Feeling Good About Your Fee Through The Concept of Tithing

Tithing is the practice of giving 10% of your income to where you are spiritually fed. For most who tithe that means their church, temple, mosque or religious community. I believe in this practice and follow it, and have found it a wonderful too, but this post is not about being pro-tithing, it's about you charging your full fee.

Here in Seattle, the most un-churched big city in the U.S., most of my clients do not belong to a church or religious community. And yet, so much of the work done in the therapy room has a spiritual essence. For me, the basis of my work, where it begins, is sitting in the knowing of the perfection of my client's soul. They may have problems with their brains, their thoughts, their moods, their families, their history. But I know with them and for them what is possible. That they are ultimately loveable and loved, despite whatever symptoms or defenses they are showing me.

It has helped me feel confident about charging my full fee to realize that for these clients, I am where they are being spiritually fed. And in that analogy, I am certainly not charging 10% of their wages :-)

Namaste, Your Grateful Guy

One of Many Reasons I Know You Can Make a Living At Psychotherapy: Look at the Mall

So I have long fought the scarcity mentality that seems to be alive in the mental health field. That attitude that we can't make a good living being a therapist, or that it's getting worse, etc. etc. Phooey. That's a crock.

One way I know this is by going to the mall. Have you been to a mall lately? It's amazing how much stuff there is for sale. Stuff that no one really needs. Malls are not about needs, they are about wants and about stuff, and when I see blue jeans that cost more than a session with me, I know there is money out there to be spent. If I can provide value, there is money out there to be made.

The other side of the mall issue for me is this: being consumers - being shallow, stuff-minded, appearance-oriented, instant-gratification people - will at some point wear off for each human. At some point they will realize this is a dead-end that does not make them happy. At some point, they will realize that they want and need help in understanding what it means to be human and how to live a fulfilling life. And therapists will be there to help.

I've got other reasons why therapy is a growth industry, but that's for another day.

Best, A Grateful Man.

Gratitude - the spiritual tool for this Thanksgiving weekend

Meister Eckhart said "If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, 'thank you,' that would suffice." For reasons both spiritual and psychological, focusing on gratitude makes sense in experiencing a fuller life.

For a private practice, this can mean actively giving thanks each time a new client contact happens, each time you make a deposit, each time you connect with a possible referral source.

It can also mean starting each day by making a gratitude list, of things currently in your life that you are grateful for.

I am grateful for this career which allows me to do what I was really born to do, and be financially supported for doing it.

Yours, Peter

Welcome Fellow Private Practice Owners!

Welcome to this new blog. I'm a psychotherapist in my fifth year of practice. I've built it using tools both technological (see http://www.yourgoogleguy.com/ where I do PPC Adwords consulting for other professionals) and esoteric. This blog is about those esoteric tools.

These tools are various and known by different names - intention, Spirit, Law of Attraction, visualization, affirmation, prayer, belief, and I will often use the G-word. Yes, God.

I know I may lose some of you here, but in this Blog I'll be telling you what I've experienced as true. And this is what I've found - my clients come from God. I work for God. I used to think they come from Google or the Internet or my business card, but now I know they come from God. Feel free to think "Higher Power", "Spirit", or "The Universe" if you'd like instead. God is shorter to type. Also, these are not meant to favor *or* exclude Christians, Buddhists, Agnostics, New Thought followers or anyone else.

Along with knowing my clients come from God I also then know this:
- there are enough clients for me
- I don't have to struggle to get these clients

There are things you can do - and I'll get into these in later posts. This may be enough of a shock for you for now.

Namaste! Your Grateful Guy