Pursuing Private Practice
Most therapists can sit with a client in crisis without flinching. Then they open a list of startup costs, try to name their business or work out what to charge, and freeze.
That’s normal. Training teaches you to be a good therapist. It rarely teaches you to run a business, set a fee you can live on, take a holiday without losing a week’s income, or plan for what happens to your clients if something happens to you. So some clinicians put off private practice for years. Others jump in expecting a full caseload in a month and six figures in the first year, and learn the hard way.
Khara Croswaite Brindle has run her own practice for close to a decade and teaches private practice to graduate students at the University of Denver. In this course she’s joined by Ashley Charbonneau, a licensed clinical social worker and clinical supervisor who started her practice, put it down, started again and is now full time. Together they talk through the decisions most new practice owners wish someone had walked them through.
They cover what private practice costs to start, how to choose a business name you won’t have to change, who belongs on your support team, how to write to your ideal client instead of listing your credentials, how to set your rates, why you need your own leave fund, and how to draft a professional will. They’re honest about the hard parts too: the isolation, the ebb and flow of referrals, the avoidance so many therapists feel around money, and the fact that private practice isn’t right for everyone.
It’s written for early career clinicians, interns and anyone weighing up whether, and when, to go out on their own. By the end you’ll have a clearer answer to the question that matters most: is private practice right for me, and if it is, what do I need in place first?
Before you start: Khara and Ashley practise in Colorado, so the legal, insurance and tax examples come from the United States. The thinking behind them applies wherever you work, but check the specific rules with your own registration body, professional association, accountant and lawyer.
You’ll walk away with
- A realistic picture of private practice: the common myths, what it costs to start and why the timing of your launch matters
- A checklist of set-up decisions, from your practice software and payment options to your business structure
- A simple process for choosing a business name that avoids brand confusion and trademark trouble
- A clear idea of who belongs on your support team, with questions to ask an accountant and a lawyer before you hire them
- An ideal client template and a one-sentence pitch: I help [population] through [approach] so that [outcome]
- Directory and website copy that speaks to the client’s experience before your credentials
- Three questions for finding a secondary income stream, and a map of your ideal working week
- Time-off strategies that protect your income, your early warning signs of burnout and a four-part restoration plan
- A four-factor approach to setting your rates and a clearer view of your own relationship with money
- A start on your professional will, and a way of networking that feels like building relationships rather than selling
Watch the course trailer
CPD Information For Mental Health Professionals
Enjoy complete flexibility with 100% self-paced learning you can access anytime, anywhere, and on any device. This course is included with your Tatra Training membership, along with every other course in the library.
Course Duration: 3 learning hours
Certificate and CPD hours: On completion you’ll receive a Certificate of Completion to support your CPD records. Your certificates are yours to keep.
Assessment: Complete a short quiz at the end (80% pass mark), which you can resit as many times as needed.
Revisit Anytime: Come back to the course as often as you like while your membership is active, whenever you want a refresher for practice.
CPD Eligibility: This program may be suitable for CPD for professionals such as:
- Psychologists
- Counsellors and Psychotherapists
- Social Workers
- Community Workers
- Mental Health Nurses
- General Practitioners (GPs)
- Occupational Therapists
CPD requirements vary between professional bodies, so please check with your association or credentialing body to confirm you can claim CPD hours/OPD points for this program and what evidence they require.
Course Content
Meet Your Instructor
Losing a client to suicide, facing a complaint, or carrying a heavy supervision load can quietly wear a clinician down, and most of us were never trained for it. Khara Croswaite Brindle has spent her career supporting clinicians through these moments, as a supervisor, trainer and author.
Khara is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Approved Clinical Supervisor based in Colorado, USA. She owns Croswaite Counseling, PLLC, co-founded Supervisionary, and teaches as adjunct faculty at the University of Denver. She has supervised clinicians since 2014 and trained them in suicide assessment and safety planning since 2017. Her books include The Empowerment Model of Clinical Supervision, co-authored with Christina Murphy, and Moving from ALERT to Acceptance: Helping Clinicians Heal from Client Suicide. She has presented for the American Association of Suicidology and the International Association for Suicide Prevention, and gave the TEDx talk "The Burden of Busyness".
Her focus areas are clinical supervision and leadership, suicide assessment and safety planning, clinician grief after client suicide, burnout and perfectionism, and financial therapy for therapists. Having experienced a client suicide herself, she writes about what she calls confidential grief: the loss clinicians often carry quietly because of their professional role.
What sets her training apart is that she speaks to the clinician as well as the client. Khara pairs practical frameworks with honest discussion of what this work costs, so practitioners leave with both structure and permission to look after themselves.
For your practice, expect to gain a structured approach to suicide risk assessment and safety planning, supervision practices that build capability rather than dependence, and ways to recognise and respond to your own grief or burnout. Her work particularly suits supervisors, practice owners and clinicians working with high-risk clients.
Quick Win: The Empowerment Model asks supervisors to move between the roles of leader, teacher, consultant, researcher and colleague, while deliberately stepping out of the counsellor role. Before your next supervision session, decide which role your supervisee most needs from you that day.
Qualifications
- MA
- Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), Colorado
- Approved Clinical Supervisor (ACS)
- Certified Financial Therapist (CFT-I)
Authored Books
- Moving from ALERT to Acceptance: Helping Clinicians Heal from Client Suicide (2024, Rowman & Littlefield)
- Helping Clinicians Heal from Client Suicide: A Workbook (2024)
- Understanding Ruptured Mother-Daughter Relationships (2023, Rowman & Littlefield)
- The Empowerment Model of Clinical Supervision (2019, 2nd ed. 2023, co-authored with Christina Murphy)
- Your Enneagram and Money (co-authored with Hannah DeGroot)
- Perfectioneur: From Workaholic to Well-Balanced (2020)
Media & Recognition
- TEDx talk, "The Burden of Busyness" (TEDxCherryCreekWomen, 2021)
- Featured by CNBC, Fortune Well, BBC Mundo and MarketWatch
- Journal of Financial Therapy article on the Empowerment Model (2023)
Teaching & Roles
- Owner, Croswaite Counseling, PLLC
- Co-founder, Supervisionary
- Director of Training, Financial Therapy Clinical Institute
- Adjunct Faculty, University of Denver
- Founder, Catalively (youth suicide prevention)
Training & Speaking
- American Association of Suicidology
- International Association for Suicide Prevention (New Zealand)
- Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association
- Financial Therapy Association
Looking for a steadier way to handle high-risk work and support the clinicians around you? Explore Khara's courses below.
Feedback & Reviews
This course includes:
- Lessons 14
- Topics 0
- Duration 3 hours
- Quizzes 1
- Language English