WP195 | Private Practice Feels Different Right Now and How to Move Forward
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What do you do when private practice feels heavier than usual?
In this solo episode, I’m sharing honestly about the fear, stress, uncertainty, and pressure so many practice owners are carrying right now. From shifting caseloads and money worries to personal grief, leadership challenges, and the weight of caring for a team, this season has felt like a lot.
If your practice feels hard right now, you are not alone.
I’m talking about what I’ve been seeing in the private practice world, what I’ve been walking through personally, and how we can respond with faith, grace, community, and grounded rhythms instead of fear, overworking, or avoidance.
Y’all, this is a real and honest conversation about leadership, faith, hard seasons, and remembering that this will not last forever.
I also share why community matters so deeply right now and invite you to join us at the Wise Practice Summit, October 8–10 in Nashville, Tennessee.
You Are Not Alone
I want you to hear this clearly: if your practice is struggling, you are not alone.
If your numbers are down, you are not alone. If you are questioning your leadership, you are not alone. If you feel tired, discouraged, overwhelmed, or unsure of what the next right step is, you are not alone.
I have had my own hard season, too. Between personal grief, challenges in my family, therapists leaving my group practice, and the ongoing weight of leadership, I have had moments where I wondered if I was doing something wrong.
But sometimes a hard season is just that: a hard season.
Practice Is Cyclical
One thing I keep coming back to is that private practice is cyclical.
There are seasons of growth, seasons of stability, seasons of uncertainty, and seasons where everything feels like it is shifting at once. When you are in the middle of the hard part, it can feel like it will never change. But it will not always be this way.
I can look back over the years of my practice and see other times that felt unstable or scary. We moved through those seasons, and we will move through this one, too.
Don’t Overwork Your Way Through It
When I am stressed, my tendency is to hunker down and overwork. I want to fix it. I want to push harder. I want to make the problem go away.
But sometimes overworking makes things worse.
When we overwork, we stop paying attention. We become more overwhelmed. We stop listening well. We lose the rhythms that keep us grounded. And for me, I notice that my focused prayer time starts slipping away.
So no, we do not overwork our way through this. But we also do not put our heads in the sand and ignore what is happening.
We face it honestly, but we face it with compassion and grace.
Give Yourself Grace
If something hard is happening in your life, it is going to impact your work. That does not mean you are failing. That means you are human.
Grief, stress, family needs, financial pressure, and leadership challenges all affect the way we show up. Instead of judging ourselves or forcing ourselves to push harder, sometimes we need to take a step back and say, “This is real. This is hard. I can give myself space.”
You do not have to kick your own butt every day to be a good practice owner.
You can lead with grace.
You Need People in Your Corner
Practice ownership can feel incredibly lonely, especially when you are carrying the responsibility of a team, clients, finances, and your own family.
No one really understands that weight unless they are another practice owner.
That is why community matters so much. You need people you can be honest with. People who can sit with you in the hard stuff. People who can remind you who you are and help you keep moving when you feel like you do not have much left.
For me, that has been my leadership team, my family, my friendships, and the Wise Practice community. I have seen what happens when practice owners show up with tears in their eyes and leave with more clarity, strength, and confidence.
That is what community can do.
Find What Grounds You
When life feels chaotic, come back to the things you can count on.
For me, that is my faith. I know God is with me no matter what. I can count on my family. I can count on a cup of coffee in the morning, a run outside, or reading a book in the evening.
Those small rhythms matter. They remind us that not everything is unstable. They give us something steady to return to when everything else feels uncertain.
Hold On to the Rays of Light
Even in hard seasons, God gives us little reminders that we are still moving in the right direction.
For me, it was a therapist sitting across from me at lunch and asking, “Whitney, how are you doing?” It was another therapist sending me a card after my father passed away. Those moments reminded me why I am building this practice and why community matters so deeply.
When your practice feels chaotic, look for those moments. Look for the rays of light. Look for the ways God is reminding you that you are not alone and that there is still beauty in what you are building.
This Is a Season
Everything is a season.
This hard season will not last forever. But while we are in it, we have to be careful not to run away from the things that are actually helping us.
Do not run away from community. Do not run away from faith. Do not run away from the investments that help you grow. Do not run away from the people who are walking beside you.
Lean in. Let people support you. Give yourself grace. Pay attention to what God is showing you.
We Need Each Other
This October, we are gathering in Nashville for the Wise Practice Summit, and I truly believe this is exactly what so many of us need right now.
We need faith. We need encouragement. We need truth. We need space to pray, laugh, learn, connect, and remember that we are not doing this work alone.
If you are a Christian practice owner who feels tired, discouraged, or in need of community, I would love to see you there.
Y’all, keep going. Bring love and acceptance to the table. Pay attention to the season you are in. Find the things that ground you. Depend on other people.
You are not alone.
Show Sponsor Aria
This episode is brought to you by Aria, the practice automation platform.
You did the work. You billed for it. But did you actually collect it?
If you take insurance, the gap between the care you delivered and what actually lands in the bank can be wider than you think. Aria’s reporting shows you that gap in plain numbers: what you charged, what you collected, and what’s still sitting unpaid.
No more wondering where it went.
Right now, Aria is giving the Wise Practice community a free first month of reporting, no contract. It works with SimplePractice, TherapyNotes, and other common EHRs, with more on the way.
See where your money’s going at https://www.heyaria.com/wise.
Links and Resources
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[00:00:00] Whitney Owens: This episode is brought to you by Aria. You did the work. You billed for the therapy sessions, but did you actually collect the money? If you take insurance, that gap between the care you deliver and what actually lands in your bank account can be wider than you think. Aria's reporting shows that gap in plain numbers, what you charged, what you collected, and what's still sitting unpaid.
[00:00:23] No more wondering where the money's going, because right now Aria is giving Wise Practice listeners a free month of reporting, no contract needed. It works with many EHRs such as Simple Practice, TherapyNotes, and more. To see where your money's going, I want you to head to heyaria.com/wise. That's H-E-Y-A-R-I-A.com/wise
[00:00:50] Jingle: Hi, I'm Whitney Owens. I'm a group practice owner and
[00:00:53] Whitney Owens: faith-based practice consultant, and I'm here to tell you that you can have it all. Wanna grow your practice? Wanna grow your faith? Wanna enjoy your life outside of work? You've come to the right place. Each week on the Wise Practice Podcast, I will give you the action steps to have a successful faith-based practice while also having a good time.
[00:01:12] Now let's get started
[00:01:16] Jingle: Where she grows your practice, she don't play. She does business with a twist of faith. It's Whitney Owens and the Wise Practice podcast. Whitney Owens and the Wise Practice podcast
[00:01:34] Whitney Owens: Hello friends. Welcome to the podcast. I'm excited that you're here today. I'm going to be doing some solo shows over the next few weeks 'cause I have some things I wanna share with you guys, and I haven't done solo shows in a while, so I'm looking forward to sharing some things from my heart, some things that I feel like are going on in the spiritual realm and with our practices in the world, and then I'm looking forward to also chatting with you guys about private practice and things that we can do differently to bring in the income and more kinda understanding our goals and moving forward.
[00:02:10] Now, as I was prepping and thinking about... I actually had a different episode planned for today, to be honest, and I just felt maybe in the spirit, maybe on my heart, kind of a different message I wanted to bring today. So this episode is gonna be about what's going on in the private practice space and in our world, and even within us, and how do we manage that?
[00:02:37] What do we do about it? There is something different going on in our, let's call it our atmosphere. Carl Jung used to call it the collective unconscious. So that's all, all the things going around us, and we're, like, all feeling it together. It's such an interesting concept. It's like we're all connected through this collective unconscious experience.
[00:03:03] And a lot of what it is has been growing over time, and you've seen it. You could probably say it before I do. The economy is different. People are afraid. We're afraid of many things. People are holding on to money in a different kind of way than they have in a long time, and you're seeing it particularly with clients, us as practice owners, with your friends, with your family.
[00:03:37] It's everywhere. And along with that is an intense fear. This has been going on for months, probably years, and building up. At some point, it will not be here the same way anymore, but right now, this is the season that we are in. I have more people coming to me as practice owners fearful about starting their practices.
[00:04:04] They're struggling to build caseloads more than ever. They're not sure how to implement marketing strategies that work. They are scared to look at their numbers, and that could be all kinds of numbers. The money is dipping. Therapists are leaving group practices, and you wonder, "What am I supposed to do?" I literally had a practice owner this morning, "I've been thinking about going back to solo as a group owner."
[00:04:30] He's been a group practice owner for, like, eight years. I've had other group practice owners specifically say, "Maybe I shouldn't be doing this anymore. Maybe I should go back to solo." And if I'm gonna be honest with myself, I've said the same thing. I think having a podcast can make someone look... We, we make jokes at my house that I'm a micro-sole.
[00:04:50] I don't really think that, but it's kinda funny. And I think having a podcast and all the things can make me look like something, and yeah, I do know a thing or two about building businesses. But the truth is I'm human just like you are. I hear the things that you share. I relate to them. I understand them.
[00:05:11] My past year has been probably the worst year of my entire life, and it's interesting as we were kind of in 2025 I was thinking that. I was thinking, "Gosh, this year's been terrible, and hopefully 2026 will be something new." Don't we all have that, like, excitement for a new year thing? And then 2026 came, and the first month was all right, and then boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
[00:05:39] Just hit over and over and over again where I don't even wanna get up, like, after being hit. And I don't think I'm alone in that. In my mastermind group this week when I talked about stress, so many people raised their hands. I think people are more stressed now than they have been in a very long time Now for me, it's about my practice, but it's about my life, and I have questioned my faith more than ever.
[00:06:14] That's right, I'm a, I'm a faith-based consultant telling you that I'm questioning my faith. Feeling a little better now, but a few weeks ago, I was, I was on a, in a rough spot. My father passed away a few weeks ago very unexpectedly, and that obviously has been a gut punch. My husband has been in a denomination, the Methodist Church, for a very long time.
[00:06:38] He spent so many years going through the process of getting ordained, and it's supposed to be a guaranteed appointment, and now he didn't get a guaranteed appointment. He went from a full-time to a part-time job. My daughter, she's now 13, and she's doing so well now, but she had to have back and brain surgery.
[00:06:59] Goodness, I can't tell you how much my stomach dropped when I got the call about the brain surgery. I have another child who has special needs, autistic, still doesn't communicate well. In fact, recently... We have, like, a device for her to talk, and then we have a backup device for her to talk. Of course, both of them are broken now.
[00:07:19] We had sent one out to get fixed, then the backup broke, and her hearing aids somehow got lost when she was changing. I'm like, "What? Now she really can't talk." And I'm just like, "What in the heck is going on here?" Are you with me? My group practice, 2025, you've heard me talk about it, I talked about it at the summit, it was a rough year where I had, um, one or two really toxic employees that really destroyed a lot of the morale, and a lot of people left, a lot of people lied, and, um, didn't treat clients well, so we had to do a lot of recon on that.
[00:08:00] So I thought, "2026, this'll be better." It's not. It's not. I've had more therapists leave, and it's, it's been for lots of things. You know? So there's a part of me that's like, "What did I do wrong? What is happening here?" But it's not always that, and they left for lots of different reasons. Some were because their partners got new jobs in different states.
[00:08:26] Another was, "I need to be there for my special needs daughter because she's not functioning without me at home." And then I've had some where, "I'm gonna go to a practice down the street and take all my clients with me." Or another who says, "I'm gonna start a virtual practice at home 'cause I can make a lot more money."
[00:08:41] And it hurts, y'all. We care deeply. It hurts because we care deeply for our, for our employees, and our therapists, and our practice, but it does hurt the bottom dollar. That can create some anxiety. I'm also in the process of purchasing a building, and that has been a nightmare. Maybe for another episode. I actually did do an episode on the other building.
[00:09:07] Maybe I'll do one on this one. But we've been, um... So if you ever buy a building and you want some consulting, reach out to me, 'cause I'm learning a lot about it, and we've been going the SBA route this time, and that's been a whole new set of challenges. I say all this to say, not, not to have a pity party.
[00:09:24] That's not what this is. I want you to know that if you're afraid, it's okay. If your practice is struggling, your numbers are dropping, you are not alone. You're not alone. I always have to come back to the idea of cyclical work, that our practices are- You know, they, they come and go. Like, things come and go in our practice, right?
[00:09:52] It won't be this way forever, I promise you. And I can look back at years of my practice where things felt unstable, uncertain, and we move through it and we get to a new season. So we're feeling it in our atmosphere. We're feeling it in the collective unconscious. We're feeling it in our practices, and we're filling it, feeling it in our lives.
[00:10:14] So what do we do? What do we do? I, I even gotta tell you what I've been doing, and I hope that this brings you some comfort, and I would love to hear from you, too. This is a podcast, and I'm a solo prac- solo show, but I love hearing from you guys and what you're experiencing and what you're going through.
[00:10:33] What are we gonna do about it? The first thing is that we're just acknowledging that this is what we're going through. I find myself, a lot of times, and this would go into our category of what not to do, is I overwork because I don't wanna face reality. I bet you... I bet some of you are like 100%. Some of you are probably like, "I run away from work 'cause I don't wanna look at it."
[00:10:57] Right. But yeah, I'm kind of a workaholic sometimes, and I have to really watch that. And when I'm stressed or when something's happening, like what's happening right now in our world or in my practice, I hunker down and I'm like, "I'm getting out of this, baby. I'm gonna get through it. It's gonna get better."
[00:11:15] And sometimes when I do that, it actually makes things worse. I'm not paying attention. I get more overwhelmed. I don't listen to people, and I certainly don't have the focused prayer time that I used to have when I'm acting that way So I can tell you some of the things we don't do, and that's one of them.
[00:11:35] We overwork. Don't do that. And don't do the opposite and run away from your work. We can bring these things before the Father and say, "Look, here's my practice. I don't know what to do. I don't know how to get more clients. I don't know how to help m- help these therapists. I don't know how to lead. I don't know how to manage money.
[00:11:57] I don't know, and the things I thought I knew are not working anymore." I'm seeing people who have the same marketing tactics they've had for years, it's not working anymore. The way that we manage team members and lead, it's not working anymore. And so what do we do when, when all that's not working, right?
[00:12:16] Well, we don't overwork. We don't put our head in the sand and ignore things. We've got to face these things head-on, but in an attitude of compassion and kindness. I have found over the past few month, the, really the past month since my father died, that things are struggling, and I'm struggling, and then I look at it and I'm like, "Why are things so hard?"
[00:12:45] And then I have to go, "Wait, Whitney, this is real. He's gone, and that's gonna impact everything." And instead of judging myself, forcing myself to work harder, it's taking a step back and saying, "Give yourself some grace, acceptance." I feel like the practice is all on me because of all the other stress that's going on and needing money and all the things, and the people that count on me, but honestly, I've got to step back and let things happen sometimes and give myself that grace.
[00:13:19] So if you are going through a hard time, I've heard some practice owners share with me struggles that they have at home, and then it all feeds into our practice. So I want you to have this attitude of this is a hard season, or maybe this is something in my life that's impacting my work and that is okay.
[00:13:36] I don't have to kick my butt every day. I can take a step back and give myself space. Give yourself space. I want you to do these things, having an attitude of acceptance and grace. I want you to rely on other people in your life. When we are practice owners, we feel the weight of responsibility on our shoulders in a way that no one understands.
[00:14:03] No one gets it unless you're another practice owner. Especially if you're a group practice owner and people are depending on you for their livelihood, and clients are depending on you for therapy. That is hard. You have got to lean on other people, hands down. I struggle with this because I wanna be strong.
[00:14:25] I wanna look good. I mean, who am I to get on a podcast and tell you my struggles? Why are you... You're not gonna wanna sign up for consulting with me if I tell you about how s- my practice is having a hard time. Am I the person you're gonna wanna work with? Right? We think those things. You might be thinking, "If I were honest with my team members, they wouldn't wanna work for me," or, "If people saw me struggling, why would they come see me as a therapist?"
[00:14:47] But we have got to find people that are in our corner. It doesn't mean we say everything to everybody, of course. But more than likely, you probably need to find more people to be with. Maybe you already have them, actually. It's a matter of leaning on them, trusting them, letting them carry you through a storm.
[00:15:06] For me, it's my leadership team at my practice. I can count on them no matter what. It's my spouse. It's actually kind of my kids. Not that I give them all the things, but they ground me, and they help me move forward. It's your deep friendships. For some of us, it's the membership community. Just this week, we had our open office hours wise questions meeting, and one of the group practice owners showed up, tears in their eyes, and said, "I've got something I need to talk about."
[00:15:45] A therapist in their practice had been there for a very long time and now was leaving, someone that this person deeply cared about. So it was about the relationship. It was about losing clients. It was about what's going on in the practice, and that is heavy. And so things are happening in practices that haven't happened in a long time.
[00:16:05] I mean, this, this person had been at the practice, um, for this person for seven years. That's a long time. And we had a moment to just debrief, to grow and encourage him, and he walked away so much stronger with so much more clarity and confidence, and this is someone I've known for years. And so when I saw that strength, I was so encouraged.
[00:16:34] So it's about finding your people and being together, and I'll... I mean, I'm gonna sell the community all the time because I believe in it, and I love it, and I give a lot to the membership community, and I also see what happens. I mean, this, this person showed up for a one-hour meeting and walked away changed.
[00:16:53] That is incredible, and that is what it means to have Christianity and to have community and to grow together So something else I want you to do. You know, the, the acceptance attitude, depending on other people. I want you to find the things in your life that you can ground yourself in. So things that you can count on.
[00:17:15] I know I can count on my faith, that God is with me no matter what. I know I can count on my family I also think about just kind of the rhythms of life I can count on, right? I can count on a cup of coffee in the morning. I can count on going on a run and enjoying what's outside. I can count on sitting and reading a book in the evening.
[00:17:47] These things that are grounding in our lives as kind of habits and rhythms of life are really good to come back to when life feels chaotic. And then I also want you to remember that everything is a season. This will come, and this will go. I mean, we could look at so many biblical passages about seasons and a time for all the things.
[00:18:11] There is a time for everything, and this is a particularly sh- difficult time at this moment. Do not run away. Do not run away from community. Do not run away from the investments that you need to keep making, 'cause it's the very opposite of, of what you really need to do. You need to be leaning into the things that are helping you and not running away from those, leaning into relationships, and leaning into the season that you're in, knowing that it is okay.
[00:18:40] As I was driving into work this morning, I was just thinking about my practice and all the change going on and the discouragement I'm feeling and just feeling like there's so many difficulties going on. And I almost just envisioned when the sun comes up and the rays come out, or almost like I have this box and it's starting to open just a little, and the rays are starting to push out, and I've gotta hold on to the fact that that box is gonna open up again, and it's gonna be beautiful and good.
[00:19:16] But right now, I need to just look at each ray and hold on to it. I go back to l- last week. I was having lunch with one of my therapists. I, I take all of them to lunch every... just about once a quarter or every six months, and the first thing she did when she sat down, she said, "Whitney, how are you doing?"
[00:19:39] And that was really meaningful to me. I've had some therapists say that they don't like my attitude, or they don't like that I worry, or they don't like my concern, or they don't like that I go in my office and close the door. Like, there are so much... there's so much judgment that can happen in the work that we do, especially when you manage a team and, and look, people are gonna think things, and there's nothing you can do about it But it's, it's the therapists that come and say, "Whitney, I see you.
[00:20:15] How are you?" I have to hold onto those moments and know that I'm building something beautiful. That is who we are, and that is what I rely on. For someone who says, "I see you, it is hard," and she even went so far as to say, and this is so insightful I thought, "When you are a leader, you impact your team, and it's important to us that you're doing well because that does impact us."
[00:20:44] It's so true. Another one of the therapists at my practice sent me a card just telling me how much she cared about me and the loss that I was going through with, with my dad's passing, and I felt this is what community is, and this is why I'm building this. So when your practice is feeling chaotic, I want you to go back and look at those moments that God is putting before you to remind you about what you're doing.
[00:21:10] He used that lunch, he used that card to say, "Whitney, you are going in the right direction," and you can't control all these things that are happening in our world. I think therapists are making decisions based on their own fear, but you can keep moving forward. They're also making decisions based on all the information that's out there now, y'all.
[00:21:31] And ChatGPT, all the things can make you think you can do anything And people are running and jumping into things, not fully understanding, or they're afraid of money, or people think that the business owners take it all, which we know as business owners we don't. So I want to encourage you to hold onto those things and to move forward in the parts that God is showing you, the rays that are coming out of the box.
[00:22:02] As I come to a close here, I want to really encourage you to think about the community that you're in. Do you have other Christian practice owners who believe in you, who are spurring you on to good deeds and to faith in Him? This October, we're having our Wise Practice Summit. We do it every year. And every year, I always can, like, see what's happening in our culture and what we need at this event.
[00:22:28] This year, we need faith and encouragement. People are so down, and I know that when we're down, it's really hard to get up. It is really hard to say, "I'm gonna spend that money because I believe this is important for me." All we see is the bottom dollar and oh no. But with great risk comes great reward.
[00:22:52] When you make that investment in yourself and in your practice, I truly believe that God will come through. This event was created because I know God put it in my heart and in my life. It's one of the hardest things I do every year, but it's one of the most rewarding and beautiful events that I keep... I keep doing it because I see God show up every time, and it only gets better every year.
[00:23:17] There are moments where we break out in prayer. There are moments when a speaker says something that's like, "Wow, that's exactly what I needed to hear." And there are moments where we just play and have fun because that's what our soul needs. I've seen people make amazing connections where they partner afterwards to do really good work for the kingdom.
[00:23:39] So October, 8th through the 10th, Nashville, Tennessee, I want you there. We are gonna have sponsors there to help you. You'll be able to meet with these people, talk to them in person because I want to provide something that's well-rounded. We're gonna equip you for your practice, help you meet your financial goals, but more importantly, help you with your faith and connecting with one another.
[00:24:03] People walk away from this event, and they've built relationships that have lasted for years. So I want you to meet me in Nashville. You can get all the information at wisepracticeconsulting.com. And we're gonna meet together October 8th through the 10th, and it gets better every single year. Y'all, we need each other.
[00:24:23] We need faith. We need truth. Thank you for listening to the show. It means so much to me. I hope that this episode has brought you encouragement and strength. Remember to bring love and acceptance to the table, to pay attention to the season that we're in, to find the things that ground you, to depend on other people, and buy your ticket to the summit, 'cause I wanna see you there
[00:24:52] Jingle: So click on follow and leave a review and keep on loving this work we do with Whitney Owens and the Wise Practice Podcast. Whitney Owens and the Wise Practice Podcast
[00:25:11] Whitney Owens: Special thanks to Marty Altman for the music in this podcast. The Wise Practice Podcast is part of the SiteCraft Podcast Network, a collaboration of independent podcasters focused on helping people live more meaningful and productive lives. To learn more about the other amazing podcasts in the network, head on over to sitecraftnetwork.com.
[00:25:32] The Wise Practice Podcast represents the opinions of Whitney Owens and her guests. This podcast is for educational purposes only, and the content should not be taken as legal advice. If you have legal questions, please consult an attorney.
