Often I ask groups of therapists and coaches who are starting out in private practice what they feel they most need, and a lot of times I hear, “I need to know how to get more clients,”. I completely understand when you’re in the beginning of building that business, filling your private practice is likely what’s at the tip top of your mind. But there is a problem with this.
When you say you need to “get” clients, it sounds like you’re having to go on a hunt with a giant net to find, catch, and reel them in. That sounds exhausting and there is a degree of desperate energy there which people can sense like dogs smell fear.
I’m going to share with you a method that is far easier and much more fun based on a theory that you can be like a magnet to which clients will be drawn. This theory is that your thoughts, beliefs, feelings, words and actions will attract that which is compatible with those thoughts, beliefs, feelings, words and actions. If you are feeling desperate and thinking, “I need to get more clients! No one is calling. I have no money to pay the rent. I’m never going to make it in private practice!”, all the ideal clients that need you will likely never find you.
What are You Broadcasting?
Let’s consider how the law of physics translated by metaphysics says that opposites attract because they are energetically compatible and therefore we attract what is compatible with what we are broadcasting.
For example, a therapist and a client are opposites in terms of the role they play in the relationship, but they are compatible from an energetic standpoint because each one is seeking what the other has. The therapist has a service and a caring presence that will help the client’s anxiety and the client has anxiety and a desire for help which the therapist is trained to address. Because of this, the therapist and the client are drawn to one another. It is a case of “opposites attract”, but it also is an example of “like attracts like” each have something desirable to exchange.
While it may require stretching the empirically proven theories of science to consider your thoughts, beliefs, feelings, and words carry and broadcast a powerful force that can magically attract or repel people and experiences, it’s worth considering and practicing, right? As a therapist or coach you surely subscribe to the power of positive thinking, right? If you are a therapist, I know you are familiar with the long-proven effectiveness of cognitive restructuring. Think of this as fancified cognitive restructuring with a big dash of positive psychology.
The Magnetizing Method
Sometimes called the law of attraction, I like to refer to this practice as the magnetizing method. The very idea of drawing to you your ideal clients in droves just feels so much more wonderful than having to go out and beat the bushes, dragging people to your practice, right? So, let me give you the steps you need for filling your private practice in a fun and easier way.
7 Steps for Filling Your Private Practice Using the Magnetizing Method
- Decide and describe exactly who your ideal client is. You have to know what you want before you can draw it to you. It’s essential to be able to describe these ideal clients in detail. Think of it like placing an order with dietary specifics at a restaurant or ordering your dream car from a dealership. You need to know exactly what you want with great specification. Know that you don’t like working with clients who miss appointments, cancel and reschedule repeatedly? Great! This tells you what you DO want is clients who respect you time and schedule, are organized with time management and always show up for appointments on time. Do you know that you prefer working with clients who gladly complete their homework between sessions? There ya go. Maybe you know you really want clients who are able and willing to pay your full fee without flinching. Describe your ideal client to the greatest details you can and be sure you are phrasing it in the affirmative and not the negative. Turn all negatives around – from what you know you don’t want to what you DO want.
- Broadcast your ideal client description.
Lots of ways to do this. Write it down. Read it out loud repeatedly. Practice what I call embodied visualization where you focus on how you will feel in your body and mind when your days are filled with ideal clients coming in for those sessions. How will it feel? Name it. Describe it. FEEL it before it actually happens. You can create a physical vision board where you cut out words and images from magazines that represents your ideal client and put it somewhere you can see it every day. Start every morning with 5 minutes of a visualization meditation where you focus your entire mind and being on picturing and feeling your caseload full of ideal clients. See yourself having easy phone conversations with clients ready to schedule with you. See your calendar full with names of clients you love working with. If you are a praying person, create a prayer with emphasis on gratitude for the ideal clients that are now on their way to you. - Take action. After you have done the above and continue to practice steps 1 and 2 you’ll be able to get busy with your marketing plan. This is a co-creation magnetizing process. The difference is, when you are practicing steps 1 and 2, your actions to network and get the word out are now vibrating like a giant magnet. You’re no longer in a mindset of having to convince and beg people! You’re now a glowing light, radiating clarity and to this people will automatically be drawn – and not just any people! The people who are your ideal clients and referral sources for those clients. Your marketing and networking effort now turns into sharing who you are, what you do and how you help people while radiating that magnetizing energy. It’s fun! You love the fact you easily find chances to share who you are, what you do and how you help everywhere you go. So much that it no longer feels like marketing!
- Believe your ideal clients are on their way. Just like you trust the process of healing and growth for your clients, you MUST believe in the process of this magnetizing method. Believe that with consistent practice of steps 1-3 your ideal clients are on their way! There is a Chinese saying that translates to, “Sometimes a man must ride a cow while he looks for his horse.” For you, this means that you remain practical in that while you’re magnetizing your ideal clients and the bills need to pay you may temporarily need to keep your part time work. Consider this simply treading water while you await opportunity to swim easily and freely into your thriving private practice. You must BELIEVE that you are IN PROCESS of filling your private practice with ideal clients.
- Take your positivity doses daily. In order to remain in this magnetizing frequency you have to bathe your mind in positive thoughts, feelings and experiences. Negativity will pull you down very quickly and will interrupt or even stop this process. Read a daily devotional. Write down positive affirmations on sticky notes and post them all over your office, car and house. Read uplifting stories and articles. Hang around positive people. Turn off or unfollow negative posts on social media and the TV. Act as if you have already filled your calendar with your ideal clients and bathe in how wonderful it will feel. Meditate with it. Walk with positive sayings and beliefs. Do it daily all day long. If you hit a speedbump of negativity, as quickly as possible right yourself, dust off and pump yourself with positive beliefs again.
- Recognize and resolve resistance. Having fear of failure, experiencing doubt, procrastinating, feeling frustration or anxiety, are all forms of resistance. And it’s absolutely normal to feel all of that as a human being trying to build something new for your life. In order for the magnetizing method to work, you have to recognize it as soon as it rears its head and take it down with reverse self-talk. Turn around that stinkin’ thinkin’ toward positive belief thoughts, feelings and visions.
- Practice an attitude of gratitude. It’s vital to reinforce the flow of good things happening. Just as behaviorism teaches that we want to reinforce desirable behavior with positive reinforcement, we want to reinforce good stuff coming our way by expressing palpable gratitude on the regular. Be sure to feel and express thanks for every little thing that contributes to you filling your private practice with ideal clients. Feel grateful for your scheduling system that is ready to receive new clients. Feel thankful for a fantastic website where people can learn about you on the internet. Express thanks for all the training you have had to prepare you to provide excellent services to ideal clients. When that first ideal client comes CELEBRATE with gads of gratitude.
The magnetizing method will only work if you implement all 7 of these steps with regularity and if you work these steps with dedicated effort, you absolutely can and will magnetize a case load full of your ideal clients.
It can really help to work these steps with a mentor who has had success using this system. If you’d like to book a session with me so we can start working on filling your private practice with your ideal clients, grab a spot on my calendar.