Khamedriah
Is having your own practice better than working for someone?
I would like to have a practice of my own as a clinical or counseling psychologist, but I am not sure if it would be best for me to do that or just work at a company. What are the complications, the benefits, and such that could have me either choose one or the other or I could do both?
#clinical-psychology #psychology #counseling-psychology
2 answers
Dr. Ray Finn
Dr. Ray’s Answer
Dear Khamedriah,
I apologize for taking so long to respond to your question. I hope this information is not too late to be of some use to you.
By way of background, I worked as a psychologist for two community mental health centers and a juvenile probation department, for a total of eight years. I went into private practice in 1980, initially with another psychologist and eventually on my own, for a total of 34 years. I much preferred private practice. I made more money, but more importantly I could work with the kinds of clients I wanted to and do what I thought was best for them without having somebody telling me it was too expensive or not consistent with the organization's mission.
The down side is that private practice is a business and you have to think like a business person at times if you want to succeed. You have to market yourself to a degree. Also someone has to pay the rent, the telephone bill, employees if you have them, etc. It is also financially risky; most private practice psychologists I know have been financially successful but a few have not. Your income can also vary quite a bit from year to year.
Working for the right agency or organization can also be very fulfilling and it can be nice to know you will get paid at the end of the month. However, in an era of declining government funding for social services these positions can be insecure. I was laid off by two of the three agencies I worked for because of budget cuts.
There is a third possibility, which would be to work for an organization full or part time and have a private practice on the side. Many people in private practice started this way, and some made the jump to full time practice after they had built up enough of a clientele.
I hope I have given you some useful information. I wish you the best in your career pursuits.
Ray Finn, Ph.D.
Priya Mathew
Priya’s Answer
There are pros and cons to both! I have only worked for companies so a pro would be having coworkers for support, having a potentially ready set of clients as opposed to finding your own clients, sometimes pay/salary, sometimes benefits, and having support during a client crisis or personal crisis. The con is sometimes having to deal with corporate values and goals in addition to your own career goals, and changes in corporate structure and values over time. On the other hand some pros I can see (but do not have experience with yet!) with having your own practice is setting the type of clients you want to see, setting the pay rate and being more independent of what your schedule looks like, and setting and meeting your own goals as a priority for your career. Some cons are it is expensive to own your own practice (rent of the facility and advertisement in addition to what you will already pay in insurance, organization memberships, etc), you need some business knowledge or savvy, it may take a while to build your client load and it may get lonely! Of course you can also choose to join or partner with another practitioner to have a joint practice or join in the practice of another practitioner to counteract some of these. Personally it works best for me to work with others at the beginning of my career but this has looked different for everyone once they get their full license. You may get experience of working at different sites while working toward your full license so you may know when you get there what you like and do not like. At least for my license we cannot work independently until our full license and hours are achieved. Good luck!