I hear from a lot of people who want to build a private practice.  So many have great ideas, lots of desire. Some are ready to get started right now. But then there is the fear.

Is it just therapists that are this fearful of starting a business?  Any entrepreneur should be careful, cautious  before starting a new business. But fear will hold you back and make the whole process scary and yucky.

Fear also means that, even those of us who manage to begin a practice and find moderate success just don’t go bigger, or start anything new, innovate or grow.  We settle for safe and adequate, good enough businesses that pay the bills.

That kind of a practice is fine if that is all you want, but I know you guys harbor bigger goals and are curious how you can do your part to change the world (or at least a small corner of it).  Am I wrong?

But that dang fear just gets in the way!

So I declare, on the Biz Savvy Blog we are going to address this issue on No Fear Fridays!

Let’s just get that scary stuff right out into the open, examine it from all angles, take the power right out of it and free up our hearts and minds to get beyond our self-imposed limitations.

And let’s start today talking a bit about Fear of Change.

As humans we dislike change. What we are doing now is comfortable, known, predictable. Even if what we are doing now feels stressful or unproductive, we’d rather live with an unpleasant known, than risk changing to do something that might be even worse (even though we cognitively acknowledge it could make life better).

But what if we think of change this way–change is going to come whether we acknowledge, own and direct it ourselves, or not.  Change is around you every day. You don’t drive the same car you did when you were 20, nor do you use the same phone.  Our kids don’t learn math the way we were taught a million years ago and it is a rare thing to see a camera with actual film.

There is change in the mental health profession as well.  You know this.  New research, new treatment techniques, health care reform. Oh yeah. Lots of change.

But when we think about consciously changing our little world, tweaking our practice, adding a service or (deep breath) putting up a we site, we panic. Or we deny panic, but defend with declarations of lack of time, money, energy. “No need to change,” we think. “My practice is good enough as is”.

But deep down we know it might not be as up-to-date as it needs to be to sustain the dizzying pace of change.  But we get paralyzed by fear. Or we have a day or two where we make a few steps toward a positive shift, but hit a set back, or someone criticizes our idea and this reignites that anxiety that lurks behind change.

We know how to help others through their fear. We’re therapists! What advice would you give a client who desires a better way or a  new direction?

Acknowledging the issue is the first step, so put the mirror up and say, “Things need to change in my practice and I fear that.”

Own your discomfort, acknowledge the yuck. Then figure out how to manage the feelings.  You can sit with all this for awhile, but you cannot get stuck there!  [But if you do get stuck, I highly recommend, Havi Brooks blog.]

Nope, you need to start making a change.  OK, one little step toward change. Then another and another. One step a day will soon get you to one whole change sooner or later.

It takes time but as you put one step in front of the other you are changing and not panicked. The fear may rear up once in awhile, but by acknowledging it, you take away its power.

Change isn’t good or bad, it just IS. The sooner we learn to work with it and direct its course, the better. Does that make sense?