PSYBUS Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Why Do We Need Such A List?
We have extensive training to prepare for a lifetime of working alone in our offices with a patient, group or family; be confidential about the details of the work; listen rather than speak; be conservative and avoid obvious marketing efforts.
Unlike most other professional groups, our graduate schools have traditionally taught us to feel uncomfortable about selling our services to individuals or groups with whom we have any other type of relationship. Therefore, our ability to earn our livelihoods was based primarily upon referrals from other professionals and clients. Our professional language separates us from "business-minded, entrepreneurial individuals who sell other types of services or develop "products". In fact, we don't sell services, we "provide" services. We don't network or market ourselves, we seek "referrals". The language of psychotherapy is not designed to have us compete in the marketplace.
We are traditionally taught to believe that if we are good at our work, referrals will come our way. Those days are gone. Psychotherapy is increasingly becoming irrelevant to health care delivery, and practitioners are being forced out of their quiet, conservative offices into group practices or advertising, marketing, and promotion if they are to survive within the marketplace. Professionals with psychotherapy licenses are flocking to coaching as an alternative because coaches typically embrace the business model and are trained to develop businesses rather than practices.
The truth is, we all can learn to function as business people who are trying to pay our mortgages, educate our children, and provide for our retirements as we do our daily work. Online, we have an opportunity to be innovative and develop products for the consumer who may not be receiving the services they need from traditional practitioners. Also, compared to twenty and thirty years ago, the consumer public is demanding a wide variety of self-help books, audio & videotapes, CDs, DVDs, online video tutorials, teleworkshops, teleseminars, and virtual or v-groups.
As a result, the face of mental-health delivery is changing dramatically. This trend will only continue as the Internet reaches all parts of our global economy. Despite our lack of formal business training, other movements are beginning to emerge. Our state and national associations are beginning to awaken to their member's need for seminars for how to market our services and possibly how to produce and market our own "products".
One way to survive financially is to stop thinking only like mental health practitioners and start thinking like business people. It's time we look around and see what survivors in other professions are doing. We can do this ethically and with integrity. Mosrt importantly for our purposes here, we can learn from each other online for free, iin the comfort of our own homes and offices, through PsyBUS. Join us today and let your ideas be shared with others!
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