Business strategy for therapists going private pay and beyond
You are allowed to make real money doing this.
Most therapists were trained to be excellent clinicians and left completely alone with the business part. So they undercharge, overgive, and feel ashamed for wanting more. Aren't you tired of that?
Going private pay
Getting off panels without gutting your caseload, with a fee you can say out loud.
Growing beyond the session
New revenue streams and a brand that sounds like you, planned so they pay you back.
The money work
The beliefs underneath your pricing, because a new fee without a new belief snaps back inside a quarter.
A practice that feels like you
Hours, caseload, and model shaped around your life instead of the one you inherited.
Why private practice feels harder than it should
Nobody taught us the business part
Grad school handed most of us one practice model. Fifty-minute sessions, a caseload as full as you can stand, and a fee somebody else set. Then it left us alone with the rest: pricing, marketing, paperwork, and the whole back office of a small business.
So we guess. We say yes to the reduced-fee request we can't afford. We rewrite the website at midnight and still don't know what to charge. Most of that is a skills gap nobody filled for us, and skills can be learned.
Or, you build the practice, the offers, and the brand on purpose, around the life you want, with someone who has already done it.
For therapists coloring outside the lines
Business consulting for therapists making big leaps
You're defining your own version of this work. Maybe that's leaving the panels. Maybe it's a group, a course, consulting, speaking, or a brand that sounds like you and nobody else. The strategy and the money work have to come with you.
Going private pay
The exit plan, the fee, and the words for the clients you already have.
Adding revenue streams
Groups, courses, consulting, and products priced so they pay you back.
Building your brand
A message, a website, and a presence that feel like yours when you read them out loud.
The plan is there. The move isn't.
You've read the posts, run the numbers, maybe bought the course. Every time you get close to raising the fee, leaving the panel, or launching the offer, something stops you. That something is where we start.
You leapt once, then growth stopped
The first big move paid off. Then everything stalls right at the edge of what feels okay for someone like you to earn or build. The next leap takes new strategy and a new picture of yourself.
The money work
Your fee is how clients care for you
You care for your clients emotionally. They care for you financially. You're helping each other, and there's nothing wrong with that.
Therapists are taught to give and give and never receive. Clients can't support us emotionally, and they shouldn't. They can support us financially. That's what pays for the rest, the vacation, and the life that lets you show up well for them.
Receiving that care is part of the job. Most of us need practice.
That practice is what financial therapy is for. I'm a financial therapist, and it's the bridge between my two sides.
The embodied side: As someone with a deeply attachment-focused and somatic practice, I help you listen to what your system is actually saying. We spend so much of our life attuning to our clients, while rarely attuning to what's going on inside of ourselves and how that affects every decision we make with our business.
The business side: As someone who landed three national accounts by twenty-three, long before I ever sat in the therapist chair, I help you look at your practice like the business it is. We're trained to read people closely, while rarely reading the numbers, the market, or what makes someone say yes to working with us.
The process: We build the fee from your real numbers, work through the story that makes receiving it hard, and check it with your body before it goes live. You decide where this journey goes -- I just help you get there.
This is business strategy. When something clinical comes up, it goes back to your own therapist.
Ways to work together
Private practice consulting, your way
Business strategy sessions
A 90-minute intensive or a 60-minute consult for the one decision you need to get right.
90 min $750 · 60 min $400 Book a session →Mentorship
A monthly call, weekly check-ins, and someone tracking your growth between them.
$900 a month Explore mentorship →Best Year Yet
A group cohort for therapists building beyond the session: new offers, new revenue, and a year you want to live. Enrollment opens once a year.
$300 a month Get on the list →Pop-up office hours
Sixty minutes, six seats. Bring the question that's been circling your head.
$65 per session Get the next dates →Accessible Private Pay Toolkit
A calculator, 13 scripts, and a 58-page workbook for a sliding scale that still pays you.
$47, instant download Get the toolkit →Website audits
Your therapy website reviewed for clarity, search, and bookings, with a prioritized fix list.
Mini $145 · Full $399 Get an audit →Why me
Built one embodied yes at a time
I'm a therapist with a background in sales and marketing, and my clinical lens is rooted in somatic work.
I had a rough start. So I built a soft life on purpose, by noticing every no and turning toward a yes.
100% private pay, no panels
Sometimes a third, 10:00 to 3:30
Jessica Good, MA, LPC, EMDRIA Approved Consultant, Trauma of Money Certified, Member of the Financial Therapy Association
“Jessica came prepared, offered direct and constructive feedback, and helped me gain the confidence to make some necessary changes to my business.”
“I reached out to Jessica with a desire to transition my practice to private pay with extended sessions. Jessica helped me to organize my thoughts and, importantly, stop underselling myself.”
“After our work together, my vision became much clearer. I gained confidence in my direction, clarity around serving my niche, and concrete, actionable steps that made the transition into private practice feel aligned and manageable.”
Therapist CE retreat · February 21–26, 2027
The Money Shift in Belize
Five nights on the Caribbean coast, up to 10 CE hours pending approval, and room to do your money work and decide what you build next.
Free fee calculator
See what private pay would pay you
Start from your real costs, compare your panel rate to a private pay fee, and see the gap in dollars. It takes about twenty minutes.
Questions
Private pay questions, answered
How do I go private pay as a therapist?
Start with the math: what your life and practice cost, and what fee covers it at the caseload you want. Then plan the exit panel by panel, with the words for your current clients. Read the step-by-step post.
What should I charge for a therapy session?
A fee built from your costs and your income goal, not from what panels reimburse. The free calculator does that math for you.
Can I go private pay and stay accessible?
Yes. A three-tier sliding scale your clients self-select into, or a set number of reduced-fee spots, priced so your practice stays above its floor. See the toolkit.
Is this therapy?
No. This is business strategy for therapists. When something clinical comes up, it goes back to your own therapist.