One of the really lovely things about my work is running my counsellors facebook group called good enough counsellors. And the reason I love to do it is I get to meet some really wonderful people online and also if they’re popping into the group and commenting on my daily posts I really get to see some of their progress. And then sometimes if people want to work with me a little bit more closely, they come into my therapy growth group where I support counsellors in their private practice, and today I’m going to share with you an interview I did with Tracey Carlisle. So during the pandemic, Tracey actually moved from working in a full time job, to then having a day off, to then transitioning to full time private practice. And in this interview, she gives us an idea of how she did it.
So, sit back, enjoy listening to the story of Tracey’s progress because I’m sure she’d agree that if she can do it, you can do it too.
Josephine
So, Tracey, you know, I’ve sort of first sort of started noticing you around sort of around lockdown because you were working at home, weren’t you? But you were working in a job that you didn’t really enjoy. So tell us a bit about where you were, and were you doing any private practice at that point of sort of lockdown? And
Tracey
Yeah. I was. I was doing just up until we went into lockdown, I was doing evenings. Mhmm. So I was doing a Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evening.
Just a couple of clients.
Josephine
Yeah. So I
Tracey
probably had about 6 a week.
Josephine
Right. Yeah.
Tracey
A couple of the evening. When we went into lockdown, it was a, you know, mixed bag of emotions for me. I I loved being at home. I loved working from home. Mhmm.
But I did love the fact that I was doing I was had that privilege, I suppose, to be at home, but not doing what I wanted to, not doing what I enjoyed.
Josephine
Yeah.
Tracey
So for me, it was quite frustrating because I was still seeing my well, not seeing because then the initial lockdown, I was doing it by telephone. So that was a completely different way of working for me from face to face, thrown in at the deep end instantly like we all were, but I got through it. And clients got through it too. And unscathed, I hope. And it all seemed to be going okay, but it kind of still didn’t sit right with me because I was still quite unhappy in myself.
Josephine
Fast forward to about September, you went back to work, didn’t you, at that point? And you went back to the office. Yeah.
Tracey
Yeah. Went back and then decided it was was time to drop down to 4 days. So I had had the meeting with the boss, asked if it would be possible. So I chose a Wednesday in midweek to break the week up for me. And so then I went from my Tuesday evening with clients to all day Wednesday, Wednesday evening, and Thursday evenings.
Mhmm. And that took off fairly quickly. Yeah. Initially, when it wasn’t taking off as quickly as I’d hoped, I was doing CPD, so I was using the time. Yeah.
Then it did. The Wednesdays filled up. And then I was becoming quite exhausted because I was then doing 2 jobs. Yeah. But still enjoying it and looking forward to my Wednesdays.
Wednesdays was my my favourite day of the week. They couldn’t be wonky Wednesday. It was never that for me. It was always my favourite day of the week. Yeah.
Josephine
Yeah. Yeah. Because you just love the counselling. Yeah. Yeah.
And and freedom. Because you’ve got I mean, you’re in a lovely a lovely office there, aren’t you? And you’ve got a lovely space. Anybody on the, in the group will have seen the space that you’ve got because you’ve got like a space in your garden, haven’t you, for
Tracey
Yeah. Science. Yeah. So we’re down the bottom of the garden. So I’ve got a separate office to the therapy room.
Josephine
Yeah.
Tracey
And clients love it as well because it’s a nice view from the garden. And when I’m doing things like this, the dog comes down, and it’s he comes to work. Yeah. And he enjoys it too, which is nice. And it’s just, yeah, it’s just a nice environment.
It’s just lovely.
Josephine
So I know people who are watching are gonna be wanting to know how did you do it? You know, how did you move from just a few clients to more clients to then actually taking that step? Was it difficult to take that step to give up your work? And and actually, right, I’m gonna take the plunge, and I’m going to move from, like, this day a week with a few evenings to, like, I’m giving up work and giving up that income that I know I’ve got coming in. Tell me about that.
Tracey
Well, in a nutshell, I was pushed. You know? As time went on, I was becoming more and more frustrated because I was gaining more and more confidence. Yeah. And I was getting better and better, you know, with my clients through more and more experience and stuff.
And so, yeah, I was finding it harder to do the other job. And, you know, my mindset was just all over the place. Mhmm. And so I knew I had to make I had to make a decision. Mhmm.
And so it was Friday evening with family. My son-in-law and daughter came over, and I said, you know, she’s getting unbearable. I just the thought of going back next week is just terrifying. Mhmm. Just don’t know how much longer I can do this.
So he just said to me, well, if you if you don’t do it now, when are you gonna do it? Even for all those years, you’ve worked really hard. You’ve gone on to do other things since to more qualifications, more qualifications, more training. What are you doing it for? I thought, well, he’s he’s actually got a point, hasn’t he?
You know? I I can’t keep doing a day and moaning about the rest of my life when I can make the change myself. Yeah. And so when I said, well, okay. What I’ll do is I’ll aim to hand in my notice in 3 months’ time which gives me the opportunity to build up some money, and then I’ll do it.
And so he said, well, I think 3 months is too long. But if that’s what you’re comfortable with, that’s what you do. Mhmm. It turns out on the Monday morning, I had to do my notice. Yeah.
Josephine
Because I’m, like, a month’s notice.
Tracey
Yeah. I so I had to give a month, but I ended up giving them 5 weeks because I thought it because that’s how that may turned out to be. And I thought and that way, I’m being fair and so on, and I wanted to leave on good terms. And from that very moment, it was the longest 5 weeks of my life. It just every day got harder and every day got longer.
Josephine
Yeah. And
Tracey
I still didn’t know what was gonna happen. Yeah. But I had this excitement, and that’s what kept me going. I didn’t care what was gonna happen. I was excited.
Yeah. And so I noticed that my I’m very methodical and very conscientious, and I wasn’t that person in that office anymore because my mind I just wasn’t interested. I just I checked out.
Josephine
Yeah. You’re ready to go.
Tracey
Yeah. I was ready to go, and that’s all I wanted. And so as I was making it clear to clients that I would take I was opening up my diary and all. Yeah. So I left on there, I think it was, like, the 28th May.
And then on Tuesday, 1st June Mhmm. I was in full time private practice. Wow. Yeah. And my diary wasn’t no by nowhere near full, but it was enough income.
Josephine
Yeah.
Tracey
And it was it was nice to ease myself in. Yeah. And from there on, I’ve not regretted a single moment. Mhmm. I’ve not looked back, and it’s just grown and grown and grown and grown from there.
Josephine
It’s fantastic. It’s really, really good, isn’t it? So the way you’ve done it really is, in a sense, you sort of compromised with being a bit busier for a while while you established yourself and got that confidence up. Yeah. And and then you took the leap.
And now, you know, you haven’t you’re not doing 2 jobs. You’re just doing the one job, and you’ve got that lifestyle and and the counselling business that you’ve always wanted. Which is amazing. Yeah.
Tracey
It’s nice to have the freedom. Mhmm. You know, I work my diary around taking the dog to dog school and things like that and weekends away. And I don’t work weekends anymore, which is nice. Yeah.
I did initially.
Josephine
Yeah.
Tracey
About about the first 6 to 8 weeks, I did Saturday mornings. Mhmm. And then quickly stopped doing that. Then I decided I was only gonna do 3 days a week. I was gonna do Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.
And then Monday was gonna be, like, my admin day, if you like, so you can do that sort of stuff. But now I book on a Monday too. Because you’re busy? Yeah. Yeah.
Because I’m busy. Yeah. Which is a lovely feeling.
Josephine
Yeah.
Tracey
And it’s one may it last. Yeah. And I’m sure it will. I have all faith that it will. I’m very positive.
I’ve got a very positive attitude, and I just absolutely love it. My only regret is I didn’t do it so much.
Josephine
Yeah. But it was hard, wasn’t it, to to take that that leap into the unknown. It was your son-in-law saying what what to do. And tell me what you because what what we’re saying before we started recording about the almost, like, trying to get everything in place, and you were saying that you thought you had to get everything in place before you started.
Tracey
Yeah. I feel alright. That’s what holds a lot of us back Mhmm. From going into private practice because we feel that we need to have everything ready. Mhmm.
You know, we need to have the clients. We need to have the paperwork, the handout, the pretty paper. You don’t need any of that.
Josephine
You just
Tracey
need to take payments and do the work. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now get a profile.
Get your directory sorted. Mhmm.
Josephine
If you
Tracey
wanna do Facebook pages and things like that, it’s all choice. It’s personal choice.
Josephine
Mhmm.
Tracey
But you don’t have to have every individual piece in place Yeah. Because the jigsaw does come together in the end. Yeah. And you do it as you go along. And what I found, a lot of the work that I’d put into place, I believed I needed, I’ve not needed or I’ve changed.
Yeah. Because it it it doesn’t suit that way. So I’ve adjusted things along the way. Yeah. So I thought, you know, that was a lot of time wasted, really.
Because as you settle into it and and get going, you realize what you need and what you don’t need and how you need it.
Josephine
Yeah. So your advice would be just get going, really.
Tracey
Just get going. Yeah. Yeah.
Josephine
It’s really Just get going. Yeah.
Tracey
Don’t hold yourself back because you’ll do it. You can always find a reason not to do it.
Josephine
Yeah. You
Tracey
can always find an excuse, whether it’s where you’re gonna work from, what hours you’re gonna do, whether you’re good enough, you know, that whole imposter, which mine I don’t probably a lot of the people in the group that know me in the group know that mine’s Jenny baby, my. And I just think to myself, oh, you’re a Jenny Baby. What do you know? I can’t take you seriously. And that’s it.
It’s gone. That so I think you just got to have faith in yourself and just give it a go. What’s the worst that can happen?
Josephine
Yeah. It’s it’s really interesting, isn’t it? Because you sort of said that you think that’s actually the most important thing about getting set up was actually that mindset and just making that leap, really.
Tracey
I think one important thing that you do need to have in place from from the very beginning and, again, it will change, but you do need to have it in place, these boundaries. Yeah. Go on. You have to know your boundaries Yeah. Of what’s acceptable, when you’re gonna work, when you’re not gonna work, what you’re prepared to bend a little bit, how you’re gonna be with clients.
You know, I’m very adamant for my clients not to turn up early. So I don’t want them crossing on the way out. Yeah. I want them to feel comfortable coming in and leaving. Yeah.
And I take deposits so that it covers any late cancellations or DNAs. Yeah. All those sorts of things. So have your boundaries in place Mhmm. So that you it just makes things flow a lot easier.
Josephine
Yeah.
Tracey
You don’t have awkward conversations, awkward situations that are there in place. Put them in your contract. Yeah. Make them aware from the very first session, that very first assessment. It makes a lot of difference.
Josephine
That’s that’s helped. Yeah. And where do you get your clients from? You know, where have you how did you get your first clients? Because it’s often difficult to get the first clients going, isn’t it, when you were sort of first
Tracey
setting up? My first ones were recommendations from friends.
Josephine
Yeah. Yeah. Word-of-mouth. Can I just ask, how did you get the word-of-mouth recommendations from your friends? Is it just sort of like like you told everybody that you were setting up?
Yeah. Yeah. Go on.
Tracey
I told everybody. Yeah. This is my dream. This is what I’m doing, and I need to get some clients in. And then it was like, oh, you know, I’ve got a friend that could do with some help.
Yeah. You know? Well, do I know this friend? No. No.
No. That well, that’s absolutely fine then. You know? Let’s have a chat with them and see if
Josephine
we can help. Yeah. Brilliant.
Tracey
So yeah. That’s so a lot of a lot of word-of-mouth. And now I get a lot of recommendations. Mhmm. I get existing clients coming back because, bear in mind, before I went into private practice full time in June Mhmm.
Prior to that for a year, I was part time, very part time. So some of those clients have come back because something new has come up for them. Yeah. And they’ve recommended people. Yeah.
So but with directories, a majority would be from counselling directory.
Josephine
Yes. Yeah.
Tracey
I get a lot from counselling directory. Not so many Psychology Today, but definitely through counselling
Josephine
Counseling directory, that that works well for you. Yeah. Yeah. So you’ve got that sort of mixture, haven’t you? The word-of-mouth, probably past clients now recommending you to other new people, past clients coming back to you, and then new clients finding you sort of on the Internet and getting that
Tracey
And more so recently through my website.
Josephine
Yeah.
Tracey
Because I’ve spent time on on Google so that I I come up on Google. Yeah. And I’ve had a lovely website designed by one of our fellow members Mhmm. Yeah. Which is which is fantastic.
Yeah. And so I’m actually getting people through the website as well now.
Josephine
Yeah. Yeah. So when you say you spent more time on Google, tell us
Tracey
a bit about that. What have you done? Well, you can register with what’s called my goo my Google Google My Business.
Josephine
Yes.
Tracey
Google My Business. And so if you spend a bit of time setting that up and setting yourself up as a business on there
Josephine
Yeah.
Tracey
Then when people go into Google to search, you know, counsellors in Essex or therapy in Essex, all those keywords, you will come up, you will show up. But until you go on to Google My Business, they won’t it’s very difficult for them to find you without specifically putting in your web address.
Josephine
Yeah.
Josephine
And do you do do you go on
Josephine
to Google My Business and add posts and that sort of stuff as well?
Tracey
Or No. No.
Josephine
You don’t. You just registered. Yeah?
Tracey
Yeah. I’m not technical to do these kinds of things. I’m not very good for stuff like that. So I can’t I tend to shy away from things.
Josephine
But it’s still working, isn’t it?
Tracey
That’s why.
Josephine
You’re still getting clients. So yeah. I mean, if you did all of
Josephine
that, you’d probably be inundated.
Tracey
And I wouldn’t have the time to work with clients if I was working on these things all the time. So yeah.
Josephine
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you’ve managed it without it, and probably a lot of it is is because you’ve put yourself out in front of your sort of friends and family and said over to everybody, I’m I’m looking for clients. So I
Tracey
do other cheeky things as well. Like, if I’m going to the hairdressers, I’ll ask if I can
Josephine
leave some cards. Yeah. Yeah.
Tracey
If I’m going for a facial, I’ll ask if I can leave some cards and so on. So wherever I go, I’ve always got business cards with me.
Josephine
Yeah.
Tracey
And just ask if I can leave a few.
Josephine
Yeah.
Tracey
And, generally, people will say yes. And I I did get actually go a little bit beyond that. I bought some tidy little boxes for them to be in just off of eBay, you know, cheapest shifts. Just so that when I was given they could look at it. Well, actually, it’s tidy.
They’re not gonna get mister mounds and thrown everywhere. Yeah.
Josephine
And
Tracey
and so, generally, people will will say, yeah. That’s fine. Just leave a few on the counter.
Josephine
Yeah. It’s just old fashioned things, isn’t it? It’s not necessarily, you know, the Internet and the rest of it, but just, you know, putting your cards out locally and and using people that you know. You know, good old word-of-mouth. Yeah.
Tracey
Local pharmacy, things like that. Yeah.
Josephine
Yeah. Brilliant. Oh, that’s brilliant, Tracey. And you and I have sort of been on a bit of a journey together as well haven’t we? So
Tracey
do you
Josephine
want to just tell everybody what we’ve done together?
Tracey
Oh well back at the start when I you know first found Common Crafts Good Enough Counsellors we had a one to 1, didn’t we? And I was kind of very I well, I think I was a different person back then. Yeah. I was very unsure of myself, I suppose, and unsure of my capabilities
Josephine
Mhmm.
Tracey
And what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go. And we had a really good chat for, you know, about an hour or so. Really good chat.
Josephine
Yeah.
Tracey
And I’ve still got the notes
Josephine
to this day in
Tracey
years I have. Yeah. I have.
Josephine
I do remember that.
Tracey
Yeah. Yeah. So I’ve still got the notes, and I still look back on them from time to time because I think these are good reminders of of where you’ve been Mhmm. And where you are now. But also in those things, there’ll always be that little key thing.
Oh, yeah. Have haven’t thought about trying that again. Yeah. Yeah. It’s they’re all it’s all good tools.
Josephine
Yeah. Brilliant. And then you came into my therapy growth group for a while, didn’t you as well? I did. What did you go on.
Tracey
What did I think of it? Is that what you can say?
Josephine
Yeah. What what did you find useful?
Tracey
Invaluable. Yeah. Invaluable. There’s so much to learn Mhmm. From yourself and from others in the group.
There’s always fresh ideas. Everybody’s so welcoming and helpful and supportive. So if, you know, you might think you’ve got a bit of an issue that’s a bit ridiculous. I just don’t wanna share that. You feel like you can because there is no no no question is a stupid question, is it?
It’s just like, And so put it out there and and get some help, get some advice and support, and it’s, you know, it’s been absolutely invaluable, and the training has been superb.
Josephine
Oh, good. I’m glad you’ve enjoyed it. But, yeah,
Tracey
like you said Highly recommend.
Josephine
It’s a community as well, isn’t it? It’s the people in it and, yeah, just being able to share and people being at similar sort of stage and yeah. Everybody just working together to Yeah. To improve their practice and, you know, it’s just so lovely to to reach this point where, you know, you’re full. It’s like this little, bird when it leaves a nest, isn’t it?
Because you’re sort of, like, you’re sort of, like, just flying and you’re independent and, you know, you’ve got this lovely practice and you’re living the, you know, the career that you wanted to have. Yeah.
Tracey
Living the dream. Funny you should say about that because my logo is a Phoenix.
Josephine
Oh, Phoenix.
Tracey
Percentage. Yeah. And she says, what’s the verse? It’s a Phoenix. It has a significance behind it, which I think is quite fitting
Josephine
Yeah. In
Tracey
our in our profession.
Josephine
Definitely. And that’s what you’re helping your clients with as well Yeah. To help them rise.
Tracey
Yeah. So I recommend to everybody that anybody that’s on good enough counselors that isn’t on the therapy growth group, it’s worth the investment. Thank you. Thank you, Tracey. So you’ll get so much from it.
Josephine
Yeah.
What I love about Tracey’s story is that I know for many of you listening, there’s always this question. And the question is, can I make that leap? Can I move from secure employment to working in private practice? And I think what Tracey shows is that it is possible, but sometimes you have to combine the 2 for a while because that can help you.
But I really also loved what Tracey said, which was, if not now, then when? And that did ultimately persuade her to take that leap of faith. And I think, as you can tell, she was really pleased that she did so. So I hope Tracey’s experience has inspired you. I don’t see so much of Tracey now in the group because, to be frank, she doesn’t really need me because she’s got going.
She’s enjoying working in private practice. And as she said in the interview, she is living her dream. Thanks for listening. Do come and join my Facebook community, Good Enough Counsellors. And for more information about how I can help you develop your private practice, please visit my website, josephinehughes dotcom.
If you found this episode helpful, I’d love it if you could share it with a fellow therapist or leave a review on your podcast app. And in closing, I’d love to remind you that every single step you make gets you closer to your dream. I really believe you can do it.