 29:50 SEO, blogging, and finding the marketing that fit her strengths
- 33:17 You don't compete, you stand out
- 34:27 How Corrie defines success in private practice
- 35:48 Where to find Corrie and her resources
About Corrie
Corrie is a licensed clinical psychologist based in the Chicago area and the founder of Shore Therapy Center for Wellness. She completed dual doctoral programs in clinical psychology and school psychology and is licensed in both fields. She is a certified EMDR therapist and a PSYPACT provider, which means she can offer telehealth across more than forty states.
Her clinical focus is trauma, stress, and burnout, with particular depth in the trauma of marginalization: neurodivergent adults, LGBTQ folks, and parents raising autistic, ADHD, AuDHD, gifted, twice exceptional, and PDA kids. She works with adults exclusively now, which is a deliberate choice she explains in the episode. She is also a parent of three.
Beyond her caseload, Corrie developed a free, research-based parental burnout screener and an online course for parents experiencing burnout, designed with accessibility supports built in from the start.
Find her at shoretherapycenter.com or connect on LinkedIn.
Resources Mentioned
Want the Kind of Support Kelly and Corrie 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
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