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The BRIEF2 is the gold standard rating scale for measuring executive function. A new score report, updated interpretive report, and series of 10 interventions handouts are now available on PARiConnect. Learn more at parinc.com\brief2.
Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode in the year-end review series for 2022.
This is a short series where we’re talking about a variety of topics quickly and succinctly to let you touch in, reflect on the past [00:01:00] year, and hopefully make some plans for the following year.
Today’s episode is focusing on your clientele. Did you see who you wanted to see? Are there any tweaks you would like to make to your caseload?
Stay tuned.
All right, let’s talk about your clientele for the past year.
As I do this exercise, I like to look back. You can actually literally pull out your calendar and look back at your clientele on the caseload, the folks that you saw, the populations you worked with, the presenting concerns, and the types of evaluations.
I’m a fan of being very concrete here, so I would encourage you to actually pull out your calendar and go through this exercise. [00:02:00] I want you to review all of your clients and just be honest about the work that you love. Okay?
Let’s look back and think about what was the top 25% of work that you really, really loved. The idea is that once you identify that top 25% of work that you just absolutely loved, figure out if it’s possible to do more of that in 2023. How would that shift your case? You can look back and you can also think about the bottom 25%. So what work were you doing that just wasn’t quite doing it for you? I think it’s worth making that list as well, and then taking the next step to figure out if there’s anything you can do to change that up.
Let’s [00:03:00] take a break to hear from our featured partner.
The BRIEF2 is the gold standard rating scale for measuring executive function. A new score report, an updated interpretive report available on PARiConnect helps you get the answers you need about executive functioning and ADHD quickly. Also available is a series of 10 downloadable easy-to-understand BRIEF2 interventions handouts designed to provide parents, students, and teachers with strategies to support and improve behaviors at home and in school. Learn more at parinc.com\brief2.
All right, let’s get back to the podcast.
We all know that shifting our schedules can be quite a slow process. That phrase, turning the Titanic certainly comes into play here. That’s why we’re doing this here at the end of the year because it might take 3 to 6 months for some of us to actually shift our schedules.
I’m not asking [00:04:00] that you cancel any clients that you already have booked, although you could if you wanted to go that route, of course, but if you would like to keep the folks on your books that you want to keep on your books, or rather you want to keep folks on your books even though you might not want to see them, that’s fine. But that’s why we’re thinking now, like what can you do right now to start making those changes to where you are dropping the bottom 25% of your work and doing more of the top 25%?
Does that mean you need to drop one of those contracts that don’t pay as well? Do you need to add a contract that is paying really well? Do you need to reach out to certain referral sources to reinforce and let them know that you have more desire to work with their clients? Do you need to shift your schedule so that you can open up more spots for the clients that you want to see? You get the idea.
[00:05:00] The idea is just to be deliberate and think about what you would like to look different next year and take some steps. Again, walk it backward, and take some steps to actually make that happen.I do want to acknowledge as well that whenever we give anything up, there can typically be a grieving process, so a lot of us might feel guilty, might feel like we’re turning people away, we’re not providing service to the folks we want to. If you have any of those thoughts, that’s totally normal.
As a clinician, you are likely doing your best work when you enjoy the work that you’re doing. And you might look at it on the flip side, which is that it’s unfair to do work that you don’t enjoy. It’s unfair to the client and it’s you’re just not doing your best work. So it’s totally okay to hone in and see the folks you want to see.
I recognize that there may be some nuances, of course, with income and you may not be able to [00:06:00] just drop a certain referral source and things like that, but again, the intent is just to get you thinking about this process and making any change at all that would allow you to move more in the direction of seeing the folks that you want to see- hitting that top 25%.
All right, y’all. Thank you so much for tuning into this episode. Always grateful to have you here. I hope that you take away some information that you can implement in your practice and in your life. Any resources that we mentioned during the episode will be listed in the show notes, so make sure to check those out.
If you like what you hear on the podcast, I would be so grateful if you left a review on iTunes or Spotify, or wherever you listen to your podcast.
And if you’re a practice owner or aspiring practice owner, I’d invite you to check out The Testing Psychologist mastermind groups. I have mastermind groups at every stage of practice development; beginner, intermediate, and advanced. We have homework, we have accountability, we have support, and we have resources. These groups are amazing. We do a lot of work and a lot of connecting. If that sounds interesting to you, you can check out the details at thetestingpsychologist.com/consulting. You can sign up for a pre-group phone call and we will chat and figure out if a group could be a good fit for you.
Thanks so much.
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