Cognitive Biblical
Therapy Coursework
Counseling Through God’s
Transformative Word
Welcome to Course 6
Chapter 1 Building Your Practice
a. Why go into private practice?
b. Types of private practice.
c. Key issues to consider before entering private practice.
Essay Questions: Answering the section questions (red buttons) is a great way to prepare for the end of the Chapter Quiz. Chapter 1 questions will help you review the text material and apply to your present or future counseling setting. The section questions will provide Dr. Wilkinson’s feedback to your answers.
Quiz Requirement: At the end of the Chapter, a score of 75% is necessary on the Chapter Quiz in order to access the next chapter.
Account Access: You must be logged into the coursework page to take the quiz and advance.
Chapter 1
Building and Maintaining Your Private Practice
The Counselor’s Calling
This is Course Six in learning Cognitive Biblical Therapy in which we explain and discuss the various elements involved in the business end of a counseling practice. We will be referring to several documents throughout the course that will be useful for you in setting up your practice. It should all be available with your course material. We will review the course’s purpose, objectives and philosophy first. The course outline will inform you of the topics that the course includes. The purpose of this course is to enable you to establish a counseling practice in different settings, including as a member of the church staff, a paid employee, or a practice that is supported by both counseling fees and salary from the church or institution. This course also includes information about opening a private practice that supports itself, or becoming part of an established practice.
The goal of this course is to provide you with practical information that is absolutely necessary to start or maintain a counseling practice. The course will also provide information about incorporation versus sole proprietorship, tax payments, hiring of employees, working with a church board, creating your own budget including ongoing expenses such as office supplies and equipment, marketing your practice, and expanding the area for your client locations so as to keep a flow of clients. The course will include a working knowledge of different business issues that must be understood and properly administrated. For example, the private practice financial responsibilities include your own withheld federal and state payments for Medicare, income tax and Social Security every month and submitted quarterly. That is one of the business tasks that has nothing to do with your clients, but requires time and effort on your part.
A key element to running a fruitful counseling business is determining God’s call on your life, that leads to your business and counseling goals. No matter what your goals are, you have to learn how to be good at business as well as being a counselor. You must be sure that your business remains healthy so that you can continue to fulfill your call to counseling. Remember God doesn’t call the equipped, He equips the called. So, this is very serious, and I'll do everything I can to help you know the necessary minimum requirements so that you can be successful.
As part of your self-assessment, you will learn the minimum requirements of business knowledge in this course to be successful as a business. Any areas of deficit will be remediated through your mentor support or other resources before you get behind in your practice formation. You will be asked to make a business plan before your practice is established. This will include an operating budget, description of the type of practice and the requirements for establishing this type of practice. The professional contract will be developed based on the type of practice to establish the relationship between you and the office space or host facility. Even though some of you will be using this as you are developing your practice and others are planning for the future, you will still be asked to make the plan. The last objective is to evaluate your knowledge on the business needs of a counseling practice, and strategy for negotiating these issues with a host facility. Even though you may not know now what your particular situation will be, this course is designed to prepare you for what the Lord asks you to do for Him.
Next, let’s look at the Course Materials provided. The Chapter Text (audio files also available) is provided with document links, such as samples of contracts, marketing materials, professional referrals, fee policy statements, malpractice insurance, brochure, billing forms, etc. Course Questions and Answers over course content are also included. For example, after the rationale for a private practice will be explained, then clicking on the questions (red block) to answer the questions about the text. The first question says, “Please list your reasons for going into the counseling field. Along with your reasons, list your thoughts behind the decision either to go into a private practice or to build your practice within a church setting.” You will not be graded on this question, though an answer will be provided for you to have instant feedback from my viewpoint. If you don’t understand some part of it, you can discuss this with your mentor.
There are three projects that will help you prepare for your counseling practice. These projects are to be completed after you finish reading Course 6 Chapter text and have completed a 75% passing grade on all twelve chapter quizzes. See the description and link at the end of Chapter 12’s text.
Brief description of Three Assigned Projects:
The first project says, conduct an interview with a church of your choice in order to evaluate their willingness to sponsor and Counseling Center. Within the interview, ask them questions concerning the provision of cost, free overhead. In other words, no rent or utility cost to you. Next, will the church leadership allow counseling payments to be made to the church, what is legally known as “a pass through arrangement”. The church acts as an intermediary for the counseling ministry to process the counseling payments and remit the funds back to you/counselor for the total amount at the end of the week. The church does not take out your (counselor) federal or state taxes, pay ministry expenses or charge you for this service. The totality of this conversation and/or agreement, will you have the right to have a key and use the designated counseling space the way you want, and other such relevant items that you have gleaned or that you've been listening to me speak to you about from this course? Whatever you (student/counselor) learn from this conversation, write a report and submit it as project one to your mentor at the end of the course.
The second project is the same basic idea, only this time you speak to a counselor, psychologist or psychiatrist or a group of other counselors that have a practice, you're trying to find out what the cost is for the use of the building. You're part of the use of the building, if there's a percentage that you have to give back to the person that's in charge of the practice. Again, your mentor can help you in preparing a list of questions for this interview.
Project three is to submit a budget for establishing your own practice. How much is the cost to rent an office space? How much are utilities? What kind of operating capital do you have to have? What will the administrative costs be, digital apps, phone, computer, printing, marketing and financial estimated costs? Then come up with a sort of an itemized list and a report that gives the needed monthly income and expenses (including your salary) for you to submit to your mentor at the end of this course.
Back to the content of the first question, “What is the rationale for a private practice? Why do you want to go into private practice? What's your motive?” The reason is that going into practice is something that never goes away. What motivates you to do the hard work, extra hours with difficult people and do things you do not like doing? Practically speaking, in the wintertime people track in mud, snow, and dirt, like the private practice I have in a host church. They provide the office space, but that's all. So, if clients track in the mud, I'm the one that bends over and picks it up off the carpet. Since I am there late at night, other people from the church left a lot of lights on; I walk through the church turning off lights, picking up trash and locking up doors because I'm the last one out. The janitor doesn't always get into my room because he's part time, and he doesn't always know when I'm free, so I usually package up and haul my own garbage down to the kitchen. When my lights get dirty, I am the one to pull them out of the ceiling and clean them off. That's just one aspect of having your own practice. You must believe that God has asked you to do this, to be a Biblical counselor for him, or else you'll become disgruntled and miserable and upset within a short period of time.
All this is part of being a counselor servant. There is not a lot of the glitz, glamour and perks some people associate with the high-powered income of a psychiatrist, psychologist or therapist. Your fees may be less than what other people charge. You will spend a lot of time alone doing paperwork for your clients and business. Working with office help has value, but you'll have to negotiate things with them, work with them, and being human, they will disappoint you sometimes. There are many different things that will force you into being humble and submissive to God and working with your unique situation. For these various reasons many counselors are unwilling to work in a church and provide their own support and furnishings.
My own answer for this question, was that I believe that God directly asked me, “Be my counselor” during a time in my life when I was searching for direction. I believe that God asked me to develop Cognitive Biblical Therapy as a Biblical method of counseling that would be professional and thorough. The development of the ministry in a church happened by accident. I was in a staff position, church secretary, actually, and began the practice in the church because of the need to conserve finances through the church setting. In other words, I didn't have to pay overhead or utilities or office expenses. I bought my own furnishings for the office space. I believe that this is a good way to have a practice that it's very economical as far as overhead is concerned, and that this format allows the counselor to reach a specific market of people at a cost they can afford who would otherwise not be reached at all.
So, I guess in my case, my rationale for going into private practice is first and foremost, I believe God put a call in my life to do that. But he didn't just automatically explain how and the first years of my practice were spent, really many years were spent refining and understanding how to create a business setting in a church facility that would empower me to be successful, as far as economics, and yet still provide what God had asked me to do, which was thorough, professional Biblical counseling.
So, you're going to look at a lot of different settings or potential ways you can do this, and not one way is not any more right or better than the other. The key is working with the Holy Spirit to find the combination or the setting or the process by which you do what God has asked you to do. This means that some of you will work totally independently, a counseling contractor and private. Some of you will work with a group of other counselors. Some of you will be hired on staff at a church, receiving a salary rather than collecting fees. Some of you will work as part of the lay counseling staff and not earn a salary. Some of you will be on staff, and both receive a salary and income from counseling fees. There are a lot of different ways that this will work. So, keep your mind open to what fits your needs, whatever that's going to be.
Right now, consider your calling, motivation and your reason for taking Course 6. Is your main focus your call to Biblical counseling? If not, sort out your answer to the first question below by taking time away to think and pray about your call and/or reasoning in taking this course. If you decide to not be a Biblical counselor, you can end the course and receive the cost for Course 6 refunded back to you. Be sure to process what you are sensing from the Holy Spirit with your mentor.
If your focus is to be a Biblical counselor, if your call is right, then the rest of this course is just mechanics. It's just working with how you need to fit into the plan God has for you. Your goal will be to be worthy of your hire, to receive a good income, to have your needs met, to function legally and ethically as is appropriate, to have a good knowledge of both psychology or referral base. As well as a good, solid method for Biblical counseling, which will potentially be Cognitive Biblical Therapy. So that's the first issue. Why did you want to go into private practice?
In your own words, answer the following question and submit to see Dr. Dan's answer. This question is for your personal reflection -- no score is given.
Please list your reasons for going into the counseling field. Along with your reasons, list your thoughts behind the decision either to go into a private practice or to build your practice within a church setting.
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Dr. Dan's Answer:
My own personal reasons for counseling are that I believe that God directly asked me to "be His counselor" during a time in my life when I was searching for direction. I believe that He asked me to develop CBT as a Biblical method of counseling that would be professional and thorough.
The development of the ministry in a church happened by accident. I was in a staff position (church secretary) and began the practice in the church because of the need to conserve finances through the church setting. I believe that this is a good way to have a practice -- that it is very economical as far as overhead is concerned, and that this format allows the counselor to reach a specific market of people at a cost they can afford who would otherwise not be reached.
Types of Private Practices
The next issue is, what kinds of private practices exist? There are many options. For example, when I first started my practice. I had what you could call a full private practice. I had no other staff members, but that private practice was supported in two ways: I still was the church secretary, so I received a wage salary, and I also officially opened a practice. I didn't really set any limits on the practice, so within a short time, I had probably 15 or 20 cases. Unfortunately, when I first started to counsel, I was uninformed and had no mentor or guidance, I just sort of started on my own. I only charged $5 for a session, so you can imagine how much I had to work in order to even make $50 in a week (not everybody paid). I didn't know anything about billing or accounting, so in those first few years, from what I can tell from early records, I probably lost about $20,000 in uncollected fees. So obviously, if I tried to live only off my counseling income, I have been starving, and probably would have had to quit. Eventually, that transferred into income just from the counseling. I eventually made enough income, as I began to learn about the business side of a practice. My income from counseling increased. It was amazing. When I received $200 in a week, I thought that was phenomenal. I was no longer the secretary and used the office in the church for sessions throughout the week.
Sometimes you'll enter into the full practice. Sometimes you will have a support base, still be a full practice. Sometimes you will have partnerships. For example, I have supervised two students going through the licensure process in the state which requires them to discuss their cases with me as the supervisor. They pay the cost of a session for this. That is a cost for them to use me as a supervisor. I set the cost as reasonable, but some people’s charges are exorbitant. This is a type of partnership. They help support me while I help them learn. Partnerships can range in types and sometimes it's an equal partnership. For example, two people say, “Hey, I could do better if I paid less expense. And would you like to be my partner? And let's set up a practice.” Those are literally legally binding agreements, and be very cautious to never enter into a verbal word of mouth. It is okay to just verbally agree, unless something goes wrong. If there are assets that are acquired, if there's a lawsuit, if there isn't a legal agreement that defines the partnership, it can be absolutely financially destructive, not only to you, but to your family, if your own personal assets would be attached. So, never form a partnership unless you do it through the guidance of an attorney and make it very defined and delineated.
Some partnerships are equal. Some partnerships are more contractual arrangements. For example, if you go to a clinic or join an established practice, they will have a contract that will define in minute detail what everything costs you. For example, when I looked into one of these, my portion of the hallway from the door into the office was measured out in square feet, and a percentage of the waiting room space, the space that the Secretary used in order to process my material, all of those things were worked out so that each square foot equaled a dollar amount that I had to pay every month. I could get out of my contract, only if I had somebody else take my place, or I had paid for the space even if I didn't use it. Some situations are ruthless and some are not. But it is very important to know what the expectations are before you agree. Some are fair and equitable and others are not. Those are places where someone else will profit from your hard work.
The other type of private practice is a secular practice which is renting space in a building that will serve as your office. If you hire a secretary, you will need a separate space and enough money to pay rest and wages. That type of practice demands a high volume of people and top price per session. Most of the high price people rely on insurance to pay the cost, which requires additional paperwork for you or your secretary. What I found is there's a gap between that high cost paid through insurance and the cost most people can pay out of pocket. If you can reduce the overhead cost of rent and secretary, you can find plenty of clients you can pay according to a sliding scale fee. The top incomes will balance the low incomes to provide you with a livable wage. That group of people seems to be huge and untapped. So, the secular setting is going to demand that you pay more, so you charge more, which will change the group of people you will serve.
Fully answer the following question from the content you just read and submit your answer to find your score and Dr. Dan's answer to the question.
What are the different types of private practices? Please give a brief example and explanation of each type.
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Dr. Dan's Answer:
There are three different types of practice: a private practice, a partnership, and a secular practice. The private practice can range from part time to full time and can exist in a home, office, or church. The partnership can exist in the same places but is a shared practice without full control over the facets of the practice itself, such as staff hiring, costs, and other concerns. A secular practice is one in which the person's values (Biblical beliefs or counseling methodology) are not under the counselor's control but are dictated by the clinic.
Key Issues to Consider Before Entering Private Practice
If you're considering opening a private practice, there are several key issues to think through carefully. The first is ensuring you have the proper legal credentials and licensure required to operate independently, much like any licensed professional, such as an attorney, dentist, or contractor, must meet specific regulatory requirements before practicing on their own. Beyond credentialing, it's worth taking time to spiritually discern with the Lord, what matters most to you as you plan your next steps: where you want to practice, how you want to structure your business, the level of professionalism you want to establish, and the values that will guide your approach to counseling. Once you “hang out your shingle,” you make a statement to the public that you consider yourself to be a professional who has the capabilities to help them, you have the right to charge a fee for your help, and that puts you in a place where any legal governing groups can enforce the professional standards they have established. If your state requires that you be evaluated and have a professional counseling license, you must be licensed. If not, you can be convicted of a felony for not following the law which means a huge fine and jail time. So, understand that this is a serious issue, and it's something where we need to reflect the thoughtfulness and the wisdom of our Lord Jesus, before we put ourselves out there in public view and say, “Yes, we're professional counselors,” whether we say we're Biblical, Christian or secular, we still have to be legal.
Most states have evolved their licensure for credentials to include a level of education that is from an accredited college and at the master’s degree level. The licensure committee keeps a list of those schools who are recognized through the necessary accreditation. They have a master list put out by the federal government of schools that are accredited by different agencies, some of which they will recognize. Accreditation agencies are organizations that set up standards for academic excellence, and then you have to meet those as an educational institution. They have specific criteria that must be met.
You're going to have a master’s degree from an institution that is accredited. If the courses you have taken aren't accredited, they will review them by evaluating your transcript, the course description and content, usually a syllabus. Usually, there are eight or more areas of knowledge that you have to possess via at least one three-hour master's level course such as statistical analysis, statistics and research, social background, cultural diversity, group therapy, etc. In your master’s program, you will have to complete 60 semester hours as a licensure prerequisite. After your master’s degree, you will need a specific duration for counseling supervision, which in Missouri is for two full years under the license of a licensed professional counselor, a clinical psychologist or psychiatrist. Either before, during or after your supervision, you will need to pass several exams: 1) a comprehensive four-hour exam over all of your studies in those eight areas of interest in your Masters, and 2) a jurisprudence (ethics) exam, sometimes online with your notes. You will be required to pay a fee each year and ongoing training. Now this is obviously the most demanding type of licensure, but it also yields the highest credibility. In the eyes of the public, you are trusted as a professional, and the credential gives confidence to the client that you are trustworthy and a valid helper.
A degree can be obtained in counseling that does not meet these criteria. In other words, you can go to a Bible college or a non-accredited institution that won't allow you to go through the licensure format, and it will limit your scope of knowledge and potential places of employment. It is possible to be on staff at a church without licensure where you do not directly receive fees that are made out to you from a client. So, these are things that you have to think about, and we'll talk more about them.
Do you want to go the full licensure route? Some of you may not even have a bachelor’s degree, so that's going to mean probably six years’ worth of schooling, four years, or whatever number of years it takes to get your bachelor’s and another two years for your master’s degree. Some of you may be just going to a graduate school, but you have to think about if you want the full impact to become a licensed professional and establish a business, either part- or full-time with that full range of credibility. Being licensed is the greatest defense against a lawsuit. If that's not God's leading for you now, you can still counsel, but it's going to be different. You can be on the church staff, where the fees go into the church itself. This will be discussed in the latter part of this course. You will have the covering of the church over you, not for profit organization, so you will have a different form of credibility. But with it will come some inherent limitations: you will need to have other professionals for referrals when the case goes beyond your scope of knowledge, or beyond where it's prudent, from a legal standpoint, to open yourself up to that much liability.
Fully answer the following question from the content you just read and submit your answer to find your score and Dr. Dan's answer to the question.
The issue of credentials must be considered before going ahead with the establishment of your practice. Please discuss briefly your perceptions of these concerns after reading the text.
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Dr. Dan's Answer:
State licensure demands a master's degree, supervision of roughly two years, the passing of a four-hour exam, and a jurisprudence test. Yearly license renewal and ongoing education in some states make it the most demanding type of licensure, but it also yields the highest credibility in the eyes of the public and the client.
A degree can be obtained in counseling that does not meet these criteria, but that will also limit the counselor's scope of knowledge and potential places of employment to more of the church staff setting, along with an inability to directly receive fees.
The second concern to consider is “financial risk taking”. This involves a level of financial leadership that you want to take and the amount of responsibility you want to take for the direction of the counseling ministry. You have to be willing to do this, because there are many concerns. If you choose to be the owner or the president or the director, the counselor has to make decisions concerning the level of obligation that the Lord would want you to take in developing and leading the practice. This will determine if you want to be in a staff position, or form a corporation and be the president. If you want to take on the responsibility for your monthly expenses, billing and processing your taxes. For example, I bought a computer program for accounting, and when I incorporated, I began to take on the responsibility of processing my own weekly counseling fees and self-employment tax processes. I spent a year getting some working knowledge of accounting from a CPA friend who served on my Board of Directors. I kept track of accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll procedures, federal and state income tax, FICA, corporate income tax, Federal Unemployment Tax, and state unemployment tax. (None of which I enjoy at all, but it comes with the responsibility). That is risk taking that's involved, because I am it, and cannot goof up my taxes. The Biblical Christian Counseling Center, in essence, consists of myself and the federal and state governments going to ask me why they didn't get their income tax payments. You don't have any backup. Because you are self-employed, on Monday morning it's snowing out, and you have to go to work, to make that day's wages, and there's no buffer. Eventually, you can do things like purchase disability insurance, create retirement investments, and save for vacation days. But if you're uncomfortable with the reality that this is a business setting, and in the initial years, you're the whole company, then you might not feel comfortable with that in the long term. You will need to think and pray for a very clear understanding of yourself as a businessperson. Talk with friends. Take a career analysis questionnaire to help you see who you are. You must settle that issue of risk realistically. Personally, it suits me because I enjoy learning things about different facets of the business side of this, it's fun to me. But everyone is different. Don't assume or guess what you're willing to risk. You must be certain to know the best avenue for you, so that you can fulfill the call God has placed on your life. You may want to be a salaried person on the church staff, where you direct a counseling ministry. The only thing you process will be your taxes from the check that the church treasurer gives from that week's fees into a check back to you through the church.
Fully answer the following question from the content you just read and submit your answer to find your score and Dr. Dan's answer to the question.
The issue of financial risk taking must be considered before going ahead with the establishment of your practice. Please discuss briefly your perceptions of these concerns after reading the text.
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Dr. Dan's Answer:
Financial risk taking involves the level of financial and leadership involvement that the counselor is willing to take. There are obviously many concerns to operating a practice as the director, owner, or president. The counselor has to make a decision concerning the level of obligation that the Lord would want the leadership of the practice to accept.
This will dictate whether the counselor is on staff as a therapist, or involved in either making monthly payments on taxes or hiring an accountant.
A third concern is the level of emotional and spiritual investment that the counselor will make in the practice. The development of the practice will require levels of investment that increase with a degree of ownership and control that the counselor feels that the Lord's asking him or her to take on. Without healthy boundaries and trust in the Holy Spirit to lead you and to transform your clients, a counseling practice has the ability to ruin your life. You will never run out of people to work with, but you will run out of hours in the day, and days in the week, and months in the year. So, the practice holds the capacity to work you 120 hours a week, if you'll let it. It can rob you of every waking moment when you're at home, steal your entire weekend, take time away from your family and friends. You must have an emotional and spiritual investment of your time in order to sustain your emotional, spiritual and relational health. It is not godly to neglect yourself or your family, and that you need to set up limits. Before you get into the practice, you decide when you work and when you don't. When you come home, you're home; when it's the weekend, you rest; you consistently take a vacation. For some counselors, having a seasoned counselor to mentor them in these areas can be a key in their steps towards counseling and business sustainability.
I learned this through eight years of counseling and making mistakes with my time. I was not present at home, not called when I was going to be late. I spent two hours with a client, which was totally inappropriate. You should never spend over an hour unless it is a catastrophic, serious mess like physical abuse, a runaway child or emergency situation. But as a rule of thumb, don't spend more than an hour with a client. They cease being able to hear you. They just repeat their problems. They don't learn. They use you like an audience. God will help you discern healthy limits and expectations for your communication and counseling when you seek His input and take risks to learn how to trust Him in your practice.
So, I've done all the wrong things, and what I've come to realize is I have to know how much I'm going to give, and what my responsibilities are before I open the doors. It means that you must think and pray through where you want to work, and all these other issues, or else you'll lose your balance. If you lose your balance, you will be exhausted, ill, physically, emotionally and defeated. All of these reduce your effectiveness and ability to hear God.
You have to know this before the practice is developed, and stay dependent upon God while it's established and functional. At one time, I put my home phone number on my business card, which was a tremendous mistake, because everybody I came in contact with had the right and often would call me at home. I would work until, say, nine o'clock and have people calling me up until midnight, and then when I got up in the morning, they'd be calling me at six or seven. From Friday night until Sunday night, people would call me almost nonstop. I had no weekends, and neither did my wife or my family. This happened because I didn't think through my boundaries before I opened the practice. We learned to screen all calls. At the office, I used an answering machine. I have preset office hours. I have each morning off so I can be with my wife and have time to do other things. I sleep a little late every day so that I can rest. I had to recover from years of doing this wrong. And what I hope and pray for you is that you won't have to recover from your work practices and be able to use rest as a time in God’s Presence
As a reminder, helping people with serious mental, emotional, spiritual and relational problems take a lot of time and energy (in all related health dimensions). All counselors have blind spots, cannot see the back of their heads. Spending time with other professionals, listening and processing is a best practice. Next, self-compassion can be knowing and living within your limits under God’s grace and wisdom. Third, is prioritizing self-care, as a daily and weekly part of your routines. You can find many books and websites that describe both self-compassion and self-care practices. In doing so, God will guide you into living within your means and your family will benefit from it too.
I pray that you can start out right and shelter yourself and your family from the beginning, and one thing you have to settle is any sort of a savior complex. It is not your responsibility to help everybody. You have to believe that God will arrange who comes. He will guide you to learn which ones will be open to working with you. Some of them will need to be screened out, confronted, because they won't want to pay or are not serious about consistently showing up for sessions. Some of them you won't help. Some of them came for the wrong reasons. They were given a chance to change, and didn't want to take it. You need to settle these things, because if you don't, your emotions will be rung out and ragged, and your energy level will be absolutely shot. Your spiritual self will be defeated and hopeless. Your financial situation will be unacceptable. Remember that you are worthy of your hire, so don’t believe the lie that you need to be a doormat. So those are the things that have to be examined and understood up front.
Fully answer the following question from the content you just read and submit your answer to find your score and Dr. Dan's answer to the question.
The issue of emotional and spiritual investment must be considered before going ahead with the establishment of your practice. Please discuss briefly your perceptions of these concerns after reading the text.
Pasting is disabled for this answer box. Please type your answer in your own words.
Dr. Dan's Answer:
The development of the practice requires levels of investment that increase with the degree of ownership and control that the counselor feels the Lord is asking him or her to take on. Guidance, direction, leadership, staff management, counseling contact time, and other concerns require a sense of balance.
Without God's direct insight and oversight, the practice can run a counselor into exhaustion, illness, and defeat. The counselor's sustainability will be dependent upon God's leading -- serving clients' messy issues and leading into "green pastures" for rest and renewal.
The fourth issue is financial stability. Now what this means is that while your practice is being developed, the financial base may vary or be unstable. Also, once it's developed, the counselor has to get used to the fact that the income changes unpredictably due to the fact that people are unstable. In other words, cars break down, kids get sick, and people forget their appointments. The time of the year affects the flow of counseling. In other words, in the summertime, people get outside, have kids at home, take vacations, so often the client load is reduced. You may have 12 cancellations in a week and have thoughts about how you've done something wrong, you're no good, God didn't really call you to counsel. You're going to go broke. Your husband or wife's going to hate you. Everything's hopeless.
There are many complex things that can occur because of the nature of the counseling business. The counselor must know that these issues exist and accept them beforehand, or else they can become a source of fear and insecurity. The only alternative to this concern is a dependence upon God for provision, and a rock-solid knowledge that God asked you to develop your practice in the first place. I'm not saying that you will not be provided for financially. I'm saying, if you set your boundaries, make decisions about emotion and spiritual investment, session load, times and cost, and develop your marketing plan and budget, you will have a consistency in your counseling practice. This consistency is not the same type as a guy that works for General Motors who goes in and stamps out fenders all day long. It's a different kind of consistency. The knowledge that God has asked you to counsel means He is also responsible for the overall functioning of the practice. God will help you to understand things, to learn marketing, develop strategies, find helpful people, and learn the accounting system. He will provide all we have talked about. Because the nature of your business is people, your stability comes from your average income. You need to know what business practices are best for your counseling practice.
For example, you determine that you will collect $1,000 a week from client fees. You may make $600 a week, and you may make $1,400 the next week. You are forced to live by dependence on God over time. This is a different kind of stability. First, you may need to work a part time job while counseling part time to build your practice. You will need to set up your office and develop your caseload, before moving to full-time. At some point, by faith, you quit one job, and take the risk of going into the practice full time. Some people have a spouse who can help do this. Everybody's situation is different. If you structure this properly in the business sense, there will be stability. It won’t be the kind of stability that you had with a salary or other employment. Because your business is people, you have to make peace with this instability, so that when you get to cancellations, you don't misinterpret why. Think and pray about this issue so that you get a sense of peace that you can live with these situations.
Now the next issue is the question of building a part-time or full-time practice? A limited practice has some advantages, less expense, literally takes less of your time to do, and is less involved. As far as taxes and staff members and paperwork, it's easier to get out of or close down if necessary. In other words, with a small practice, you haven't created as big a net of accountability. For example, I have a part time secretary, and it takes time for me to calculate her Medicare and Social Security payments for taxes, her federal withholding, her state withholding, and her state and federal unemployment taxes. So, I have to use my accounting system and generate all that information, send it in, and keep track of what the government says I paid, and is it enough? There is a time liability there. If you had a limited practice with just yourself without staff or incorporation, you would be self-employed and paying your own taxes. Your financial need in fees would be less, and you wouldn't have to worry about your corporation withholding tax at the state and federal levels. There are advantages and limitations for part time (under 30 or 32 work hours) versus full time, and self-employed versus incorporation.
Copyright 1987, 1990, 1993 by Daniel D. Wilkinson. All rights reserved. For more information concerning this material, write to:
The Biblical Christian Counseling Ministries, Inc., 2730 Radcliffe Dr., Florissant, MO 63031.
Any reproduction of this material without the express written consent of the author is prohibited. Printed in the U.S.A..
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The issue of financial stability must be considered before going ahead with the establishment of your practice. Please discuss briefly your perceptions of these concerns after reading the text.
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Dr. Dan's Answer:
Developing the financial base may vary and can be unstable, while getting used to the fact that income changes unpredictably because people are unstable. Cars break down, children get sick, people forget appointments, and the time of year affects the flow of counseling. Other variables include the nature of the counseling income, your need for rest and renewal, conferences, sick leave, and unexpected office expenses.
The counselor has to know and accept this beforehand, or else this can become a source of fear and insecurity. The only alternative to this concern is a dependence upon God for provision and a rock-solid belief that God asked you to develop the practice in the first place.
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