David and others,
I so know that feeling of where are the clients/patients going to come from?
I am a recovering investment banker, something I practiced for almost 30
years. I am by nature very results oriented and thus initially in my
practice, prior to learning and incorporating FC into my work, very
demanding of myself to produce meaningful results in brief periods of time.
Such was my intention that I was often referred to as the 5 Minute
therapist, an appellative I never really cared for. And yet I take
responsibility for having created because of my own need to manifest rapid
results. My "crisis" came one month when 78% of my clients completed in
that month. Unlike other "businesses" I had successfully operated there was
no backlog of orders/patients in the pipeline to fill the time slots left
vacant by this success driven exodus. Since cash flow is king in virtually
all businesses, I concluded that providing therapy was the hardest business
to predict cash flow I had ever undertaken . This belief, while possibly
quite true, was certainly not attracting new clients/patients.
The shift came when I decided that the need (demand) was always greater than
the effective and caring therapists (supply),of all modalities, and to let
my "work" speak for itself. This shift in my attitude and perspective was
and continues to be the attractor factor for a practice which very often has
a waiting list. I give zero energy to being concerned about "cash flow" from
the practice and it always flows. As someone else wrote it is not going to
make me rich but taking a 10% cut right off the top of my fees and
"stashing" it permits to travel and to gift myself and others with
"indispensable"goodies.
I now have come to firmly believe that my attitude about all matters is the
fundamental propelant to success or lack thereof.
I trust this if of value.
Fondly,
Stephen
PS My in person sessions are between 1.5- 2.0 hours. I block out 2 hours.
Here in Peru this is unheard of; where the most common therapy session is a
punctual 50 minute hour. Thus, there is perception of greater value and my
fees which tend towards the upper end of the scale are viewed as very fair
for the exchange or time.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
