We were lucky to catch up with Kevin Nahai recently and have shared our conversation below.

Kevin, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear the backstory of how you established your own practice.

The early days: I was 26 years old starting graduate school. For the previous 7 years I had been suffering from a debilitating autoimmune disease that I had just started to get under control. I had major anxiety, I was going through a terrible breakup. no money, and no previous work experience that was relevant to what I wanted to do with my future. All I knew was that I wanted to help people with their mental and emotional health in some capacity, but I had no idea where to start.

Today: By the grace of God I have a thriving, full-time Therapy & Coaching practice in West LA. I work with individuals, couples, and groups, both virtually and in-person. I frequently lecture at schools, businesses, and conferences. With humility I have helped hundreds of people get married or engaged, switch careers, make more money, overcome addiction, reduce anxiety, find peace of mind, and more. After so many years of depression, anxiety, and physical illness, I am finally living out my life’s purpose, immersed in the fullest giving of my gift.

It has been a long road with many mistakes and ups and downs. Anyone who tells you that success is a simple, quick, or linear process probably hasn’t had very much of it or maintained it for very long. Having said that, I will do my best to lay out the most important steps (not necessarily in order) I took in order to get from A to B.

Some of these are specific to those who want to go into the mental health field; others are relevant to everyone regardless of industry. I hope they help.

1. Get a mentor who is in the field. Therapy and coaching do not lend themselves nicely to traditional forms of marketing, advertising, or sales strategy. Therefore, one of the best things I ever did was to hire someone who could teach me how they built their practice, having done it themselves.

2. What you fear is where you should go. If you are afraid to spend that $10,000 on a new certification, it is probably what you need to do. If you are afraid to start your private practice, you probably have a yearning for it in your heart. Be courageous. Great blessings usually occur on the other side of fear.

3. Do not be the therapist who says “Do as I say, not as I do.” If you would recommend something to your client, you better be living by it yourself. There is no replacement for authenticity and legitimacy, and there is nothing worse than a mental health practitioner who gives great guidance, but their private life is in shambles. Therefore, you have to make sure you are cut out for this. It is a large burden of responsibility, and your personal mental health must be sound.

4. Take the action you can take today. Have a vision for where you would like to go and then reverse engineer to what you can do right now. No matter how meticulously you plan out every step, it will change! You don’t have to know how it is all going to unfold; you just have to be brave enough to take an action now.

5. Distinguish yourself. What makes you different than everyone else in your industry? What is your unique skill? What unique outcome can you provide? Before you worry about making money, scaling, hiring other people, etc, discover the answers to these questions. Figure out the reason that you are different or better, and make sure it is specific.

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.

I am a Therapist & Coach in Los Angeles, CA! I work with individuals, couples, families, and groups, both virtually and in-person. I help people with their love lives (whether single, married, or experiencing challenges), anxiety, depression, addiction, career issues, difficult life transitions, and poor habits. I absolutely love what I do!

I got into this work both because because of my personal struggles and because of my personal experience with therapy/coaching.

When I was 19 I was diagnosed with an extremely painful autoimmune disease, from which I suffered for the better part of a decade. As a result of the illness, I fell into a painful spiral of depression, panic attacks, body dysmorphia, self-harm, and eating disorders.

To help with all of this, I hired various therapists, coaches, and specialists. I was in some form of therapy for 7 years consistently, week in week out. There is no doubt that these practitioners saved my life, and to them I am eternally grateful.

However, I kept noticing that no matter how great the provider was, there were still some gaps that were not being filled. There were things I wanted that I wasn’t getting. The Therapists had the things the Coaches didn’t, the Coaches had the things the Therapists didn’t, but no one had it all.

Therefore, I set out to create a hybrid model that was better than what I had experienced, and it is this model that A) creates such incredible results for my clients and B) sets me apart.

For example, I wanted concrete advice, tools, and steps. Therapists are not trained to provide any of this, which makes sense but often results in inadequate results for clients. Therefore, if my clients ask for it, I will give them the pure unadulterated truth and a practical process that they can actually follow to their desired outcome.

I also wanted to be able to contact my therapist outside of the 50 minutes per week that we would meet. What good does it do if I meet with a trainer once a week, but never go to the gym the other 6 days? Therefore, if my clients want it, they have the option to call/text me outside of our sessions for additional accountability, support, and guidance.

These are a couple of ways in which I am different from most providers. However, what I am most proud of is my ability to take very complex psychological concepts and boil them down into easily intelligible and digestible lessons that my clients carry with them. It is a great feeling when someone says to me “OMG, I have been trying to wrap my head around this for 15 years…now that you explained it that way, I finally get it!!!”

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

I alluded to this previously, but it is so important that it bears repeating: walking the walk and talking the talk. There is no replacement for authenticity and legitimacy. I believe I have created a strong reputation for myself because I live by the lessons I teach. When clients get to know me, they see that I live a peaceful, simple, fulfilling, values-driven life. To be sure, I have plenty of vices and challenges and flaws, but to work through them I employ all the same tools I give to my clients. All the most successful people I aspire to are ones who lead by example.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

It is pretty simple: being the best at what you do. When I first started out, everyone was telling me how important it is to scale, market, build a brand, sell my services, et cetera. There was only one problem: I was an amateur! If you put in your 10,000 hours, create real results for people, and focus on really mastering your craft, the clients will come.

Contact Info:

• Website: kevinnahai.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/kevinnahai
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@KevinNahai/videos
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/kevin-nahai-los-angeles

Image Credits
Doug Long, Xenia Leo