Review: How We Built Our Dream Practice

First of all, full disclosure: This is me playing poker at Southeast Psych’s booth at the Orlando APA Convention in 2012. The host is Dr. Dave Verhaagen, who along with Frank Gaskill, authored the book How We Built Our Dream Practice : Innovative Ideas for Building Yours

Their book makes for a nice read on kindle; it is a quick, fun read with engaging and sometimes humorous anecdotes. There are plenty of lessons in the book for both people who are new to starting a private practice as well as people who have been in private practice for a long time. This is what a big idea business-book reads like when it is written by psychologists, and it offers an important paradigm for practitioners.

They advocate for applying “abundance” thinking to your practice rather than scarcity thinking. They note “abundance thinking isn’t synonymous with the belief that we will always make a ton of money or have huge profit margins. Instead, it is the notion that there is more out there than we have tapped into or figured out how to access.” The authors are dead-on with the idea that there is enormous need out there, and scarcity thinking only hurts our field and doesn’t help us serve the public. It also does not encourage us to innovate and create our dream practice.

The authors encourage us to challenge the stereotypes of private practice as well as help us consider our core values. They  encourage us to not get stuck in the same old way of thinking that has dominated the profession. It is certainly worth the read.  I full recommend the book (why not buy it now?).

Full disclosure about Amazon links: I receive a small percentage of any purchase made through these links. This helps offset the costs of hosting the blog. Thank you for your support.

Todd Finnerty, Psy.D.