Many psychotherapists work with clients to help them understand and accept personal responsibility for their actions, behaviors and thoughts.  This is the existential crux of much of our work: personal responsibility is a worthwhile, necessary goal for people to feel empowered and be the source of their own success (however they define that term). But it is easy to talk about and very, very hard to do.

As a private practitioner do you take personal responsibility for the success of your practice?  Do you see yourself as the source of all the outcomes, positive or negative, from you business?

We can't expect our clients to accept our counsel if we are not aware of our own need to take responsibility for how we make a living.

Sometimes I think our training to become psychotherapists is too long and we become too dependent on others' praise or "permission" to take ownership of our careers.  We study, we take tests, we wait for someone to grade us for years and years. Then we apply for, get accepted and "approved" to particiapte in practica/internships/postdocs, and again we need to wait to be "allowed" to work on certain cases and we await our supervisors evaluations.  After years and years of this we start to develop a very external locus of control. We see our work and our worth as only as good as what others judge them to be. 

How does this relate to private practice?  We do a lot of waiting for someone to tell us what to do.   We are timid and afraid we will make a mistake (don't worry you WILL make business mistakes–all entrepreneurs and big businesses do), we look to outside organziations to advocate on our behalf.  There is a lot of talk about what our professional associations can do to support our businesses or advocate on our behalf to insurance companies.  Sometimes associations can do that, and many do it well, but they are not responsible for the success for failure of your practice.

Today's food for thought:  You are not a student anymore.  Waiting for others to approve of your work is not a successful strategy for private practice.  We need to shift our thinking to one of professional responsibility and action.  Once you truly "own" your skills and value then your practice will grow. No one cares more about your success than you.