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

Hi Danielle, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about how you went about setting up your own practice and if you have any advice for professionals who might be considering starting their own?

When I first went to graduate school as a social worker, the narrative was always “we’re in it for the OUTCOME, not the INCOME”. I made the same salary after I graduated with my masters as I did working with just my bachelor’s, and it took years of struggling to figure out that I was able to do more for myself financially. After a series of low paying, high burnout jobs at community agencies, I began working at a group therapy practice in 2021, where I found my passion for trauma therapy with individuals, couples, and groups. While I enjoyed the freedom of working at a group practice versus a typical 9-5 job, I felt that I wanted more independence on how to run my practice, which insurances to take (or not take), and more control over my expenses and overhead. In June 2023, I took the leap of faith and began my own private therapy practice. I really enjoyed managing everything myself in my own practice, but the issues of insurance companies paying low rates, taking back thousands of dollars from services I had rendered years prior, and services being denied were becoming too much to manage. In May 2024, I invested in a business coaching program run by Amanda Buduris in order to transition off of insurance companies and increase my private practice income while seeing fewer clients per week. With Amanda’s support, I was able to redo my entire website, invest time and energy into SEO marketing, transition from accepting 5 insurance companies to only 1, and increase my private pay rate from $150 to $200. I have also begun offering therapy intensives for trauma and/or couples therapy. I have gained confidence in myself enough to become a guest speaker on podcasts about trauma therapy, and I have been accepted as a Breakout Speaker at the Postpartum Support International Conference in New Orleans in July teaching about trauma therapy. My advice to any young professional starting a private practice would be to invest in support and education about marketing, whether it be SEO, social media, or local networking (or all three) in order to gain private pay clients and reduce burnout. Additionally, changing my mindset about money has been so important in helping to build my confidence and understand that I am providing a valuable service that deserves fair compensation.

Danielle, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Danielle Sampson, LCSW, PMH-C, and I am a licensed clinical social worker licensed in New York and Pennsylvania. I am a therapist and private practice owner located in Buffalo, NY. I specialize in working with complex trauma in individuals, couples, and groups, particularly those in the LGBTQ+ population. I am certified in Individual Schema Therapy through the International Society of Schema Therapists, and certified in Perinatal Mental Health through Postpartum Support International. I am a certified Safe and Sound Protocol Practitioner, and I love helping folks reduce nervous system activation using EMDR and the Safe and Sound Protocol. I provide therapy intensives (multiple hours/days of therapy for accelerated progress) to couples and individuals with trauma using EMDR, schema therapy, and the Gottman Method. I provide SEO marketing business coaching to other therapists seeking to improve their online presence, build their websites to rank higher on Google, and attract more private pay clients. I also facilitate an online community of LGBTQ+ folks called “Getting Bi: Practical Coping Skills for Being Queer and Trans in 2025”, which involves coping skills for trauma that actually work to help your nervous system relax, as well as support groups, journal prompts, and a safe place to connect with other LGBTQ+ folks.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

When I was newly graduated from my MSW program, I had gotten a job at Catholic Charities in their foster care and adoption program after interning there during my second year of graduate school. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I was under the impression that although the Catholic Church was not accepting of LGBTQ+ folks, the foster care and adoption program there was open to foster and adoptive parents of any gender or sexual orientation due to regulations put in place by New York State. One day, I facilitated an information session with a gay couple who was looking to adopt a baby. I reassured them that their sexual orientation would not limit them from adopting with our program. Unfortunately, word of this got out to a bigoted community member, who complained to the Bishop of the Diocese of Buffalo. Catholic Charities then made the decision to eliminate our entire program rather than allow any LGBTQ+ folks to become foster parents. I was laid off merely 4 months after graduating, for a reason that was completely against my moral and ethical beliefs. Although this was a very stressful period of my life, I was able to transition to another (non-religious) organization providing similar services, but this experience really emphasized my desire to advocate for the LGBTQ+ community in any position where I was working. This has led me to specialize a large portion of my practice on working with the LGBTQ+ community and has led me to provide certain services at significantly reduced or no cost, such as providing gender-affirming surgery letters for free to any trans or gender non-conforming person in NY or PA. My Getting Bi membership is also priced equitably in order to ensure access for anyone.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

The two most effective strategies I have used to grow my clientele are word of mouth marketing/referrals and SEO marketing. Over the last four years, I have become well known in the Buffalo therapy community for providing couples therapy that is compassionate, structured, and effective at meeting my clients’ goals. Many of the referrals I receive for couples therapy are from other therapists, or even friends of my current couples, all because they have seen the results for themselves. I have also invested a significant amount of time, effort, and resources toward SEO marketing with my website. This has helped me to attract clients from all over New York and Pennsylvania who are seeking trauma therapy, couples therapy, LGBTQ+ affirming therapy, or therapy intensives. Even small tweaks such as writing a blog post about a topic of your specialty or adjusting the wording of the headers on your website can make a big difference over time!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.traumatherapybuffalo.com and www.daniellesampsoncoaching.com
• Instagram: @gettingbi.together
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61565411330777
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-stoner-sampson-lcsw-pmh-c-7439b667/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@GettingBiTogether
• Other: Threads: @gettingbi.together
  Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/gettingbitogether/