Your Marriage Counselor

For Therapists in Private Practice who Want to
Increase Their Referrals

Our economy is difficult for all of us. I found that for me to succeed in my practice, I had to ask myself some of the hard questions that are listed below. You might want to see what your answers are and evaluate your own goals.

“Short Therapy Practice Effectiveness Test”

1. Do I consistently bill 35 hours per week? (My goal for practice hours)

2. Am I confident that my current marketing will continue to provide me with a consistent client flow?

3. Do I enjoy marketing my business?

4. Do I stay current on best practices for marketing my business?

5. Do I have procedures in place to optimize client retention, referrals, and long term contact?

If you answered no to 3 or more of the above questions, you are exactly where I was about three years ago. Though most therapists are aware of the importance of marketing, they do not usually have the time or energy to handle the complications that the business side of client acquisition or retention requires.

As a therapist for over 35 years, I’ve struggled to keep a consistent flow of referrals and so I decided to do something quite different and realized I had to make a major financial investment to insure long term stability for my practice to prosper and it’s worked.

Over the past two years my site, YourMarriageCounselor.com. has attained a significant internet presence in New Jersey. It appears on the first page in several places on Google and other major search engines. To accomplish that I have hired specialist in Search Engine Placement, had an aggressive Ad Words campaign, I regularly update my site and make use of You Tube, blogs, press releases, articles, and radio interviews.  The result of these efforts generate about 6 inquiries a day providing me with on the average about 35 hours a week or more of clients for my practice, and also supply the six therapists that I work with referrals as well. The number of hours that a therapist gains from this internet effort can be as much as 6 hours a week, of course, depending upon retention.

Many therapists are not in a position to invest 1000’s of dollars a month, so the solution that I’ve come up with is to invite other therapist to grow along with me.

I’ve developed a program that works for me as well as for the therapists that work along with me.

What therapists gain when they come aboard:

1. Each therapist has an exclusive area, around the area where their practice is located.

2. We launch a local internet campaign for a therapist which can include:

• listing them on my website (that can get as many as 165 hits per day) with both their biography and picture.

• posting their own articles to enhance their presence on the site, and/or post reviews from their clients.

• A 2 to 3 minute video that can also be connected to their biography.  By the way, the reason a biography and picture are so important is that some of the referrals have gone directly to my site where therapists are listed and actually ask for a therapist that they connected their feelings to from their biography.

3.     To maintain a high quality of service. I offer free consultation about difficult cases.

4.     At no charge to the associates, we will take credit card payments from your clients and I will put them through at my office. You will have an authorization consent form that is signed by your client each time before we run their credit or debit card.  We will never run a card without the clients’ signature

5.       I invite anyone who wishes to participate in additional services that I can provide (e.g. Anger Management, Intensive Jumpstart Sessions, and a new program, I am currently working on that will involve teaching couples negotiation skills).

How we provide a quality service with a strong business model

To provide a quality service, I answer all initial inquiries personally.  Monday through Friday, I answer the phone myself, return calls within an hour or two, or have my Office Manager, Roberta, get back to them, if I am not available. This rapid response both recognizes the urgency of the call and helps assure that the client does not go elsewhere for the service, and most importantly, leaves them with a good impression that someone will be available to meet their needs once they become a client.

When I talk to the referral, I send them to a therapist most convenient to them.  I also ask the perspective client to take a look at therapists’ biographies and pictures.  I then call the therapist and let them know about a referral.  I also provide a perspective client with a therapist’s telephone number and encourage them to call.

I recognized that unless you have a strong internet presence it is difficult to use  just our talent and training and still be able to earn a consistently comfortable living.

I am looking for high quality therapists who feel comfortable and enjoy working with couples.

By working together we both can build our practices.

If you are interested, please give me a call at (732)246-8484 or email me at drmarty@comcast.net.

Thanks for taking the time to read this

I look forward to speaking with you.

Sincerely,

Marty

Marty Tashman, Ph.D. (Clinical/Organizational Psychology),

M.S.( Counselor Education)LCSW, LMFT

License #37F100094000    (Marriage and Family)

License #44SC00275900   (Clinical Social Worker)