ACA MEMBER BLOGS

I don’t like risk, and the risks of opening a new practice and adding therapists to our growing team are many. We need the right location, the right staff, the right operations, the right credentialing, and even the right marketing. The failure of any one of these key areas will cripple the project.

It is commonly believed that the mother-daughter relationship is a complicated one, and mothers and daughters are often made to feel that they are solely to blame for their relationship conflicts.

Our culture has a strong bias toward growth; “go big or go home” has been the proverb of choice since the phrase first caught on sometime in the early 90s. Case and point, the popular business magazine “Inc.” every year releases the Inc. 500 and 5000 lists, which rank privately held businesses based on their revenue growth alone: Not how well they’re executing their missions. Not customer/client satisfaction. Not even their profitability. Just growth.

I grew up being invisible to my mother. My mother had no idea how to listen to me or how to recognize that I was my own person, because she didn’t know how to listen to herself and acknowledge her own personhood.

Some people will read this title and immediately decide that this column doesn’t apply to them. They’ll think, “I’m just getting started, I’m not in a place where I can consider selling.” If this is you, and you’ve made it this far—hang on. This is for you.

“Dendrite, cell body, axon!” I remember my high school AP Psychology teacher singing and dancing to this as she taught us about the brain and how it works. And to this day, I remember the different parts of the brain because of my memory association to that experience.

From seasoned veterans to recent graduates, today it seems that many in private practice are asking the same question, “Should I start accepting health insurance?” On the surface, it seems to be a simple question, but there’s much to consider in producing an informed answer.

Perhaps it was due to a special dispensation of masochism, but during the summer of 2018 I decided to pursue a bucket list goal and enrolled in a doctoral program. Prior to enrolling in this program, I had been held back from pursuing this life goal by fears about navigating the egotistical gatekeepers preventing many doctorates from completing and the incredible financial burden of many doctoral programs.

This may be hard for some to read, but not everyone is built to be career military. In fact, many people choose to serve one tour of military service and leave after their contract is complete. For those who choose to make military service a career and attempt a 20 or more year career of active duty service, promotion becomes increasingly complicated and competitive as time moves forward.

You’re on the homestretch! You’ve made it into your final semester as a student and getting ready to take the next step into the professional world. One thing that might be on your mind during this transition: how do I become a licensed counselor?