Do you take time to notice who you do well with? Do you notice and reflect on the clients who have made good progress in their work with you? Do you notice the types of clients and presentations that thrive in your care?
Or do you tend to focus on who terminates therapy early or those clients who typically don’t do well. As part of a self-reflection process it is important to observe our practice but too often we forget to notice what we do well.
This was once a bad habit of mine built out of trying to work out why some clients didn’t stay in therapy. I thought if I worked out what I was doing wrong it would increase my retention rates. By overly focusing on this, I wouldn’t spend much time noticing the good work I was going or the types of clients that typically did well with me.
Over the years I’ve come to realise a better way to increase your retention rates is to focus on what does work and who it works with and to find ways to do more of that. The information you get from this type of reflection can help you guide your niche and marketing.
Selecting in clients into your private practice who are more likely to work well with you and will therefore be more likely to stay, your retention rates will improve. By focusing on the strategies that work well, you will be likely to do more of that and it will also improve your outcomes, which helps with confidence, and retention rates.
If you want to thrive as a therapist and also in private practice, cultivate a habit of spending some time each day thinking about what went well, what you did well and your clients who are thriving in therapy.
So tell me, what have you been doing well lately?
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