New Provider Client Expectations
Client Leads and Connections
Know your Colleagues
Broad Scope at First and Specialize Later
Insurance Companies
Referral Databases
24 hour Best Practice
Counseling Professionals PLLC provides all of the opportunities for growth, covers the costs, and facilitates resources for their providers.
Gaining Clients
Everyone's journey in counseling is different, but there are different ways to grow faster. There is no one size fits all, but it is good to watch this video and get an idea of how CJ grew as a provider and things he observed in the industry for growth.
Growth Rate Expectations
If you are swift at responding to referrals, reaching out to others, and updating your information regularly, you can and should grow at 1 to 2 new clients per week. See the graph below for more visual details. I have had multiple supervisors tell me (and I find it to be true) that it takes about 2 years to get to what is considered "full time." This is not necessarily capacity, but is a great wage. You can see more about financial expectations here. Below are some points about growing your case load. Your growth can be faster. If you want to grow at a more rapid pace, here are some points to consider:
New clients are tough as they may be shopping, do not take it personally if they do not stay more than a session or two
The more hours you make available, the easier it is to fit people onto your schedule
The more you are in the office, the more social you are with providers in the field, the more referrals you will get from those connections
The broader the type of clients you work with, the faster you can grow in multiple ways. As you continue on, you will find that you enjoy specific types of cases and you will become more specialized over time
As you start to build a case load there is a delay in pay as insurance can take a month or 2 to kick in and a month or 2 to reimburse.
By the time you start to get to around 10 sessions per week, you may notice a plateau as your first clients start to matriculate as you get new clients. After about 6 months you will start to grow again as some client come back and you get more referrals from former clients
Insurance companies' databases are not updated right away and may take a month to list you
Take the time when you start to do more thorough notes and education to expand the issues you are comfortable addressing
There are seasonal shifts
Summer has Less Sessions
Fall and Spring More (especially if you work with students or younger clients)
