PRIVATE PRACTICE CONSULTING & BUSINESS COACHING FOR THERAPISTS across the United States
Virtual consultation via Zoom | In-person consultation available in Greenville, SC
You know therapy.
Let’s talk business.
Strategic business coaching and private practice consultation for therapists who want experienced guidance as they start, grow, pivot, or rethink what comes next.
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Building a successful private practice requires a different set of skills
Most therapists leave graduate school knowing how to conceptualize a case, build a therapeutic relationship, navigate ethical dilemmas, and help people through some of the hardest moments of their lives.
Then we decide to start a private practice and discover we're also supposed to understand marketing, profitability, insurance contracts, fee setting, SEO, websites, business systems, technology, taxes, client acquisition, positioning, and about seventeen other things no one mentioned in graduate school.
And everyone seems to have an opinion about what you're supposed to do next: go private pay, post on social media, start a group practice, create passive income, scale.
Maybe.
Or maybe none of those things make sense for the business you're actually trying to build.
I've spent nearly a decade helping therapists separate good business strategy from good marketing advice—and figure out what actually makes sense for their particular practice, goals, finances, the clients they serve, and the life they want their business to support.
Because there isn't one right way to build a healthy, sustainable private practice. There is, however, a more thoughtful way to build yours.
And I believe therapists can care deeply about the people they serve and care about building financially healthy businesses. Those things aren't in conflict. Financial sustainability gives therapists more freedom to make thoughtful decisions based on good care rather than financial desperation.
“When I first started working with Laura, I believed I had to fit myself into the correct box to achieve the success I craved.”
That led to procrastination and burnout - no surprise. Laura wrote me permission slip after permission slip to discover what I actually want and do well. Even though it was like pulling a U-turn, she gave me an attuned space to figure it out, and then equipped me with no-nonsense know-how to make it happen. As a result, I feel confident I am giving the best possible support to my clients, I feel purposeful and in flow with my business, and my business is more profitable than ever before!
– Emilea Richardson, LMFT
Sometimes you don't need another course.
You need someone who can think with you.
There is an extraordinary amount of business information available to therapists.
The problem is figuring out which advice applies to you.
Should you leave your insurance panels—or would that create unnecessary financial instability?
Should you raise your fee—or is something else happening in your business model that needs attention first?
Is your website the problem, your positioning, your referral strategy, your market—or none of the above?
Should you add another service, hire another therapist, reduce your caseload, expand your practice, or simplify the whole thing?
These are rarely questions with universal answers.
That's where consultation becomes valuable.
Rather than handing you a blueprint and asking you to make your business fit inside it, we'll look carefully at what you're actually building.
Your numbers. Your market. Your clients. Your capacity. Your goals. Your tolerance for risk. Your strengths. Your values. And the kind of life you want your business to support. Then we'll figure out what makes sense.
Sometimes my job is helping you determine what to do next. Just as often, it's helping you figure out what you can stop worrying about for now.
You don't have to have a business crisis to benefit from good business consultation.
I've spent nearly a decade at the intersection of therapy and business
I began offering business coaching and consultation to therapists in 2017 because I kept seeing the same problem: incredibly talented clinicians were trying to build businesses with very little actual business education.
I've coached and consulted with therapists across the country, presented workshops and keynotes, hosted business retreats, led mastermind groups, and spoken at mental health conferences about private practice, entrepreneurship, and the business side of our profession.
In 2023, I earned an MBA in Entrepreneurship & Innovation from Clemson University.
I pursued the degree because our profession was changing rapidly, and I wanted to better understand what was happening in business, entrepreneurship, technology, marketing, and consumer behavior outside the therapy world—and bring those conversations back into it.
The mental health profession has historically been a little late to the party when it comes to business and technology. I want to keep one foot firmly planted in our profession and the other paying attention to what's coming next.
Today, I continue to own and operate a private practice, provide business consultation to therapists, serve as an SC-Approved LMFT Supervisor, and teach graduate-level business and professional development courses within two COAMFTE-accredited Marriage & Family Therapy programs.
I remain actively involved in each of those roles, which matters to me because I don't want to teach you how private practice worked ten years ago.
I believe good business strategy should make it easier for therapists to do excellent clinical work, not pull them further away from why they entered this profession in the first place.
I want to help you think strategically about the practice you're building now
—and the one you'll need five years from now.
The best business strategy is the one that fits your practice and your life
Some therapists thrive in insurance-based practices. Others build successful private-pay practices. Some love running group practices; others discover that managing employees fundamentally changes a job they once loved. Some therapists want to grow; others want fewer clients, fewer moving parts, and more time outside of work.
Every business decision comes with tradeoffs.
My role isn't to sell you on a particular version of success. It's to help you ask better questions, understand your options, look honestly at the numbers, consider the tradeoffs, and make decisions you can stand behind—decisions that allow you to serve your clients well while building a business you're proud to own.
You can expect compassionate guidance, direct feedback, practical strategy, humor, and steady accountability. I won't make every decision for you, but I will help you become much better at making them.
A good business decision should make sense on paper and allow you to feel good about the way you're practicing.
Build the practice that fits your life—not someone else's definition of success.
Private practice business coaching & consulting: what we can work on together
The business side of private practice ultimately supports the clinical work happening inside it. Whether we're talking about fees, marketing, systems, or growth, I want the business decisions we make to support excellent client care and a sustainable career for the therapist providing it.
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From choosing a business model and setting your fees to developing policies, systems, positioning, and a plan for getting your first clients, we'll turn the giant category of starting a practice into a series of manageable decisions.
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We'll look at the numbers before making the leap. Together, we can evaluate financial readiness, reimbursement, caseload composition, market positioning, communication strategy, transition timelines, and the level of risk that actually makes sense for you.
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You don't necessarily need to become a content creator to build a successful therapy practice. We can refine your niche, ideal client, website messaging, SEO strategy, referral network, and other ways of helping the right clients find you.
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Sometimes we need to open the spreadsheet. We'll look at fees, capacity, revenue, expenses, and what your practice needs to generate to support both the quality of care you want to provide and the life you're trying to build.
A financially healthy practice gives you choices—and numbers are information. They don't get to yell at you.
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Scheduling, onboarding, boundaries, policies, technology, workflows, documentation, client communication—small operational decisions can dramatically change how a business feels to run.
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Thinking about adding intensives, groups, supervision, consultation, education, or another specialty offering? We'll evaluate the idea strategically before you invest significant time, energy, or money building it.
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Growth doesn't always mean adding more. Sometimes the smartest decision is hiring, increasing capacity, or restructuring. And sometimes it's making your practice smaller, simpler, and more profitable.
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You may have already built the thing you once wanted. That doesn't mean you have to want it forever.
I also work with established therapists who are asking bigger questions about what they want the next chapter of their professional lives to look like.
Business strategy doesn't have to feel so serious
Business decisions can feel surprisingly personal when it's your business.
Looking at the numbers can be intimidating. Raising your fees can bring up all kinds of discomfort. Changing your niche might mean letting go of something that once worked. Leaving an insurance panel, launching something new, or making a significant investment can make even the most confident therapist wonder:
Am I about to make a terrible mistake?
That's part of why I try to make our work together genuinely enjoyable.
We'll laugh. I'll probably use an inappropriate metaphor at some point. And when something feels enormous, we'll break it down until it doesn't.
We'll take the big, scary thing and turn it into smaller decisions and bite-sized next steps you can actually implement. Then I'll provide the steady accountability, strategic guidance, and compassionate push you need to keep moving.
And sometimes I'll tell you that the seventeen things you think you need to do this month are actually three things—and we're starting with one.
I want you to understand why we're making a particular decision, feel confident about what comes next, and have someone firmly in your corner while you do the uncomfortable parts.
Business can be serious without every conversation about it feeling heavy.
“I've worked with Laura for nearly 10 years, and when I look back, she's been there every time I've leveled up.”
From growing my private practice and leaving my W-2 job to relaunching my website years later, she's helped me navigate each new season with confidence.
What sets Laura apart is that she doesn't just give answers. She teaches you how to think critically, solve problems, and make decisions you'll continue benefiting from long after your coaching sessions end.
Working with Laura has been one of the best investments I've made in both my business and myself. She doesn't just help you accomplish the next goal. She equips you with the confidence, perspective, and decision-making skills to keep growing long after your time together ends.
– Andrea Battle, LPC
andreabattle.com
Private Practice Consulting Options
Choose the level of support you actually need.
Not every business problem requires six months of coaching.
Sometimes you need 90 minutes with someone who knows what questions to ask.
Other times, you're making a significant transition and need someone alongside you while you implement it.
My goal is ultimately to help you become more confident making business decisions without me.
90-Minute Private Practice Strategy Intensive
Investment: $595
Perfect for therapists who need clarity around an important business decision or want experienced guidance on a specific challenge or opportunity.
Common topics include:
Transitioning from insurance to private pay
Clarifying or refining your niche
Website and marketing strategy
Fee increases and profitability
Practice systems
Evaluating a new service or revenue stream
Working through a significant business decision
Your intensive includes a focused 90-minute consultation via Zoom or in person for therapists local to Upstate South Carolina, review of relevant materials submitted in advance, personalized recommendations, and a written summary with action steps.
If we determine afterward that ongoing consultation would be helpful, the full $595 cost of your intensive can be applied toward a six-month consultation package when you enroll within 30 days.
Strategic Practice Consultation
1x/month
$350/month for six months
or $1,997 paid in full (save $103)
Best for therapists who have a clear direction and want ongoing strategic guidance, thoughtful accountability, and a consistent place to work through business decisions.
Includes:
One 60-minute consultation session per month
Personalized business strategy and guidance
Session recap and action steps
Six-month consultation container
Optional between-session support available as an add-on
This option works especially well for established therapists, slower-paced implementation, practice refinement, or anyone who wants steady progress without turning business development into another full-time job.
Focused Practice Partnership
2x/month
$650/month for six months
or $3,697 paid in full (save $203)
For therapists actively building, changing, launching, or transitioning something within their business and wanting more frequent strategy conversations and accountability.
Includes:
Two 60-minute consultation sessions per month, generally held biweekly
Focused strategy and implementation support
Ongoing accountability
Session recap and action steps
Six-month consultation container
Optional between-session support available as an add-on
This option is especially helpful for private practice startups, insurance-to-private-pay transitions, launching specialty services or intensives, significant business pivots, or seasons when you want more momentum and support.
Optional Add-On: Strategic Between-Session Support
+$199/month
Sometimes you don't need another meeting. You just need to ask, "Can you look at this before I hit publish?" or "Remember that thing we talked about? This happened. Now what?"
For therapists who benefit from more timely feedback while actively implementing changes, Voxer support can be added to either ongoing consultation package.
Includes:
Voxer access Monday–Thursday, 9:00 AM–3:00 PM Eastern
Brief implementation questions and feedback
Support between scheduled consultation sessions
Responses within 24 business hours
This isn't unlimited coaching or an expectation that we remain in constant contact. It's simply a way to have thoughtful support available when a question comes up between our scheduled conversations.
“In a sea of coaches who assumed they knew what my business goals should be, Laura Long was the first to slow down and ask about me.”
She took the time to understand not only my business, but the life I wanted to build around it, allowing our work to focus on what I needed most. I left every meeting with clear, actionable next steps and the accountability to follow through. I came away from our work feeling empowered, capable, and supported by a practice that allows me to show up as the therapist I want to be.
– Gabby Lux, LPC
gabbylux.com
FAQ
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No. While I'm a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist and SC-Approved LMFT Supervisor, my business coaching and consultation services are available to therapists and mental health professionals across license types.
The clinical letters after your name may be different from mine. The business questions are often remarkably similar.
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Yes. I provide business coaching and private practice consultation to therapists throughout the United States via Zoom.
If you're located in Greenville or Upstate South Carolina, in-person consultation may also be available.
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Yes. I work with therapists who are starting their first private practice. Starting a practice is one of the times when thoughtful guidance can save you a tremendous amount of time, money, and unnecessary frustration. We can work through your business model, fees, niche, systems, marketing, policies, financial goals, and launch strategy together.
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Yes—and you don't need to be struggling.
Some of my favorite consultation conversations happen with experienced therapists whose businesses are doing well but who have reached a more complicated decision point.
You may be considering leaving insurance, restructuring your practice, adding another service, increasing profitability, reducing your clinical hours, hiring, simplifying, or deciding what you want the next chapter of your career to look like.
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Yes. Insurance-to-private-pay transitions are a common focus of my private practice consulting work. We will evaluate your current reimbursement rates, caseload, financial readiness, market positioning, fee structure, communication plan, and transition timeline before deciding what level of risk makes sense for you.
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Yes. Website strategy, messaging, SEO, niche development, fee setting, profitability, practice systems, and evaluating new services are all common topics in consultation.
For projects requiring substantial review in advance, the 90-Minute Practice Strategy Intensive may be the best place to begin.
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Not necessarily.
The 90-Minute Practice Strategy Intensive is a standalone consultation designed for therapists who need focused support around a specific decision, problem, or opportunity.
Both ongoing consultation options require a six-month commitment because meaningful business change usually requires time to make decisions, implement them, evaluate what happens, and adjust accordingly.
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Business consultation focuses on the business and professional side of your practice: strategy, profitability, marketing, positioning, systems, growth, decision-making, and career development.
Clinical supervision involves clinical development, case consultation, ethics, professional identity, and requirements toward independent licensure.
I am an SC-Approved LMFT Supervisor and separately provide clinical supervision for LMFT-As pursuing independent licensure in South Carolina.Business consultation focuses on the business and professional side of your practice: strategy, profitability, marketing, positioning, systems, growth, decision-making, and career development.
Clinical supervision involves clinical development, case consultation, ethics, professional identity, and requirements toward independent licensure.
I am an SC-Approved LMFT Supervisor and separately provide clinical supervision for LMFT-As pursuing independent licensure in South Carolina.
Bring me the business question you've been trying to figure out.
You've already invested years learning how to care well for your clients.
Building a business that allows you to keep doing that work shouldn't require piecing together advice from Facebook groups, podcasts, online courses, and whatever another therapist happened to do with their practice.
Whether you're starting something new, trying to fix what isn't working, or standing at a crossroads wondering what comes next, sometimes the most valuable thing you can have is another experienced person at the table—someone who understands the clinical world, understands business, and is willing to think it through with you.
Bring me the spreadsheet.
Bring me the half-finished website.
Bring me the idea you can't stop thinking about.
Bring me the decision you've been going back and forth about for six months.
We'll figure out what makes sense—for your business, for your life,
and for the kind of therapist you want to be.
