Full show notes and a transcript of this episode are available at The Business of Psychology

Links:

Episode 41: How to set your fees in your psychology private practice with “pricing queen” Sally Farrant

Links for Paula:

Website: madeuptomove.co.uk

YouTube: www.youtube.com/@DrPaulaWatson

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/paula-watson-weight-loss-therapy

Links for Rosie:

Substack: substack.com/@drrosie

Rosie on Instagram:

@rosiegilderthorp

@thepregnancypsychologist

The highlights

• Paula tells us what drew her to sports and exercise psychology 01:34
• Paula talks about her academic career 06:59
• We discuss imposter syndrome 14:30
• Paula tells us about her decision to move from academia to the applied space 20:10
• I ask Paula about choosing private practice versus a job 24:35
• Paula tells us what a week in her practice looks like 36:14
• I ask Paula about her YouTube channel 45:20
• Paula speaks about the learning curves and mindset shifts required when setting up in private practice 51:06
• Paula tells us how we can connect with her 56:38

Evolve Your Practice: The map to more income, impact and flexibility

Are you craving more flexibility in your practice? 

Maybe you've built something amazing and you're proud of your business, but it's also bringing you to the brink of burnout. 

Maybe you want to use your skills differently and create recurring revenue outside the therapy room. 

Whether your priority is financial stability or flexibility, or both, adding recurring revenue streams into your business is essential.

If you want time, freedom, more income, and to make a bigger impact for your client group, join me for a free masterclass on Monday, the 17th of November at 11:00 AM and I'll show you how I use my values, voice and impact framework to create income, impact, and flexibility in my own business, and for the hundreds of psychologists and therapists I've supported over the last five years.

I'd love to see you there. You can sign up here: https://psychologybusinessschool.mykajabi.com/offers/fnr6d7si/checkout

Full show notes and a transcript of this episode are available at The Business of Psychology

Links:

2026 Psychologists Business Retreat

Get in touch here.

Links for Claire:

LinkedIn: Dr Claire Plumbly

Facebook: @drclaireplumbly

Instagram: @drclaireplumbly

TikTok: @drclaireplumbly

Website: www.plum-psychology.com

Links for Rosie:

Substack: substack.com/@drrosie

Rosie on Instagram:

@rosiegilderthorp

@thepregnancypsychologist

The highlights

• We talk about our reasons for wanting to run a retreat 01:26
• We discuss the different skills we brought together, and liaising with the right venue 06:56
• We look at how we got the right mix of people 13:08
• We discuss costing an event 16:35
• We talk about marketing something with this much logistical planning 19:55
• We look at what will be different for 2026 25:22
• Claire gives her advice to anyone thinking about planning their own event 35:10
• I tell you how to find out about the 2026 retreat 37:11

Evolve and Thrive Mastermind

 Have you been listening to this and feeling like the time has come for you to make a change in your practice? Maybe you are ready to grow with passive or semi passive income. Maybe you are ready to gain more time freedom, have that flexibility you always dreamed of, or expand your impact. If any of that sounds like you, you might be a really good fit for my Evolve and Thrive Mastermind.

Our next cohort is starting in January 2026, and it's a small group, six-month coaching experience. The early bird rate finishes mid-December, so if any of that sounds good to you, make sure you check out the details over at psychologybusinessschool.com and book your free call with me now to secure the best price.

Full show notes and a transcript of this episode are available at The Business of Psychology

Substack Links for Clare:

@clairevenus

Creatively Conscious

Sparkle on Substack

Subscribe to Sparkle on Substack - Listener 30% Discount Link

Links for Rosie:

Substack: substack.com/@drrosie

Rosie on Instagram:

@rosiegilderthorp

@thepregnancypsychologist

The highlights

• Clare tells us a little bit about how she ended up on Substack and why she chose it 01:50
• I ask Clare about the ways that she’s seen psychologists and therapists using the platform 09:12
• Clare ​​walks us through the various bits of Substack and also how their like payment system works 16:07
• We talk about the different opportunities Substack provides us with 23:31
• We discuss membership models and structures 30:17
• I summarise the models you can have on Substack 33:50 
• Clare talks about SEO with Substack and other tips for setting up 36:03
• I ask Clare what is the first best step to take for a psychologist or therapist who thinks Substack could be a good place for them 39:24
• Claire give us her Substack links 42:14

Evolve Your Practice: The map to more income, impact and flexibility

Are you craving more flexibility in your practice? 

Maybe you've built something amazing and you're proud of your business, but it's also bringing you to the brink of burnout. 

Maybe you want to use your skills differently and create recurring revenue outside the therapy room. 

Whether your priority is financial stability or flexibility, or both, adding recurring revenue streams into your business is essential.

If you want time, freedom, more income, and to make a bigger impact for your client group, join me for a free masterclass on Monday, the 17th of November at 11:00 AM and I'll show you how I use my values, voice and impact framework to create income, impact, and flexibility in my own business, and for the hundreds of psychologists and therapists I've supported over the last five years.

I'd love to see you there. You can sign up here: https://psychologybusinessschool.mykajabi.com/offers/fnr6d7si/checkout

Full show notes for this episode are available at The Business of Psychology

Links for Rosie:

Substack: substack.com/@drrosie

Rosie on Instagram:

@rosiegilderthorp

@thepregnancypsychologist

Evolve Your Practice: The map to more income, impact and flexibility

Are you craving more flexibility in your practice? 

Maybe you've built something amazing and you're proud of your business, but it's also bringing you to the brink of burnout. 

Maybe you want to use your skills differently and create recurring revenue outside the therapy room. 

Whether your priority is financial stability or flexibility, or both, adding recurring revenue streams into your business is essential.

If you want time, freedom, more income, and to make a bigger impact for your client group, join me for a free masterclass on Monday, the 17th of November at 11:00 AM and I'll show you how I use my values, voice and impact framework to create income, impact, and flexibility in my own business, and for the hundreds of psychologists and therapists I've supported over the last five years.

I'd love to see you there. You can sign up here: https://psychologybusinessschool.mykajabi.com/offers/fnr6d7si/checkout 

Shownotes

The most valuable lesson from Evolve and Thrive: The real reason psychologists and therapists burnout and procrastinate

I wanted to talk about something which has been really troubling me for the past few months, maybe even longer. It's the most valuable lesson that I've learned from my group coaching program, Evolve and Thrive, which is a coaching program designed for people ready to take the next step in their practice. Maybe they've already built something successful and they're ready to move beyond the therapy room or start bringing in different income sources. These are all people that I respect hugely. There is not a single person in Evolve and Thrive that I'm not slightly intimidated by because of their amazing careers and the expertise that they're bringing for their clients. But there has been something really striking that is holding most of the people in Evolve and Thrive back, and what we've spent most of our time on together as a group. I wanted to bring it into the light because I've noticed that almost everybody thinks that they're alone with this, and if you're struggling, you are absolutely not alone with this.

I want to start by saying that all the knowledge that we need to be successful in business is already out there. This was not the case when I started this podcast back in 2020, but it very much is the case now. You've got AI at your fingertips to search the web for you. You've got YouTube, podcasts, good old-fashioned books, any question you have, you can find the answer to all of them. And psychologists and therapists are always intelligent people who can find the things that they need if they're looking for them. Despite this, I keep hearing the same things over and over again, the things which are getting people stuck are burnout and a tendency to overwork even when they can feel that that burnout is close, and paralysis or procrastination, often both. I've been coaching other mental health professionals for over five years now, and I've realised that although it kicks in at different moments, for different people, there are two things that hold people back in growing their practices, there are two things that lead to that procrastination pattern and that continuous dance on the edge of burnout, and neither of those is being bad at tech.

Sometimes it's that their bodies and minds have acclimatised to a punishing and relentless workload, so a more relaxed working week, the thing they often tell me that they want more than anything, actually it doesn't feel safe, so they avoid it by breaking boundaries, saying yes when they know it should be a no, or never making the time to think about changing their practice.

Or maybe they've absorbed stories and identities that they'd have to give up if they created a more comfortable working life for themselves. That ‘suffering public servant’ narrative, the ‘selfless helping professional’, even the ‘on the brink of burnout professional’, they're all identities that we worked hard to wear and giving them up can feel like a rejection of the more positive aspects of those identities. You know, I remember thinking to myself, if I'm not burning out in the NHS, maybe I don't get to feel like the selfless helping professional anymore. Maybe that makes me a selfish helping professional and that doesn't feel comfortable and it's something I wrestled with a lot and continue to; you know, this is not something that you work through once and get to the other side of, and for many of us, that leads to paralysis that looks a lot like procrastination. Because you're torn in two different directions, so staying uncomfortably on the fence instead is safer than pulling yourself apart. 

For others, it leads to undercharging and often that very real financial fear. When you are riding that rollercoaster of never quite feeling secure financially in your practice, maybe on a good month, it's great, but then the next month is a bit slower and suddenly you are panicking again. That fear then leads to the breaking boundaries, saying yes to everything, ironically, avoiding and never looking at the numbers in the business, or you know, never allowing yourself the luxury of looking for new ways of doing things, or reviewing your financial plan. And so instead, you're maintaining this constant state of near burnout, which is kind of what you got used to. 

There are other stories too that stop people from building the lives that they want to live. Things like, ‘I'm too old’, or ‘I'm not the kind of person who…’, ‘I'm not confident enough’, ‘I'm not good enough with tech’, ‘I hate marketing’. All of these stories just shut down the things that we think are possible for ourselves. And what I love about coaching is that once these patterns and stories are brought to light, my clients are all really well equipped to tackle them and to support each other as they move through the discomfort of making those changes. It is such a pleasure to work with psychologists and therapists because as a group, we are just as susceptible as anyone else to blind spots and avoidance, but it is absolutely awesome to get to work with people who already have amazing skills and full up toolkits to make that change once they've recognised it and decided to make it.

Something I have noticed though, which again is maybe a bit unique to mental health professionals, is that the stories that stick with us, the trickiest ones to move past, are the ones that we've absorbed from our professional culture. The ones that lead to that dreaded peer fear that comes up in at least 80% of my coaching conversations. What are other people, other professionals, usually going to think if we try something new? Am I going to be labelled as money grabbing or a sellout? And the fact is, I can't reassure people that they're never going to face judgment from other psychologists and therapists. Instead, we have to get into our compassionate selves and think about what that judgment and our reaction to it does and does not mean. 

Together we think about whether the feelings we have about it might be useful because sometimes they are, they can encourage us to seek peer debate over some ethical concerns we have. And you know, I think that peer debate is the only way to resolve ethical concerns when we're working at the frontier and we're trying out new things where there's not an obvious precedent for us to follow. But we also think about what that judgment is most likely to mean in the context it was given. And often when we do that, we recognise that there are many factors well outside of our new product or our new service, or even ourselves, that might have led somebody to make those judgemental comments that they've made. It's so much easier to accept and move through the anxiety that inevitably comes up around judgment from our peers when we can look at it in its full context and think about its true meaning.

I hope that gives you some food for thought. If you feel like it's time to make a change in your business, but something keeps holding you back, maybe you've been blaming yourself for continuously burning out, or maybe you've had advice before and are beating yourself up all the time because you haven't felt able to take it. Maybe you've called yourself names like procrastinator, or got frustrated over your paralysis. I just want you to know that it's not unusual, it's not about your knowledge, it's not about your skills, it's not about who you are as a person. It's that you are working through something that is really difficult and that many of us have to work through, over and over and over again, and it's part of the vulnerability of being in business and you deserve support with that. And actually that recognition is why I don't sell standalone online courses anymore, because at the beginning everyone, including me, thought that knowledge was the problem. But I've learned from my work over the last five years of my one-to-one coaching clients that it so rarely was a knowledge gap. So now I offer group coaching with a learning portal attached, because once you've got the mindset sorted, you are in a great position to absorb and do creative things with the knowledge that's available to you. But you can't skip that coaching around the mindset piece. 

I'd really love to hear if any of this resonated with you, and if it did, you might want to come along to my free masterclass on November the 17th. The link will be in the show notes, and I'd really love to see you there.

Full show notes for this episode are available at The Business of Psychology

Links/references:

Episode 103: Why you should specialise – old gold that is still important

Episode 127: What matters to our clients in private practice?

Episode 128: Who are you helping? Three ways to specialise your psychology or therapy practice

Episode 129: How to make sure your marketing actually works: How to use authority for psychologists and therapists

Episode 152: Thinking differently about your practice: A tool to put the client first

Episode 158: How to find your ideal clients in 2025: SEO for psychologists and therapists with Chris Morin

Links for Rosie:

Substack: substack.com/@drrosie

Rosie on Instagram:

@rosiegilderthorp

@thepregnancypsychologist

Evolve Your Practice: The map to more income, impact and flexibility

Are you craving more flexibility in your practice? 

Maybe you've built something amazing and you're proud of your business, but it's also bringing you to the brink of burnout. 

Maybe you want to use your skills differently and create recurring revenue outside the therapy room. 

Whether your priority is financial stability or flexibility, or both, adding recurring revenue streams into your business is essential.

If you want time, freedom, more income, and to make a bigger impact for your client group, join me for a free masterclass on Monday, the 17th of November at 11:00 AM and I'll show you how I use my values, voice and impact framework to create income, impact, and flexibility in my own business, and for the hundreds of psychologists and therapists I've supported over the last five years.

I'd love to see you there. You can sign up here: https://psychologybusinessschool.mykajabi.com/offers/fnr6d7si/checkout 

Shownotes

Stop spending money on social media: The biggest mistake private practice owners are making in digital marketing 

Today we're focusing on social media, because one thing I have noticed about people that come into my Evolve and Thrive program is they've often already been spending money or time trying to build a social media audience because they think it's a prerequisite for adding additional income streams into their practice.

Firstly, it is not true that you always have to do social media to add new revenue streams. Even passive income doesn't always have to involve social media. But what we're focusing on today is the danger of spending loads of time or loads of money on social media before you've done the work on your marketing strategy, because I see so much waste when that happens. 

First, I'm going to talk a bit about the perils, and then I'm going to give you some practical strategy advice using my Values, Voice and Impact framework that I use with all my coaching clients so that you can invest in social media safely and effectively and actually make your investment back from it. 

The Mistakes

Let's get started by thinking about the mistakes, because honestly, my heart hurts when I meet a new client who has already outsourced their marketing or hired a new social media manager or one of those fancy, all-inclusive marketing agencies. And it's not because those are bad things to do, but they are usually bad if we do them too soon.

Social media is just a way of reaching people. It's a marketing channel, just in the same way that a poster on a lamppost is a marketing channel. Except in 2025, every lamppost you pass has a thousand posters, blue-tacked over the top of each other competing for your eyeballs. You wouldn't expect the fact you had a poster on a lamppost to do anything for your marketing, would you? You'd probably think that the content of that poster was quite important. You'd probably also consider the position of the poster; whether it was on a lamppost outside a busy coffee shop or in a country lane, whether you were at the top or three sheets deep at the bottom, you'd instinctively know that all of those things were really crucial.

Social media managers tend to have no idea how to tackle good quality content or positioning for mental health professionals, so they mostly post content that is so bland and uninspiring, you might as well be sticking up a blank sheet of paper in a country lane. I am afraid that you have to be fully in charge of the marketing strategy for your business. Strategy cannot be delegated. Graphic design can be delegated, copywriting can be delegated, but the strategy is all yours.  

I'm going to use my values, voice and impact framework that underpins the coaching in my group programs like Startup and Evolve and Thrive to show you what you need to have in place before you go hiring help.

Values

We start with the values. To put together a strategy, you first need to understand what you want from your business and what your clients needs from you. Here is where we do all the work on personal and professional values, picking a specialism, narrowing to a client group and really understanding what matters to that group. 

I've recorded episodes before on the tools that we can use here, like the customer persona and the value proposition that can help us get that really deep understanding of the priorities of our client group. And that work can only be done by you because it's psychological work, and actually the majority of people who work in marketing are used to marketing products, which don't involve anything like the emotional investment that we are asking our clients to make, even if we're selling them a book or an online course. And so we need to be using our skills as mental health professionals to really get under the skin and understand our clients in the way that most marketing professionals aren't used to doing. 

I do find peer discussions very helpful here though, so do use your colleagues, but more importantly, as I talk about in all the episodes around customer personas and value propositions, get out and talk to your actual client group and test ideas out with them. 

Voice 

The second stage is about voice, because what content you should post is also determined by your expertise. Everything you produce should be aiming to build your authority with your client group. You should be proud of the body of work that you put out there into the world on social media. It needs to carry your authentic voice, and most importantly, you need to be spreading the messages that your client group need to hear from you, specifically. 

If you've done your values work well, you'll have a good idea of the things that your ideal client group desperately want to hear about, and you'll know the language that they use too. Pick three to five of those things that align with your expertise and make those your content pillars - the things that you always talk about online. I always suggest writing out about five to ten stories that illustrate that you really understand those things, that you understand the struggles that your clients face related to those topics, and you can link them directly to the things that they want to hear you talking about. For example, if you think that they want advice from you about burnout, write out some compelling stories that show you really understand burnout; either stories from your personal life, anonymised client stories, it could be anything, but stories are so much more compelling than how-tos or advice lists. So making sure you've got some of those in your back pocket that you can repurpose over and over again for various posts on social media is really helpful.

Impact

The final stage is impact. In order to make your marketing strategy effective, you have to know the journey you want potential clients to take. What do they need to know about you to make a decision to take the next step, and buy your course, buy your book, become a client.

Some of the content you create will be designed to raise awareness of your existence. Some will be designed to encourage trust, show your authority, and some will be designed to directly sell your services. We need to fully understand the purpose of our content and what we want it to do for our clients and the business before we can even think about what social media platforms or posts make sense. 

At this stage, you also need to think about where your content will have the most impact. You use your understanding of the client group to decide: 

• where they're most likely to see and be receptive to your awareness content 
• where they'd like to get to know you better 
• and how it makes sense for them to book with you or buy your product. 

You can't let a marketing professional tell you those things because it's really likely that you are the person that knows that client group best, whereas a marketing professional is very likely to make assumptions, which are probably a bit too broad brush for the kind of client groups that we are dealing with. 

Finally, you need to know what good looks like. Know the metrics that tell you your marketing is working. If your business priority is referrals, then volume of referrals is the key metric. If your priority is book sales, that's the key metric. You might also measure one or two things that might show progress before the sales come in, like website traffic, but never get caught up in vanity metrics. Lots of followers, but no sales, still means a business that's going to go under. Really good engagement, but no sales still leads to a business that's going to go under. A lot of marketing professionals out there, especially those who've kind of set up freelance, maybe haven't been connected to the wider business goals of a bigger business, they're just not going to make that link. A lot of social media managers out there don't necessarily look beyond the social media content. It is your job to understand how the social media content ultimately leads to profit in your business and impact for your clients. They won't necessarily take an interest in that or really think beyond the things that they're creating in Canva or scheduling for you.

If you try and delegate marketing before you have all of this strategy mapped out, you are most likely going to lose money and you're going to get annoyed with your social media manager. And that's not fair on anybody. And I say this, having done it many times. I've delegated to social media managers, and it has not worked out lots of times, and it's taken me a long time to realise that that's because I was just giving them too much control over the strategy and expecting them to have skills that they just don't have. And that really isn't meant to sound judgemental or to diminish the expertise that they do have in any way, because their skillset is really defined and really good and I don't have it, and I need it. I do have a social media manager, and it makes my life much better, but they're not strategists. Most of them are not strategists, and even the ones that are, don't tend to be very well experienced in mental health services. So, for us, I could not emphasise more strongly, you need to let yourself be in the driving seat, do not allow someone else to take control of your marketing. You are the boss, you know what your clients need better than anybody. So, enjoy the process because you'll be really good at it if you let yourself use your skills to do it well.

I really hope that this has been a helpful and practical episode to help you save money when you do decide to outsource social media. Please let me know what you think over on Instagram. I'm @RosieGilderthorp and I'd really love to hear from you.