Selling the Couch
445 episodes - English - Latest episode: 18 days ago - ★★★★★ - 286 ratingsWith over 1.5 million downloads, Selling the Couch is a top podcast for mental health private practitioners who think differently.
Psychologist Melvin Varghese interviews successful therapists, top entrepreneurs, business/marketing, productivity, and social media experts.
You'll learn how therapists get referrals, make money, work through fears, and how they've stopped "trading time for income."
Melvin also shares the lessons as he grows his impact + income beyond the therapy room (podcasting, video, online courses, masterminds, investing, etc) and the tips, tools, and tech he uses to grow STC from a single-person business to the CEO of a 5-person 100% remote team.
You get bite-sized and highly actionable tips to guide your private practice and entrepreneurial journey.
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Episodes
46: Preparing for Private Practice Before You Graduate
October 15, 2015 11:00 - 25 minutes - 11.9 MBIn this episode, Patricia Gonzalez shares how she knew she was destined for private practice while she was still in grad school. She took massive action and was able to get the supervisor she needed for her internship, and now she is charting her path towards private practice.
44: Common Mistakes Almost Every New Private Practitioner Makes
October 08, 2015 11:00 - 20 minutes - 9.63 MBIn this episode of Selling the Couch, Melvin interviews Dr. Traci Lowenthal. Track has 2 private practice locations, and she's here today to share her private practice journey, as well as the common mistakes almost all new private practitioners make.
43: Using Periscope to Connect with Your Audience
October 01, 2015 11:00 - 26 minutes - 18.1 MBIn this episode, our guest Mercedes Samudio shares her best tips for using Periscope to promote your private practice. Mercedes is a clinician who uses Periscope and has found that it has greatly benefitted her practice. She gives you her best tips for making Periscope a valuable part of your social media efforts.
42: Using Video To Promote Your Practice
September 24, 2015 11:00 - 31 minutes - 14.4 MBIn this episode of Selling the Couch, we have special guest Ernesto Segismundo on the show to share his best practices for using video to promote your practice. Ernesto uses video through a variety of channels for his practice and he is here to show us how to get started.
41: Building Great Mastermind Groups
September 17, 2015 11:00 - 19 minutes - 18 MBIn this episode of Selling the Couch, Melvin Varghese share 5 tips for building great mastermind groups. Melvin credits his mastermind with much of his business success and shares 5 ways to form a mastermind that will take your business to the next level.
40: SEO To Get Found......Even Locally
September 10, 2015 11:00 - 16 minutes - 9.6 MBWelcome! My guest today is Neil Patel, who teaches people how to optimize their SEO (search engine optimization). You may not know his name, but you’ve probably used his products. He is the creator of Hello Bar, which is an opt-in bar at the top of websites. He also developed “Crazy Egg,” which is heat-tracking software to let you know where visitors are traveling on your website and where they are clicking. Neil is the go-to person regarding SEO for large companies like Amazon and Viaco...
39: Leveraging In-Person Networking to Grow Your Practice
September 03, 2015 11:00 - 24 minutes - 11.4 MBWelcome! Today’s session is all about In-Person Networking. Think of networking as an opportunity to build relationships. My guest is Natalie Moore, who is a Marriage and Family Therapist intern who has developed some great skills in building face-to-face relationships. She has great tips to share with us, so join us! Natalie shares the following about networking: What therapists are best at is connecting with people. Face-to-face encounters can set you apart from the rest of the pack....
38: Increase Your Reach With A LinkedIn Blog
August 27, 2015 11:00 - 27 minutes - 12.7 MBIn this episode of Selling The Couch, writing expert Glenn Liebowitz joins us to talk about blogging for your private practice. Not only does Glenn have tons of experience blogging, he is also a top ranked LinkedIn blogger. You won't want to miss the ways to extend your reach through building a blog on LinkedIn.
37: The Expert Guide to Private Practice Blogging
August 20, 2015 11:00 - 28 minutes - 12.8 MBIn this episode, Sharon Martin reveals how to blog for your private practice. There are ways to do it so that you grow your business, increase your visibiity and become an authority. Sharon shows us how!
36: Transitioning From Clinician To Trainer
August 13, 2015 12:00 - 24 minutes - 11.4 MBIn this episode, Dr. Rebecca Jorgensen shares how she transitioned from clinician to trainer. Now, she successfully uses the skills she has learned to train others in her expertise. Rebecca conducts training in a variety of modalities and she is here to share with us how we can do it too!
35: Growing Your Practice With Retreats, Workshops and Groups
August 06, 2015 12:00 - 29 minutes - 13.7 MBIn this episode of Selling the Couch, we have our first repeat guest - Ker Nola. Keri is back today to discuss ways to grow your practice through retreats, workshops and groups. She shares a lot of great ideas about this new revenue stream for your practice.
34: Planning to Achieve Your Goals
July 30, 2015 12:00 - 28 minutes - 13 MBIn this episode of Selling the Couch, Tony Woodall shares his expertise in goald setting. As host of the Goal Getting podcast, Tony coached others through the steps needed to not just set goals, but to achieve them.
33: How Nutrition Improves Your Practice
July 23, 2015 12:00 - 26 minutes - 12.2 MBIn this episode, we have special guest Shelly Davidescu on to share with us the impact of proper food and drink on our ability to practice. Using proper nutrition and hydration techniques, you can actually improve your clinical abilities. Shelly explains how.
32: Using Podcasting to Grow and Build Your Practice
July 16, 2015 12:00 - 31 minutes - 28.4 MBWelcome to today’s show! My guest today is . . . ME! Yes, it’s a solo podcast episode about one of my favorite topics, which is podcasting. I’m talking about USING PODCASTING TO BUILD YOUR BUSINESS. I’ve learned a lot on my own podcasting journey of several hundred hours over the last few months, and I hope some of my tips will help anyone else looking to start their podcast.
31: Building a Passionate Private Pay Practice
July 09, 2015 12:09 - 31 minutes - 14.6 MBThis episode features the dynamic duo of Miranda Palmer and Kelly Higdon. They share practical tips and strategies on how to build your private pay practice in any community. We cover the top questions practitioners have when considering this option for your practice. Join the 3 of us for this important discussion!
30: Practical Tips for Easy Case Notes
July 02, 2015 12:00 - 27 minutes - 25 MBDr. Maelisa Hall specializes in helping clinicians get their paperwork in order. She learned early on in her practice that other clinicians weren't loving the part of their job that involves paperwork and the documentation of the case notes. Maelisa began showing others how to make their paperwork easy!
28: Share the Book in You With The World
June 25, 2015 12:00 - 31 minutes - 28.5 MBWelcome! My guest today is Nick Pavlidis, who is a husband, father, attorney, blogger, podcaster, author, and a friend of mine. Nick conducts two successful podcasts: “Five Minutes with Dad,” and “Confessions of a Terrible Husband.” As an outgrowth of his blogs and podcasts, Nick has written a book, Confessions of a Terrible Husband: Lessons Learned from Lumpy Couch. Nick is here to talk about the writing process because you never know when you may have a book that needs to be written! ...
27: Get More Clients Without Marketing
June 18, 2015 12:00 - 28 minutes - 25.9 MBMost private practice clinicians have the same aversion to marketing as I do. Today Ana Melikian reveals the best way to book yourself solid, without focusing on sales and marketing. There isn't anything that we could make a private practice clinician more happy than hearing those words! Support this podcast
26: Unlocking the Profits in Couple Therapy
June 11, 2015 12:00 - 26 minutes - 12.2 MBWelcome! My guest today is Alexandra Saperstein, who is a licensed professional counselor in Portland, OR. Alexandra has worked in full-time private practice specializing in couples therapy for over five years. Alexandra worked in Bulgaria for the Peace Corps from 1998-2000. She gained a philosophy from this work that carries over to her therapy work today. A Peace Corps supervisor told her, “We want you to work yourself out of a job.” She tells couples that her goal with their therapy ...
25: Instagram the Easy Way
June 04, 2015 12:00 - 28 minutes - 19.8 MBRyan Maher explains how private practitioners can use Instagram to get traffic to your website. Ryan also provides tips and strategies to get more followers and engage with your fans. Support this podcast
24: Practice Building Tips From an Intern
May 28, 2015 12:00 - 28 minutes - 22.7 MBRachel Moore is a the beginning of her counseling career, and already she has embarked on her private practice journey. She has built a private practice as an intern, and she is also doing volunteer work for Hospice as an unpaid intern. Her goal is to get as much experience as possible and to build a thriving private practice! You will love hearing Rachel's drive and passion for her private practice! Support this podcast
23: Creating a Winning Email List
May 21, 2015 12:00 - 17 minutes - 8.19 MBSelling the Couch Host, Melvin Varghese reveals his best kept secret for building his email list, and getting a high open rate for each campaign. Support this podcast
22: The Miracle Morning Improves Productivity
May 19, 2015 12:00 - 32 minutes - 15.1 MBHal Elrod takes us through his journey of dying in a car accident, to developing habits that have changed his life. He began the miracle morning as a way to pull himself out of his lowest point, when he lost his business and wanted to hide. Hal has a contagious mindset of positivity that he shares with everyone he encounters. Support this podcast
21: Using ADHD to Rewire Your Private Practice
May 14, 2015 12:00 - 32 minutes - 30.2 MBEric Tivers, host of the ADHD Rewired Podcast shares his journey to building his own private therapy practice. Eric also reveals how his diagnosis of ADHD has impacted the path his practice has taken. Support this podcast
20: Using Pinterest to Drive Traffic to Your Website
May 12, 2015 12:00 - 28 minutes - 13.1 MBJeff Sieh of Manly Pinterest Tips discusses the best way to use Pinterest to drive traffic back to your website and build your brand. Support this podcast
19: Private Practice Success
May 07, 2015 12:00 - 26 minutes - 12.2 MBLynn Grodzki shares her best strategies to build a successful private practice through relationship building and integrity marketing. Support this podcast
18: Using Video To Market Your Practice
May 05, 2015 12:00 - 25 minutes - 11.8 MBLarry Becker is well known as the video reviewer of cameras for B&H Photo, the largest online camera store. In his latest endeavor, Larry is now training other small businesses to use video to market their products and services, as the Video Marketing Guy. Support this podcast
17: Pricing for Growth
April 30, 2015 11:00 - 40 minutes - 37.4 MBBest practices for building your practice and charging what you're worth. Support this podcast
16: Build a Private Practice You Love
April 28, 2015 11:00 - 35 minutes - 32.6 MBNamrata Rindani-McMahill shares the keys to build a practice that you can love every day of the week. Support this podcast
15: Conquering Fear to Grow Your Practice
April 23, 2015 06:42 - 23 minutes - 21.9 MBJordan Sybrant reveals his secrets to conquer fear in order to grow your business. Jordan shares his personal experience with feeling inadequate and doubting if he could ever be a success. Jordan is open and vulnerable in order to help others build and grow a practice they love. Support this podcast
14: How To Run A Successful Therapy Business
April 21, 2015 05:08 - 23 minutes - 21.3 MBCasey Truffo reveals 5 Keys to Running a Successful Business. Tips in this interview help you focus on becoming the CEO of your practice. Support this podcast
13: Lessons from Starting a Podcast and Blog
April 16, 2015 11:00 - 19 minutes - 17.7 MBI have learned so many things from starting a podcast, so I thought I would share my top 5 lessons with you. This is my first solo episode, so I take you behind the scenes, where we look at my numbers, my strategies and my best tips for getting your business started. Of course, we will still be doing interviews, but I will do these solo episode frequently, so I can share with you the things I am learning. My hope is that you can use these lessons as you build your practice, so you can avoi...
12: How To Leverage Facebook Ads
April 14, 2015 11:30 - 34 minutes - 48.1 MBValerie Shoopman is one of the world's top experts on running ads through Facebook. In fact, she's run Facebook Ad campaigns for "A-list" entrepreneurs like John Lee Dumas and Nick Unsworth. Today's session is an intro to FB Ads for private practitoners. In this session, you’ll learn the important questions to ask when thinking about running a Facebook Ad, how to conduct preliminary research prior to running an Ad, the big "No No's" of running Facebook Ads, how much to spend on Ads, how lon...
11: Private Practice Taking Flight!
April 09, 2015 11:30 - 27 minutes - 38.4 MBDeb Owens talks about her private practice journey in today's session of Selling The Couch. In this session, you’ll learn what Deb learned from being on insurance panels versus private pay, some small changes you can make in your office to make clients feel more comfortable, Deb's screening process to make sure that clients are a good fit, how to decide whether to put session fees on your website, the importance of language on a private practice website, how Deb explains informed consent to ...
10: Landing Local Media Interviews
April 07, 2015 11:30 - 24 minutes - 19.7 MBToday's session is all about how mental health private practitioners can land local media interviews in order to build credibility and authority. Melvin talks with Betsy Fitzpatrick on ways to find contact information for local media, how to reach out when you find this information, best ways to prepare for an interview, websites to find "evergreen" topics to talk about, and best practices on interview day. Support this podcast
9: Balancing Life and Private Practice
April 02, 2015 11:30 - 30 minutes - 42.1 MBMy guest today is Mari Lee, LMFT, CSAT-S. Mari has an amazing story of being in foster care as a child to building a very successful private practice where she focuses on helps individuals who struggle with sex addiction. In this episode, you’ll learn: Mari's favorite quotes that can be valuable as you take the leap into private practice, practical tips to balance work and life so you don't burn out in private practice, tools to help you create a vision for your private practice, and ways t...
8: Successful Paralegal to Blossoming Therapist
March 31, 2015 11:30 - 27 minutes - 21.9 MBMy guest today is Laura Reagan, a paralegal turned clinical social worker who launched a private pay practice in May 2013. In this episode, you’ll learn: Laura's tips on how to overcome voices of naysayers who say that it's not possible to build a private pay practice; how to create animated introductory videos for your website; Laura’s best tip for someone who's just getting started in private practice; and How Laura balances private practice with blogging. Support this podcast
7: How to (Really) Build Trust on Your Website
March 26, 2015 11:30 - 29 minutes - 40.8 MBTips to build website trust. In today's episode, you'll learn simple tweaks to build trust on your private practice website with our featured guest Becky Degrossa. More specifically, you’ll learn areas of your website to focus on to build trust, the line between too little and too much self disclosure, common mistakes that push website visitors away, who to ask to get testimonials from, and an example of a powerful testimonial. Support this podcast
6: On Being a Counselor and Pro Blogger
March 24, 2015 11:30 - 36 minutes - 29.1 MBHow to write for larger blogs. Today's guest, Michael Formica is a certified counselor, life coach, and regular columnist for the Huffington Post and Psychology Today. In this episode, you’ll learn to let go of perfectionism and take action, a powerful exercise to improve creativity, how to find guest blogging opportunities with larger blogs and publications, and tips and resources to become a better writer. Support this podcast
5: Great Audio Made Easy
March 19, 2015 11:30 - 23 minutes - 22.1 MBHow therapists can get great audio. In this episode, you’ll learn about: What makes great audio, Why good audio matters on your private practice website, Simple tricks to get better sound, and recommended (and very reasonably priced) gear. Support this podcast
4: Building a Private Pay Practice
March 17, 2015 11:30 - 24 minutes - 23 MBTips to build a insurance0free practice. Can you build a private pay practice in this day and age? That is the question that Keri Nola and I explore in Session 4 of the Selling the Couch podcast. Keri’s a licensed psychotherapist who helps therapists build the private practice of their dreams. In this episode, you’ll learn about: How to overcome the fear of telling a client that you’re private pay, how to use “out of network benefits” for a client who wants to use their insurance, what to...
3: How to Stand Out on Twitter
March 12, 2015 11:30 - 27 minutes - 22 MBHow use Twitter to market your counseling private practice. Today's podcast is with my friend Bud Hennekes (the guy has been on Twitter since 2008 and landed three jobs using Twitter!). Bud's the guy I go to with quetsions about Twitter. In this episode, you’ll learn about the mindset that makes a difference on Twitter, how Bud searches for topics and engages with others on Twitter, the “psychology” behind Twitter, how to stand out on Twitter, a huge mistake that many people make on Twitter ...
2: 5 Years And A Thriving Private Practice
March 06, 2015 03:30 - 37 minutes - 34.1 MBCamille McDaniel shares how she's building a thriving private practice even though she started just a few years ago. Camille talks about the moment she knew that she had to make the leap into private practice, how she worked through the initial struggles, and the her advice for someone who’s just starting out. In this episode, you’ll learn about a quote that inspires Camille on a daily basis, the moment where Camille decided that she was getting too comfortable and how it lead her to take th...
1: Lessons from 15 Years in Private Practice
March 06, 2015 03:13 - 24 minutes - 27.7 MBDr. Cory Bank is a sports psychologist in private practice. In today's session, Cory shares about his private practice journey that started 15 years ago. After today's session, you’ll learn a quote that inspires Cory on a daily basis, how Cory worked through the fears and insecurities of starting his private practice, the one mistake that Cory made that set him back financially with his private practice, what Cory tells his graduate students and coaching clients about how much to charge, a ...
0: Intro and What to Expect
March 05, 2015 15:45 - 13 minutes - 12.7 MBSelling the Couch is the podcast that helps mental health providers build and grow their counseling private practices. Many of us go into private practice but are taught very little about owning a small business. We quickly get overwhelmed and some of us burn out. To help, I'm interviewing successful clinicians about the "business side" of private practice (e.g., how they get referrals, their best advice for new practitioners, etc.) as well as business, marketing, and social media experts t...