DeeAnna Merz Nagel

By “job”, I refer to anything you do to produce income. If you work in state or federally funded agency you have probably seen massive budget cuts. I assume that goes for university, college and school settings. Oh, and non-profits? I guess they may have had some budget cuts too. I would imagine even faith-based organizations are feeling the pinch. I saw a “For Sale” sign in front of a church in my local community recently.

If you are in private practice, how is managed care working for you? Are you embracing insurance panels or trying to get off panels? And what about EAP work? I am hearing a lot about “multiple streams of revenue.” Diversifying one’s practice with counseling and consulting services is becoming common. Even adding a product line such as CDs, e-books and free downloads is popular. Everyone is trying to figure out how to stay ahead of the curve while preserving the integrity of our work.

I know I am struggling with gaining new clients in my face-to-face practice. My online counseling work is picking up, and my face-to-face clients like being able to have virtual sessions when coming to the office is not convenient but all in all my client caseload is down. I am okay with the slow pace because I have other work through consulting and training that feeds me. I am just wondering what your experience is? And what plans you are developing to survive this storm?

And do I dare? Should I mention the apparent merging of coaching and counseling? More and more counselors are now offering coaching. We don’t want to talk about it. But it is happening. Coaching is an unregulated field and that seems to be a primary concern. But might there be something about the coaching model that we counselors should be embracing? Coaches seem to be on the rise and it appears they are actually making a living. Are any of you out there straddling both sides of the fence? A counselor recently told me that her coach training offered much more for her in terms of deliverables to her clients than her many years of counseling education ever did. Do we shrug it off or pay attention to the trend? Perhaps we could examine the trend more closely and find ways for the two fields to work complimentarily. Why? Because our clients are asking for it…

DeeAnna Merz-Nagel is a clinical counselor, teacher, workshop presenter, sat on the ACA Cyber Technology Taskforce, and is co-founder of the Online Therapy Institute

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