What's going wrong with social media? 

Welcome to the Business of Psychology podcast. I have been wanting to make a podcast for a while about the reasons that I've stepped back a little bit in my use of social media and the changes that I've made and that I've encouraged my clients in my coaching programs to make in the way that we view it and the way that we use it. Because I'm aware that for a lot of us at the moment, social media feels like a very heavy place. There's a lot of pressure, there's a lot of negativity, and if we're not mindful about how we are using it, it can take a really big emotional toll. I feel like because we talk on this podcast about the advantages of using social media to market, to reach your people who need you in your practice, it's also important to talk about how to manage our wellbeing as we do that, and also how to make sure we're putting content out there that feels aligned with our values and that feels professionally fulfilling, because in some ways I feel the platforms drag us away from those values. 

Full show notes for this episode are available at The Business of Psychology

Links for Rosie:

Substack: substack.com/@drrosie

Rosie on Instagram:

@rosiegilderthorp

@thepregnancypsychologist

Evolve and Thrive Mastermind

 Have you been listening to this and feeling like the time has come for you to make a change in your practice? Maybe you are ready to grow with passive or semi passive income. Maybe you are ready to gain more time freedom, have that flexibility you always dreamed of, or expand your impact. If any of that sounds like you, you might be a really good fit for my Evolve and Thrive Mastermind.

Our next cohort is starting in January 2026, and it's a small group, six-month coaching experience. The early bird rate finishes mid-December, so if any of that sounds good to you, make sure you check out the details over at psychologybusinessschool.com and book your free call with me now to secure the best price.

Shownotes

Is there a helpful way for psychologists and therapists to use social media in 2026?

The thing that I'm going to talk about the most in this episode is being mindful of the priorities of social media companies and developing an awareness that they're not neutral tools. They have business models that are designed to sell attention by amplifying the things which people can't resist, which are usually negativity and anger. That can be really detrimental to our own wellbeing, and if we're not careful, it can be detrimental to our client groups too. I’m also going to talk about the positivity and the nuance in that; it is not all bad, there's a lot of good that we can still do with social media, but only if we are mindful of its inherent design flaws and the pitfalls that I see a lot of us falling into.

What we’re seeing on social media

Let's start by talking about what a lot of us are seeing on social media. When I go to networking events and I meet up with my coaching clients, a lot of us are witnessing stuff on social media that's really upsetting. And I don't mean the stuff from unregulated people giving bad advice and misinformation. That's been going on as long as there has been social media and it's bad, but I'm not seeing more of it than I saw five years ago. I'm seeing about the same number of unqualified people telling me things that they have no business to tell me. But what I am seeing more of, maybe just because I'm spending more time looking than I was previously, but I feel like it is an upwards trend, are discussions or debates on social media, particularly LinkedIn and Facebook, between professionals who are properly qualified that turn into like skirmishes. Often these are on topics which are highly emotive for many of us. The ones which get served up to me all the time, because my children have additional needs, are usually around topics like neurodiversity, neuro affirmative practice, and causes and cures for autism, in particular. Those are all topics which I do know a fair amount about. Since my children started to struggle and I went through the diagnostic process, I think I've probably read more on those topics than I have on anything else in my entire life. I keep really up to date with the evidence base, and I have read most of the seminal texts that I've been able to get my hands on in those areas. And the thing that I have taken away from all of that reading and research is that it is really nuanced and complicated and nobody is really right. There's a lot that I like and that I think has a good grounding in evidence in neuro affirmative practice. Certainly, the positive impact on identity formation and the value of neuro affirmative therapy and coaching for people, I see that and I like it, and I recognise it, and I think it can't be ignored, and it shouldn't be ignored. But it's also true that a lot of the people putting out their views about neuro affirmation and the principles of neurodiversity, are spreading misinformation about the way that the brain works and about how solid the evidence base is for brain-based differences between particularly autistic and ADHD brains and neurotypical brains. And I don't like that. I don't like the kind of division that's created between neurotypicals and neurodivergence, because I don't think that is evidence-based, and I don't think that will help people in the end. But having said that, it's also not true to say that the evidence shows no brain-based differences. I've seen some really invalidating stuff on there where people who, like me, are a little bit sceptical about building identity around one particular label, have then taken it to the point where they're saying that people shouldn't be using these labels at all, that we are massively over diagnosed and that these labels are not helpful. And that's not true either. I mean, my children would not be okay without their labels. People need them to get what they need in a society that we have built around labelling people. And so the idea that people are wrong for finding those useful, or that clinicians are wrong for using labels in the system that we operate in is also bizarre.

I suppose the reason that I've gone on this sidebar slightly is that this is a difficult and nuanced point. Nobody is really wrong, nobody is really right, and yet what I see on social media is really vitriolic, a lot of sound bites to grab attention, and no space given for this kind of both/and position, which is a painful one to hold. It isn't much fun being a parent of children that need a lot of additional support to be sitting here, bum on the fence, a spiky fence, being like, okay, I see the good, I see the bad, on balance we’re going to go with the labels because they're going to do more good than harm, but I can't fully commit myself to the idea of building a whole identity around any label. It feels uncomfortable. It feels like I don't have a home. But the reality is, when I talk to people in person, and I meet a lot of people that I've seen online in person, most people are falling where I am. Most people are really nuanced about it, a bit torn apart by it. They've read the same evidence that I have, and come to the same conclusion that actually we're in this really tricky grey space, but nobody is representing that online, even if it's what they think really. I think that's because the platforms encourage us to speak in a way that we wouldn't speak professionally if we were in a room together. Complex topics get reduced to these short, extreme, and often un-evidenced claims, like no brain-based differences, or CBT is harmful to people with autism. Those are the kind of statements which work really well on social media because they get an argument going and they get rewarded, and so we post more of them. But I actually think they're really doing a lot of harm, not just between professionals. I often really cringe when I see it happening on social media. I might start to feel a bit disillusioned with clinical psychology as a profession, or I might feel a bit shamed or upset if somebody's having a go at something that I've said. It can be difficult for us as professionals, but imagine what it is like if you’re a family going through the most difficult thing you've ever experienced, and then you go onto LinkedIn and you see a load of people who are supposed to be the people giving you advice and guidance, fighting each other. I can't stand it. I can't stand to think about what that experience must be like for people in their most vulnerable moments.

And it's not just happening around neurodiversity, that's just the one I know more about. But I also see it happening a lot around gender identity, for example. I think sometimes when we're posting, we need to be mindful of the vulnerable people who might see it. Maybe they're not the person the post is intended for, maybe it's intended for a professional audience, but it's got your name, it's got your professional title. You are representing a clinical psychologist, or a CBT therapist, or a counsellor to the people that read it. So, if you are getting into a skirmish and having cross words with other professionals on there, that is really confusing to the person that's looking to us as mental health professionals to guide them through the darkness of a new diagnosis or a struggle that their family is facing.

I think we have to start changing the way that we use social media and probably the only way that we can do that is understanding that it is not your fault that you are compelled into these arguments. There are billionaires out there who are incredibly good at manipulating us into engaging in this way on their platforms. It is what they want. They want us to be angry, they want us to fight with each other, and they want it all done in a public arena because that's where they're going to get their eyeballs, which is how they pay their salaries. I'm sure most of you are aware of this, but just in case you're not, the thing which makes money for social media platforms is advertising. And the reason that advertising space is valuable is all to do with how many eyeballs there are on that platform and how long they stay on that platform. I advertise on Facebook, but I would not give them my money if they were only getting a thousand people a month on their platform. It's because they're getting millions, probably billions, and they're keeping them there for a long time, that I think it's worth spending money advertising on that platform. Because they don't charge us, they charge the advertisers, we as users of the platform are the commodity. We are the thing being sold. Our attention is the thing being sold to advertisers. So, the only motivation a social media platform that doesn't charge you will ever have is keeping you on there for longer, and people stay longer when they're angry. So, knowing that this platform is going to try to make me angry, I think is a really helpful mindset to have when we are going in and thinking about what we're going to post, and how we're going to comment on other people's posts. I try to really keep that in the forefront of my mind before I let any of these posts or comments get to me.

That's the mindset piece I think we have to have in place when we are devising our strategy for engaging with social media. I guess the best advice I can give you is to have a strategy for social media. Don't just engage with it off the cuff, because that's when we are most susceptible to what the algorithms and the people building these platforms want us to do. If we go in with real intention, with real strategy behind us, then it is much more difficult to be blown off course. It's a bit like anything you do with your business; if you know your values and you know why you are doing this and where you want to get to, then whatever kind of bad weather and storms get in the way, it is much, much easier to continuously set your compass for the right bearing and keep going through them. Whereas if you were never sure where you wanted to go in the first place, you are much more likely to be buffeted around according to the weather. 

1. Limit your social media use to what is strategically useful

The first thing that I would recommend is limit your social media use to what is strategically useful, especially if you've already noticed that it is having a negative impact on your nervous system or your wellbeing. I know it's not negative for everybody, but the clients that I've worked with, my coaching clients who have positive experiences of social media, it is because they have taken the time to curate what they're seeing and they are intentional about what they're doing. For example, one of my ex-clients who I think I'm most proud of and love to see her social media out there, is Dr Frankie Harrison from Miracle Moon. Frankie is really intentional about what she posts. She posts stuff which is going to be really useful for people going through the experience of parenting in NICU. Her content is really collaborative, it's really community focused, and it's exactly what those people need to see at the time they need to see it. I know that she gets a lot out of her community and really enjoys engaging there, but the reason that it's enjoyable is that it's really intentional. She knows exactly why she's there, it's hitting her values, it's really good quality content and it feels good to create it.

2. Spend time curating what you see

I've also noticed that people that do well on social media spend time curating what they see. We can do that on all of the platforms; we can choose to hide things that we don't want to see and we can like things that we do want to see. Gradually over time, that means that we will get more of the stuff that we want and less of the stuff that we don't want, which is really, really important. So, I'd encourage you to just spend a couple of weeks doing that so that you are not served up the stuff which is an assault on your nervous system.

3. Focus on what you want your social media to do for you

The third thing, which comes into the point of intentionality, is really focus on what you want your social media to do for you. I'd encourage you to think of it as building a body of work that builds your authority and that you feel proud of. You should feel proud of everything that you are doing on social media because all of it reflects on your profession and on your business. It's all building your reputation. If you're putting out there content that you feel lukewarm about, that you're a bit like, ‘Hmm, it's a bit boring’, then you're not going to feel proud of it, there's no point. Equally, if you're allowing your emotions to take the driving seat and you are responding in a spiky way, or you're talking in a way that you wouldn't talk in front of a client, that's not serving you or your business either. Have a really clear idea of ‘what do I want to get out of this?’ It's usually about building authority and giving people the confidence to work with you, or if you're not in business, giving them the confidence to engage with your profession. I think we can all agree that seeing those vitriolic debates on social media is not going to do any of those things for people.

There's a tool that I use in my Evolve and Thrive programme and in my Startup programme (my two group coaching programmes), where I help people to think through what it is that they should be talking about on social media. What are the things that your client group need to hear from you about? I then help them think about what stories they might use to make those ideas relatable. We build a little bank together of stories that you are comfortable with sharing around those topics that clients are interested in, because we know that storytelling makes learning points come to life, makes everything sink in, and are much more compelling than how-tos or your straightforward psychoeducation posts. We always come up with a little bank of stories that we can draw on to create content, only then do we go onto platforms and look at what type of content is working well and think about how we can fit the ideas that we already have, that are on topics that we want to be known for and we've got tons of expertise in, and we're building our authority in that area, and our stories that we want to share, how can we fit those two things to the formats that are working well on that platform at the moment? And if you follow that process, starting with what your customer wants to hear from you and working through, and the last thing you do is figuring out what that should look like on a particular platform, then you'll find that you are showing up and you are posting in a way that builds your authority, that serves up high quality content, that actually does some good for your client group, and should also build the authority and reputation for your independent business if that's what you want to do. That's a process that I really recommend. We have tools to help us do it in Evolve and Thrive and the Startup programme, but if you bear those principles in mind, you are not going to go far wrong. 

I hope this hasn't just been a rant. I wanted to spend a bit of time today talking about how the business models of social media are making us all behave badly as professionals online, and you know that we should have compassion for that, that it is not our fault. There are people paid a lot of money to try and make us behave like this, and it's happening to everybody - it's not just happening to mental health professionals. But we can do something about it, we can do better, and we can use social media in a way that is going to be better for us, better for our wellbeing, better for our clients, and ultimately bring us to the place that we want to be in our businesses as well. It's different advice to the advice that I would've given when this podcast started back in 2020, the landscape has changed, but I hope that this has given you an idea of how you can use social media in a positive way. We don't need to run away from it, we just don't want to let it take the driving seat either.

I hope that's been helpful. Please do let me know your thoughts. You can send me a DM. I'm @rosiegilderthorp on Instagram, and I'd really love to hear how you’re using social media and if you've noticed the same trends as me and what you are doing about it, if you have.

Is it time for you to evolve and thrive?

Welcome to the Business of Psychology podcast. This episode is all about that stuck on the fence feeling that I think is so familiar to so many of us. That feeling when you know that something needs to change, but you are not sure whether now is the right time to make that change.

Full show notes for this episode are available at The Business of Psychology

Links for Rosie:

Substack: substack.com/@drrosie

Rosie on Instagram:

@rosiegilderthorp

@thepregnancypsychologist

Evolve and Thrive Mastermind

 Have you been listening to this and feeling like the time has come for you to make a change in your practice? Maybe you are ready to grow with passive or semi passive income. Maybe you are ready to gain more time freedom, have that flexibility you always dreamed of, or expand your impact. If any of that sounds like you, you might be a really good fit for my Evolve and Thrive Mastermind.

Our next cohort is starting in January 2026, and it's a small group, six-month coaching experience. The early bird rate finishes mid-December, so if any of that sounds good to you, make sure you check out the details over at psychologybusinessschool.com and book your free call with me now to secure the best price.

Shownotes

Is it time for you to evolve and thrive?

Hello and welcome to the Business of Psychology podcast. This episode is all about that stuck on the fence feeling that I think is so familiar to so many of us. That feeling when you know that something needs to change, but you are not sure whether now is the right time to make that change.

I just want to acknowledge that often this happens when my clients are really successful; when they've built exactly what they set out to build, but now something about it just isn't feeling fulfilling or they're struggling with the day-to-day running of their practice, feeling burned out, maybe feeling like they're doing fine, but sort of spinning their wheels in time, and that's how it was for me. On the surface, I had built a really successful private practice. From the outside looking in, people would've seen fully booked, always busy attracting people to my specialism, tick, tick, tick, it all looks great. But in reality, I was really struggling to keep going with that pace of clients because it wasn't giving me the flexibility that I needed in my life, but also it wasn't really allowing me to use my skills as a psychologist in the diverse and interesting ways that I had been able to in my public sector roles. So for a number of reasons, I arrived at this point of feeling like I needed to make a change, but I sat on that fence for quite a while, and it can be quite an uncomfortable place. I've noticed that as I've been doing the calls for our next Evolve and Thrive cohort, which is really exciting, that a lot of people are sitting on that fence. And because the economy is in a challenging place, and I don't think that we're in a really optimistic frame of mind as a generation at the moment, often we might be sitting in that place for a bit longer, really agonising over when's the right time to jump off and do something a bit differently. So I wanted to record an episode to help you think that through. And it's not going to be, “you should always go for it, now is definitely the right time to make a change in your practice”, because actually one of the things that's really important to me as a business coach is that you are respectful of the season of life that you are in, and that you make decisions based on wherever possible, data, good information about the return on the investment that you're going to get. And I don't just mean investment in terms of money, I mean investment in terms of time, your creativity and your emotional wellbeing as well. So, I hope this episode is going to help you. If you are thinking that now might be a good time for you to step into something new, maybe create a new project, something outside the therapy room, or maybe expand and bring on associates, my aim with this episode is to help you think through whether now is the right moment to jump in with both feet and really go for it, or if actually you might be in a season that means that those things are all here for you, they're all going to happen, but they need to happen a little bit later. So I hope you're going to find this useful.

I also hope that this episode will demonstrate to you that that evolution is possible, even if it's not the thing for you right now, I think there's a bit of pessimism out there sometimes that maybe we will miss the boat, that they are one to many offers, online courses, that kind of thing are only really available to people that built their audiences back when it was easier, like in 2016 for example, but actually that's not true. I am supporting day in, day out, I'm supporting psychologists and therapists who are doing it right now in this tricky climate and making it work. So I also hope that this episode is going to give you a little bit of that hopeful optimism that I have the privilege of sitting alongside in my coaching practice regularly.

Signs that you might be ready to evolve your practice

There are some signs that you might be ready to evolve your practice that are worth paying attention to. I got these from my existing participants in Evolve and Thrive. 

The first sign is that you start craving one to many. You start craving more scale and more variety in your work. Maybe you are fully booked or well established, but you really miss using the other parts of your brain that one-to-one therapy doesn't always utilise. And this is how Dr Grace Lee-Brindle, who is currently in Evolve and Thrive described it to me. She noted that after leaving the NHS, she missed other parts of her work. She was well established with one-to-one clients, she's got a brilliant specialism, but she felt like she was ready to branch out and use other skills. So I think that's really important. Dr Kelly Young also shared something on this theme. She said that she wanted to move from a one-to-one, to a one-to-many model to increase the revenue in her practice, but also to make more impact for more people while working fewer hours. So, I guess the takeaway from that is if you resonate with those things, if you feel itchy to use your skills in a different way and you're wanting to make more impact with more people, then that could be a sign that you are ready for that recurring income strategy, and to develop a business model that takes you outside the therapy room.

Another theme that came up as a sign that you might be ready to make that change in your practice was a feeling that Dr Melita Ash, another one of our evolve and thrivers, put really well, I thought it was a really nice analogy. She said she felt like she was running fast, but standing still. I guess this is about the issue of sustainability, it's that feeling like I have, that you are working incredibly hard, but the business isn't really growing in a way that gives you any more time, flexibility or financial security. So it can feel a bit like you are running on a treadmill. Melita described it as like running fast, not getting anywhere, constantly working hard and feeling really stuck. And she felt like she needed to come on a program that would give her a structure towards getting unstuck because it can be such a difficult place to be when you are running that fast, that you're exhausted and sometimes unable to think outside of that fast pace of work that you're doing every day. That's something that Dr Victoria Wallace talked about too. She really prioritised sustainability and looking to avoid those boom and bust cycles we can often get into when we are relying on just one-to-one therapy and that referral rollercoaster in private practice.

I guess what this tells us is that if taking regular time off or flexibility for family is really important to you, and the business model you have at the moment isn't delivering that, then you really need a plan. Putting more effort into the model you already have is not going to take you somewhere different or more sustainable than where you are right now. So if where you are right now doesn't feel sustainable, if you feel like you're heading for burnout, you have to make a change. Sometimes what I hear from people is that they're sort of waiting to feel better before they make a change. But actually, if we formulate for ourselves in the exact same way that we would for a client, that's like waiting to stop feeling depressed before you go out for a walk. Sometimes we have to put the cart before the horse and get out, make the change that's going to allow us to feel better. So I think that's a really important point. If you're already on the road to burnout, hop off now. Do something different now before you get fully in the pit of it.

So sign number three that the current Evolve and Thrivers talked about was feeling like you kind of get stuck in contemplation mode. So maybe you have ideas, but procrastination, peer fear, or imposter syndrome stop you actually executing them. A lot of people talk about this as like shiny object syndrome, like the magpies or butterflies flitting from one idea to the next and never really committing. And then what makes me really sad is people also often talk about feeling a lot of shame when they see other people doing really well, or perceive other people to be doing really well on Instagram or at networking events, and then they start to think that those people have something magical that they're lacking. Whereas actually the reality is that you can't tell from Instagram or a website or even somebody's podcast what's actually happening in their business. You don't get to see the stuff that we put out there that flops. And one of the biggest things that I try and put across to all of my Evolve and Thrivers and really anyone that will listen to me is that a lot of our ideas don't work out the way we want them to. But it's only by putting things out there and testing them with your client group, that you really get a sense of what's useful, what do they actually want and what works for them, but also what is the market ready for and what language do we need to use to show people that we have something valuable that they're going to need. It just takes trial and error. And often it's the fear of flopping that keeps people stuck in this contemplation, shiny object syndrome flitting from one idea to the next. And what I try and provide in Evolve and thrive is a community that makes it safe to have those flops, because we all have them. I literally could not count, I wouldn't be able to estimate even a number of the things I've put out there that haven't worked. But you’re all probably much more aware of the ones that I put out there that do work because they're the ones that are much more visible and that I keep and talk about for a lot longer. But if you went back, you'd probably find loads of stuff that I'm not offering anymore, and the reason I'm not offering it is that it didn't work. So it happens to us all, and it's a really normal and important part of the journey of doing something entrepreneurial that has not been done before.

One of the comments that Dr Naomi Gibson made about her decision to take that leap, move out of contemplation and try and move through that peer fear was that she felt she needed guidance and community to finally step into that action. And I think that is so normal. Every time that I've made a big decision in my business, it has been because I've been either seeing a business coach that I had a great relationship with, or I've been part of a mastermind where I've been able to go somewhere with those fears and have people to bounce ideas off and know that there's at least one person cheerleading me through that difficult process. I do think that can be really, really important.

Some other interesting things that came out of the discussion that I had with my Evolve and Thrivers was that actually for nearly everybody, we're a group of 12, and nearly everybody was proud of the practice that they built already. So it wasn't the case that they hated their work. Actually, a lot of people, pretty much everyone, talked about finding their therapy work extremely rewarding. It was more that there was another reason that they needed to move away from it. So it could be that there were family responsibilities, caring responsibilities that meant that working those long hours, seeing people one-to-one, doing very intense work was making them basically fray at the seams. Or it could have been that they just felt like they weren't using all of their skills and they wanted to do more as a psychologist than they felt that they were doing. Or for a couple of my current participants, it was really about the client group and feeling that there was this big unserved portion of an audience that they'd already built online who needed something that wasn't therapy, but that also wasn't already out there on the market, and they felt the push coming from that direction. 

I think that's really important to highlight that wanting to evolve your practice doesn't mean that you're not grateful for the business that you have right now, or that you did the wrong thing by building the business that you've built right now, or even that you don't enjoy your one-to-one work with clients. It's just about examining your values and thinking about what the next chapter of your career needs to look like in order to live life according to those values. And for me, certainly one of those core values has to be flexibility. I just need a lot of that in order to meet my kids as the parent that I want to be right now. And for most Evolve and Thrivers and certainly for me, there's a driving value behind wanting to change what you're doing. And I think it's best if that can come from a positive place. So rather than just thinking about what you want to get away from, it's thinking about what you want to be able to do, what you want to move towards. I think that's a really good way of thinking about it, if you are contemplating is this the right time to evolve or not. 

Another thing that people mentioned a lot in our discussions about what helped them make that decision to make the change this time was that sense of stepping into a program that has a structure and a community behind it. People talked a lot about words like scaffolding, and I feel like any structured program, it does help you keep moving one foot in front of the other so that even on the difficult days, you have a really clear map to follow, where even if I can only do 10 minutes, there's 10 minute video or a 10 minute worksheet that you can do that is going to move you one step further towards your goal. I think that's something that I've really tried hard to do in Evolve and Thrive, to give you that forward motion, even on the tough days. Because I know that there will be, there's always tough days. I was really pleased to hear that people had found that really useful and that that was a big reason that people felt safe to make the leap now. But also the community, having that group, knowing that you've got people to talk about those ethical decisions that always come up with a new business model, that you've got people to test out your ideas with and then to collaborate, pool audiences and cheerlead each other through it; that seemed like something that was really valuable to the current evolving thrivers as well. So, I just wanted to highlight those positive things that people talked about.

Are you in a season of life where you are able to make the most of the opportunity to evolve your practice?

I also think it is important to ask yourself whether you are in a season of life right now, where you are going to be able to make the most of the opportunity that you have to evolve your practice.

One way of thinking about this is to think, if I invest this much money in a coaching program, do I believe that I'm going to commit enough time and effort to doing the work to make that investment back, either by the end of the program or setting yourself an arbitrary date that feels comfortable to you in the future? When people have calls with me, often, I'm trying to suss that out. Because there are times in life where realistically you are not able to put enough work in to get a return on the investment that you put into a program like Evolve and Thrive. And if that's where you are at, at this moment, like I had one person for a discovery call who had just given birth to twins, and my advice was, I would love you on this program, everything we've talked about today she had in spades; she had such a positive mission, she knew exactly why she wanted to evolve her practice, all the values were there, they were all aligning with what we do in Psychology Business School, she's going to be great, and I can't wait to support her. But I had to say, I don't think that this is the right time because actually investing in a program like this is for when you are ready to make the change because it is a big investment, I'm not shy of that, but I'm confident that it's an investment worth making because I know that you can quite quickly make that money back so long as you are in a position to put the work in, do the marketing, do the thinking, create an offer, and put it out there. So if you are ready to do that and you know that you are going to commit to it, then that's the right time to commit to a program like Evolve and Thrive. Or even if you are doing it with a different program, this advice applies to any kind of coaching program or mastermind that you might be thinking of, don't invest in a program or a coach thinking that it'll be the magic bullet that transports you where you want to go, because actually the, the program and the coach is there to support you while you do the creative work to get where you want to be. So you do need to be in a place where you are able to not only show up for the program, but do that thinking, be that creative person, and commit to it enough that you can get your return on your investment. And like I said, I'm really confident that if you go in with that mindset, knowing I'm going to make my money back, I'm going to put the work in and make sure I've made the money back by the end of this program, then you will do it, because it is all about have you really moved out of that contemplation stage? And if you have, if you've decided something has to change, something has to be different, I'm not living my values and I want to be, and say 2026 is the year that I'm going to do it, then you will do it. And we've got everything in Evolve and Thrive to help you get there. 

So if you have made that decision and you are ready for the change, then I would really love to support you in Evolve and Thrive. I've still got a few slots left for free discovery calls so that we can have a chat and see if Evolve and Thrive is the right fit for you. I'll put the link in the show notes so that you can book one of those last few slots to have a chat with...

Carving out an unknown specialism: Sports and Exercise Psychology with Paula Watson

Welcome to the Business of Psychology podcast. I'm really pleased to be welcoming my guest today, Dr Paula Watson, who is an applied sports and exercise psychologist specialising in health behavior change relating to eating, exercise, and weight. Paula spent 18 years in academia including working at Liverpool John Moores University as a reader in exercise and health psychology, before dedicating herself fully to her private practice, Made Up To Move. The concept of an exercise psychologist in private practice is one that might feel quite new, and I know that exercise psychologists qualifying now often feel unsure about how to introduce a less known about psychological service to the market. Paula's story is one that's all about forging a new path, embracing the unknown, and defining her own value when the public didn't even know that she existed. We're going to explore today how she built her practice when the public wasn't even aware of what exercise psychology was, and there's so much that we can all learn about really solid business and marketing skills from Paula's journey. 

Full show notes and a transcript of this episode are available at The Business of Psychology

Links:

Episode 41: How to set your fees in your psychology private practice with “pricing queen” Sally Farrant

Links for Paula:

Website: madeuptomove.co.uk

YouTube: www.youtube.com/@DrPaulaWatson

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/paula-watson-weight-loss-therapy

Links for Rosie:

Substack: substack.com/@drrosie

Rosie on Instagram:

@rosiegilderthorp

@thepregnancypsychologist

The highlights

• Paula tells us what drew her to sports and exercise psychology 01:34
• Paula talks about her academic career 06:59
• We discuss imposter syndrome 14:30
• Paula tells us about her decision to move from academia to the applied space 20:10
• I ask Paula about choosing private practice versus a job 24:35
• Paula tells us what a week in her practice looks like 36:14
• I ask Paula about her YouTube channel 45:20
• Paula speaks about the learning curves and mindset shifts required when setting up in private practice 51:06
• Paula tells us how we can connect with her 56:38

Evolve Your Practice: The map to more income, impact and flexibility

Are you craving more flexibility in your practice? 

Maybe you've built something amazing and you're proud of your business, but it's also bringing you to the brink of burnout. 

Maybe you want to use your skills differently and create recurring revenue outside the therapy room. 

Whether your priority is financial stability or flexibility, or both, adding recurring revenue streams into your business is essential.

If you want time, freedom, more income, and to make a bigger impact for your client group, join me for a free masterclass on Monday, the 17th of November at 11:00 AM and I'll show you how I use my values, voice and impact framework to create income, impact, and flexibility in my own business, and for the hundreds of psychologists and therapists I've supported over the last five years.

I'd love to see you there. You can sign up here: https://psychologybusinessschool.mykajabi.com/offers/fnr6d7si/checkout

The most critical feedback from our retreat and what we've learned about running events with Dr Claire Plumbly

Welcome to the Business of Psychology podcast. I'm really pleased to be here today with friend of the podcast, Dr Claire Plumley. Claire's been on the podcast a few times now, sometimes talking about her experience of working in burnout and writing an amazing book about it. Sometimes we've been talking about the cool and exciting stuff that Claire does in her practice, like EMDR intensives and working with people online. But today we are getting together to talk about our joint venture, a retreat that we ran for the first time last year and we're running again in 2026, because so many of you tell me that you've got a real craving for in-person connection. Getting people together in a room feels like something amazing that we can do to enhance wellbeing, but in-person events feel really different, especially when we've been working predominantly in the online space since 2020. Claire and I thought it might be helpful for us to let you in behind the scenes of what it was like running a retreat and the learnings that we've taken from a super successful one last year, and how are we going to make this year even better based on those.

Full show notes and a transcript of this episode are available at The Business of Psychology

Links:

2026 Psychologists Business Retreat

Get in touch here.

Links for Claire:

LinkedIn: Dr Claire Plumbly

Facebook: @drclaireplumbly

Instagram: @drclaireplumbly

TikTok: @drclaireplumbly

Website: www.plum-psychology.com

Links for Rosie:

Substack: substack.com/@drrosie

Rosie on Instagram:

@rosiegilderthorp

@thepregnancypsychologist

The highlights

• We talk about our reasons for wanting to run a retreat 01:26
• We discuss the different skills we brought together, and liaising with the right venue 06:56
• We look at how we got the right mix of people 13:08
• We discuss costing an event 16:35
• We talk about marketing something with this much logistical planning 19:55
• We look at what will be different for 2026 25:22
• Claire gives her advice to anyone thinking about planning their own event 35:10
• I tell you how to find out about the 2026 retreat 37:11

Evolve and Thrive Mastermind

 Have you been listening to this and feeling like the time has come for you to make a change in your practice? Maybe you are ready to grow with passive or semi passive income. Maybe you are ready to gain more time freedom, have that flexibility you always dreamed of, or expand your impact. If any of that sounds like you, you might be a really good fit for my Evolve and Thrive Mastermind.

Our next cohort is starting in January 2026, and it's a small group, six-month coaching experience. The early bird rate finishes mid-December, so if any of that sounds good to you, make sure you check out the details over at psychologybusinessschool.com and book your free call with me now to secure the best price.

Fulfilment through writing together on Substack with Clare Venus

Welcome to the Business of Psychology podcast. This week I'm joined by Clare Venus, who is a wonderful creator over on Substack, and who also teaches other people how to Substack well. I'm really excited to bring you this chat, because in it we talk about why you might want to choose Substack, and why it might be a good home for psychologists and therapists who are looking to bring a bit more nuance than social media platforms generally allow. We also dive into Clare's personal journey with Substack, what attracted her to it, and how it allows her to use her creativity in a way that she might have been struggling to do in other places, which I think a lot of us can relate to. Finally, we also talk about the business side, and how Substack can fit into the business and the practice that you’re running, which I think is a really important consideration when we're thinking about embarking on any new social media platform or marketing strategy.

Full show notes and a transcript of this episode are available at The Business of Psychology

Substack Links for Clare:

@clairevenus

Creatively Conscious

Sparkle on Substack

Subscribe to Sparkle on Substack - Listener 30% Discount Link

Links for Rosie:

Substack: substack.com/@drrosie

Rosie on Instagram:

@rosiegilderthorp

@thepregnancypsychologist

The highlights

• Clare tells us a little bit about how she ended up on Substack and why she chose it 01:50
• I ask Clare about the ways that she’s seen psychologists and therapists using the platform 09:12
• Clare ​​walks us through the various bits of Substack and also how their like payment system works 16:07
• We talk about the different opportunities Substack provides us with 23:31
• We discuss membership models and structures 30:17
• I summarise the models you can have on Substack 33:50 
• Clare talks about SEO with Substack and other tips for setting up 36:03
• I ask Clare what is the first best step to take for a psychologist or therapist who thinks Substack could be a good place for them 39:24
• Claire give us her Substack links 42:14

Evolve Your Practice: The map to more income, impact and flexibility

Are you craving more flexibility in your practice? 

Maybe you've built something amazing and you're proud of your business, but it's also bringing you to the brink of burnout. 

Maybe you want to use your skills differently and create recurring revenue outside the therapy room. 

Whether your priority is financial stability or flexibility, or both, adding recurring revenue streams into your business is essential.

If you want time, freedom, more income, and to make a bigger impact for your client group, join me for a free masterclass on Monday, the 17th of November at 11:00 AM and I'll show you how I use my values, voice and impact framework to create income, impact, and flexibility in my own business, and for the hundreds of psychologists and therapists I've supported over the last five years.

I'd love to see you there. You can sign up here: https://psychologybusinessschool.mykajabi.com/offers/fnr6d7si/checkout

The most valuable lesson from Evolve and Thrive: The real reason psychologists and therapists burnout and procrastinate

Hello and welcome to another episode of The Business of Psychology podcast. Today you've just got me, it's a solo show and it's going to be a short and sweet one.

Full show notes for this episode are available at The Business of Psychology

Links for Rosie:

Substack: substack.com/@drrosie

Rosie on Instagram:

@rosiegilderthorp

@thepregnancypsychologist

Evolve Your Practice: The map to more income, impact and flexibility

Are you craving more flexibility in your practice? 

Maybe you've built something amazing and you're proud of your business, but it's also bringing you to the brink of burnout. 

Maybe you want to use your skills differently and create recurring revenue outside the therapy room. 

Whether your priority is financial stability or flexibility, or both, adding recurring revenue streams into your business is essential.

If you want time, freedom, more income, and to make a bigger impact for your client group, join me for a free masterclass on Monday, the 17th of November at 11:00 AM and I'll show you how I use my values, voice and impact framework to create income, impact, and flexibility in my own business, and for the hundreds of psychologists and therapists I've supported over the last five years.

I'd love to see you there. You can sign up here: https://psychologybusinessschool.mykajabi.com/offers/fnr6d7si/checkout 

Shownotes

The most valuable lesson from Evolve and Thrive: The real reason psychologists and therapists burnout and procrastinate

I wanted to talk about something which has been really troubling me for the past few months, maybe even longer. It's the most valuable lesson that I've learned from my group coaching program, Evolve and Thrive, which is a coaching program designed for people ready to take the next step in their practice. Maybe they've already built something successful and they're ready to move beyond the therapy room or start bringing in different income sources. These are all people that I respect hugely. There is not a single person in Evolve and Thrive that I'm not slightly intimidated by because of their amazing careers and the expertise that they're bringing for their clients. But there has been something really striking that is holding most of the people in Evolve and Thrive back, and what we've spent most of our time on together as a group. I wanted to bring it into the light because I've noticed that almost everybody thinks that they're alone with this, and if you're struggling, you are absolutely not alone with this.

I want to start by saying that all the knowledge that we need to be successful in business is already out there. This was not the case when I started this podcast back in 2020, but it very much is the case now. You've got AI at your fingertips to search the web for you. You've got YouTube, podcasts, good old-fashioned books, any question you have, you can find the answer to all of them. And psychologists and therapists are always intelligent people who can find the things that they need if they're looking for them. Despite this, I keep hearing the same things over and over again, the things which are getting people stuck are burnout and a tendency to overwork even when they can feel that that burnout is close, and paralysis or procrastination, often both. I've been coaching other mental health professionals for over five years now, and I've realised that although it kicks in at different moments, for different people, there are two things that hold people back in growing their practices, there are two things that lead to that procrastination pattern and that continuous dance on the edge of burnout, and neither of those is being bad at tech.

Sometimes it's that their bodies and minds have acclimatised to a punishing and relentless workload, so a more relaxed working week, the thing they often tell me that they want more than anything, actually it doesn't feel safe, so they avoid it by breaking boundaries, saying yes when they know it should be a no, or never making the time to think about changing their practice.

Or maybe they've absorbed stories and identities that they'd have to give up if they created a more comfortable working life for themselves. That ‘suffering public servant’ narrative, the ‘selfless helping professional’, even the ‘on the brink of burnout professional’, they're all identities that we worked hard to wear and giving them up can feel like a rejection of the more positive aspects of those identities. You know, I remember thinking to myself, if I'm not burning out in the NHS, maybe I don't get to feel like the selfless helping professional anymore. Maybe that makes me a selfish helping professional and that doesn't feel comfortable and it's something I wrestled with a lot and continue to; you know, this is not something that you work through once and get to the other side of, and for many of us, that leads to paralysis that looks a lot like procrastination. Because you're torn in two different directions, so staying uncomfortably on the fence instead is safer than pulling yourself apart. 

For others, it leads to undercharging and often that very real financial fear. When you are riding that rollercoaster of never quite feeling secure financially in your practice, maybe on a good month, it's great, but then the next month is a bit slower and suddenly you are panicking again. That fear then leads to the breaking boundaries, saying yes to everything, ironically, avoiding and never looking at the numbers in the business, or you know, never allowing yourself the luxury of looking for new ways of doing things, or reviewing your financial plan. And so instead, you're maintaining this constant state of near burnout, which is kind of what you got used to. 

There are other stories too that stop people from building the lives that they want to live. Things like, ‘I'm too old’, or ‘I'm not the kind of person who…’, ‘I'm not confident enough’, ‘I'm not good enough with tech’, ‘I hate marketing’. All of these stories just shut down the things that we think are possible for ourselves. And what I love about coaching is that once these patterns and stories are brought to light, my clients are all really well equipped to tackle them and to support each other as they move through the discomfort of making those changes. It is such a pleasure to work with psychologists and therapists because as a group, we are just as susceptible as anyone else to blind spots and avoidance, but it is absolutely awesome to get to work with people who already have amazing skills and full up toolkits to make that change once they've recognised it and decided to make it.

Something I have noticed though, which again is maybe a bit unique to mental health professionals, is that the stories that stick with us, the trickiest ones to move past, are the ones that we've absorbed from our professional culture. The ones that lead to that dreaded peer fear that comes up in at least 80% of my coaching conversations. What are other people, other professionals, usually going to think if we try something new? Am I going to be labelled as money grabbing or a sellout? And the fact is, I can't reassure people that they're never going to face judgment from other psychologists and therapists. Instead, we have to get into our compassionate selves and think about what that judgment and our reaction to it does and does not mean. 

Together we think about whether the feelings we have about it might be useful because sometimes they are, they can encourage us to seek peer debate over some ethical concerns we have. And you know, I think that peer debate is the only way to resolve ethical concerns when we're working at the frontier and we're trying out new things where there's not an obvious precedent for us to follow. But we also think about what that judgment is most likely to mean in the context it was given. And often when we do that, we recognise that there are many factors well outside of our new product or our new service, or even ourselves, that might have led somebody to make those judgemental comments that they've made. It's so much easier to accept and move through the anxiety that inevitably comes up around judgment from our peers when we can look at it in its full context and think about its true meaning.

I hope that gives you some food for thought. If you feel like it's time to make a change in your business, but something keeps holding you back, maybe you've been blaming yourself for continuously burning out, or maybe you've had advice before and are beating yourself up all the time because you haven't felt able to take it. Maybe you've called yourself names like procrastinator, or got frustrated over your paralysis. I just want you to know that it's not unusual, it's not about your knowledge, it's not about your skills, it's not about who you are as a person. It's that you are working through something that is really difficult and that many of us have to work through, over and over and over again, and it's part of the vulnerability of being in business and you deserve support with that. And actually that recognition is why I don't sell standalone online courses anymore, because at the beginning everyone, including me, thought that knowledge was the problem. But I've learned from my work over the last five years of my one-to-one coaching clients that it so rarely was a knowledge gap. So now I offer group coaching with a learning portal attached, because once you've got the mindset sorted, you are in a great position to absorb and do creative things with the knowledge that's available to you. But you can't skip that coaching around the mindset piece. 

I'd really love to hear if any of this resonated with you, and if it did, you might want to come along to my free masterclass on November the 17th. The link will be in the show notes, and I'd really love to see you there.

Stop spending money on social media: The biggest mistake private practice owners are making in digital marketing

Hello and welcome to the Business of Psychology Podcast. This series is all about what we can do when we have that tugging feeling that our practice needs to change, but we're not quite sure what to do about it. 

Full show notes for this episode are available at The Business of Psychology

Links/references:

Episode 103: Why you should specialise – old gold that is still important

Episode 127: What matters to our clients in private practice?

Episode 128: Who are you helping? Three ways to specialise your psychology or therapy practice

Episode 129: How to make sure your marketing actually works: How to use authority for psychologists and therapists

Episode 152: Thinking differently about your practice: A tool to put the client first

Episode 158: How to find your ideal clients in 2025: SEO for psychologists and therapists with Chris Morin

Links for Rosie:

Substack: substack.com/@drrosie

Rosie on Instagram:

@rosiegilderthorp

@thepregnancypsychologist

Evolve Your Practice: The map to more income, impact and flexibility

Are you craving more flexibility in your practice? 

Maybe you've built something amazing and you're proud of your business, but it's also bringing you to the brink of burnout. 

Maybe you want to use your skills differently and create recurring revenue outside the therapy room. 

Whether your priority is financial stability or flexibility, or both, adding recurring revenue streams into your business is essential.

If you want time, freedom, more income, and to make a bigger impact for your client group, join me for a free masterclass on Monday, the 17th of November at 11:00 AM and I'll show you how I use my values, voice and impact framework to create income, impact, and flexibility in my own business, and for the hundreds of psychologists and therapists I've supported over the last five years.

I'd love to see you there. You can sign up here: https://psychologybusinessschool.mykajabi.com/offers/fnr6d7si/checkout 

Shownotes

Stop spending money on social media: The biggest mistake private practice owners are making in digital marketing 

Today we're focusing on social media, because one thing I have noticed about people that come into my Evolve and Thrive program is they've often already been spending money or time trying to build a social media audience because they think it's a prerequisite for adding additional income streams into their practice.

Firstly, it is not true that you always have to do social media to add new revenue streams. Even passive income doesn't always have to involve social media. But what we're focusing on today is the danger of spending loads of time or loads of money on social media before you've done the work on your marketing strategy, because I see so much waste when that happens. 

First, I'm going to talk a bit about the perils, and then I'm going to give you some practical strategy advice using my Values, Voice and Impact framework that I use with all my coaching clients so that you can invest in social media safely and effectively and actually make your investment back from it. 

The Mistakes

Let's get started by thinking about the mistakes, because honestly, my heart hurts when I meet a new client who has already outsourced their marketing or hired a new social media manager or one of those fancy, all-inclusive marketing agencies. And it's not because those are bad things to do, but they are usually bad if we do them too soon.

Social media is just a way of reaching people. It's a marketing channel, just in the same way that a poster on a lamppost is a marketing channel. Except in 2025, every lamppost you pass has a thousand posters, blue-tacked over the top of each other competing for your eyeballs. You wouldn't expect the fact you had a poster on a lamppost to do anything for your marketing, would you? You'd probably think that the content of that poster was quite important. You'd probably also consider the position of the poster; whether it was on a lamppost outside a busy coffee shop or in a country lane, whether you were at the top or three sheets deep at the bottom, you'd instinctively know that all of those things were really crucial.

Social media managers tend to have no idea how to tackle good quality content or positioning for mental health professionals, so they mostly post content that is so bland and uninspiring, you might as well be sticking up a blank sheet of paper in a country lane. I am afraid that you have to be fully in charge of the marketing strategy for your business. Strategy cannot be delegated. Graphic design can be delegated, copywriting can be delegated, but the strategy is all yours.  

I'm going to use my values, voice and impact framework that underpins the coaching in my group programs like Startup and Evolve and Thrive to show you what you need to have in place before you go hiring help.

Values

We start with the values. To put together a strategy, you first need to understand what you want from your business and what your clients needs from you. Here is where we do all the work on personal and professional values, picking a specialism, narrowing to a client group and really understanding what matters to that group. 

I've recorded episodes before on the tools that we can use here, like the customer persona and the value proposition that can help us get that really deep understanding of the priorities of our client group. And that work can only be done by you because it's psychological work, and actually the majority of people who work in marketing are used to marketing products, which don't involve anything like the emotional investment that we are asking our clients to make, even if we're selling them a book or an online course. And so we need to be using our skills as mental health professionals to really get under the skin and understand our clients in the way that most marketing professionals aren't used to doing. 

I do find peer discussions very helpful here though, so do use your colleagues, but more importantly, as I talk about in all the episodes around customer personas and value propositions, get out and talk to your actual client group and test ideas out with them. 

Voice 

The second stage is about voice, because what content you should post is also determined by your expertise. Everything you produce should be aiming to build your authority with your client group. You should be proud of the body of work that you put out there into the world on social media. It needs to carry your authentic voice, and most importantly, you need to be spreading the messages that your client group need to hear from you, specifically. 

If you've done your values work well, you'll have a good idea of the things that your ideal client group desperately want to hear about, and you'll know the language that they use too. Pick three to five of those things that align with your expertise and make those your content pillars - the things that you always talk about online. I always suggest writing out about five to ten stories that illustrate that you really understand those things, that you understand the struggles that your clients face related to those topics, and you can link them directly to the things that they want to hear you talking about. For example, if you think that they want advice from you about burnout, write out some compelling stories that show you really understand burnout; either stories from your personal life, anonymised client stories, it could be anything, but stories are so much more compelling than how-tos or advice lists. So making sure you've got some of those in your back pocket that you can repurpose over and over again for various posts on social media is really helpful.

Impact

The final stage is impact. In order to make your marketing strategy effective, you have to know the journey you want potential clients to take. What do they need to know about you to make a decision to take the next step, and buy your course, buy your book, become a client.

Some of the content you create will be designed to raise awareness of your existence. Some will be designed to encourage trust, show your authority, and some will be designed to directly sell your services. We need to fully understand the purpose of our content and what we want it to do for our clients and the business before we can even think about what social media platforms or posts make sense. 

At this stage, you also need to think about where your content will have the most impact. You use your understanding of the client group to decide: 

• where they're most likely to see and be receptive to your awareness content 
• where they'd like to get to know you better 
• and how it makes sense for them to book with you or buy your product. 

You can't let a marketing professional tell you those things because it's really likely that you are the person that knows that client group best, whereas a marketing professional is very likely to make assumptions, which are probably a bit too broad brush for the kind of client groups that we are dealing with. 

Finally, you need to know what good looks like. Know the metrics that tell you your marketing is working. If your business priority is referrals, then volume of referrals is the key metric. If your priority is book sales, that's the key metric. You might also measure one or two things that might show progress before the sales come in, like website traffic, but never get caught up in vanity metrics. Lots of followers, but no sales, still means a business that's going to go under. Really good engagement, but no sales still leads to a business that's going to go under. A lot of marketing professionals out there, especially those who've kind of set up freelance, maybe haven't been connected to the wider business goals of a bigger business, they're just not going to make that link. A lot of social media managers out there don't necessarily look beyond the social media content. It is your job to understand how the social media content ultimately leads to profit in your business and impact for your clients. They won't necessarily take an interest in that or really think beyond the things that they're creating in Canva or scheduling for you.

If you try and delegate marketing before you have all of this strategy mapped out, you are most likely going to lose money and you're going to get annoyed with your social media manager. And that's not fair on anybody. And I say this, having done it many times. I've delegated to social media managers, and it has not worked out lots of times, and it's taken me a long time to realise that that's because I was just giving them too much control over the strategy and expecting them to have skills that they just don't have. And that really isn't meant to sound judgemental or to diminish the expertise that they do have in any way, because their skillset is really defined and really good and I don't have it, and I need it. I do have a social media manager, and it makes my life much better, but they're not strategists. Most of them are not strategists, and even the ones that are, don't tend to be very well experienced in mental health services. So, for us, I could not emphasise more strongly, you need to let yourself be in the driving seat, do not allow someone else to take control of your marketing. You are the boss, you know what your clients need better than anybody. So, enjoy the process because you'll be really good at it if you let yourself use your skills to do it well.

I really hope that this has been a helpful and practical episode to help you save money when you do decide to outsource social media. Please let me know what you think over on Instagram. I'm @RosieGilderthorp and I'd really love to hear from you.

Evolve and Thrive: Starting before you're ready - the Supervisor Platform with Natalie Stott

Welcome to the Business of Psychology podcast. Today I'm joined by clinical psychologist in independent practice, and founder of a fancy new supervision platform, Dr Natalie Stott. I'm really excited to have her here today because we’re going to talk about the journey of putting something innovative out there into the world, especially something that is designed to support independent practitioners. I think this is really important because it's very often a mindset issue that stops people from getting started with something innovative, and I know Natalie is really well placed to talk to us about those mindset issues that crop up and how we can plow through them.

Full show notes and a transcript of this episode are available at The Business of Psychology

Links for Natalie:

Supervisor Platform: supervisorplatform.com

LinkedIn: Dr Natalie Stott

Mastering Therapy Podcast: masteringtherapy.com

Website: www.drnataliestott.com

Links for Rosie:

Substack: substack.com/@drrosie

Rosie on Instagram:

@rosiegilderthorp

@thepregnancypsychologist

The highlights

• Natalie tells us about herself and her practice 01:02
• I ask Natalie about the problem she saw that needed fixing, that let to creating Supervisor Platform 02:42
• We discuss the importance of supervision and community 06:33
• Natalie talks about the difficulties with advertising your services as a supervisor when you are in independent practice 11:36
• We discuss the importance of visibility and personal branding 20:08
• Natalie talks about how she pushed through the discomfort of being visible 29:25
• Natalie highlights the power of feedback 35:40
• Natalie tells us how to get in touch with her 39:17

Evolve Your Practice: The map to more income, impact and flexibility

Are you craving more flexibility in your practice? 

Maybe you've built something amazing and you're proud of your business, but it's also bringing you to the brink of burnout. 

Maybe you want to use your skills differently and create recurring revenue outside the therapy room. 

Whether your priority is financial stability or flexibility, or both, adding recurring revenue streams into your business is essential.

If you want time, freedom, more income, and to make a bigger impact for your client group, join me for a free masterclass on Monday, the 17th of November at 11:00 AM and I'll show you how I use my values, voice and impact framework to create income, impact, and flexibility in my own business, and for the hundreds of psychologists and therapists I've supported over the last five years.

I'd love to see you there. You can sign up here: https://psychologybusinessschool.mykajabi.com/offers/fnr6d7si/checkout

Is it time to Evolve? Welcome to the new series of Business of Psychology!

 It's Autumn, so it must be time for a new series of the Business of Psychology.

I'm really pleased to be back behind the mic, and this time I'm going to be sharing my thoughts on the changes that are happening in mental health and the inspiring stories of psychologists and therapists finding fulfilment in new and exciting ways.

We start the series talking about software development with the amazing Natalie Stott, who you might know from her podcast, Mastering Therapy. Over the series, we'll be looking at writing, social media, and unpacking the stuff that often keeps us stuck, in independent practice.

I really hope that this series will be the springboard you need if you've been wanting to evolve your practice into something new that meets your needs and lets you live your personal and professional values, maybe in a slightly different way.

So I'll see you right here in your podcast feed next Friday for the new series of the Business of Psychology podcast.

Links for Rosie:

Substack: substack.com/@drrosie

Rosie on Instagram:

@rosiegilderthorp

@thepregnancypsychologist

Set Up For Success 6: The bad news that broke my practice

“I’ve got some bad news…”

Every military spouse knows that at a certain time of year your partner returning from work and uttering this phrase can only mean one thing… You’ve been posted to hell.

This time I was at the end of 38 weeks of solo parenting a toddler through a rough pregnancy thanks to a “surprise” deployment and had just been told we were moving 300 miles “as soon as” I gave birth. 

I don’t think I took it well.

In that moment, the fledgling practice I had built was surely about to crumble around my ears and my children would surely grow up miserable 300 miles away from everyone who cared about them.

My despair only got deeper. When my boy was orn he became ill and teh time which would have been spent packing was spent in hospital, watching his tiny body fight. 

Thankfully, he recovered, the move happened, and, after a few very hard months, it turned out I was wrong. Plymouth turned out to be one of my favourite cities, the children found people to love them locally (I mean, they were adorable) and my business flourished as I embraced technology and threw myself into the local business scene. I learned SO much about how to make a business work because of that “adversity” that subsequent moves felt more exciting than threatening.  

Now I use that knowledge to help others create practices that bring them the income, stability and fulfilment they need without the added drama of military life! 

I've now set up my practice in 4 different locations so, if you are setting up for the first time or perhaps hoping to jump “all in” to your practice, I wanted to share with you the 7 things I’ve learned that I think might help.

1. Relationships are everything, and business and professional networking are essential (listen to this podcast episode: How to network as a mental health professional)
2.  A specialism creates resilience, fulfilment and marketing super-power (listen to this podcast episode: Why you should specialise - old gold that is still important).
3. Your fees need to sustain your business for the long term (listen to this podcast episode: How to set your fees in your psychology private practice with “pricing queen” Sally Farrant)
4. Invest in the things your clients will value the most (EMDR training is a definite yes from me) 
5. SEO is worth spending time and money on (listen to this podcast episode: How to find your ideal clients in 2025: SEO for psychologists and therapists with Chris Morin)
6. Business is a skill you need to keep learning (don’t be hard on yourself, just get the coach or take the course) 
7. Co-create with your clients; they know what they want and value (listen to this podcast episode: Thinking differently about your practice: A tool to put the client first)

This is a short one from me today but I hope you will find what you need in the links above if you are facing down the overwhelm at setting or scaling up your independent work. I also hope I will get to see you face to face (online) at the masterclass I am running. Details below!

Ready to turn your private practice dream into a reality?

Join my free masterclass, "Set Up Your Practice for Success”," on September 8th. I'll share my 3-part framework to help you create a practice that is professionally fulfilling and financially secure, giving you the flexibility you crave without the burnout.

https://psychologybusinessschool.mykajabi.com/offers/avzEAAiw/checkout

Links for Rosie:

Substack: substack.com/@drrosie

Rosie on Instagram:

@rosiegilderthorp

@thepregnancypsychologist

Set Up For Success 5: Your website doesn’t work because it was written for your peers not your clients

Most of our websites receive very little “traffic” and many of our directory site profiles get scrolled past evey. single. time.

We all know there are weird algorithms and AI at play in the online game BUT the truth is some people manage to get people onto their website or directory site profile and booking sessions with them and others don’t.

The difference is the words.

I got sent to the headteacher at 7 years old for filling up an entire exercise book with illegible short stories on the first day of term. If I could have stopped crying to speak I would have told them that putting words onto a page makes my head quiet. Writing feels like a conversation with myself where I can figure out what I really think without the continuous interruptions of a demanding world. These days I would call it flow.

As a child I thought everyone felt that way, that everyone needed the page to structure and understand their own thinking. Of course, life has shown me that for many, my children included, the page actually veils their thoughts, forcing them to squint and sweat as they try to articulate what is perfectly formed in their minds.

Ten years ago my skills as a writer set me apart and allowed me to achieve success in marketing my practice very quickly. Thanks to AI, and I do mean that, the modern world allows you to use the skills you have as a psychologist or therapist to create website “copy” or a directory profile that speaks perfectly to your ideal client group even if writing is painful for you.

Here are the principles you need to stand out in the online crowd: 

1. Write Like You're Talking to a Client: This is the most important one. Don’t write for your peers! Imagine a real person who has come to you, asking, "How can you help me with X, Y, or Z?" Use natural language. If you struggle with this, try recording yourself explaining what you do to a potential client and then transcribe it. We therapists are great at connecting in person; sometimes it's just hard to get that onto paper so let technology be your friend. Record into chat gpt or gemini and ask the AI to tidy up yoru words.
2. Specialise, Specialise, Specialise! You cannot speak to everyone in your profile. If you try, you’ll blend into the background and sound generic. Pick one particular client group – your favourite, or the people you've worked with most successfully in the past – and speak directly to them. This is a huge focus in my Start Up Your Practice programme because it's vital for attracting your ideal clients.
3. Keep Your "Approach" Simple: Say a few confident lines about your experience and literally how you will help them. But please, for the love of all that is good, avoid jargon! Phrases like "safe space" or deep dives into your unique theoretical orientation often sound like gibberish to someone new to therapy. Stick to: "I have 25 years of experience in the NHS helping people with X, Y, and Z. I offer talking therapies like CBT and trauma-focused therapies like EMDR." That’s enough. Really.
4. Don't List Every Training Course Ever: Your core qualification is key, plus one or two other significant accreditations (like EMDR accreditation) that truly define your practice. A two-day CPD course, while valuable for you, probably doesn't need to be front and centre here.
5. Make Booking Super Easy & Explicit: Tell people exactly how to book. "Email me to book a consultation." "Phone me on X." Or, if you're using an online booking system (which I highly recommend, like Calendly, Acuity, or your PMS's system), tell them "Click this link to book your session directly." The less friction, the better!
6. Be Crystal Clear About Your Fees: This is a big one. People get incredibly anxious about fees, and rightly so. Don't make them inquire to find out, and avoid vague "sliding scale" statements. Put yourself in their shoes,  they want to know if they can afford you. It’s horrible for everyone if they get to the end of a conversation only to find they can't. Be explicit about your fee.

Use whatever tools you can find to make your life easier.

I think it is a great thing that more talented mental health professionals are able to reach the right clients thanks to modern technology. If it is new to you please don’t be afraid to use AI to help you write. My top tip is to give prompts in several steps.

A prompt for AI could look like this:

Step one: Analyse Dr Rosie’s advice on how to write a good directory site profile from this article (give link to this piece)

Step two: Analyse my CV (attach your CV or current summary of your credentials)

Step three: My ideal clients are (give a full description of your ideal client or link to your ideal client persona document if you are a coaching client of mine!). Please draft a compelling directory site profile/about page that will encourage them to choose me as their therapist following Dr Rosie’s principles.

This will not be the finished product but it can do the heavy lifting of the written word so you can focus on injecting your personality, passion and the language your ideal clients need to hear into it.

I’d love to know if this advice helps you connect more easily with your ideal clients. Let me know in the comments if you use the prompt!

Ready to turn your private practice dream into a reality?

Join my free masterclass, "Set Up Your Practice for Success”, on September 8th. I'll share my 3-part framework to help you create a practice that is professionally fulfilling and financially secure, giving you the flexibility you crave without the burnout.

https://psychologybusinessschool.mykajabi.com/offers/avzEAAiw/checkout

Links for Rosie:

Substack: substack.com/@drrosie

Rosie on Instagram:

@rosiegilderthorp

@thepregnancypsychologist