You have spent years learning how to work with clients. But how much have you learned about running a practice?
Join us for an interactive workshop that looks beyond the consulting room and explores the professional, psychological and business realities of private practice.
You have invested in becoming a psychotherapist. Have you invested in learning how to run your practice?
Becoming a psychotherapist and establishing a successful private practice are two different challenges.
Professional training prepares us to work with clients, understand psychological difficulties and develop clinical competence. However, establishing and managing a private practice requires another set of skills, knowledge and decisions that may receive considerably less attention during professional training.
Where do I start? How much should I charge? How do I get referrals? What are my legal and professional responsibilities? And how do I manage the financial and psychological challenges of working independently?
These questions are relevant not only to practitioners considering private practice for the first time, but also to experienced professionals who wish to review and improve how their practice operates.
A qualification does not automatically bring referrals. Professional commitment does not guarantee financial sustainability. And being a good psychotherapist does not necessarily mean knowing how to run a business.
How to Set Up and Improve Your Practice is an interactive workshop that explores what it really means to establish, develop and manage a psychotherapy or counselling practice in Ireland.
NINE QUESTIONS WORTH ASKING ABOUT YOUR PRACTICE
Do you actually know what kind of practice you want to build? Or are you simply following the path you think a psychotherapist should take?
Explore your professional ambitions, expectations and the decisions that shape independent practice.
Is your practice developing according to a plan, or are you making decisions as circumstances arise?
Consider how to establish realistic objectives and make purposeful decisions about your professional future.
Who decided what your work is worth?
Are your fees based on a sustainable financial model, what other practitioners charge, or how comfortable you feel asking clients for money?
Is being a good psychotherapist enough to bring clients through your door?
Examine how professional visibility, referral networks and effective communication contribute to developing a practice.
Accredited by whom — and what legal authority does that accreditation actually carry?
Explore professional bodies, recognition, accreditation and the distinction between professional membership and legal regulation in Ireland.
Are you clear about your professional responsibilities, or are you assuming that someone else has already explained everything you need to know?
Consider the ethical, legal and insurance issues associated with working independently.
Why might a qualified professional feel guilty charging an appropriate fee? Why can saying no feel more difficult than saying yes?
And when does an apparently attractive professional opportunity become exploitation?
Explore fear, insecurity, professional identity, boundaries and the psychological challenges of working independently.
Can you think like a business owner without compromising your identity as a psychotherapist?
Examine the difference between avoiding expenditure and making informed investments, and how professional values and sound business decisions can coexist.
What happens when things do not go according to plan?
Consider how to anticipate difficulties, recognise risks and protect your clients, yourself and your professional practice.
WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
This workshop is for you if you are:
You do not need to be starting from zero to benefit from questioning how you operate.
WHAT MAKES THIS WORKSHOP DIFFERENT?
Most psychotherapists are trained to think carefully about the needs of their clients.
But how often do we examine the assumptions, anxieties and expectations influencing the way we manage our own professional lives?
Why do we sometimes undervalue our work?
Why might we hesitate to discuss fees?
Why can promoting our services feel uncomfortable?
And why are business decisions sometimes treated as though they conflict with our professional identity?
These are not merely financial or administrative questions. They are also psychological questions, closely connected to professional identity, confidence, boundaries and our relationship with money.
This workshop approaches private practice from both perspectives: the psychotherapist as a clinician and the psychotherapist as an independent professional responsible for running a practice.
We will examine real professional dilemmas, challenge familiar assumptions and consider practical approaches to building and maintaining a sustainable practice.
ABOUT THE PRESENTERS
Andrei Tcaciuc
Psychotherapist | Founder of Mental Health Care
Andrei Tcaciuc is a psychotherapist with over 20 years of professional experience in the psychotherapy and healthcare sectors.
He is currently undertaking doctoral studies in Psychotherapy at Dublin City University (DCU). He holds an MSc in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy from University College Dublin (UCD), an MSc in Bereavement Studies from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) and the Irish Hospice Foundation, a BA (Hons) in Psychology, and a postgraduate qualification in Specific Modality Training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy from UCD and St Vincent’s University Hospital.
Andrei is a member of the Irish Council for Psychotherapy (ICP) and the Association for Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy in Ireland (APPI).
His professional experience includes working with adolescents, adults and couples, alongside delivering mental health education and professional training. He is the founder of Mental Health Care, an initiative dedicated to making professional psychological knowledge, psychotherapy and mental health education more accessible.
Drawing on his clinical, educational and professional experience, Andrei brings a critical and practical perspective to the challenges of establishing, developing and managing an independent psychotherapy practice. His approach encourages professional independence, informed business decisions and the recognition that clinical integrity and financial sustainability are not mutually exclusive.
Kamila Jelinkova
Psychotherapist | Mental Health Care
Kamila Jelinkova is a psychotherapist with over 15 years of experience across psychotherapy and healthcare. She holds an MA in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, a BA (Hons) in Psychology, and has completed post-master’s Specific Modality Training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. She has also gained qualifications in solution-focused therapy, couples counselling, and educational and neurodevelopmental psychometric testing.
Kamila is a member of the Irish Council for Psychotherapy (ICP), the Association for Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy in Ireland (APPI), and the Psychological Society of Ireland (PSI). She is also a member of the British Psychological Society’s (BPS) Register of Qualifications in Test Use (RQTU).
Her professional experience spans private practice, community mental health services, addiction rehabilitation, and perinatal mental health. She works with children, adolescents, adults, and couples.