We were lucky to catch up with Danielle Guinan recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Danielle , thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory of how you established your own practice.

Opening my own private practice was something I knew I wanted to do early on in my medical training. The problem was, they don’t teach you much about business in medical school!

I sought out mentors during my residency and fellowship, and their guidance helped lay the groundwork for what was necessary to set up a medical practice. I read blogs and joined a Private Practice Psychiatry group on Facebook which had tons of information on a variety of topics (e.g. What are the pros and cons of accepting insurance? What type of electronic medical record system is best? Should the business be classified as an S-Corp or PLLC?). Meeting with a CPA who specializes in medical practices was also very helpful during this process.

It was a bit scary opening a practice right out of training. I had a large amount of debt from medical school and no source of income. I lived with my parents to save on rent and actually took a small personal loan from my father to help with start-up costs. I also had to build a referral network and find patients, something that can take time for practices that don’t accept insurance. Additionally, it was my first time practicing medicine without attending supervision and while I felt very prepared by my training, it was still intimidating.

I’ve definitely made mistakes along the way, but overall the effort and risk was well worth it. For those who are interested in opening their own private practice, I would say you can absolutely do it but you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. There are people who have done this before and you can use their experience and knowledge as a foundation to build the practice and career you want.

Danielle , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a medical doctor and founder of Seaglass Psychiatry, a psychiatric private practice based in southeast Florida specializing in child, adolescent, and adult psychiatry. I treat a wide range of mental illnesses including mood, anxiety, sleep, impulse control, trauma, and behavioral disorders.

I use a variety of treatment options to help my patients including medications, therapy, and various nutritional supplements. I studied nutritional sciences during my undergraduate training and have been fascinated by the role nutrition and gut health plays on our physical and mental well-being. Since completing my formal medical training, I’ve taken additional training courses to expand my knowledge base on various integrative forms of treatment, including testing for specific micronutrient imbalances and using vitamins to help restore balance in certain biochemical pathways. I believe the food we eat can play an enormous role in how we feel and am a big proponent of a “food is medicine” approach to overall health.

One of the main reasons I chose to open a private practice (vs joining an existing clinic or working for a large medical system) is that I get to provide the care I feel people deserve. My philosophy is to see, understand, and treat the whole person, not just prescribe a pill and send you on your way. Seeing my patients improve and need my services less because they are doing better with their mental health is so rewarding and makes me feel most proud.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Practicing medicine has become increasingly challenging for physicians. They are burdened with hours of administrative work, insurance company authorizations, and pressure to see more patients. Unfortunately, this can have negative impacts on the quality of care patients receive. When opening my practice, I chose to be out of network with insurance companies to avoid this. As a fee for service model, I can spend more time with my patients and practice medicine autonomously. I can also utilize more integrative treatment approaches that typically are not offered in more traditional, in-network psychiatry offices. I think my patients appreciate the time I spend with them and the treatment relationship we’re able to form. Word of mouth referrals are my main source of marketing, and knowing a patient trusts me enough to refer their friend or family member to me is the best compliment.

If you could go back, would you choose the same profession, specialty, etc.?

Yes, I would absolutely choose psychiatry again and can’t imagine a more gratifying profession. Working in mental health allows access to all aspects of the human experience. You share in people’s successes, failures, and heartbreaks. You help support people in becoming better versions of themselves and thus better partners, parents, and friends. You can shape the lives of children and give them the tools to reach their full potential. My patients constantly inspire me with their honesty, vulnerability, stories of triumph, and wisdom and the more I practice psychiatry, the more humbled I am by the resiliency of the human spirit.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.seaglasspsychiatry.com/