Member Contributor — Lynne Azpeitia, LMFT, AAMFT Approved Supervisor

Getting Paid:
The Secret to Ongoing Referrals & Keeping Your Practice Full

“I wish I'd thought about networking this way from the very beginning.”

Building a referral network of trusted providers to refer clients to for adjunct services has turned out to be one of the best ways a therapist can keep their practice full — and it’s a sustainable strategy.

Maybe you’ll think it’s obvious advice or too good to be true but going about creating a list of people you want to refer your clients to when they can benefit from adjunctive services is how many therapists successfully market their practice, network, and receive the ongoing referrals that keep their practice full.

Yes, by getting to know another provider and how you can refer to them, they in turn will get to know you, and how to refer to you.

Most therapists discover this by accident after they’ve begun building a referral network of professionals they’ve specifically contacted and gotten to know for this purpose — like good nutritionists, psychiatrists, PCPs, ADD-ADHD-OCD sensitive professional organizers, mediators, massage therapists, financial stress reduction specialists, acupuncturists, etc.

Usually the therapist wasn’t looking to get more referrals because their practice was already full or thriving. However, it turns out that by creating a list of people a therapist wants to refer clients to naturally creates a relationship that is reciprocal. So, once a therapist has contacted, connected with, and become familiar with other providers and their services, they often begin receiving referrals from them. This works equally well whether the contact is in person or online.

It was a revelation to each of these therapists that by getting to know another provider and looking at how the therapist could refer to them, those providers, had, in turn, gotten to know about the therapist and began to refer clients to them! Each therapist was very surprised to start receiving these referrals because that wasn’t the focus or goal of making contact with the provider.

Therapists who’ve discovered this secret often believe that this is the only kind of marketing therapists truly need to do—besides having a website so people can find you online. They also say things like . . . “Gathering names of doctors and specialists who my clients and I like has been the best way of connecting and networking . . . Now I realize I should have done this from my first day of private practice! . . .This is how I initially built my practice and have stayed full.” Try it and see what happens.

Lynne Azpeitia, LMFT, is in private practice in Santa Monica where she works with Couples and Gifted, Talented, and Creative Adults across the lifespan. Lynne’s been doing business and clinical coaching with mental health professionals for more than 15 years, helping them develop even more successful careers and practices. To learn more about her in-person and online services, workshops or monthly no-cost Online Networking & Practice Development Lunch visitwww.Gifted-Adults.com or www.LAPracticeDevelopment.com.