Specialty Practices to Develop in 2010
I know it is a new idea to develop a specialty niche. It feels uncomfortable and “wrong” if you have the ability to help all sorts of people with a variety of presenting concerns.
But trust me, you will have a much more successful practice with people lining up to work with you if you specialize.
As I think about practice building, I get brainstorming on specialties I wish existed in my community. I have my niche and am happy to pass along ideas for others to consider for development in 2010.
Feel free to add any of your ideas to my list below.
My community needs practices that specialize in:
- Helping children cope with chronic illness (such as diabetes, crohn’s, celiac, etc)
- Supporting women recovering from breast cancer
- Integrated care for chronic pain (bringing together mental health services, medication management, massage/bodywork, diet/nutrition, fitness/exercise).
- Support for family members of children with special needs (esp. services for siblings)
- Emergency after-hours coverage for sole or small group practices
- Social skills groups for teens with high functioning autism and nonverbal learning disabilities
- Services for people seeking employment due to recent job loss
- Programs for people aged 65-75 moving into retirement, addressing how to manage this major life transition
- Treatment for returning veterans and their families
- PTSD treatment centers (like the Home Base Program)
- Practices devoted to treating specific phobias
- Treatment for internet and video game addictions
- ADHD coaching for adults
- Career counseling for teens/young adults with Asperger’s syndrome
This list could go on and on. I know some people who work in these specialty areas, but there are too few of them. Wait lists are long. And, even if the specialty exists in my community, does it exist in yours?
Specialties can be specific to your geographic location, depending on the economic conditions, social economic demographics, type of industries that employ people, etc.
So please use this list as a starting point, but put on your brainstorming cap and make a list of possible specialties you can develop in 2010. Feel free to use the comments below to expand this list.
Great information, Susan. I have to run to my practice right now, but you’ve got my thinking cap warming up! I’ll come back for another read and comment once I’ve put together some ideas
I’m struggling a little bit with specialization. I have two specialities – trauma and forensic psych. I’ll continue to do forensic evaluations, but trauma presents a difficulty for me. My present practice setting (an urgent care medical center) is not ideal for treating childhood trauma survivors. It’s busy, it’s medical, it’s not nearly as quiet as I’d like, and the waiting room is not a great place for highly sensitive, easily retraumatized survivors. I certainly can see people with adult-onset trauma histories, although I’d still like it to be quieter! I’m worried that if I position myself as an expert in trauma (which I am – 11 years at the Traumatic Stress Institute and many more years of related work), I’ll be fending off many survivors of child abuse. There aren’t enough therapists to refer them out, so I foresee discomfort in turning them down.
As I write this, it doesn’t seem so hard to shade my marketing so that it targets recent trauma. Not sure exactly how, but I’m sure it can be done.
I’ve been battling with this one for a while – there is SO MUCH I like to do, and feel qualified to help people in some way.
Right now, I am taking some time to review my writing to see where my passion lies – a bit of an experiment into my own subconscious. With that, I am also marketing a few different opportunities to my community to see where the fit lies.
I am hopeful that this will help me hone in on my niche.
Susan,
Are some niches overfilled? I have opened my own private practice and my passion is working with adult survivors who have gone to therapy and have done some work and are wanting more. I really like working with childhood sexual abuse survivors. This is my passion. Hence, the work centers around trauma. It seems to me almost all therapists deal with trauma.