October 3, 2024 • 30 mins
Can a simple change in your personal presentation drastically improve your client retention rates? Discover the vital link between reducing client anxiety and enhancing your intake process as Dr. Kate Walker breaks down the most common mistakes therapists make during client intake. From the critical role of good hygiene and a well-organized virtual setup to presenting a calm and welcoming presence, this episode covers essential strategies for creating an environment where clients feel comfortable and eager to return.
Authenticity and preparation are key to a successful practice, and this episode offers practical solutions to logistical challenges such as parking and navigation, as well as insight into ensuring your online presence accurately reflects your therapeutic approach. Hear about the importance of setting clear expectations from the start through a story of a neighbor's unsatisfactory play therapy experience. By balancing clinical acumen with effective marketing techniques, you'll learn how to streamline your intake processes and authentically showcase the therapeutic experience you offer. Tune in and take your client intake procedures to the next level!
Get your step by step guide to private practice. Because you are too important to lose to not knowing the rules, going broke, burning out, and giving up. #counselorsdontquit.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Hey, I'm Dr Kate Walker.
Welcome to your Tuesdaycoaching.
Come on camera.
You got to stay in focus for me, all right.
Today's kind of an interestingtopic because it takes me back
to my counselor educator days,right?
So this is sort of like okay, Iwas getting my notes together
(00:31):
and I'm thinking, well, I wantto give them the counselor
educator perspective, but youknow, this is a group for
business too, so I want to makesure you get this from a
marketing perspective, and so Iliterally I'm making my notes
and I have terrible handwriting,but I wrote a line down the
(00:51):
middle, right, and so on oneside I put clinical, on the
other side I put marketing, andso common intake mistakes.
I want to make sure that youget what you need from both
perspectives, because that's thecool thing about the Step it Up
membership and Kate Walkertraining and Texas counselors
creating badass businesses.
(01:11):
I know I've got folks listeningto this who are maybe still in
grad school.
I know I've got folks listeningto this who are seasoned
practitioners and, of course,then supervisors, who are in the
unique position of not justhaving to practice the skill.
They've got to assess the skillin someone else and then teach
(01:33):
the skill if the person they'reassessing doesn't know what
they're doing, and remediate itand all the things.
So I want to make sure I makeit very, very clear this one
concept, all right, and if youhave heard me before, you've
heard me say this a milliontimes I want you to just kind of
clear your mind in through thenose, out through the mouth.
(01:56):
When anxiety goes up, cognitiongoes down.
Okay, everybody got that.
We know that.
That's fight or flight, freezeor fawn, all of the things that
have to do with our beautifulautonomic nervous system, right?
So we have these things thatare designed to keep us alive,
(02:17):
these responses.
They respond, you know, due tovisual triggers, auditory
triggers, you know, olfactorytriggers, all of these things.
We're constantly sensing theworld around us to decide if
it's safe or not.
Now, brain is a beautiful thing, and when that autonomic
(02:41):
nervous system is triggered,what happens?
Well, our cognition shuts down.
That doesn't mean we stopthinking.
What it means is we immediatelyhave to make snap decisions,
right?
So we have to make decisionsquickly.
We're not like hey, let's lookat a map and figure out what
(03:01):
we're going to do.
If I'm a pilot in a cockpit,I'm not going.
Let's go over the schematics Ifit's like no, no, no, just pull
the lever right.
So your brain, when it is in astate of fight, flight, freeze,
fall and all the things, is notable to do a really high level
discernment, decision making,all the things.
(03:24):
So everybody got that whenanxiety goes up, cognition goes
down.
All right, I shall begin.
So for the first part, clinical,I will take it from personal
presentation.
Intake mistake number onepersonal presentation.
(03:46):
Now, of course I had to do thisfrom just in a face-to-face,
setting things like basichygiene right, okay, Error, big
(04:13):
error.
If we are stinky, right, or ifwe are wearing a perfume that is
displeasing or really reallystrong, or we don't believe in
deodorant, right, you get to doyou I'm talking to you, mental
health provider but it can be amistake if those things about us
(04:34):
trigger you see where I'm goinghere fight, flight, freeze,
fawn in our client, because thentheir anxiety, which is already
super high because they'remeeting you for the first time,
kicks in even higher and they'renot listening to you, they're
not able to process and do allthe things we want them to do,
even if it's just an intakeassessment.
(04:55):
So, things like hygiene, weteach new counselors SOLAR,
which is just an acronym for howthey sit.
They're leaning forward,they're making eye contact.
If you are virtual, thatpersonal presentation becomes
your background.
Right, you're framing howyou're framing yourself in the
picture.
(05:16):
I did therapy with someone for awhile and this is basically
what I saw most of the time.
I'm exaggerating here, but Ireally just saw the top of her
head most of the time and itwasating here, but I really just
saw the top of her head most ofthe time and it was very
distracting and I found it veryhard to really do therapy
because I was so worried aboutwhere's the rest of her head.
So your internet quality, right, if there is a lot of cutting
(05:41):
in, cutting out Long and shortwhen it comes to personal
presentation.
I'm talking as a counselor,educator here and I'm talking to
you.
You have one job in that firstsession usually and I'm going to
get into more detail about thatthat is to get through your
assessment and to get throughthat intake paperwork and you
(06:04):
need your client to be in astate where they are receptive.
Now, we are taught our entirelives.
You can't make somebody feel acertain way, yeah, and it is
your job to be the least anxiouspresence in the room, because
the mirroring neurons and allthe things we know about how a
(06:25):
therapist, when they are able toregulate how they sit, where
they put their hands, how fastthey talk, they are setting that
environment up in the room fortheir client for their anxiety
(06:46):
to come down and then they canstart doing the work.
Remember, these are intakemistakes.
These are not theories.
I'm not teaching interventionsin order to help your client
achieve their therapeutic goals.
These are intake mistakes thatcan really negatively impact
whether or not that new clientis going to come back.
I mean, you guys spent allsummer working on your boot camp
(07:10):
stuff, your KPIs, getting thosephone calls up, making sure you
weren't playing phone tag,getting folks to actually make
the appointment, show up to theappointment.
You did it, you got them.
These are things that you canfix quickly.
Bottom.
These are things that you canfix quickly Now I'm going to now
go to the marketing aspect.
All right, see what I'm doinghere.
(07:31):
Clinical aspect, things likehygiene, things like how you sit
, things like your framing, yourinternet quality those are, you
know, some of the things are inyour control, some of them
aren't.
Now I want you to think frommarketing, right?
One of the things if you havegone through the trainings in
(07:52):
your profile or you've gonethrough videos and podcast
episodes, one of the things wetalk about a lot is an ideal
client, right?
Remember, I'm not talkingclinically anymore.
I'm talking about, from amarketing standpoint, who is the
person you are trying toimprove their sports performance
.
I want you to go to a bunch ofsporty websites and see what
(08:25):
their color schemes are, seewhat their fonts are, see the
type of verbiage that they use,the images they use.
Right, because you are tryingto portray right that's on the
giving side yourself as someonewho is knowledgeable about
sports and performance.
What you're wanting to bereceived right, that's what
(08:49):
you're wanting.
Your potential client now actualclient, sitting in front of you
what you want to be perceivedis your expertise in the area
that you say you're an expert in, simple right.
Well, this is where we can getit wrong, because if you've done
a lot of work and you haveportrayed yourself as an expert
(09:13):
in a particular area in order toattract a particular client and
they show up and you don't knowwhat you're talking about,
that's a problem.
Or, let's say, you're trying toportray yourself as someone who
is an expert Well, I keep goingback to the term expert because
that will inform your websitecopy, that's going to inform
(09:36):
your blog posts, your Instagramposts, your TikToks, all the
things that you're doing, posts,your TikToks, all the things
that you're doing and they showup and you don't look like that,
or you don't act like that, oryou don't use those words, or
you don't have that parameterthat you say you have.
(09:56):
I'll use myself as an example.
One of the things I marketedmyself as was I don't do this
anymore because I don't live inHouston anymore I marketed
myself to couples who wereexperiencing difficulty due to
working shift work with the oilindustry, right, super niche-y,
(10:19):
super specific.
But I had to inform myself, Ihad to attend training, I had to
really do my homework tounderstand the impact of shift
work on circadian rhythms, tounderstand the impact of shift
work on the family dynamic.
What were the highs, what werethe lows?
Right, if someone had shown upinto my office and I was like
(10:41):
what's shift work?
What are circadian rhythms?
What do you mean?
On two off four or on four offtwo?
So what you are puttingyourself out as one of the
biggest mistakes you can make isnot being that person when that
person logs onto your websiteI'm sorry, logs onto your call
(11:04):
or shows up in your office whenin doubt.
Here's the second thing I wantyou to remember from this Ask a
friend, Ask a friend who couldbe totally honest with you to
read your website copy, readyour posts, watch your TikToks,
look at your Instagram and thenlook at you, how you would
present on a work day, and askthem say, okay, do I look like
(11:27):
who I say I'm going to look like, do I talk like how I say I'm
going to talk?
Do I know the facts, the thingsthat I portray, that I know on
my public facing copy, and thatfriend, if they love you, they
will sit down and say, okay,look, here's where I think
you're on track, but here'swhere I think you're off track.
(11:48):
And ask two or three friendswho love you and who would be
honest with you so that you canget this on track.
Remember, if you're listeningto this, in September, september
and January, those are ourbiggest months.
I mean, that's why we spent allsummer in the boot camp, so we
could get ready for this fallrush between now and when folks
(12:11):
start getting ready for somenational and religious holidays
in about eight weeks.
Right, this is the sweet spotwhen a lot of families go okay,
we've got to get in.
It's now or never, and then itcan happen again in January.
So we are prepared, right,right, okay, next thing critical
, pretty critical intake mistakefor office people, those of you
(12:36):
who have a face-to-face office,two things you're hard to find
and there's no parking.
I know you got a great deal onthat office.
I know that it was just.
You know your view is amazing.
But if your client shows up andthey're already mad because
there was no parking and theyare already frustrated because
(12:59):
they took a left when theyshould have taken a right, yes,
yes, I know you gave excellentdirections, but remember anxiety
up.
Yeah, these folks who havefinally taken the step to come
and see you, right, this may betheir first time in therapy ever
and they take a deep breath,they get out of their car and
(13:22):
they don't know which door to goin.
Right, you have to, as abusiness owner, as a clinician,
think like that client.
Right, again, I'll tell storieson myself.
I worked in an office with twomajor problems, right?
Problem number one we wereright next to a movie theater,
right.
So the popcorn smell atlunchtime was incredible.
(13:44):
But you can imagine whathappened on Senior Discount
Monday, right, my parking lotwas full and folks coming in who
were already angry or sad oranxious.
Guess what I got an earful ofas we were walking down the
hallway to my office, right?
So, yeah, theoretically I couldturn that whole thing around
(14:07):
and say, oh, this is lovely.
My couple is letting me knowhow they are, right.
But I mean, this is their firsttime right, and we want them.
Anxiety down, cognition up, sowe do what we can.
Second problem my office had wasthey closed at five.
Secretary went home, so I hadto scotch tape a sign on my door
(14:32):
the big door like the door tothe lobby that said hey, if
you're here to see Dr Walker,you are in the right place,
smiley face.
If you're here to see Dr Walker, you are in the right place,
smiley face, hang on, I will beout as soon as my client before
you is finished.
We had a back door.
I could send my client out oneway and then walk to the front,
(14:54):
invite the new client in.
But I let them know hey, you'rein the right place, you're
doing a great thing.
Don't worry, take a breath, Iwill be there when we go for.
So that's actually the clinicalaspect From a marketing
standpoint.
Solve it for them.
Solve this problem, for if youknow parking is difficult, put
(15:17):
it on your website, say, hey,look, here's where you park,
here's a map.
And then, if you're allowed to,I would even put signs along
the way, put QR codes along theway, something to help them
understand.
Hey, you did it.
You made it, You're in theright spot, You're on time.
(15:38):
It's okay.
Everything's going to begin ina minute.
All, right back to to clinical.
Let's talk about assessment.
You know the assessment, right,the assessment is that first
session process we go through todevelop a treatment plan.
If you develop a diagnosis,everything that's going to
(15:58):
inform what we do in session twoand beyond.
Right, I want to know honestly.
I want you to think, be honestwith yourself.
Are you using an assessmentthat you love, or have you
Frankensteined somethingtogether from grad school and
your friends and this trainingyou went to in 2015.
(16:22):
All right, I want you to thinkabout that assessment and what
information do you really needfrom it?
Some of you are still using theassessments we gave you in
graduate school that would taketwo days to finish, right,
because we printed it out ofyour textbook and it was 85
(16:44):
pages long and it was askinginformation that still didn't
even have the word internet init.
You know?
I mean, really, how long has itbeen since you've looked at
your assessment?
I know with my coupleseventually I got to a place
where I could take a 10-pageassessment that, yes, I had
Frankenstein together from gradschool, a training, I did a job
(17:07):
that I had and I was able topare it down to about three
pages that matched my theory.
So I am a strategic familytherapist, I do.
I'm structural as well, so Iguess I'm pretty eclectic.
So I know the information Ineed to get.
I know what I'm headed for inthat first session.
(17:31):
So that may be hard for you newcounselors, if you're still in
grad school or you're newlypracticing an associate in
private practice or even at youragency, but for you seasoned
folks, I bet you you could takea pair of scissors and cut your
assessment down to almostnothing.
So this is a clinicalstandpoint.
I want you to think about whatyou're really trying to get from
(17:54):
that assessment and if youstill insist.
Well, actually, I'm going tohold off on that.
Let's talk about the consentpaperwork.
Now, if you weren't aware oryou didn't attend our Zoom the
Rules that was last month it wasme and it was my colleague, dr
Ashley Stephenson Stephens wetalked about rules, new rules
(18:17):
for LPC, lmft and social work.
Now, if you weren't able toattend that, don't worry, we'll
have that out in your profilebefore you know it.
But one of the rules that hascome out in the last couple of
years, for those of you who arein a hospital or an agency or a
prison where you're not able toget written consent, or perhaps
(18:38):
they have already signed consentpaperwork with the agency, with
the hospital, with the prison,you have the option of asking
your client do you understandthe consent that you are giving
right now?
So you know, going over thingslike confidentiality, who's the
records custodian, whoultimately handles whether or
(18:58):
not their information can beshared, things like that.
You can get their yes or theirnot and then you document that
in their file.
Now, private practice, that'sdifferent, right?
Of course, you're going to haveyour own consent paperwork and
it's going to cover thoseimportant things.
So I'm talking from a clinicalstandpoint.
(19:20):
Now Can you email them thatpaperwork?
Because, again, if you aregoing off what you did in grad
school or what somebody taughtyou 10 years ago you know I'm
not saying it's right or it'swrong, but in the interest of
time, remember that firstsession is also rapport building
(19:42):
.
You're helping that clienttrust you, you're helping them
understand you will remain thatnon-anxious presence and you
will be able to guide them tosome solutions, right?
So if that consent paperwork is10 years old, or if again, like
that assessment, right, if it'ssomething that's been
(20:03):
Frankenstein together, I wouldinvite you to go through the key
points, and now I just wrote afew down.
These aren't the key points,that would be another webinar
completely but just what came upfor me things like the divorce
decree, chapter 611.
And if you aren't familiar withchapter 611, you want to make
(20:24):
sure you understand that.
That has to do with what yousay.
Here stays here your fees andwhere to make complaints,
because that's another thing DrStevens and I talked about in
Zoom.
The rules.
You know that changed when BHECwas formed and that little
document or that little squarethat most of us have in our
(20:45):
consent form where can I go tomake a complaint.
Well, that has changedinformation.
So if you haven't updated that,you want to make sure you do
that.
But that's a big mistake ifyou're handing out things that
are too long or they're old andthey don't reflect recent rules,
or you aren't really sure whyyou give it to them this way and
(21:05):
it could be more efficient ifyou do it another way.
Because, being mindful in thatfirst session, yes, your job is
to kind of turn on the fire hoseand give them a ton of
information.
But anxiety up, cognition down,that's your client's ability to
really comprehend and retainthat information right.
(21:29):
So we want to make this easy onthem.
So, depending on yourpopulation, again, you may be
able to email them some of thesethings and then just go over
key points in the first session.
You may be able to pare it downto something you can go through
in the first session, but youcan go through it fairly quickly
(21:51):
.
All right, marketing hat.
I want to know if you did a10-minute consultation with them
and I want to know if youprepared them for the first
session.
Y'all, how many times do wehear or do we find out or do we
(22:11):
hear from our friends andcolleagues they think they're
going to show up to the firstsession and deep, deep therapy
is going to happen.
Yeah, I mean, we know that.
We know that's not the case.
We know we need to getinformation.
We know it's going to staypretty surfacy because we're in
rapport, because we understandthis is a process.
(22:33):
We haven't earned the client'sstory yet.
Right, we're still helping themdevelop trust with us.
We're proving ourselves to ourclients.
So in your 10-minuteconsultation and if you don't
know what that is, go back to aprevious training, check a
podcast, check a YouTube videoIn your 10-minute consultation,
(22:55):
did you prepare them for thisfirst session?
Right?
And if you did not, well, youmight have a mismatch of
expectations here.
Right, and we know that happens.
When you're buying a car right,you go there, you're expecting
a Rolls Royce and they sell youa Pinto right, you have to
understand.
You're expecting a Rolls Royceand they sell you a Pinto right,
you have to understand.
(23:15):
You're selling a product andyour client is expecting a
product and it's nobody's faulthere.
Right, you know what you haveto do according to the rules and
best practices and ethics.
But your client has shown upand they are paying for a
service right.
(23:36):
In that 10-minute consultationyou have the opportunity to help
them set appropriateexpectations, right?
So you're not what is it?
Over-promising andunder-delivering, right?
Whatever that term is.
So in the 10-minuteconsultation it could be
something as simple as hey justwant you to know.
In the first session it's goingto feel like an interview.
(23:58):
I'm going to ask you a lot ofquestions, I'm going to give you
some points of views, somedirections that we can take, and
then at the end of the firstsession, we can both, or all of
us can decide together whichdirection we want to go, and
that will determine what we doin the second session.
Right, you see what I did there.
I helped them set reasonableexpectations for that first
(24:23):
session.
So they're not disappointed andsay, well, therapy's dumb
Counseling doesn't work.
I went to this thing.
All they did was ask me a bunchof questions.
So, no lie, this had to beprobably 20 years ago.
I finally because I was such ahelper back then I still am, but
I turned the volume down alittle I finally got my neighbor
(24:48):
to take her daughter to playtherapy.
I was so excited.
I mean y'all, this was a toothand nail.
Kate Walker had to fight to getthis person to change.
You see what I struggle with,right?
So anyway, put that aside.
My neighbor finally took herdaughter to play therapy.
They never went back.
(25:09):
Here's why they never went back.
Here's why they came back a fewnights later, sitting with my
neighbor out on the driveway.
I said, okay, so how did it go?
She goes, kate.
All they did was play games.
My brain, just.
You know that.
Well, neighbor, that's whatthey're supposed to do.
(25:31):
Well, that's just dumb.
If I want to play games with mykids, I'm not going to pay a
therapist for that.
So you see what's happening here, right?
You can guess the mistake, thecritical mistake that this
therapist made and y'all, thistherapist was actually one of my
professors, right?
She did not prepare my neighborfor what play therapy was, what
(25:56):
they could anticipate at thatfirst session, how they could
facilitate the process.
And, of course, I know I'mgetting one side of the story
here out today, because part ofyour job in that 10-minute
consultation is to help themunderstand what they can expect
(26:20):
at the initial session, right?
So if you are emailing thempaperwork, let them know.
Hey, I'm emailing you theintake paperwork.
We will go over it in the firstsession.
If you're going to email theman assessment, hey, I'm going to
email you an assessment.
We will go over that in thefirst session, okay.
(26:45):
So to recap, here's what we got.
We've got clinical mistakes youcan make in that intake session
and we have marketing mistakesyou can make in that first
session.
Right, and, depending onwhether you're face-to-face or
you're virtual, all of thesethings are impacting that
dynamic that's going on insideyour client's head.
Right, anxiety up, cognitiondown right.
(27:06):
We are trying to help them trustus, right, and that means being
the least anxious space in theroom, preparing them for what to
expect, making sure that ourassessments and our intake are
of our own design, making surethat our website copy and colors
(27:27):
and fonts are selling what thisperson is going to get when
they walk in the door or log into that call.
Right and be your authenticself.
I mean, I want you to be yourauthentic self and we need to be
clinical about what we do,because we're clinicians, that's
why we hold a license, and wealso need to be savvy marketers,
(27:51):
right, if you're going tomarket to folks who work
offshore and are having troubleswith their marriage and
struggle with circadian rhythms,then you better get trained and
make sure you know what all ofthose things are.
All right, I am going to openit up for questions, so let me
hit the pause.
Hey, I'm Dr Kate Walker.
Welcome to your Tuesdaycoaching.
Come on camera.
You got to stay in focus for me, all right.
Today's kind of an interestingtopic because it takes me back
to my counselor educator days,right?
So this is sort of like okay, Iwas getting my notes together
(00:31):
and I'm thinking, well, I wantto give them the counselor
educator perspective, but youknow, this is a group for
business too, so I want to makesure you get this from a
marketing perspective, and so Iliterally I'm making my notes
and I have terrible handwriting,but I wrote a line down the
(00:51):
middle, right, and so on oneside I put clinical, on the
other side I put marketing, andso common intake mistakes.
I want to make sure that youget what you need from both
perspectives, because that's thecool thing about the Step it Up
membership and Kate Walkertraining and Texas counselors
creating badass businesses.
(01:11):
I know I've got folks listeningto this who are maybe still in
grad school.
I know I've got folks listeningto this who are seasoned
practitioners and, of course,then supervisors, who are in the
unique position of not justhaving to practice the skill.
They've got to assess the skillin someone else and then teach
(01:33):
the skill if the person they'reassessing doesn't know what
they're doing, and remediate itand all the things.
So I want to make sure I makeit very, very clear this one
concept, all right, and if youhave heard me before, you've
heard me say this a milliontimes I want you to just kind of
clear your mind in through thenose, out through the mouth.
(01:56):
When anxiety goes up, cognitiongoes down.
Okay, everybody got that.
We know that.
That's fight or flight, freezeor fawn, all of the things that
have to do with our beautifulautonomic nervous system, right?
So we have these things thatare designed to keep us alive,
(02:17):
these responses.
They respond, you know, due tovisual triggers, auditory
triggers, you know, olfactorytriggers, all of these things.
We're constantly sensing theworld around us to decide if
it's safe or not.
Now, brain is a beautiful thing, and when that autonomic
(02:41):
nervous system is triggered,what happens?
Well, our cognition shuts down.
That doesn't mean we stopthinking.
What it means is we immediatelyhave to make snap decisions,
right?
So we have to make decisionsquickly.
We're not like hey, let's lookat a map and figure out what
(03:01):
we're going to do.
If I'm a pilot in a cockpit,I'm not going.
Let's go over the schematics Ifit's like no, no, no, just pull
the lever right.
So your brain, when it is in astate of fight, flight, freeze,
fall and all the things, is notable to do a really high level
discernment, decision making,all the things.
(03:24):
So everybody got that whenanxiety goes up, cognition goes
down.
All right, I shall begin.
So for the first part, clinical,I will take it from personal
presentation.
Intake mistake number onepersonal presentation.
(03:46):
Now, of course I had to do thisfrom just in a face-to-face,
setting things like basichygiene right, okay, Error, big
(04:13):
error.
If we are stinky, right, or ifwe are wearing a perfume that is
displeasing or really reallystrong, or we don't believe in
deodorant, right, you get to doyou I'm talking to you, mental
health provider but it can be amistake if those things about us
(04:34):
trigger you see where I'm goinghere fight, flight, freeze,
fawn in our client, because thentheir anxiety, which is already
super high because they'remeeting you for the first time,
kicks in even higher and they'renot listening to you, they're
not able to process and do allthe things we want them to do,
even if it's just an intakeassessment.
(04:55):
So, things like hygiene, weteach new counselors SOLAR,
which is just an acronym for howthey sit.
They're leaning forward,they're making eye contact.
If you are virtual, thatpersonal presentation becomes
your background.
Right, you're framing howyou're framing yourself in the
picture.
(05:16):
I did therapy with someone for awhile and this is basically
what I saw most of the time.
I'm exaggerating here, but Ireally just saw the top of her
head most of the time and itwasating here, but I really just
saw the top of her head most ofthe time and it was very
distracting and I found it veryhard to really do therapy
because I was so worried aboutwhere's the rest of her head.
So your internet quality, right, if there is a lot of cutting
(05:41):
in, cutting out Long and shortwhen it comes to personal
presentation.
I'm talking as a counselor,educator here and I'm talking to
you.
You have one job in that firstsession usually and I'm going to
get into more detail about thatthat is to get through your
assessment and to get throughthat intake paperwork and you
(06:04):
need your client to be in astate where they are receptive.
Now, we are taught our entirelives.
You can't make somebody feel acertain way, yeah, and it is
your job to be the least anxiouspresence in the room, because
the mirroring neurons and allthe things we know about how a
(06:25):
therapist, when they are able toregulate how they sit, where
they put their hands, how fastthey talk, they are setting that
environment up in the room fortheir client for their anxiety
(06:46):
to come down and then they canstart doing the work.
Remember, these are intakemistakes.
These are not theories.
I'm not teaching interventionsin order to help your client
achieve their therapeutic goals.
These are intake mistakes thatcan really negatively impact
whether or not that new clientis going to come back.
I mean, you guys spent allsummer working on your boot camp
(07:10):
stuff, your KPIs, getting thosephone calls up, making sure you
weren't playing phone tag,getting folks to actually make
the appointment, show up to theappointment.
You did it, you got them.
These are things that you canfix quickly.
Bottom.
These are things that you canfix quickly Now I'm going to now
go to the marketing aspect.
All right, see what I'm doinghere.
(07:31):
Clinical aspect, things likehygiene, things like how you sit
, things like your framing, yourinternet quality those are, you
know, some of the things are inyour control, some of them
aren't.
Now I want you to think frommarketing, right?
One of the things if you havegone through the trainings in
(07:52):
your profile or you've gonethrough videos and podcast
episodes, one of the things wetalk about a lot is an ideal
client, right?
Remember, I'm not talkingclinically anymore.
I'm talking about, from amarketing standpoint, who is the
person you are trying toimprove their sports performance
.
I want you to go to a bunch ofsporty websites and see what
(08:25):
their color schemes are, seewhat their fonts are, see the
type of verbiage that they use,the images they use.
Right, because you are tryingto portray right that's on the
giving side yourself as someonewho is knowledgeable about
sports and performance.
What you're wanting to bereceived right, that's what
(08:49):
you're wanting.
Your potential client now actualclient, sitting in front of you
what you want to be perceivedis your expertise in the area
that you say you're an expert in, simple right.
Well, this is where we can getit wrong, because if you've done
a lot of work and you haveportrayed yourself as an expert
(09:13):
in a particular area in order toattract a particular client and
they show up and you don't knowwhat you're talking about,
that's a problem.
Or, let's say, you're trying toportray yourself as someone who
is an expert Well, I keep goingback to the term expert because
that will inform your websitecopy, that's going to inform
(09:36):
your blog posts, your Instagramposts, your TikToks, all the
things that you're doing, posts,your TikToks, all the things
that you're doing and they showup and you don't look like that,
or you don't act like that, oryou don't use those words, or
you don't have that parameterthat you say you have.
(09:56):
I'll use myself as an example.
One of the things I marketedmyself as was I don't do this
anymore because I don't live inHouston anymore I marketed
myself to couples who wereexperiencing difficulty due to
working shift work with the oilindustry, right, super niche-y,
(10:19):
super specific.
But I had to inform myself, Ihad to attend training, I had to
really do my homework tounderstand the impact of shift
work on circadian rhythms, tounderstand the impact of shift
work on the family dynamic.
What were the highs, what werethe lows?
Right, if someone had shown upinto my office and I was like
(10:41):
what's shift work?
What are circadian rhythms?
What do you mean?
On two off four or on four offtwo?
So what you are puttingyourself out as one of the
biggest mistakes you can make isnot being that person when that
person logs onto your websiteI'm sorry, logs onto your call
(11:04):
or shows up in your office whenin doubt.
Here's the second thing I wantyou to remember from this Ask a
friend, Ask a friend who couldbe totally honest with you to
read your website copy, readyour posts, watch your TikToks,
look at your Instagram and thenlook at you, how you would
present on a work day, and askthem say, okay, do I look like
(11:27):
who I say I'm going to look like, do I talk like how I say I'm
going to talk?
Do I know the facts, the thingsthat I portray, that I know on
my public facing copy, and thatfriend, if they love you, they
will sit down and say, okay,look, here's where I think
you're on track, but here'swhere I think you're off track.
(11:48):
And ask two or three friendswho love you and who would be
honest with you so that you canget this on track.
Remember, if you're listeningto this, in September, september
and January, those are ourbiggest months.
I mean, that's why we spent allsummer in the boot camp, so we
could get ready for this fallrush between now and when folks
(12:11):
start getting ready for somenational and religious holidays
in about eight weeks.
Right, this is the sweet spotwhen a lot of families go okay,
we've got to get in.
It's now or never, and then itcan happen again in January.
So we are prepared, right,right, okay, next thing critical
, pretty critical intake mistakefor office people, those of you
(12:36):
who have a face-to-face office,two things you're hard to find
and there's no parking.
I know you got a great deal onthat office.
I know that it was just.
You know your view is amazing.
But if your client shows up andthey're already mad because
there was no parking and theyare already frustrated because
(12:59):
they took a left when theyshould have taken a right, yes,
yes, I know you gave excellentdirections, but remember anxiety
up.
Yeah, these folks who havefinally taken the step to come
and see you, right, this may betheir first time in therapy ever
and they take a deep breath,they get out of their car and
(13:22):
they don't know which door to goin.
Right, you have to, as abusiness owner, as a clinician,
think like that client.
Right, again, I'll tell storieson myself.
I worked in an office with twomajor problems, right?
Problem number one we wereright next to a movie theater,
right.
So the popcorn smell atlunchtime was incredible.
(13:44):
But you can imagine whathappened on Senior Discount
Monday, right, my parking lotwas full and folks coming in who
were already angry or sad oranxious.
Guess what I got an earful ofas we were walking down the
hallway to my office, right?
So, yeah, theoretically I couldturn that whole thing around
(14:07):
and say, oh, this is lovely.
My couple is letting me knowhow they are, right.
But I mean, this is their firsttime right, and we want them.
Anxiety down, cognition up, sowe do what we can.
Second problem my office had wasthey closed at five.
Secretary went home, so I hadto scotch tape a sign on my door
(14:32):
the big door like the door tothe lobby that said hey, if
you're here to see Dr Walker,you are in the right place,
smiley face.
If you're here to see Dr Walker, you are in the right place,
smiley face, hang on, I will beout as soon as my client before
you is finished.
We had a back door.
I could send my client out oneway and then walk to the front,
(14:54):
invite the new client in.
But I let them know hey, you'rein the right place, you're
doing a great thing.
Don't worry, take a breath, Iwill be there when we go for.
So that's actually the clinicalaspect From a marketing
standpoint.
Solve it for them.
Solve this problem, for if youknow parking is difficult, put
(15:17):
it on your website, say, hey,look, here's where you park,
here's a map.
And then, if you're allowed to,I would even put signs along
the way, put QR codes along theway, something to help them
understand.
Hey, you did it.
You made it, You're in theright spot, You're on time.
(15:38):
It's okay.
Everything's going to begin ina minute.
All, right back to to clinical.
Let's talk about assessment.
You know the assessment, right,the assessment is that first
session process we go through todevelop a treatment plan.
If you develop a diagnosis,everything that's going to
(15:58):
inform what we do in session twoand beyond.
Right, I want to know honestly.
I want you to think, be honestwith yourself.
Are you using an assessmentthat you love, or have you
Frankensteined somethingtogether from grad school and
your friends and this trainingyou went to in 2015.
(16:22):
All right, I want you to thinkabout that assessment and what
information do you really needfrom it?
Some of you are still using theassessments we gave you in
graduate school that would taketwo days to finish, right,
because we printed it out ofyour textbook and it was 85
(16:44):
pages long and it was askinginformation that still didn't
even have the word internet init.
You know?
I mean, really, how long has itbeen since you've looked at
your assessment?
I know with my coupleseventually I got to a place
where I could take a 10-pageassessment that, yes, I had
Frankenstein together from gradschool, a training, I did a job
(17:07):
that I had and I was able topare it down to about three
pages that matched my theory.
So I am a strategic familytherapist, I do.
I'm structural as well, so Iguess I'm pretty eclectic.
So I know the information Ineed to get.
I know what I'm headed for inthat first session.
(17:31):
So that may be hard for you newcounselors, if you're still in
grad school or you're newlypracticing an associate in
private practice or even at youragency, but for you seasoned
folks, I bet you you could takea pair of scissors and cut your
assessment down to almostnothing.
So this is a clinicalstandpoint.
I want you to think about whatyou're really trying to get from
(17:54):
that assessment and if youstill insist.
Well, actually, I'm going tohold off on that.
Let's talk about the consentpaperwork.
Now, if you weren't aware oryou didn't attend our Zoom the
Rules that was last month it wasme and it was my colleague, dr
Ashley Stephenson Stephens wetalked about rules, new rules
(18:17):
for LPC, lmft and social work.
Now, if you weren't able toattend that, don't worry, we'll
have that out in your profilebefore you know it.
But one of the rules that hascome out in the last couple of
years, for those of you who arein a hospital or an agency or a
prison where you're not able toget written consent, or perhaps
(18:38):
they have already signed consentpaperwork with the agency, with
the hospital, with the prison,you have the option of asking
your client do you understandthe consent that you are giving
right now?
So you know, going over thingslike confidentiality, who's the
records custodian, whoultimately handles whether or
(18:58):
not their information can beshared, things like that.
You can get their yes or theirnot and then you document that
in their file.
Now, private practice, that'sdifferent, right?
Of course, you're going to haveyour own consent paperwork and
it's going to cover thoseimportant things.
So I'm talking from a clinicalstandpoint.
(19:20):
Now Can you email them thatpaperwork?
Because, again, if you aregoing off what you did in grad
school or what somebody taughtyou 10 years ago you know I'm
not saying it's right or it'swrong, but in the interest of
time, remember that firstsession is also rapport building
(19:42):
.
You're helping that clienttrust you, you're helping them
understand you will remain thatnon-anxious presence and you
will be able to guide them tosome solutions, right?
So if that consent paperwork is10 years old, or if again, like
that assessment, right, if it'ssomething that's been
(20:03):
Frankenstein together, I wouldinvite you to go through the key
points, and now I just wrote afew down.
These aren't the key points,that would be another webinar
completely but just what came upfor me things like the divorce
decree, chapter 611.
And if you aren't familiar withchapter 611, you want to make
(20:24):
sure you understand that.
That has to do with what yousay.
Here stays here your fees andwhere to make complaints,
because that's another thing DrStevens and I talked about in
Zoom.
The rules.
You know that changed when BHECwas formed and that little
document or that little squarethat most of us have in our
(20:45):
consent form where can I go tomake a complaint.
Well, that has changedinformation.
So if you haven't updated that,you want to make sure you do
that.
But that's a big mistake ifyou're handing out things that
are too long or they're old andthey don't reflect recent rules,
or you aren't really sure whyyou give it to them this way and
(21:05):
it could be more efficient ifyou do it another way.
Because, being mindful in thatfirst session, yes, your job is
to kind of turn on the fire hoseand give them a ton of
information.
But anxiety up, cognition down,that's your client's ability to
really comprehend and retainthat information right.
(21:29):
So we want to make this easy onthem.
So, depending on yourpopulation, again, you may be
able to email them some of thesethings and then just go over
key points in the first session.
You may be able to pare it downto something you can go through
in the first session, but youcan go through it fairly quickly
(21:51):
.
All right, marketing hat.
I want to know if you did a10-minute consultation with them
and I want to know if youprepared them for the first
session.
Y'all, how many times do wehear or do we find out or do we
(22:11):
hear from our friends andcolleagues they think they're
going to show up to the firstsession and deep, deep therapy
is going to happen.
Yeah, I mean, we know that.
We know that's not the case.
We know we need to getinformation.
We know it's going to staypretty surfacy because we're in
rapport, because we understandthis is a process.
(22:33):
We haven't earned the client'sstory yet.
Right, we're still helping themdevelop trust with us.
We're proving ourselves to ourclients.
So in your 10-minuteconsultation and if you don't
know what that is, go back to aprevious training, check a
podcast, check a YouTube videoIn your 10-minute consultation,
(22:55):
did you prepare them for thisfirst session?
Right?
And if you did not, well, youmight have a mismatch of
expectations here.
Right, and we know that happens.
When you're buying a car right,you go there, you're expecting
a Rolls Royce and they sell youa Pinto right, you have to
understand.
You're expecting a Rolls Royceand they sell you a Pinto right,
you have to understand.
(23:15):
You're selling a product andyour client is expecting a
product and it's nobody's faulthere.
Right, you know what you haveto do according to the rules and
best practices and ethics.
But your client has shown upand they are paying for a
service right.
(23:36):
In that 10-minute consultationyou have the opportunity to help
them set appropriateexpectations, right?
So you're not what is it?
Over-promising andunder-delivering, right?
Whatever that term is.
So in the 10-minuteconsultation it could be
something as simple as hey justwant you to know.
In the first session it's goingto feel like an interview.
(23:58):
I'm going to ask you a lot ofquestions, I'm going to give you
some points of views, somedirections that we can take, and
then at the end of the firstsession, we can both, or all of
us can decide together whichdirection we want to go, and
that will determine what we doin the second session.
Right, you see what I did there.
I helped them set reasonableexpectations for that first
(24:23):
session.
So they're not disappointed andsay, well, therapy's dumb
Counseling doesn't work.
I went to this thing.
All they did was ask me a bunchof questions.
So, no lie, this had to beprobably 20 years ago.
I finally because I was such ahelper back then I still am, but
I turned the volume down alittle I finally got my neighbor
(24:48):
to take her daughter to playtherapy.
I was so excited.
I mean y'all, this was a toothand nail.
Kate Walker had to fight to getthis person to change.
You see what I struggle with,right?
So anyway, put that aside.
My neighbor finally took herdaughter to play therapy.
They never went back.
(25:09):
Here's why they never went back.
Here's why they came back a fewnights later, sitting with my
neighbor out on the driveway.
I said, okay, so how did it go?
She goes, kate.
All they did was play games.
My brain, just.
You know that.
Well, neighbor, that's whatthey're supposed to do.
(25:31):
Well, that's just dumb.
If I want to play games with mykids, I'm not going to pay a
therapist for that.
So you see what's happening here, right?
You can guess the mistake, thecritical mistake that this
therapist made and y'all, thistherapist was actually one of my
professors, right?
She did not prepare my neighborfor what play therapy was, what
(25:56):
they could anticipate at thatfirst session, how they could
facilitate the process.
And, of course, I know I'mgetting one side of the story
here out today, because part ofyour job in that 10-minute
consultation is to help themunderstand what they can expect
(26:20):
at the initial session, right?
So if you are emailing thempaperwork, let them know.
Hey, I'm emailing you theintake paperwork.
We will go over it in the firstsession.
If you're going to email theman assessment, hey, I'm going to
email you an assessment.
We will go over that in thefirst session, okay.
(26:45):
So to recap, here's what we got.
We've got clinical mistakes youcan make in that intake session
and we have marketing mistakesyou can make in that first
session.
Right, and, depending onwhether you're face-to-face or
you're virtual, all of thesethings are impacting that
dynamic that's going on insideyour client's head.
Right, anxiety up, cognitiondown right.
(27:06):
We are trying to help them trustus, right, and that means being
the least anxious space in theroom, preparing them for what to
expect, making sure that ourassessments and our intake are
of our own design, making surethat our website copy and colors
(27:27):
and fonts are selling what thisperson is going to get when
they walk in the door or log into that call.
Right and be your authenticself.
I mean, I want you to be yourauthentic self and we need to be
clinical about what we do,because we're clinicians, that's
why we hold a license, and wealso need to be savvy marketers,
(27:51):
right, if you're going tomarket to folks who work
offshore and are having troubleswith their marriage and
struggle with circadian rhythms,then you better get trained and
make sure you know what all ofthose things are.
All right, I am going to openit up for questions, so let me
hit the pause.
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