We were lucky to catch up with Erica Thompson recently and have shared our conversation below.

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

I started my private practice in January 2018. Up until that time I had worked in community mental health, college counseling centers, and dual diagnosis treatment programs. I was ready to take the leap into being my own boss in the search for greater work life balance. The biggest challenge was probably the fact that in grad school we received little to no education on what it took to be a business owner. For me, it was important to network with those who were established, to identify mentors, and to take advance of business coaching programs. Other things that set me up for success included a love of networking, identifying a space to run my practice that was round others in the field, and setting up some of the technical aspects of a private practice early (eg developing a website and EHR). It’s also important to have a niche. That’s one of the biggest pieces of advise that I’d give to a a therapist starting out. Know your speciality and your ideal client. Then you can market with them in mind. Also, get as much training and experience as you can early in your career so you are confident supporting individuals with a variety of struggles. I’m so grateful for the experiences I had early in my career working with a variety of clients in a variety of settings. It’s made me a better therapist today.

Erica , 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’m originally from Massachusetts, where I received my Master’s in Counseling Psychology with a concentration in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy from Assumption College in 2006. In my years of counseling experience, I’ve worked in variety of treatment settings, including community mental health, outpatient programs supporting individuals with both mental health and substance misuse disorders, and higher education. Prior to moving to California, I spent over six years working at Worcester Polytechnic Institute as both a counselor and later Associate Director of the Student Development & Counseling Center. There my responsibilities included counseling college students and overseeing all outreach and prevention education (substance abuse, suicide, and sexual assault prevention). While working at WPI, I had the privelege of working on two grants. SAMSHA’s Garrett Lee Smith Campus Suicide Prevention Grant and the DOJ Office of Violence Against Women Grant to Reduce Sexual Assault, Dating Violence, and Stalking. These grants allowed me to take part in trainings with national experts and to develop programs that support students.

I’ve seen amazing healing happen with clients especially using EMDR and IFS. I made the decision to go in to private practice so that I would be able to support individuals without the limitations of academic or program schedules and insurance driven time restraints. Sometimes the therapeutic work an individual wants and needs to do may take weeks or months, and sometimes that person has more long term goals.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I grew up, went to school, and began my career in Massachusetts. When I was in grad school my dream job was to work at a college counseling center. I was able to achieve that at 27. I loved my experience working there over nearly 8 academic years. A personal relationship led me to I make the decision to move cross country in 2014. It was scary because all of my loved ones were in Massachusetts and I was established in my career. When I arrived I had to start over in many ways. Professionally it was a huge shift. I now had to become licensed in a new state which comes with hurdles. Also, I had to reestablish myself professionally in a new state. I didn’t have the same network.. Positions in higher education counseling centers can be hard to find and they’re competitive when they do open. I did reach out to several institutions around the move to see if anyone was hiring but at the time, there weren’t any open positions. Luckily because of the wide range of professional experiences I had already had in my career I was able to find a position at a dual diagnosis treatment program. It was a great way to begin my career here and begin to build my network again. Once established here, my new dream job was to start my own private practice. In 2018 I was able to take that leap. I’ve now achieved two dream jobs in my career. I’m really proud of that.

2020 and the Covid19 pandemic brought a whole other set of challenges including a pivot to Telehealth. For nearly a year my practice was exclusively Telehealth. Luckily, because of the research and networking I had done earlier I was able to have a relatively smooth transition. It’s now been 4 years of a successful private practice. Today I offer both in person and Telehealth therapy.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Networking and being passionate about the population I work with has been most helpful. I really enjoy connecting with other professionals so networking has been huge for helping to build my reputation. When I first started my practice I reached out to programs I had worked with and to therapists through professional groups to set up coffee dates. I was also very clear in the population I wanted to work with in my private practice. I’m passionate about supporting individuals with trauma histories. I truly believe that IFS and EMDR therapy can help people. That comes through in those networking conversations. Networking also helps me to identify other professionals in the field who have other specialities. There are many talented therapists in the world, there are many here in San Diego. There are also many people who could benefit from the support of a therapist (we all could at some point). We don’t need to compete with each other. In fact, when we are all clear on our specialities we can more easily get clients to the person who can hopefully best meet their needs. It’s important to have a network to refer to and also a network to consult with. There is a wealth of knowledge and skill in the San Diego therapist community.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ericathompsontherapy.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ericathompsontherapy/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ericathompsontherapy/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericatolles/