Have you ever decided not to tell someone about your private practice because you've assumed they won't be interested?

Or perhaps hesitated because you think people won't be able to afford your fees?

As therapists we can often tell ourselves that people won't want to hear about our practice and will think we're being pushy or we're too expensive. But are those assumptions really about other people - or about protecting us from anticipated rejection and disappointment?

If we never tell people how we can help, we're taking away their opportunity to decide for themselves.

In this short episode, we explore:

• The fear of rejection that can stop us talking about our private practice
• How we let our assumptions about what others will think stop us in our tracks
• The importance of allowing potential clients to make their own decisions

Ready to take the next step?

If you'd like some practical support to become more visible and attract more of the clients you most want to help, I'd love to welcome you into Therapy Growth Group.

Our 12 Action Steps programme is beginning again soon, guiding you through three months of manageable, practical actions to help you grow your private practice with confidence and without becoming someone you're not.

You'll find all the details HERE

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

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My website: josephinehughes.com

Keywords: therapist marketing, private practice, attracting therapy clients, counselling private practice, therapist confidence, therapy business, private practice marketing, counsellor marketing, therapist visibility, therapy clients

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.

What assumptions are holding you back?

We often decide what other people are thinking before we've even given them a chance to tell us.

We assume people won't be interested, that they'll say no, or that they can't afford our services.

But what if those assumptions are saying more about our own fears than they are about other people?

In this episode, I explore how the stories we tell ourselves stop us attracting clients.

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.

Hello and welcome back to Good Enough Counsellors.

This is going to be the last of my short summer episodes and next week we'll be back with some longer interview pieces.

Now, the story I'm going to start with today is something that you might think isn't very relevant to you.

But bear with me, it does have a point.

Now, a few weeks ago, one of my friends asked me if I would host a tropic skincare party.

I love tropic stuff, so I said yes, I would.

And I was doing it as a bit of a favour for her because she was just starting out in business.

But I was a bit shy about inviting people and I thought that other people probably wouldn't be very interested and I told myself that they probably wouldn't want to spend a lot of money.

So remember those two things because I'm going to come back to them anyway.

So they.

They turned up.

I just had three people who actually arrived, but one of them, who isn't really ever shown any interest in skincare, was actually quite excited about it and said, oh, yes, I've got some birthday money that I'm going to spend.

And my other two friends who were there were like me and they liked the products too.

So actually, I really was challenged in my assumptions about whether or not people would like it.

And what happened later was that a friend of mine who was there agreed to do her own party and she arranged the date, the evening she was with me.

And the next day I woke up and she'd invited a load of friends to her party and a lot of them had said yes.

And I thought to myself, ah, that's another of my assumptions.

So let's just break those down a little bit and think about what they've got to teach us about how we market our private practice.

So my first assumption was that people wouldn't want to come.

And I'm Someone who doesn't really like asking for help.

I was brought up really not to bother people.

So there is that sense in me of, oh, you know, I don't want to put myself out there, I don't want to bother people.

But also I think there's something else going on that's deeper than that and that it was that I didn't want to be rejected.

I didn't want people to.

To say no because they didn't take what I thought was important seriously enough.

And so I protected myself by only asking a few friends.

So it wasn't really about not bothering them, that was there, but it was also about my own fears.

So sometimes what might be considered that I'm sort of looking out for other people or, you know, I don't want to bother them, is actually something about protecting myself from those uncomfortable feelings of rejection.

Coming on to the second assumption, which was completely disproved by the friend who said, oh, I'm going to spend my birthday money, was I assumed that people wouldn't want to spend any money, or at least not spend very much.

And that was part, again, of the reason why I felt uncomfortable asking people to come to this party.

And what I realised afterwards is that I was making assumptions about how much money she had and what she would actually like to spend her money on.

And I think that showed me that I was putting myself in someone else's shoes.

I was thinking about how they might feel, but I had no evidence that that was the case.

And I got it wrong, didn't I?

So let's just sort of think about how that might impact us as therapists.

Are you making assumptions about your potential clients?

So some of the things we might do is we might tell ourselves that people aren't interested in therapy.

We might tell ourselves, oh, I can't share another post.

I've already done a lot.

People aren't interested in them.

They've probably seen enough of them.

We can think to ourselves, well, I don't want to sound pushy.

I don't want to expect people to spend money on me.

People don't want to hear from me again.

They probably can't afford therapy.

And we might think, say, with that example of they probably can't afford therapy, that we're actually protecting them.

But underneath, actually, that might be protecting us because we're worried that we're charging too much and that people wouldn't be able to afford it.

Or what would people think if we said actually how much we charged?

And so we're often protecting ourselves from things like rejection or judgment or even the disappointment of telling somebody and then they say no.

But let's just have a little think.

If we let those assumptions get in the way of telling people about what we do, we actually might never, never say anything.

And I wonder if this is resonating with you.

If you're someone who finds it difficult to talk about what you do.

Is this resonating with you?

Are you making assumptions?

Do you think about what other people are going to think of your service?

Is there something going on from your background perhaps, where perhaps you haven't had a lot of money in the past and it seems like a lot of money for you?

And we could easily make assumptions that other people would find it a lot of money too.

But for some people, that's not the case.

They've got a different attitude to money.

And the problem is when we decide that people can't afford therapy, what we're actually doing is we're making their decision for them.

If we don't get out there and tell people we're not allowing them the autonomy of making their own choice.

And probably as a therapist, autonomy is something that you really value.

So is that assumption stopping you, do you think?

Are you telling yourself that people won't be interested or that people won't be able to afford it?

Are those assumptions actually holding you back from saying more about your private practice?

Now, I always try not to talk about stuff that I haven't actually experienced myself.

And I'm not going to use this podcast as somewhere to say that I do things that I don't actually do because I'm too scared to do them.

So thinking about those assumptions, what I want to do now is I don't want to make the assumption that you're not interested in Therapy growth group and that you wouldn't be able to afford it.

So I'm very quickly going to say that very shortly at the beginning of September, in Therapy growth group, I'm going to be starting the 12 action steps program again.

And this is therapy three one month sections.

So each month we start on a new section.

First month is all about getting referrals in really quickly.

Second month is all about what's your niche and how you can communicate that and how you can put that on your profile or your website, how to sort of explain to clients who you are, what you do in a way that attracts them.

And then the third month is all about the wider ways of reaching people.

And that's going to be starting in Therapy growth group.

I think it's going to be next week.

So if you're listening to this and you'd like to be a part of therapy growth group, it's 60 pounds a month.

And I just want to tell you this, it's up to you whether or not you decide to take me up on the invitation.

But I'm going to tell you so that you've got the choice without making any assumptions about whether or not you'd be interested or whether or not you can afford it.

And I will put the link in the show notes.

So let's just move on and think about a summary, really.

And I think the question that I'd like to ask is are you making an assumption on someone else's behalf?

So maybe just have a little think about that.

Are you actually protecting them or are you protecting yourself?

So what assumptions am I making on someone else's behalf?

Let's have a little think about that.

Because actually, our job isn't to decide whether or not people are interested in what we offer.

Our job is simply to let people know that we're here, explain how we help and allow them to make their own decision.

Because every time we make assumptions about other people's interest or ability to pay, actually, we're taking away their opportunity to choose.

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.