Much has been written and said about website optimization, and many of you have done just that: spent time and energy on optimizing your websites, making them “friendlier” to search engines and new potential clients alike. But what about our practices themselves? What about us? What would it mean to think of “optimization” more holistically, as a a principle of increasing well-being and contentment in our practices, and in our own lives?

I think of an “optimized” practice as a practice that reflects the values, limits, pace and temperament of the clinician who runs it. It is a practice that allows for true balance and healing not only for the clients seen in that practice, but also, and just as importantly, to the clinician him- or herself.

What I find again and again, in my own ongoing journey towards increased well-being, and as a consultant to other psychotherapists, is that, unconsciously, we all get in the way of “optimizing” our practices and our lives by becoming attached to fear-based beliefs about what is possible for us. To “optimize” our life as a whole means facing some of those deep-seated fears, whether in our own therapy, in consultation with peers, or in any other way that we move through and transform fears. If we can facilitate this kind of transformation for others, isn’t it about time that we start doing the same for ourselves?

I often find, for example, that those of us who grew up in cultures and families that emphasize the role of guilt in a punishment/reward system, feel that we don’t truly deserve to have a balanced life as psychotherapists until we have reached some undefined fantasy goal of being “good enough." We believe that until we put more work into our skills as clinicians, until we bring our business to where we need it to be, until we take all the workshops we believe we must take - until then - we can’t let ourselves rest, play, replenish ourselves or set limits around the hours we'd most like to work or the clients we'd most like to see.

In my experience, the opposite is true; when we manage our practices and our lives in a way that truly reflects and honors our limits and temperament, we are not merely indulging ourselves, but actually creating a more sustainable foundation for a thriving and healing practice for all involved in it.

I have found, for example, that if I don’t take short walks in the woods several times a week, I get depleted, resentful and less present with my clients as well as with my family and friends. Rather than thinking of those walks as my “reward” for doing “good enough” work as a therapist, I have reframed them as part and parcel of my work life and of my practice. They are, in a way, a part of my responsibility to show up fully present and in a state of well-being for myself, my clients, and my family.

To hold ourselves back from having what we need to be truly content and well is not supportive of our practices, of our private lives, or of our clients. It is also bad for business. The psychotherapists I know who truly thrive in their practices have found ways to truly honor their limits, values and needs, and manage their practices in accordance with what they know about themselves.

As you prepare yourself to “optimize” your practice in this sense, take some quality time with yourself to get curious about what values and limits of yours are and are not currently honored in the way you run your practice? If you were to increase your sense of well-being and balance, what will need to change? Are you holding yourself back by believing that you haven’t “earned” the right to such well-being and contentment? What if you were to accept that you are “good enough” now, and integrate into your practice those pleasurable, nourishing or restful moments that you so secretly crave? What would your “optimized practice” look like then?

To learn more about our services, email naomi@therapy-marketing.com, call 510-658-3783, or visit us at www.Therapy-Marketing.com

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