While you may have started your private practice as a solo enterprise, its growth depends on others’ support. This doesn’t necessarily mean adding other professionals to your payroll. It means building a network of trusted colleagues who can refer clients, promote your services, and help build your business’s reputation for offering more than just counseling. And if they’re unable to help you on their own, they may be able to link you to others who can deliver what you need.

As a therapist, I’ve developed reciprocal relationships with several colleagues for referrals. Our codes of ethics restrict us from providing counseling to individuals with whom we’re already connected, such as family, friends, or neighbors.

When someone in my social sphere needs therapy, it’s a relief to be able to refer them to a professional whose work I’ve witnessed and respect. It’s equally encouraging to receive a referral from a colleague who knows me personally. 

Beyond a well-prepared referral list, investing in professional connections yields powerful benefits for you, your clients, and your business.

Investing in professional relationships increases your familiarity with other types of services and enhances the care you provide. For instance, in most states, licensed therapists cannot prescribe medications. Many counselors are unfamiliar with the names, purposes, and side effects of psychotropic medicines. This unfamiliarity can lead to negative outcomes with clients, as we aren’t fluent with this aspect of their treatment.

Your connections with prescribing physicians, including psychiatrists, psychologists, and primary care providers, have a two-fold impact. They enhance your rapport with clients since you can competently discuss their medication, which heightens the chances they’ll continue to work with you. They also increase your referral rates as prescribing providers get to know you as a person, not just a name in a database, and make earnest recommendations.

Historically, clients have relied on word-of-mouth referrals when choosing a healthcare provider. They wait for their friends, family members, or colleagues to give a professional the green light before scheduling an appointment with them. Though online listings of therapists are widely accessible nowadays, clients still prefer the personal endorsement of someone they trust.

While my city has many available therapists, I keep a trusted list of 5 to 10. These are the professionals who I share with friends at their request.

This client preference means your time spent networking can be especially fruitful. Consider the money you invest in regular business advertisements. Instead of spending $50 per month on Internet and social media ads, what if you reserved $25 to treat 2 local professionals to coffee? 

Such a gesture allows you to promote your business in a personal and less expensive manner while building professional connections. It also gives you space to explain your service menu in detail, learn about theirs, and collaborate on ways you can exchange referrals.

Successful online promotions can require a large amount of time. What if you focused some of that effort on reaching out to 5 to 10 professionals who have a high potential for making referrals? Streamlining your promotional efforts this way can produce strong, rewarding links while reducing your administrative time.

Harnessing your professional connections increases opportunities for joint care and long-term work. For example, you may specialize in working with adults in the midst of a divorce. If there’s a child involved, it’s common for adult clients to prioritize their child’s counseling above their own.

This can interrupt your work with the adult. It’s strategic to connect with a child therapist so you can provide uninterrupted treatment for your adult clients.

Likewise, you may return a call from a potential client and learn that while you’re trained to treat their depressive symptoms, you’re unqualified to address their alcohol addiction. If you have a good relationship with an addictions counselor, you don’t have to refer this caller elsewhere completely. Instead, you can offer to work with them to address their depression at your practice while your colleague helps them address addiction at theirs.

A strong professional network can regularly direct new clients your way, keeping your waitlist full. Imagine if the administrative staff at local academic institutions know you as a reliable counselor. At the grade school level, your caseload could fill with children and adolescents as their guidance counselors, principals, and teachers share your business information with parents. At the college level, your practice could be listed in their off-campus services directories or as a potential practicum site for counseling students.

Counselors already have links to fellow providers in mental health. To gain momentum, however, your business needs endorsement from professionals in other fields. Here are several examples.

Patients are often referred to counseling for issues like panic attacks, self-harm injuries, or a difficult diagnosis. Even hospital employees, notably nursing staff, may need therapy due to intense work demands. 

When I worked at a psychiatric hospital, our team set follow-up appointments with community therapists for patients before discharge. I had a concise list of counselors I routinely called. Prioritize relationships with management teams at psychiatric inpatient and outpatient programs to build a pipeline of continual referrals.

The instructors at Pilates, yoga, and barre studios, as well as chiropractors and massage therapists, understand the link between mental and physical health. Connecting with them opens your business to a clientele already concerned about their health and willing to put in the work needed for improvements. 

I’ve gone to the same masseuse for 5 years partly because of her appreciation for counseling. We respect each other’s professional work and have exchanged stacks of business cards over the years as we’ve provided mutual referrals.

Legal outcomes commonly direct individuals to attend counseling. The referral may be problem-specific, such as 8 sessions to reduce substance abuse, or relationship-specific, like family reunification sessions over a 6-month period. 

Your local bar association is an excellent place to advertise, since lawyers want to know who can assist their clients outside of the courtroom. One of my colleagues has a caseload that’s almost entirely composed of legal referrals. Besides receiving payment for their counseling sessions, she can accrue additional income from consulting with her clients’ lawyers and making court appearances.

Religious leaders can provide spiritual counsel, but most have not learned about clinical diagnoses and their treatment. There comes a point when they must make a referral to a licensed provider. 

If you adhere to a religion, identify groups in your community with likeminded individuals. Your similar belief system will be attractive to them and has a high probability for turning them into long-term clientele.

Whether at the K–12 or graduate level, administrators need a list of therapists to whom they can refer students. A connection with a guidance counselor, teacher, or professor can generate a steady stream of new clients.

While completing a federally funded grant, I directed group sessions at 4 different elementary schools. My time spent at each location enabled me to form strong links with their guidance counselors as we discussed referral information for their students.

Counselors already have links to fellow providers in mental health. To gain momentum, however, your business needs endorsement from professionals in other fields. Here are several examples.

Patients are often referred to counseling for issues like panic attacks, self-harm injuries, or a difficult diagnosis. Even hospital employees, notably nursing staff, may need therapy due to intense work demands. 

When I worked at a psychiatric hospital, our team set follow-up appointments with community therapists for patients before discharge. I had a concise list of counselors I routinely called. Prioritize relationships with management teams at psychiatric inpatient and outpatient programs to build a pipeline of continual referrals.

The instructors at Pilates, yoga, and barre studios, as well as chiropractors and massage therapists, understand the link between mental and physical health. Connecting with them opens your business to a clientele already concerned about their health and willing to put in the work needed for improvements. 

I’ve gone to the same masseuse for 5 years partly because of her appreciation for counseling. We respect each other’s professional work and have exchanged stacks of business cards over the years as we’ve provided mutual referrals.

Legal outcomes commonly direct individuals to attend counseling. The referral may be problem-specific, such as 8 sessions to reduce substance abuse, or relationship-specific, like family reunification sessions over a 6-month period. 

Your local bar association is an excellent place to advertise, since lawyers want to know who can assist their clients outside of the courtroom. One of my colleagues has a caseload that’s almost entirely composed of legal referrals. Besides receiving payment for their counseling sessions, she can accrue additional income from consulting with her clients’ lawyers and making court appearances.

Religious leaders can provide spiritual counsel, but most have not learned about clinical diagnoses and their treatment. There comes a point when they must make a referral to a licensed provider. 

If you adhere to a religion, identify groups in your community with likeminded individuals. Your similar belief system will be attractive to them and has a high probability for turning them into long-term clientele.

Whether at the K–12 or graduate level, administrators need a list of therapists to whom they can refer students. A connection with a guidance counselor, teacher, or professor can generate a steady stream of new clients.

While completing a federally funded grant, I directed group sessions at 4 different elementary schools. My time spent at each location enabled me to form strong links with their guidance counselors as we discussed referral information for their students.

Consider these strategies when utilizing your network to grow your practice.

As you make plans to leverage your connections, first determine your ideal client. For example, if you want to work with college students who are struggling to adapt to their new phase of life, prioritize your relationships with campus-connected staff members. Call the dean of students to introduce yourself, email the counseling department with details about your services, and pin your business cards onto public message boards in campus bookstores and nearby coffee shops.

If you want to help families reconcile from legal troubles, narrow your outreach to judicial professionals. Contact your local bar association to ensure the lawyers in your area know that you want to work with their clients. Leave your business flyers at the front desk of family law offices, and phone your area’s Child Protective Services representatives with a pitch of how you can help the families on their roster.

An approach that has worked well for me is to center my advertising on local churches. While my practice isn’t restricted to Christian clientele, I’ve found this is the population with whom I can best work because of our shared belief system. To market my services, I personally delivered documents explaining my faith-based approach, along with business cards, to several churches. 

Now, it’s typical for me to receive intake calls from people referred by their pastor. My caseload and waitlist are regularly filled with people who are looking for faith-based care; all it took was for me to visit each location and be upfront about my counseling approaches and availability. 

Another tactic that I’ve found useful for generating referrals is to maintain contact with colleagues from previous jobs. Since they’re familiar with my work and personality, I can depend on them to refer clients who are a good fit. 

My last worksite was a group therapy practice of 8 counselors. Upon leaving that location to open my PLLC, I gave each of my colleagues a small, handmade gift and a pile of business cards; I returned several months later to visit and resupply them. Though I considered the effort minor at the time, they produced a surge of intake calls that helped my business survive its first year.

Your professional connections as a therapist can serve as a life preserver for your business. Though you may be its only practitioner (or staff member), your efforts alone cannot keep a private practice from sinking. Healthy, strong, and continuous relationships with other professionals can help your business build a steady practice filled with ideal clients. 

The endorsement of respected and influential individuals in your community will outdo an exaggerated social media presence; it will give potential clients a superior explanation of who you are and why it’s best to choose your business.

You don't have to figure out how to market your practice alone. Partner with Tebra for better visibility, stronger relationships, and an easier way to manage it all.