Designing The Dream - Connect With Your Purpose And Build Your Therapy Practice

Live the life you imagined when you decided to train as a therapist
"A thoroughly intensive and well thought out course that takes you on a journey from start to finish in developing your therapy business. It covers everything that you could possibly think of and things that you would not have thought of too. I would highly recommend this course to any new therapist wanting to step out into the world of private practice"
Hayley McAuley
"This was SO incredibly helpful - nowhere have I ever seen such an easy to use business spreadsheet. I will be using it in my own business going forward"
Jackie Salmon
"I found this course helpful on so many levels. It helped me to further establish my 'vision' for my business, including whom I wanted to work with and why; clarify my 'message'; as well as how to promote my business and find clients - amongst many other skills acquired"
Emma Wicks

Course Summary

Designing the Dream 

The course helping therapists create their successful therapy practice

This online course is CPD Accredited by the APHP for their members and graduates.

This course is written by a practicing therapist, for therapists and counsellors, who want to work for themselves and lead a happy and fulfilled life, doing what they love - helping others.

The aim of this course is to help you to understand your business and how you want to develop it.  Check out the Curriculum lower down the page you'll see you have access to all of Module 0, and Module 1 and the first two sessions of Module 2. Be warned Module 1 can be a bit scary, as you will be spending time reviewing your current financial status. "brutal but necessary" was how one student described working through this section.

By the end of the course you will have created a workable plan or blueprint to allow you to create the therapy practice you want.

Working through the modules shown below you will have the chance to work on your business rather than in it. I know that is becoming a bit of an overused phrase, however, it is important to take time developing your therapy practice and have a plan to follow consistently, that will keep you on track.

So my Promise to You on completing Designing the Dream is that you will feel happy with the blueprint you have created to build your successful therapy practice.

HAPPY with having defined your ideal client

HAPPY with the services or packages you offer and your fee levels

HAPPY that you have your best strategy for promoting your services in a way that suits you

HAPPY that you have gone from uncertain and overwhelmed to feeling more in control, organised and confident in your abilities to grow your therapy practice

HAPPY with your mindset about money, marketing and recognising your skills and abilities as a business person AND therapist

The Objectives for the course are, that by the end, you will:

Know your current business position and your business and life financial situation

Have clarified your business aims and aspirations and what resources you have to help you

Know who you want to work with and how, and have decided your fee level

Know what you are going to continue, stop or start doing, to promote your business

Have a rolling monthly action plan to help you be consistent and get you there.
(As you well know it’s fine having a plan but unless it’s put into action you aren’t going to get anywhere!)

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

The purpose is to help create a thriving therapy practice that’s right for you. It’s based on my experience and that of colleagues and friends who are full-time therapists.

Over the 6 modules you will review where you are now, including time spent investigating your current business and life financial situation. Then focus on your purpose and future. You then move onto three fundamental areas: the type of person and issue you want to work with: how you are going to provide that work: your fees.

You then spend a whole module looking at promoting your business. I don’t teach you how to use specific social media platforms, they change so quickly I’d be updating material monthly! I do take you through the things you need to consider when choosing how you are going to market your business, including building networks and referrals. It also provides information on how to write about what you do so that you attract your ideal clients. You also think about how you are going to measure the success of your promotional activities.

The last module introduces you to some tools and techniques that will help you plan your business growth and manage your time effectively as you balance seeing clients, running your business and home life! There are two sections on managing your money mindset and your attitude to marketing and promoting your business. These are the main ‘blocks’ that stop us from achieving our desired outcome.

By the end you’ll have an implementation plan to follow which will allow you to create and grow your therapy practice.

You can see the curriculum further down the page. As I said earlier you can work through some of the modules to get a taste of the full course.

You can use it to help you think about getting your therapy practice off the ground. In Module 1 the taking a snapshot questions can help you think about what you need to consider, as you may not have started any of the areas we consider. The financial spreadsheets might seem a bit daunting if you aren’t used to considering your income and expenditure. However, as a business person you need to get comfortable managing your income and expenditure. Yes, you can use an accountant at the end of the year for your tax assessment. I do, and I still work on projections of my annual figures to plan what I spend on marketing, and other outgoings. The other modules will help you put in place the foundations from which you can build your business. 

This course will help you take time to work on your business rather than muddle through day to day.  Some of it might be familiar and just be a reminder that you know how to do that ‘thing’. Other areas might give you ways of thinking and working that you hadn’t considered, including reflecting on your ideal client and fee structure.  It’s a good idea to take time out of your daily routine and reflect on where your business is and where you want to take it. Sometimes we are so busy ‘doing’ we forget to look at the bigger picture. 

You can guess what I’m going to say. It depends!  The videos in the sections of the course vary from 2 to 12 minutes long. How long it takes you to complete the assignments in each section will depend on where you are in your business and how much work you put into them. Existing participants have taken between 12 and 15 weeks to complete the course.

If you decided to make time to work on it each day then you’d get through it more quickly than only doing an hour a month. In fact, if you did the latter you probably wouldn’t bother finishing it as you’d lose momentum!

As I mentioned there are six modules. The first, Module 0, is the introduction. The remaining five cover different aspects of developing your therapy business and are designed to build on each other. At the end you pull it together and write your action plan to implement.  

I felt that there were things that therapists needed to know about the business of running a successful practice that weren’t always covered in therapy trainings. I started working on developing this course mid 2020, during the Covid pandemic. I didn’t think it would take me as long as it did! However, it’s now up and running. I’ll be adding other products, courses and workshops in due course. 

There’s no ‘should’. It’s your choice. Yes, there are other coaches and courses out there, and they cover similar areas. As with therapy, no single person will suit everyone. So this course will be right for some and not for others. However, this course is based on my therapy practice experience of over 20 years, and my previous work experience.

My first degree is in fashion design (Yes I know! How did I get from that to helping people design their lives?)  Having married and moved to Inverness I eventually started my own business designing knitwear and running craft-classes. It was moderately successful and I learned a lot about how not to run a business!!

I chose to stop that when I applied for and got a job at Highland Hospice as their first full-time fundraiser. I was there for 10 years. I was not only responsible for planning and managing events and other fundraising activity but latterly oversaw the development and growth of the retail arm of the hospice. By the time I left we had grown from 1 charity shop and a gift shop to 8 charity shops, a warehouse and, within the hospice itself, a cafe and gift shop. I also recruited, trained and managed over 250 volunteers! During this time I also started studying with the Open University Business School and eventually achieved my MBA in 1999.

A new job took us south to Edinburgh and in 2002, I set up Carmor Associates to provide life and business coaching. As I built my knowledge and skills of networking and promoting my business, I also worked as an associate consultant for a couple of Consultancies. With one of these I ended up delivering management and fundraising training in Dominican Republic, Thailand, Colombia and Peru. Over the years I added more therapies to my toolkit and worked in a more integrative way.

When we moved back to the north-east of England in 2009 I started again, under my own name, offering hypnotherapy, coaching and NLP. I’ve added a few more tools since then including IEMT, Relationship Counselling and, latterly, BWRT. I’m also a supervisor for hypnotherapy and BWRT and an assessor for BWRT.

So, as you can see, not only do you get my therapy experience but the breadth of knowledge that went before! 

Yes you can. I work with individual therapists to help them focus on developing their practice. With 1:1 coaching we can focus on what you want to work on. There are different packages available, including an option which combines the Designing the Dream course with 1:1 coaching. This ensures you complete the course and implement your plan. You’ll find out more information about the different options here. 

Course Curriculum

Reviews

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Emma Wicks

A perfect course for anyone looking to start, or further their therapy business!

I found this course helpful on so many levels. It helped me to further establish my 'vision' for my business, including whom I wanted to work with and why; clarify my 'message'; as well as how to promote my business and find clients - amongst many other skills acquired.

1 year ago
Hayley McAuley

This course literally has everything!

From the first thought to the final set up of your business, this course has everything in between. A great mix of different media for different styles of learning. Really helpful worksheets and active and engaging MP4 downloads. Such a helpful and wonderful course for anyone starting out as a therapist.

1 year ago

Course Pricing

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