WP120 | 5 Key Considerations for Scaling Your Solo Practice to a Group: Podcast Takeover with Amy Dover Featuring Guest Tracy Gardner
Are you a solo practitioner wondering if you’re ready to start a group counseling practice?
In this episode, Amy Dover, a licensed marriage and family therapist and group practice owner, steps in for Whitney to discuss an important question for solo practitioners: Am I ready to start a group counseling practice? She breaks down five key considerations for those thinking about scaling their practice.
Vision Check: Amy emphasizes the importance of understanding your motivations for expanding. Whether it’s to create more impact, ease burnout, or align with personal or spiritual goals, it’s vital that the expansion fits with your long-term vision.
Business Foundation: Expanding into a group practice means shifting from therapy to business leadership. Amy talks about the essentials—legal structure, financial readiness, scalable systems, and leadership skills—highlighting the importance of not going it alone and seeking coaching or consulting.
Team Dynamic: The challenges of building and leading a team are significant. Amy advises focusing on hiring the right people, providing proper training, and managing potential conflicts. She suggests starting small with just a few therapists and expanding gradually.
Client Care and Reputation: Maintaining high-quality care in a group practice is essential. Amy stresses the importance of setting clear values and standards, providing supervision, and creating a supportive culture. She shares personal lessons learned from her own practice about the importance of upholding reputation and quality.
Emotional Readiness: Amy concludes with a reflection on the personal commitment required for group practice growth. She encourages listeners to consider if they’re ready to step away from direct client work, manage the increased responsibility, and balance work-life dynamics.
From Hesitation to Confidence: A Journey to Group Practice Ownership
Later, Tracy Gardner shares her journey from a solo to a group practice owner, highlighting the pivotal role of the Wise Practice community in helping her overcome fear and build confidence. Initially hesitant about group practice, Tracy found the support, resources, and camaraderie within the community invaluable. The experience encouraged her to push past her default fears and embrace the idea that she, too, could grow her practice.
As a member of Amy Dover's mastermind group, Tracy was inspired by fellow practice owners and appreciated the collaborative environment. She learned to approach challenges step-by-step, focus on building her online presence, and refine her money mindset. Tracy credits the faith-based support and personalized feedback within the mastermind for helping her align her practice goals with her values.
She emphasizes the long-lasting value of investing in resources and community, noting how connections formed during the mastermind continue to benefit her. Tracy also reflects on her desire to give back through her group practice by teaching, supervising, and sharing her experiences to help others succeed. She concludes by encouraging practice owners to seek guidance, trust in their faith, and invest in themselves and their practices.
Tracy Gardner’s Resources
(662) 367-1199
tracy@crossroadsplaytherapy.com
Links and Resources
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[00:00:00] Whitney Owens: Hi, I'm Whitney Owens. I'm a group practice owner and faith based practice consultant, and I'm here to tell you that you can have it all. Want to grow your practice? Want to grow your faith? Want to 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. Now let's get started.
[00:00:29] Jingle: Will she Grows your practice and she don't play. She does business with a twist of faith. It's Whitney Owen and Wise Practice Podcast. Whitney Owen and Wise Practice Podcast.
[00:00:48] Amy Dover: Hello friends. I'm Amy Dover, a licensed marriage and family therapist, crew practice owner and wise practice consultant. My girl, Whitney, has again, so graciously allowed me to step into her seat and be with all of you today for today's episode. So today we're diving into an important question that I hear from many of the practice owners that I meet and work with.
And that question is, am I ready to start a group counseling practice? If you're a solo practitioner, considering this leap, you are definitely not alone. Expanding to a group practice can be incredibly rewarding, but it's not for everyone or every stage of your career, and that's okay. We're going to break this down today and cover Five things to think about when considering scaling your solo practice to a group.
And I'm also interviewing my friend and colleague, Tracy Gardner, about her journey to becoming a group practice owner. So number one, the vision check. Why do you want to expand? Let's talk about your why. Ask yourself, what's motivating me to start a group practice? Is it about creating more impact, serving a greater community, or building a team to share the workload?
Maybe you're feeling burnt out from solo practice and see this as the next logical step. Whatever the reason, make sure it aligns with your long term goals. A group practice requires strong leadership, clear systems, and a shift away from being solely client focused. And that's something that some of us therapists really struggle with.
Most importantly, Is your shift into a group practice in alignment with what you believe the Lord is telling you to do? We really want to make sure that we are aligning with his will and following the spirits prompting in our decisions about this. So let's pause for a minute. Take a minute to visualize your ideal group practice.
Does the idea energize you? Or does it make you feel overwhelmed? And if it makes you feel both things, that's okay. We're therapists, so we know how to sit in conflicting feelings and have those feelings in the same space. We know how to manage that, but spend some time reflecting on that, even after today's episode.
Just, when you have some quiet time, grab a pen and paper and just jot down your ideas about what your ideal group practice would be and the feelings that it provokes in you when you do think about it. Number two, the business foundation. Are you prepared? A group practice isn't just about adding more therapists under your roof, it's about running a business.
Here are a few essentials to consider. Your legal structure. Have you reviewed the legal and licensing requirements in your state? You'll need the right entity structure, the correct insurance and contracts. 2 practice or contractor practice? Financial stability. Do you have the funds to cover payroll, office space, and marketing during the ramp up phase?
Group practices can often take time to become profitable. Systems. Think about scheduling, billing, and client management systems. Systems must be scalable for a team, and sometimes the systems that we use as a solo practitioner are not the systems that we can use to grow into a group. And so just assessment of your systems and determining what you can keep and which ones need to be shifted to scale for a group is important.
Leadership skills. You'll transition from being just a therapist to being a leader, manager, and mentor. Are you ready for that shift? Are you ready to step away from direct client care and focus more on taking care of your clinicians? And something to think about, when I opened my doors in January of 2015, so I have officially been in private practice, my own private practice for 10 years, and there has been many blessings and bruises along the way, and I scaled it from a solo practitioner, it was just myself for about 3 months, and then I got so busy that I needed to hire people, I didn't want to turn referrals away, and at the time, my community was quite underserved with counselors, And so I decided to grow into a group, and within the first three months, I hired my first person.
Six months later, I hired another one. Five months later, I hired another one. We just grew so quickly, and it grew into a seven figure practice, but I did not understand. I knew that I had a small business. and then I had to treat it as a business first, because again, we therapists, a lot of times don't understand that, but I did not understand the importance of consulting, of coaching and in 2014, 2015, you just didn't have the variety of that, the end that you do now either, so I just didn't know what I didn't know, so I managed to, I kind of hit a block in 2023 where I recognized that my profit margin was a bit slimmer, I didn't seem to be making the money and the profit that I was before, even though I had There were 16 therapists here and we were generating over seven figures in revenue.
Just things were not right. And after some assessment, after working with Whitney, I just needed to do some things to turn it around. And I did. But moral of that story, when you're looking at the business essentials and you're looking at what you need to do to scale, the moral of that story is just don't go it alone.
Don't do it alone. All right, number three, the team dynamic. Are you ready to manage people? This is a biggie, y'all. One of the biggest challenges in a group practice is building and leading a team. Hiring. Are you clear on the qualities that you're looking for in therapists? Do you have a hiring process in mind?
Training and support. New team members will look to you for guidance. Can you dedicate time to onboarding and professional development? This means stepping away from clients, which is something that can really be a struggle. I struggled with that for years. And whenever you have new therapists come into private practice, a lot of times you have to teach them the nuances of private practice.
Private practice, I call it just its own kind of beast. It's very different from agency work, from working for the government. Just, it is, it is just completely different. And you have to learn how to, how to do well in private practice, just like you do in any environment. So you would have to have the time to be able to do that for your new team members.
And then conflict resolution. Managing a team means navigating different personalities, work styles, work ethics, and occasional conflicts. And how do you feel about stepping into that role? So here's just a tip. Don't feel overwhelmed by having to create a big team at once. Start small. You can bring on one or two therapists as independent contractors or employees.
You can kind of learn the ropes without overwhelming yourself. And then you can realign as needed. Like, things can always shift in business. That's one of the beautiful things about business. Number four, client care and reputation. Can you maintain quality? Again, this is a big one, guys. Your group practice will reflect your reputation.
It's essential to ensure that every therapist delivers excellent care. Consider. Supervision. Are you going to provide clinical supervision or quality checks? Culture. What kind of workplace culture do you want to create? A supportive, ethical environment benefits both clients and staff, and most importantly, it honors God.
With that, though, We know we can't be in the room with our therapist as they're doing therapy, so how will you make sure that quality of services is being delivered? How will you kind of keep your finger on the pulse of that? That can be pretty sticky, and so. This is just something I want you to think about.
When you have a minute, I want you to get a piece of paper and a pen and just write down the values and standards that you want your practice to uphold. This is going to serve as your guide for every decision. It kind of speaks to core values. Uh, mission statement, those, when you get those things down on paper, it will help you, it will help provide the framework for all of your decision making in your practice.
Business wise, hiring wise, any issues that come up with employees, if you keep it within the framework. So it's not just the definition of your core values. It makes the decision making process. It just provides clarity to it. It doesn't necessarily make it easy, but it provides clarity and keeps you on the path of the standards and values that you want your practice to have.
So just a personal note on this, you know, last year I had about 9 therapists leave my practice. I made a big transition from a 1099 practice to a W2. So I have a video on my previous episode that you guys can check out what that transition was like. But I had a lot of people who just, they didn't want to be W2s.
And so they left, they kind of, they're kind of doing their own thing now. But since I've had so many people leave, I have had. Feedback, just people in the community have come to us to get therapy again and Feedback I have gotten on two of those therapists in particular who left my practice. Not good. Oh, it was not good y'all and it just hurts my heart to know that they were working under my name under the guise of being Christian women and I was trusting that they were providing good counseling services, but I didn't have the necessary checks in place because part of that was because I was a 1099.
So you can't necessarily do that as a 1099. You can't, it's harder to uphold the quality of things, but just the feedback I've gotten has just not been good. And these ladies are out in private practice on their own now. So good for them. They're not with me, but again, it goes back to your hiring process, your core values, your, your mission statement.
What do you want your How do you maintain the quality of your practice to be known for and how do you maintain the quality of that? And honestly, every business that's growing faces that, that difficulty. How do we maintain good quality and our good reputation when we're bringing people on? All right, number five, emotional readiness.
Are you ready for the shift? Let's talk about you. Starting a group practice can bring a lot of joy, but it also adds stress and responsibility. So ask yourself, am I willing to step away from direct client work to focus on business growth? Do I have a support system, mentors, peers, or consultants to guide me?
How will I balance my time and energy to avoid burnout? And guys, it's okay if the answer is, is not yet. Starting a group practice is a big step, and timing is really important. And when I started my group practice 10 years ago, I had, I have two sons. They were younger, they were 12 and 9, and I mean, now they're in college, and doing great, but Sometimes the work and, and building the practice took me away from home for long days at the time.
And so you really have to think about how are you going to find new rhythms, find some balance with that. And every, there's a season for everything. Sometimes there's a season for hustle. Sometimes there's a season for rest and peace and just really kind of, again, reflecting on that and taking some notes and writing some things down as you're thinking about that will be important for you as you ponder whether or not you want to start a group practice.
All right, guys, I'm going to wrap this up because I want us to get over into my interview with Tracy.
Today, I'm interviewing my friend and fellow practice owner, Tracy Gardner. Tracy has a private practice in Corinth, Mississippi named Crossroads Counseling and Play Therapy Center. She works with children and adults. She has recently retired as a school counselor and can now work full time in her practice.
Tracy enjoys speaking on topics of child centered play therapy. She enjoys serving families and her community. Welcome to the podcast, Tracy. Thanks for being with us today. Thank you for having me. So give us a little background on opening your practice and moving into it full time.
[00:13:04] Tracy Gardner: Okay, well, while I was a school counselor, I could only be in practice part time.
And that started about a year and a half ago. I had been in private practice in 2019. I left a school district, went into private practice full time in 2019, right before everything sort of changed for us in the world. And I became very busy. I didn't realize how many people needed counseling, became very busy in my practice, almost a burnout state.
I had not acquired the ability to say no yet. That's different now, but loved it, but was called back into the school and did that for three years. And then I was able to retire in June. So in July, I jumped back in full time and it has been rolling ever since.
[00:13:58] Amy Dover: Yes, you were very busy and that whole having a hard time saying no thing
[00:14:06] Tracy Gardner: that that is an acquired skill and, and now it comes easier.
It's still, there's still categories of things. I can't say no to. But it's easier than it used to be. I think because of age, I think wisdom comes with age a little bit. And if you've ever been to a burnout state, you really don't want to go there again. So that's what I'm trying to prevent. Right. Good
[00:14:27] Amy Dover: for you.
So you were part of the wise practice community for a few years before deciding to grow from solo into a group practice. What changed for you? What made you decide it was time? Well,
[00:14:41] Tracy Gardner: I had thought owning off, the first time I was in private practice, I thought about it, but it wasn't really serious about it.
I thought that, that's kind of a nice thought that that might be something I do eventually, but not real serious about it. But the WISePractice community I knew was something I needed for just the support. I really love the community. I knew I loved the resources. And so the more I listened to people who were in, who had decided to go into group practice, I thought, I think I can do that.
I might can do that. I don't know if I can do that, but I think I want to try. And there was always the what if. That was always there. But, but I think just the support and the wise practice community, the connections really helped me realize if I did decide to do it, I'm not as afraid. I think my default emotion was always fear, like, but I think being in the community.
Helped that to be less. I think, yes, maybe sometimes I do default to fear, but I don't stay there as long. I know I have the support of so many people, um, in the community, and it's a real tangible thing. And it's been very helpful, very helpful for me.
[00:16:05] Amy Dover: I love
[00:16:05] Tracy Gardner: that,
[00:16:06] Amy Dover: that just your honesty with that, that fear is sort of the default feeling, but you don't stay there as long anymore.
And that's a beautiful thing about the community, just the, well, just the community and the support and the encouragement. And if you have a question, you can throw it out there. And it's just, it's a reminder that we're not alone in this. And that's. It's comforting. Yes. You were, uh, in my mastermind group last year, scaling your solo practice to a group.
You were one of five practice owners that I had. He was, I mean, it was such an incredible group as I'm starting a new group for this in March and whoever's in this group that I just, it's going to be hard to. You guys were just great. You guys were such a great group. It's going to be hard to, to have another one that great, but I'm hoping that we will.
But what were some specific things in the mastermind that challenged you about scaling your practice?
[00:17:02] Tracy Gardner: Well, I think as far as I can look at challenges, I guess in two ways, there were some things I was challenged about as far as, well, one of the things was just how the other group members Were doing things, so it, it would almost challenge me, to want to be as effective or to kind of level to where they were, I thought, well, if they can do that, I can do that.
We were in the same spot. A month ago, I think I can do that. So it encouraged me. I thought if they can do it, and they had all the fear factor too, and they jumped in and they're doing it, it's step by step. So I think challenge can sort of go both directions. I'm challenged by a lot of the, the, I guess as far as technology goes, that's probably my biggest challenge.
So I think what I learned was, We can do it step by step. It doesn't have to be perfect. Just do it. Just get out there. Just get known. Get your story out there. Let people know who you are. I think that that was something I had not really done and I still am in the process of working on my website. That's a little That's a, that's a little slower, but I did want to wait when I realized I was going to hire people, I thought I kind of want to wait till I get them hired so that they can be part of that and I don't have to go in and make changes later.
I can go ahead and have them in on that and tell a little bit about them. So that was sort of on purpose. I think I think it was helpful in that there were so many good resources. It helped me scale better and more quickly. It helped me think about my practice moving, moving in that direction. Because there were so many resources.
I can't not do it because there's so much help here. And so I sort of went from, I guess the feeling of that default feeling I mentioned earlier to moving in that direction. What? Like it's hard? I love that
[00:19:16] Amy Dover: fear.
[00:19:18] Tracy Gardner: Yes, it is. It's funny to say that, but it, it really is true. I couldn't say that a year ago.
[00:19:27] Amy Dover: I love it.
And I love how you described to just sort of being in the community of other practice owners in the group. And. Sort of saying, well, okay, we're a month ago, we're on the same level and we're moving in this direction, almost like iron sharpens iron, you know, sort of gives you some, some, a bit of a competitive edge, but in a good way.
And you're doing it in a, in a supportive environment with people who love the Lord and who care for each other and who want to help and support each other. So I like, I like how you said that.
[00:19:58] Tracy Gardner: Yes, that was definitely part of it. The faith based, I knew the ladies were coming from a faith based perspective.
And I really respect that in that they're not only sort of deciding those things within their own practice from a faith based, faith based perspective, but also giving that advice they gave me. And it was so nice that it was a smaller group in that. We really had that time for you to sort of lean into our needs, listen to our issues, give feedback, and the group was good to give feedback.
I really, I really appreciated that. It helped a lot.
[00:20:37] Amy Dover: I agree. It was a really good, a really good group for that. No one was really afraid to speak up. Everyone had great ideas and were willing to share. It was really good that way.
[00:20:46] Jingle: So
[00:20:46] Amy Dover: what were some things that you were not expecting to have to think about?
In your journey from solo to group?
[00:20:53] Tracy Gardner: Um, I, I think, well there were some things that you sort of challenged us on, and I think one of the things that really hit home for me was the money mindset talk. I feel like. Even though I had sort of thought about that before being in private practice, thinking about money saving, investing, you know, budgeting, it was different when we had to look at it from a personal point of view.
I think that hit home for me because I thought, okay, and I need to really challenge myself on how I'm looking at finances and how I'm looking at money and build a different relationship with that. And I think I was able to do that. In a way, I think I've got clarity on that and I'm able to look at the practice, what um, what my fees are, how I'm going to move forward.
I was able to, to really get some clarity on that and that helped a lot. That was one of the things.
[00:21:53] Amy Dover: Good. Cause the, the money piece is definitely a challenge for many of us. And even, even myself being a practice on a group practice on her for 10 years now, I still have seasons of where I'm challenged with my money mindset.
It's sort of like this evolving, just this, this thing I'm constantly, but the Lord is working on me with that. It's just, I don't, I'm probably going to be a work in progress. In most areas of my life, until the day that that, um, he calls me home. But I, I definitely like the money mindset is something that it ebbs and flows for me.
So I'm glad that that was a helpful, a helpful part of the group. Yeah. So with that, um, you know. A couple things. What advice would you give to a practice owner who's thinking about scaling their practice and who's struggling with the fear that they might not be ready and who's also fearful about the financial investment of, of being in a mastermind or looking at, at consulting services?
[00:22:54] Tracy Gardner: Well, I think for one thing, I think the value is there and, and that's always a consideration, I think for any counselor to buy, invest in this, what. You know, what program should I take? Should I do the CEU? Should I do that? That's always there, and it's probably always going to be there, because I love to learn, and I think most counselors love to learn, love to learn about new therapies, and you just want to jump in there and learn it all for your clients.
And There's so much to gain. For me, it was community. I had gone from a school where there were 2, 000 people that included kids and staff. Though, to leave that, the first time I left and went into private practice, that, that was the, that was the situation. And it was hard to go into an office, mostly by myself, in 2020.
When there was a whole lot going on and, uh, really leaned into Christian, uh, consultants, Christian therapists. I really reached out for that because I needed that. I knew I wanted to grow on in my practice to be successful. And I think, you know, plans fail for lack of good counsel. And then I really feel like consulting the mastermind was It was good in so many ways.
And I think you don't realize the value. I think even when you're in it, I think it's when it was over. It's like you realize, Oh, that was so good. That was, I needed those resources. I needed because those connections. Are there now, you know, I've made good connections. You've opened, you opened it up for us to call and you let me know I had to use Boxer.
I had never used Boxer before, and so I had to learn to do that. Wasn't really sure how to do that. I thought you were saying Boxer. I didn't know. Boxer's great. Oh, you were so good. I mean, I. I love the fact that I could ask you any question and you would get back with me and ask multiple questions and you would still get back with me and you helped me make sense of my, my thoughts, my concerns, and there were so many, and there's still, there still are some things that I will probably reach out to you about and I know that you'll get back with me in a very thoughtful way and you'll consider it and that you, Consider how we are and personally and, and you don't push, you just consider our personalities and how we work and how we do things and what our goals are and what our mission is for our, for our practice.
And I really feel like it's been valuable and it will continue to be. So I think the value you do, you do get a sense of how valuable it is, but I'm still. Um, and realizing just how valuable it was in the connections I've made and we'll have from, from now on and getting to meet you face to face at the summit this, I know, I love that.
I love that. Are you going this year? Probably so.
[00:25:56] Amy Dover: Good.
Good. Last year was the first year I got to go the year before that I had things on my calendar that I couldn't rearrange. So it was really nice to put people's faces and their voices and their names all in reality and not on the screen. And it was, yeah, someone is great. So I love seeing you and Sonia there.
And I think more people from our group are going to be there this year too, which should be fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. So Tracy, you have given us. Such great information today. And really, I think spoken to that question of, am I ready for a group practice? And then, you know, with the investment of time and financial resources into a mastermind and, you know, how that can keep Sort of flowing like the ripple effect of that investment, even when the actual time itself is done being in the group, relationships formed and resources and connections made.
And so I love that. And thank you for speaking to it. So to wrap up today, is there anything else that you feel like our listeners need to know anything that you think would be really helpful for them to know about? Are you ready to grow to a group? Anything they might be struggling with? Anything you think would be helpful?
I
[00:27:17] Tracy Gardner: think for there again in the faith based, faith based settings, I think it's so important just to ask the Lord to show you what His will is for your practice. Years ago in 2019, I created a business prayer and that still holds true today and I forgot about it and I found it not long ago and I thought, It really does still ring true for me.
That's what I want for my practice. I want to, I want to glorify him, but I want to also teach others. I want to help supervise and I miss that being in the school, being able to have that influence and to be a good influence that way. And so there's a quote I've heard to, you know, there's a time in our life where we, we learn and then there's a time where we earn and then we return that.
So I think a group practices an opportunity for us to return all the things that we've learned, the things that we wanna share with others. I think that's what I'm looking at. As an opportunity for me to run a group practice that I can return some of the things that I have had the opportunity to, to have in my life.
[00:28:34] Amy Dover: I love that. That's lovely. And your business prayer. I love it. So Tracy, if people want to get in touch with you, how can they do that?
[00:28:43] Tracy Gardner: Well, the best way would just be, I'm on Google, which was another thing that we worked on in our mastermind, caused me to really think about that, and it's just my number, and I don't know if that would be available, but it's 662 367 1199.
That's the best way to get in touch with me. And so my Google web, my Google page, and I'm still working on my web, my, my website. It'll be there. It's coming very
[00:29:13] Amy Dover: soon. What's your email address in case anyone wants to email you?
[00:29:16] Tracy Gardner: It's Tracy, T R A C Y at crossroadsplaytherapy. com.
[00:29:23] Amy Dover: Awesome. Well, thank you for being with us today, Tracy.
I've enjoyed, I've enjoyed our conversation and thank you for your time.
[00:29:29] Tracy Gardner: Thank you for having me. I enjoyed it.
[00:29:32] Amy Dover: So friends, are you ready to start a group counseling practice? If the answer is yes, consider signing up for my mastermind group that begins in March. It's limited to only 10 participants. You can head over to WisePracticeConsulting.
com backslash masterminds and check out the information and my bio is there also. You can feel free to email me at Amy at WisePracticeConsulting. com if you have questions or if you want to jump on a call for more information, I'm happy to do that with any of you. And for those of you who want to join the mastermind who are already members of the Wise Practice community.
You get a hundred dollars off per month of the mastermind group. That's a great savings. So thank you guys for tuning in and God bless. See you in the next episode. So
[00:30:17] Jingle: 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 pod.
[00:30:35] 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. 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.
