Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Christine Guerrero. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Christine, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear the backstory of how you established your own practice.

Starting my own practice was and has been quite an interesting process. How you view your field really expands when you are playing all parts of the role, hiring, developing processes, payroll, billing, marketing and more. I thought I was just going to provide therapy for people, but under myself! I think understanding that I am now an entrepreneur and not simply a therapist has helped me shift to understanding the tasks at hand to start and run a business.

Looking back, I think that I would have set up more of a structured business and marketing plan prior to “opening the doors.” While I have clients coming in (yay!), I also need to plan for my next business steps. Being the therapist vs. business owner leaves you with little creative time for business development. I also would have done more research to better understand the legal and ethical practice that might be different as an owner vs. an employee. As an example, looking up the difference between hiring an associate therapist vs. one that is licensed I had to quickly pivot upon finding out that associates cannot legally be contracted workers. Phew, crisis in potential non-compliance avoided!

My advice for any young professional who might be considering starting their own practice, is to take your time establishing your process. How are you going to track your profits, what do your contracts with clients as well as employees look like, do you have the right insurance coverage. But also, how are people scheduling with you, what is your marketing strategy and what will you do if it does not work?! Hopefully not give up. There are always other new and fresh ideas that can create growth.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Having always been interested in psychology I simply continued to follow that path. This led me to working with teens, which led me to getting my Masters in Social Work. Then after almost 10 years of practice I decided to start my own practice, focusing on supporting teens and families.

Often therapists in private practice enjoy supporting individuals and I have found it is hard to find someone who is willing, ready and wanting to support a whole family system. To do so really takes a lot of coordination, referring, patience and outreach. I figured out that this is something that I am willing and wanting to do! I love families, family dynamics, relationship dynamics, mastering best communication practices and developing emotional connections between loved ones.

If families are arguing too often, feel isolated from each other or constantly misunderstood, I can help with that. If families are finding it challenging to parent and feel at a loss, I have a wealth of ideas. If your teen is struggling with chronic mental health, at-risk behaviors, school refusal or a deficit in social skills I have experience in supporting these symptoms.

As the years have passed I have only become more passionate about the work which I hope my clients can see.

Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?

I think what can be most helpful to be successful in my field is simply remembering you are just a human talking to another human who has had different experiences. Empathy is everything. If you can come from a nonjudgmental place, listen and follow along with what someone is saying without adding your own stuff to it, you are off to a great start as a therapist. From there, if a positive and trusting rapport is built, therapy can start.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

I don’t have one!!! I did want one for some time though. I like to do things with others because it feels motivating and helps to hold me accountable. I have gone through several negotiations with others around partnering, however what I have learned over time is that it is awfully complicated to become a partner with someone. Is it better if it is a friend, a stranger? How is the split determined? I think what I learned is that while my working style might prefer a partner, I can also do this on my own and to not fear that. This was confidence I had to build over time.

Contact Info:

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

Image Credits

Killian Page