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Grow your therapy practice in California.

A practice is a funnel, not a mystery.

How many people see you, how many ask, how many book — and what one of them is worth over the whole time they stay. Change any one of those and a whole year moves. This page needs about six numbers, most of which you can estimate from memory, and it will tell you which of your channels is quietly losing you the most clients.

What a client is worthWhere they come fromHow many you need
What one client is worth$4,800
One more a month, over a year$57,600

Worked example — a $200 hour over 24 sessions. Put your own rate and tenure in below and both figures become yours.

01

What a client is worth

Two numbers, multiplied. Almost nobody in private practice knows the answer, and it is the number that makes every other decision on this page arithmetic instead of anxiety.

Figures checked, narrative not re-read

The numbers are current. The argument around them has not been reviewed since it was written.

In short

How do I fill my caseload?

Client lifetime value, the leakiest channel, and a monthly enquiry target

$4,800 per client over 24 sessions

A projection, not a forecast.

02

Where your clients actually come from

Last month, for each place people find you. Rough numbers are fine — the point is which channel is losing people, and that shows up even when the counts are approximate. Directory dashboards give you views and enquiries; the third number you already know.

Psychology Todayor any paid directory you are listed in
Your own websitesearch, your blog, anyone who lands there
ReferralsGPs, past clients, other therapists
03

How many you need, just to stand still

Standing still is not free. People finish — that is the job working — and every one of them has to be replaced before a single new client counts as growth. This is the number that decides whether your marketing is enough, and it is almost always higher than people expect.

04

How full your week already is

There is a point where more marketing stops making you money and starts making you a waiting list. Worth knowing where it is before you spend anything.

05

What this is worth in actual money

Everything above is clients. Turning clients into what lands in your bank account takes the rest of the picture — expenses, self-employment tax, the retirement accounts that decide how much of the tax is optional. That is the simulator, and your numbers travel with you.

Model the whole practice →rate, caseload, expenses and tax · free
→What the caseload above actually pays — after twelve expense categories and tax
→How much of your tax bill is optional — the retirement accounts, priced
→Sole proprietor or professional corporation — including what it costs your Social Security
→What employing associates changes — revenue, payroll tax and supervision hours
→What CA therapy actually charges — insurance panels against private pay
→Where you could live on the same practice — seven places, priced

A projection, not a forecast. Client lifetime value assumes your average tenure holds, which it will not exactly; funnels move month to month, and one month of data is a sample of one. The value of a channel is what its clients are worth over their whole time with you, not what they billed last month. Nothing here is financial or business advice — it is arithmetic on numbers you supplied, shown so you can argue with it.

More on this

Practice

Filling the week, and running the admin behind it.

Should I hire an associate?The loaded cost, the break-even caseload, and the classification ruleCan I see California clients from abroad?The Board's own answer, then the same practice priced in eight placesTherapyNotes or SimplePractice?Priced properly, including the fees neither puts on its pricing page
All 12 pages on practice →