Perry: In this episode of The Therapist Experience, I’m speaking with Jayme Yodice from Jayme Yodice LPA. This is The Therapist Experience episode number 24. Welcome to The Therapist Experience. The podcast where we interview successful therapists about what it’s really like growing a private practice. I’m Perry Rosenbloom, the founder of Brighter Vision, and I’m so excited to introduce our guest today Jayme Yodice from Jayme Yodice LPA. Jayme, are you prepared to share your therapist experience?

Jayme: Yes, very excited.

Perry: Fantastic. Jayme is a licensed psychological associate in Charlotte, North Carolina. She completed her MA in clinical health psychology at Appalachian State University in 2000 and has been practicing as a psychologist for the past 15 years. She has worked for local agencies providing psychological services for the Carrabus County Department of Juvenile Justice, created and managed psychological testing program, and managed an out-patient therapy department in a large mental health agency. She’s been in private practice for three years and provides individual therapy, psychological testing and health coaching. Jayme, I gave a little overview of you there but why don’t you take a minute, fill in the gaps from that introduction and tell us a little bit more about who Jayme Yodice is as a professional and about your personal?

Jayme: Sure, yeah, thank you. I did get my master’s in health psychology at Appalachian State about 15 years ago. And we had two choices when I was in graduate school there, it’s an excellent program by the way, for clinical psychology. And we could go the clinical psychology route or the help psychology route, in terms of concentrating. And I’ve always been very passionate about health. I’ve been teaching dance for almost 20 years and so I was very passionate about nutrition and what makes people healthy, and the link between the mind and the body, and mental and physical health. So I chose that route, but what happened is I got out of school and started looking for a job, and I kind of just fell into more traditional clinical work. It was a wonderful program but as you heard from probably lots of therapists, when you get out of school sometimes you’re just not prepared for where to find the job or what you’re actually going to do with your degree once you get finished. So I started working in agencies which was wonderful, I gained lots of experience and I actually opened a private practice about 13 years ago. Just dabbled a little bit in private practice. And I think I’m a tale of just when it’s the right time because that certainly was not the right time for me. I had a newborn at home and I think I thought at the time that it would be great to have the flexibility, but for me it was just too overwhelming. I had not been in the field very long and having a baby at home it was just too much at that time. So after about a year or two I actually closed that down and went back to working for agencies. I did some work for the department of juvenile justice, doing psych evals for a while. And then I kind of landed at a larger agency in Charlotte where I did clinical work, lots of psychological testing and therapy, and then got the great opportunity at the end of my time there to manage an outpatient therapy department. Which is really where I started thinking again about private practice, and I knew that that’s where I was going to end up. But it just had to be the right time.

Perry: During all those years working for agencies did you ever get to really apply the modalities of the health psychology aspect track that you went down in graduate school?

Jayme: I really didn’t and I think that I was always thinking about it and trying to figure out how to do that. But it was really difficult because you just kind of get into agency work and public mental health, and you kind of get caught up in the paperwork and the bureaucracy of that and I just didn’t feel like I had enough autonomy to do what I really wanted to do. And I knew over the years that private practice would really give me the opportunity to do that. I just had to wait until it was the right time. And about three years ago it was the right time and I knew it was the right time because I was so excited. I didn’t have all the anxiety that maybe I had before and really the pieces just started to fall together because of my excitement and because I had a vision for what I wanted it to look like. I mean, I could visualize even my office and how I wanted it to be setup and everything. So I knew it was right, I still had some concerns, of course, everyone does about, are you going to make it or are you going to have enough clients, and how are you going to get clients? But it was definitely the right time. And it’s really been in the past six months that I really figured out how to incorporate my love of health psychology. For the past few years I’ve been working with a nutrition company and I just decided a few months ago to develop my own health and wellness program for my practice.

Perry: Oh, that’s fantastic. So you decided how long ago to integrate your own health and wellness program?

Jayme: I’ll tell you. I was actually working with a client and we were working on anxiety, and I’ve been thinking about it for a little while but my ‘aha’ moment was she told me about this program she bought off the internet. And all of these supplements and kind of crazy things that she had bought. And I was like, wow, people really are looking for something. Why don’t I develop something that I know is quality? And based on science and based on what I know, I have all this knowledge and skills but I really wasn’t using all of it. So I thought, well, I’ll develop something. And I started to do that, and then I said, okay, wait a minute. Let me think about this for a second. And I did a little more research and found a health coach certification program, and I thought, well, let’s go ahead and do that. So I enrolled and I completed my certification. I just got certified at the end of May.

Perry: Congratulations.

Jayme: Thank you. Thank you. It was great because I think sometimes we have to remember that we don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

Perry: That’s always important, right?

Jayme: It is. I realized once I went through the curriculum that they were going to– When I ended that I would have the curriculum that I could offer clients. And that was wonderful, it’s really just wonderful programming, and classes, and workshops. So when I finished I was ready to go. And just like when I started my private practice the key was that I just needed to start telling everybody what I was doing, and that’s what I’ve been doing lately is just spreading the word and saying, hey, listen to what I’m doing. And calling therapists that I know and sitting there in their offices. So I’ve already got my first health coaching client which has been really exciting.

Perry: Oh, that’s fantastic. So, man, I have so many great questions. I think they’re great questions to ask you here. And I apologize to all of our listeners, I appear to be a little tongue-tied this morning here and tripping over my words. So your health coach certification, where did you get certified?

Jayme: It is the Dr. William Sears Wellness Institute. And I don’t know if you’re familiar with Dr. Sears, he’s a famous pediatrician and a nutrition expert. And he’s published over 32 books and he wrote a book called Prime Time Help and I highly recommend this book. It’s wonderful. So the course that I did was based on that. There’s lots of different courses you can choose from but that’s the one I did. I’m going to do more courses in the future. I’m just going to keep going because it was such a wonderful program. It was great. so I’m going to keep going and do some of the other programs that they offer, but it’s just a really reputable certification and that was important to me. so that’s it. You can look it up. I mean it’s just Dr. Sears Wellness Institute is who offers these certifications.

Perry: Great, and of course, we’ll have a link to this in this week’s show notes at Brightervision.com/session24. So Jayme, you became a certified health coach and you just got your first health coaching client by marketing yourself to other therapists. Where are you on the path to developing your own product and curriculum? That’s still something that’s in the pipeline for you?

Jayme: That’s a great question. Yes, before I signed up to do the certification I had already created a program. I mean, I immediately knew what it was going to be called and I knew some of the components. So what I’ve been doing lately is I went ahead and I rolled those out and named them what I thought they needed to be named. I’m just using the health coach curriculum that I received and putting that in with the program. So I’m kind of using a bit of both. It’s called Pathway to Health, I have kind of a big program Pathway to Health, it’s a four-month long health and wellness program. So that’s very comprehensive for folks that really want to overhaul their health or have some health issues. And then I’ve got some other kind of mini options that are shorter in length or workshop style options for people.

Perry: So is Pathway to Health something that– You took the Dr. Sears wellness curriculum, did they give that to you as something you can sell once you graduate as a certified health coach and sort of blend it together with your own ideas, is that accurate?

Jayme: No, Pathway to Health is what is the name that I created.

Perry: Okay. Thank you for clarifying that. Fantastic.

Jayme: I know. So funny because it all happened at the same time.

Perry: That’s so great. So as a certified health coach in these health and wellness programs, now, the Pathway to Health, are you able to sell that to clients around the country?

Jayme: I don’t know. That’s a really great question.

Perry: Definitely something you should look into because I think that can really help you expand your reach and expand your business because so often– I’m pretty certain by being a certified health coach you can work with someone around the country as long as you’re not providing psychotherapy obviously. So that’s a way to really expand your reach and allow your business to scale up, and allow any content writing you do, any blogging you do, to reach a national audience and get to pull them in to your business and to your funnel, and help people around the country with your programs and also help your business.

Jayme: That’s great. And actually the wellness institute, once you complete your certification, they do have some of them that can be offered online, which is wonderful. So you’re right, that is a way to reach people nationally that want to login and you do the webinars over the internet and the coaching over the internet, which is great. So I haven’t gotten there yet but that’s definitely something I’m going to be looking into.

Perry: Yes, please do. And Jayme, I know you’re a client of ours, use our support desk. Let us help you out. I’m on your site right now. I see your Pathway to Health, we can integrate things where people can check out directly on your website and you can accept payments directly on your website for these courses. So definitely something to consider. Use our support desk so we can help you with that. I’m going to take a step back here and go back to something that you were talking about in the start of our interview. I’m really excited to chat about this because it’s something I’m really passionate about. You mentioned that you knew it was the right time to move into private practice for your second time three years ago, because you have been visualizing yourself moving into private practice. You knew what your office was going to look like, you knew how you were going to make those steps and personally, I think visualizing where you are going to be as a business owner, as an entrepreneur, as a professional, as a husband or a wife, as a father or a mother, visualizing is so important to success. There’s a book called Thinking Grow Rich which is a– I forget the author of it now but it basically examines some of the wealthiest people in the world and how they became that way. And it was a lot of them were just visualizing themselves as being successful. Thinking about it day in and day out. So have you always been that way? Visualizing where you wanted to be and how you wanted things to look in your live?

Jayme: Yes. I think this may come partly from growing up dancing and teaching dance. I’m a visual learner and I do think in terms of visualizing. I’ve also always been a daydreamer and I think daydreaming is wonderful. That’s definitely something I love to try to help people tap into that. Because it’s in your daydreaming usually that you find out what it is you really want to be doing. And then you have to figure out how to just put that into practical terms. So I let myself have fun with thinking about how I was going to setup the office because that is the fun part. I mean, the client stuff, I already knew I had the skills and I knew what therapy was going to look like. But I really allowed myself to have fun with that part. And recently with the health coaching, even though I’m in the same office and I’m really doing the same things, it feels like I’m rejuvenating myself once again and having that feeling come back of doing something new. And I think if you can do that every year, every few years, I think that really keeps things fresh. It keeps you from feeling burned out, and I do think that’s key. So visualizing where you want to be, it’s really important. I really think that’s very important. You have to kind of think about what is it going to look like, what is it going to feel like. Day to day, how are you going to move through your day in the office and even outside of that. So I think that answers your question.

Perry: It does. And I think that’s such an important character trait and characteristic of successful entrepreneurs. Really spending the time and passion to visualize where you will be. How is that going to look. What’s your office going to look like. I remember, gosh, four or five years ago I have created this action plan of what my business would look like, where our office would be. And obviously, things have changed and they didn’t actually meet anywhere near 100% but it was that motivation to keep you going through those hard times, and those really trying times as an entrepreneur. And speaking about trying times, let’s go back to a point in your career as a therapist where you really could have called it quits. We all have those moments in our professional and entrepreneurial journeys where you’re just as low as you could possibly be in private practice and you were ready to throw in the towel. So share that moment with us and then more importantly, share with our audience how you overcame that struggle?

Jayme: I would love to say that that’s only happened maybe once but there have actually been a couple of times over my career. I spent 15 years and being a therapist is hard. Even if you have a passion for helping people it’s hard. So there were a couple of times that I really did think about calling it quits. Especially because I knew there were other things that I could do. Like, I already was teaching dance part-time and I thought, well, I could go into education and I could go and teach in the classroom. So I did think about it because I think especially when you do work in agencies which– I mean, working in agencies is great and you do get lots of experience working with different populations and I encourage people to do that for a while but it also can create burnout because you were just shuffling paper sometimes and you get away for working with clients. So to overcome those times– Well, to be honest, the best way I found to overcome them was to go into private practice. Hahahaha. Because I just, I think that those of us in private practice, we just don’t work very well under other people. I mean, we have a clear idea of how we think things should be and I just didn’t think I was going to be truly happy until I could call the shots and do what I thought was right and run things the way I thought it should be.

Perry: What’s one of the major things that you’ve changed in your private practice and how things are run compared to when you were working in an agency?

Jayme: Well, simplifying things, for one. When I finally left and went into practice full-time I purposefully decided to work with just one insurance company and I chose the one that I worked with very carefully. It’s one of the largest in our area and pretty easy to work with and  has a pretty good contracted rate. And I wanted it to be simple. I wanted just not a lot of overhead, I wanted to be able to manage things myself. And now, three years later, there are things that I’m not doing myself anymore because I just can’t.

Perry: And that’s a good thing.

Jayme: It is a good thing. As you grow you have to get help.

Perry: What was one of the first areas you got help with?

Jayme: Hiring someone, not necessarily to do my billing yet, but to take your billing issues. That has been huge for me. So if I had the issue with the insurance and insurance claim, having someone to call and take care of that, that has been worth every penny spent.

Perry: And is that an outsource agency or an individual? Tell us about that?

Jayme: Yes. It’s an individual and I got a recommendation from another therapist. I mean, you’ve got to reach out to other therapists, you’ve got to network with other therapists. They are your best resource, especially ones that maybe have been in practice for longer, and just asking them, hey, do you use anybody? Are they good? What would you recommend? So yeah, a colleague of mine said, you’ve got to call these billing specials that we use and he was right. She’s been wonderful.

Perry: Would you mind sharing her name with our audience?

Jayme: Her name Genevieve Smith and she’s local. I think she works with several therapists. It’s pretty cool, her parents either were or are psychologists so she has a very good understanding of what we do even though she’s a billing expert, she’s not in the field. And she’s just wonderful and she’s taught me a lot about billing that I didn’t know because when I started I was just, honestly, I just started billing and just hoped that I got it right, which is kind of funny now. Hahahaha. I guess I was lucky. I pretty much got it right and even with insurance you just never know. Things change and they don’t tell you. And it’s hard to navigate so you need somebody to help you navigate that if you’re going to work with insurance.

Perry: And are you still just on one insurance panel?

Jayme: I am and I’ve been doing some tracking and I was excited a few months ago I had a day or two where I ended up with all self-play clients in one day and I was like, wow.

Perry: Makes things a lot easier.

Jayme: Yeah, and I didn’t pay attention to this because this means that maybe in a year or two I may move away from working with any insurance. But for now working with just one insurance company and then having clients that’s self-pay has been great. And I don’t have any issues with the insurance company but every now and then there are things that come up that have to be taken care of.

Perry: So speaking of self-pay, would you mind sharing with our audience what your current session rate is to see clients and your journey to that rate?

Jayme: Sure. I think that is one of the most challenging things in private practice. And especially when I just created my health coaching programs, trying to price that was just so hard. But my therapy rate, when I started my practice in Charlotte, the going rate for therapy is anywhere from 100 up to 150 per session and I am a licensed psychological associate so that puts me on par with licensed professional counselors, other master’s level clinicians. But I am technically licensed by the psychology board so I can do psych testing and it kind of puts me in between PHD psychologist and a master’s level psychologist. So it’s a little tricky but I started low at 90 dollars a session three years ago and very quickly came up to a 100 per session just for regular therapy sessions. That’s where I am now. I’m probably going to go up in the next year, probably to about 110 a session, and then for psychological testing it’s about 120 per hour. And that’s a little bit different. I kind of have packages for my psychological testing assessments and evaluations that I do and it just makes things easier for me to say, if you’re getting this type of evaluation this is what you will pay.

Perry: Got you, and what’s been the reaction as you raised your prices from your existing clients, do you keep them grandfathered on the old plan, do you give them a heads up and allow them time to transition in? How does that work for you?

Jayme: I had done both. I think it’s just worked out that most of the clients that I saw three years ago at the lower rate, they don’t come to therapy anymore. I mean, they completed their therapy for now. So that hasn’t really been an issue. I mean, I did have some that I grandfathered in. But I usually just give them a couple of months heads up that, okay, say on July 1st my rates are going to be changing. And I will say that my self-paid clients– People really just expect to pay and I think with insurance being kind of chaotic these days, I think people expect more and more to have paid for therapy services. At least in this area. And it depends on their experience, what expectation they come in with in terms of payment.

Perry: That’s a really fascinating analysis and a perspective that I haven’t heard yet but I think there’s a lot of truth to that as insurance becomes more and more challenge to deal with from a consumer. Everyone’s used to spending more out of pocket and if you’re going to seek mental health treatment you’re going to have to pay for it, except for the lucky few that have really great insurance.

Jayme: Well exactly, the thing is I have lots of clients that have insurance but now they have plans that have deductibles. So essentially they are paying out of pocket anyway. So it does depend on coverage and it just changes drastically from one year to the next. So that is frustrating, trying to help people afford a mental health services. And I’m not really sure where we’re going from here. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens in the next few years but I do think it’s important for therapists to stay tuned in to that and what’s happening with insurance and with policies so that you can kind of adjust your practice to meet those needs.

Perry: Yeah, I personally think we’re going to see more and more of a transition to private pay and people being, as you said, okay with paying out of pocket. I know we touched on on the previous episode, especially with people who are working with millennials, who are willing to spend more on their health in general, and I think as a society we’re willing to spend more on our health in general, buying organic foods and spending for personal trainers and workout classes. And mental health is something that people are willing to spend on to improve their own health and well-being. And I think we’re just going to continue seeing that trend more and more over the coming years which is really great for everyone in this industry, and for society as a whole.

Jayme: I think so too. That’s exactly what you just said what I’m seeing and I do find that younger clients do expect to come in and pay, and they’re paying for massage therapy, and like you said, they’re paying to go to the gym. And I think they just kind of lump in with that. So that’s exactly what I’m seeing too.

Perry: So Jayme, you’ve experienced such tremendous growth in your private practice since opening three years ago, and have really hit the ground running and branched out in so many creative and fascinating ways that you’re going to see really great success with, I feel like, immediately and in the future here. But you couldn’t have experienced all this great success without marketing yourself. And I haven’t heard that word mentioned yet in our interview. I know you said you went and you networked with therapists to help promote your health coaching, but what do you feel like is the single best marketing move that you’ve made for your private practice so far, and why do you feel like it worked so well for you?

Jayme: When I started my practice the way I marketed was really telling people, hey, I’m starting a private practice. I mean, you have to tell everyone you know. And the other thing I did when I started is I just simply did a listing on Psychology Today and a lot of people in my area use Psychology Today. Actually, my very first private practice client found me through that.

Perry: Psychology Today is so tremendous.

Jayme: Yeah, it is. I mean, you really need to make sure you have a good profile and a good picture on there. I think pictures are key. Clients really want to see who they’re going to be working with and also, somebody on one of your podcast recommended updating that on a regular basis.

Perry: Yes.

Jayme: Yeah, I was like, oh, that’s a great tip.

Perry: That was Dr. Heather LaChance I think back in session three.

Jayme: That was wonderful. That also makes a big difference. So that’s how I started. So I don’t have any real complex marketing that I do. I’m telling you that having a good website, I think I’ve been with Brighter Vision since September, so it’s almost a year. It will be year this fall, and that was tremendous. Having that contact form built in to your website that goes to your email, so that when people go online and they find you– And what I did is on my Psychology Today profile I even– I think I start with this or end with it. But I say on there, please visit my website. There’s so much more information on there. And that has been wonderful because when I started I tried to do kind of a build your own website deal and that was okay, but it really wasn’t good enough and it’s helped a lot to have a really good website. But I don’t have any– I do all my own scheduling still. I’m kind of old school in some ways. And one of the things that people always tell me that surprises me is that they always say thank you for calling me back so quickly, or thank you for emailing me back. Apparently, there are a lot of therapists out there, maybe they can’t, but they don’t get back to people. And that’s just been something that I’ve always done, I mean even before private practice. And something I’m going to continue, even if I can’t answer all of their questions I’ll at least say, I got your voicemail or I got your email and I’ll get back with you. And I’ve got lots of clients that way.

Perry: It’s so key in so many industries, and there have actually been studies on this that have been done. The sooner you respond to an inquiry the more likely you will be to have that person sign up with you and come visit you, and pay you for your services. And responding within the first few minutes results in a much much higher, for lack of a better word, close rate than if you were to wait 24 hours or even an hour. Those first few minutes are so crucial to respond to an inquiry especially in this field because when somebody has finally made a decision to seek treatment, to seek help, it’s usually been something that’s on their mind for years, whether it’s seeking help for a spouse who has an addiction or seeking help for themselves when they’ve been struggling with depression. They’ve been struggling with this for years and they finally made that decision to reach out and seek help, and to have to wait an hour, 24 hours, a few days for people to respond, it’s too late.

Jayme: It’s crucial to respond and it’s crucial to respond to other professionals when they want to refer because I get a lot of referrals from other therapists which is wonderful and you never have to be afraid that you’re in competition with other therapists. You have to network with other therapists. That is one of your best resources, so for instance, I’m on a Facebook group for local therapists. That’s huge because people go on there every day and say, I need to refer a nine year old client with anxiety, with this insurance, and then everybody kind of comments and– But if another professional refers a client you need to respond. You need to respond quickly.

Perry: Respond to the client and thank the person who gave you the referral.

Jayme: Yes, and I think technology really allows us to do this. I mean, certainly I have boundaries at night and on weekends I try to shut everything down, but during the week I’ve got my phone, I’ve got my email. And I can respond faster by emails, emails are godsend because I don’t have time really to call people back and have linked conversations but I can shoot you an email at night when it’s late when I can respond. And that’s been great. So it’s really so simple but really important.

Perry: I agree entirely and you’ll see that– If you personally– If anyone listening to this show decides, I’m going to change my response protocol and I’m going to make it a priority to respond from 8 AM to 1 PM with one hour of inquiry coming in. I think you’re going to see a lot more of those inquiries turn into actual clients. It’s just so crucial to respond quickly and promptly to any inquiry you get. It’s treating your business professionally, it’s treating your potential clients respectfully in the way that all of us want to be treated.

Jayme: I agree, completely.

Perry: So Jayme, you went to school to become a therapist, not to get your MBA. But business seems to come so naturally to you and you decided to open your own practice and become an entrepreneur. And you knew all along. You said, within I think 2 years of working in agencies you opened up your own practice but it was the wrong time. What’s the one thing that you wish you would have learned in school about starting your own business?

Jayme: Oh, goodness. There are few things I wish that they would focus on. And again, I had great training but we really didn’t talk a lot about how to navigate working with clients. I mean, we talked about how to do therapy but in terms of how to work with people and how we’re going to get clients, even just how we are going to get a job. I mean, it’s just like, okay, you’re trained, now go out and flourish. But you go out there and you’re not sure where to go and what you’re going to do. But I wish they have focused more on exactly how we were going to apply what we know. And also a little more on self-care. I don’t remember there being a lot about how being a therapist might affect us emotionally and that you do get burned out, you can get burned out pretty quickly if you don’t learn how to take care of yourself. I know that’s not really about starting a business but I do think it’s important. When you run your own business, it’s you. It’s yours and it can be very draining because it feels like you’re constantly putting yourself out there. You can’t hide behind an agency name. It’s all you and I think you have to be emotionally prepared for that. But really I wish they have just shared resources about how to manage your paperwork and how to setup a billing system. I did come through school in the ’90s and to be honest, there weren’t as many resources available and I think that it’s a little bit better now because there’s more online. I mean, we really were not using the internet much at that time. So I think it’s gotten a little bit easier but I wish we have had more of those discuss– Even just discussions.

Perry: Certainly. But even though it’s easier, there’s all these resources online, it’s still not the school preparing you. And we hear this every time I ask this question and I almost dread asking it, but every time I ask it, I hear the same response that my education prepared me wonderfully for working with clients, and working in agency, and being a professional. But it totally failed me when it came to any element of running a private practice.

Jayme: I would say that’s true. I don’t know if the assumption is– Depending on the school and the program, I don’t know if the assumption is that we’re not going to go into private practice. I don’t know if that’s what it’s about or if it’s just too overwhelming to try to prepare students for where they’re going to go next. I’m not sure what it is but you’re right, it is true. I mean, it’s certainly true.

Perry: And it’s really unfortunate because so many therapists decide to move into private practice these days and it’s becoming more and more common, and it’s just so unfortunate that your education isn’t preparing you for it yet.

Jayme: Well, what I would recommend therapists do– This is what I did a couple years before I opened my practice that I have now, is start to align yourself with other therapists or psychologists in your area that you admire. I reached out to a couple of people specifically and asked if I could work with them or if they would mentor me. Because I knew that those relationships were going to be important and I can learn. And I even when I started my practice said, can I look at your paperwork and see how you have that setup so that I can use some of that. And most people are more than willing to share that with you so don’t be afraid to reach out to people that have been in the field for a long time and ask them for help.

Perry: I agree entirely, and I think that’s been a common theme. Any time you’ve reached out, recounted a story about you reaching out for helping people in the field, you’ve gotten great feedback and great advice to help you continue growing your practice. Alright Jayme, now we’re going to move on to the final part of our interview. The part we like to refer to as Brighter Insights, and I absolutely love this part because we get to really focus in and dial in on your responses, and get quick little sound bites that our audience can use to help, inspire, motivate, and excite them in growing their own practice. Are you ready?

Jayme: I’m ready.

Perry: Fantastic. What or whom inspired you to become a mental health professional?

Jayme: I changed my major probably three times in school. Hahahaha. And actually a boyfriend at the time said, you should try a psychology class. I have never had one before, taken one, and I took intro to psych at upstate and had a graduate student teach the class but I fell in love with it immediately. And once I got into my major it was really– I was lucky I had great professors but I had three female professors that was key because I was a woman. They were really brilliant and strong, and they were at my thesis committee, and they were also practicing. They were not just teaching, which I think is key. And that was a great beginning role model for me, for kind of saying, okay, I think I can definitely do this. This is going to be good. So that was definitely part of it.

Perry: What is it that you do to clear your head and get a fresh start in your day?

Jayme: Coffee. Hahaha.

Perry: Hahaha.

Jayme: Coffee, and I’m a big time breakfast eater. I have a good healthy breakfast and I exercise in the mornings. If I have a really busy day ahead and if I look at my schedule and have that moment of, oh my goodness, how am I going to do all this? I will sometimes do some self-talk or– I wouldn’t really call it meditation but just kind of setting an intention for today and just saying, today’s going to be a good day. And I think that positive outlook, it really works. That’s when I teach my clients so I try to practice when I preach. But usually coffee, breakfast, and exercise.

Perry: And positive outlook, haha.

Jayme: Yes.

Perry: What are some tools that you’ve used to leverage the power of technology in your private practice so that technology is no longer a hurdle but instead an asset for you?

Jayme: I’m still walking on this one. Like I said, I’m a little old school but definitely I did create a Facebook page for Pathway to Health so I’m trying to tackle that first. It’s been really fun, it’s just a great outlook. I just post a few times a week with health tips on there and it’s just been great. But I love my Square Reader. That’s what I use to take payments in my practice. Man, that thing is just amazing. It’s so easy. I actually, about six months into my practice is when I first started using Square and it’s just been wonderful. I would say those are the two biggest things at this point. I don’t use a big practice software yet. I’m probably going to be moving to that in the next year and trying to get kind of a paperless office. That’s what I would really like to do so I’m going to be looking at doing that.

Perry: That does seem like it’s the next good step for you here. What’s a quote that you hold near and dear? Something that has helped formulate your perspective on life or inspired, motivated, or provided guidance for you?

Jayme: I think over the years just trying to manage my own anxiety. The one by FDR, “There’s nothing to fear but fear itself.” Really, it’s a simple quote but it’s one that just kind of floats in and out of my mind whenever I need it over the years. It just kind of drives me just to remember that. Usually when we’re afraid it’s really us kind of making up a story in our head about what can go wrong. And of course, as therapists, we know this but that quote definitely helps kind of ground me.

Perry: If you could recommend one book to our audience, what would that book be?

Jayme: Oh, that’s so hard, there’s so many. Haha. I’ll just tell you about two that I read recently. The most recent one was one I just saw at Target and thought the title was so funny so I grabbed it. It’s called You Are A Badass and– Hahahaha.

Perry: Hahahahaha. Oh gosh that’s a great title for a book.

Jayme: Yeah. Jen Sincero is the author and I’ll tell you. It actually turned out to be great for therapists in private practice because she talks a lot about your relationship with money and any hangups that you may have about money, and that is a key thing that you need to think about and work on as you go into practice and you decide your rates, and you’re taking money from clients. Because your relationship with money sometimes can really get in your way if you’re not looking at that. So she speaks to that in the book and I think that’s really helpful. And the other book is called Spark and it’s about the relationship between exercise and brain. It’s by John Ratey and he actually in the book talks about some mental health issues and how exercise can be very helpful so that’s a good one.

Perry: Alright Jayme, last question. If you moved to a new city tomorrow, knew nobody, and all that you had with you was your computer and 100 dollars to start a new private practice. What is it that you would do on your very first day?

Jayme: On my very first day I would email everyone that I know and let them know what I’m doing. I think you have to be excited. It’s okay to self-promote. I think that’s hard for some of us but you just have to say, hey, this is what I’m doing. Let me tell you about some things that I’m going to be offering and how I can help your clients, and how we can refer back and forward each other. So that’s the first thing I would do.

Perry: Great. Any parting advice for our listeners, Jayme?

Jayme: Just even though we’re all passionate about helping others, if you can find those few things within that, that you’re really, really passionate about. I think that for me, I’ve been happiest lately when I’m really bringing together all of my interests and realizing that I had skills and things that I was not utilizing. So if you can spend some time around that and kind of pull those things together and use your creativity in your practice, I think it just makes it more exciting and can help you stay in the field as long as possible.

Perry: Fantastic. That is such great advice Jayme. And of course, everyone here can learn more about Jayme and find all the resources that she had mentioned over at Brightervision.com/session24. Jayme, thank you so much for being so generous with your time, your expertise, and your knowledge.

Jayme: Thank you.

Perry: Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have a question for us you can email it to us at [email protected] and, of course, if you’d like to launch your own website don’t hesitate to reach out to us. Brighter Vision is the worldwide leader in therapist website design. For just 59 dollars a month you’ll get a website that’s as unique as your practice, unlimited technical support, and complementary SEO so people can find you online. To learn more you can email us at [email protected]. Once again, that’s [email protected]. That does it for today, thanks again for listening and we will catch you next week.