Craft Your Practice Method

Platforms versus independent credentialing, and the question underneath the economics. Lisa is on Headway and has a referral link, and Headway is the only one of these platforms she has ever used, which she says plainly at the top. This episode is not a three way comparison and does not pretend to be one. It is about what it does to a person to have her clinical hour priced by a company she will never meet, why every therapist who takes insurance is already in that position, and the two kinds of shame that drive this decision more than the numbers do. The shame of using a platform, the shame of refusing one on principle while the practice starves, and why both are the same error. Includes an honest argument against the platform that pays her, the thing about leaving that almost nobody mentions, and the recommendation: use a platform and credential yourself in parallel.
The economics, the fee models, the ownership facts and the rate cut story are all in the paired YouTube episode.
Resources:The free Credentialing Timeline, stage by stage, with the realistic waits at each step: craftyourpractice.com/startHeadway: craftyourpractice.com/headway
Pairs with YouTube Episode 28, Headway, Alma, or Independent, The Honest Economics.
Disclosure: the Headway link above is a referral link. If you sign up through it, I may receive a referral payment at no additional cost to you. My recommendations are determined by independent judgment, financial relationships are disclosed openly, and compensation never determines the recommendation. I only recommend products and services that I use personally, have carefully evaluated, or believe genuinely serve therapists well.

The most useful thing you can do before choosing an insurance panel is ask three therapists in your area what their payers actually pay them. Almost nobody does it, and this episode is about why.
Therapists do not talk to each other about money. The silence is cultural rather than chosen, nobody ever wrote it down, and every one of us learned it anyway. It is also worth an enormous amount to exactly one party in the relationship, and it is not us.
In this episode: where the taboo came from, why a contracted rate is not the same thing as a salary, what the silence costs the whole profession, and the exact words to open the conversation with a colleague without it being awkward. You are getting scripts, not a philosophy.
Free resource: the Credentialing Timeline, stage by stage, with the realistic waits at each step. craftyourpractice.com/start
Pairs with the YouTube episode Which Insurance Panels Should You Join First: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-E41Kdyhdc
New episodes on the first and third Wednesday of the month. Follow the show so the next one comes to you.

Episode 16: The Paperwork That Costs You Four Months - The particular fury of discovering that four months of waiting were caused by a document you could have fixed in twenty minutes. This episode is about the emotional experience of administrative failure: why the rage is accurate but the story underneath it is not, why capable clinicians freeze in front of bureaucratic systems that have none of the feedback clinical work gives them, what vigilance costs when it fails (including thousands of dollars of my own, lost to a CPT code error I caught after the appeal deadline), and how to build a relationship with paperwork that runs on rhythm instead of shame.
Resources:The free Credentialing Timeline: the five stages, honest day counts, and the checklist to run before you submit → craftyourpractice.com/start
YouTube Ep 26, Your CAQH Profile Is Why You Are Stalled

Credentialing takes 90 to 180 days per payer, and the hardest part is not the paperwork. It is the months of silence in the middle, where there is no information, no feedback, and no way to tell a slow system from a stalled one.
This episode is the psychological companion to the credentialing timeline. Why silence gets read as judgment. Why the wait lands so hard on clinicians trained by years of evaluation. Why so many good therapists quietly decide during the wait that they are not cut out for this. And how to spend three to six months you cannot shorten so that they actually produce something.
Nobody in that building has an opinion about you. They are running your file against a checklist.
RESOURCES
The free Credentialing Timeline, the five stages, honest day counts, and the checklist to run before you submit:craftyourpractice.com/start
The operational half of this episode, on YouTube:How to Get Credentialed as a Therapist: The Complete Timelinehttps://youtu.be/i4cFCeqaEQc
Lisa Reidsema, LMHC · Craft Your PracticeMore than fourteen years in private practice, paneled independently and through platforms.

There is a real shift in private practice that catches people off guard: the move from building your practice to running it. Somewhere around the end of year one or the start of year two, the practice starts to run itself. The energy changes, and new questions come up.
In this episode I walk through what actually changes when a practice moves into the running phase:
- How to recognize the signs that you've made the transition- The decisions this phase brings up: when to raise your fee, when to drop an insurance panel, when to hire help- Why systems become non-negotiable in year two, and why your own energy will not be enough on its own- The deeper questions about what kind of practice you actually want to build
If you're in the disorienting middle of this shift, this episode will help you name what you're feeling and move and through it with intention. If you're still in the building phase, take it as a preview of what's coming and a nudge to think long-term. For clinicians who want to lay the right foundation from day one, craftyourpractice.com/start has free resources and an invitation to the Private Practice Foundations program.
An honest look at the mid-stage transition most clinicians go through alone, with a clearer roadmap for the part that comes next.

The hardest place in private practice is the one where you have done everything you were told to do and the calendar still has too much white space in it. This episode gives a real diagnostic on the four most common reasons a practice stalls: fee misalignment, niche problems, low visibility, and a leaking intake process. The goal is to help you figure out which one is actually happening in your case and what to do about it.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Private Practice Foundations, Your First 90 Days in Private Practice → craftyourpractice.com/launchHeadway, Get credentialed and start seeing insurance clients → craftyourpractice.com/headwayUpheal, AI-native EHR built for private practice → craftyourpractice.com/uphealSimplePractice, EHR with scheduling, intake, and client portal → craftyourpractice.com/simplepracticeCraft Your Practice: A Guide to Building a Personalized Private Practice, Lisa Reidsema → craftyourpractice.com/books
Some links in these show notes are affiliate links. A commission may be earned if you sign up through these links, at no extra cost to you. Only tools that have been personally evaluated are recommended here.

Most therapists do not hate marketing. They hate a particular version of it, the performance-based version that asks them to violate the way they were trained to show up as clinicians. This episode pulls apart what marketing actually is, what findable looks like for a therapist, and the quieter versions of visibility that work over time without requiring you to become someone you are not.Resources:Private Practice Foundations, Your First 90 Days in Private Practice → craftyourpractice.com/launchHeadway, Get credentialed and start seeing insurance clients → craftyourpractice.com/headwayPsychology Today Therapist Directory → psychologytoday.comCraft Your Practice: A Guide to Building a Personalized Private Practice, Lisa Reidsema → craftyourpractice.com/booksSome links in these show notes are affiliate links. A commission may be earned if you sign up through these links, at no extra cost to you. Only tools that have been personally evaluated are recommended here.
YouTube Ep 15, Marketing When You Hate Marketing: https://youtu.be/sMiNvLPpLig?si=ebdY7OmsUSsONhL9

Referrals do not come from algorithms. They come from relationships built over time with people who trust your work and think of you when someone in their world needs what you do. In this episode, Lisa Reidsema breaks down how referral networks actually work, who belongs in yours beyond other therapists, and why your reputation is the most durable marketing tool a private practice clinician has.
Topics covered: primary care physicians, school counselors, attorneys, and the less obvious referral sources most therapists overlook. Why niche specificity drives referrals. Why community is not optional for long-term practice health. And why the long game is slower than most people want to hear but also more reliable.
This episode pairs with YouTube Episode 14: The Long Game: Building a Referral Network That Compounds Over Time.
Resources: Private Practice Foundations: craftyourpractice.com/launch

Nobody explained billing to you in grad school. This episode covers how insurance reimbursement actually works in private practice, contracted rates, credentialing timelines, superbills, denial management, and what nobody prepares you for when you're running it yourself. Plus, the questions to ask before you decide which billing model fits your practice.
Resources:
Private Practice Foundations, Your First 90 Days in Private Practice → craftyourpractice.com/launch
Credentialing Accelerator → craftyourpractice.com/accelerator
Craft Your Practice: Credentialing, Insurance, and Getting Paid, Lisa Reidsema → craftyourpractice.com/books
 

The consultation call, intake process, first session, and ongoing structure aren’t just administrative steps; they shape the entire experience of therapy.
In this episode, we walk through the client journey from first contact through the early stages of care and what it actually looks like to build a practice that runs predictably and consistently. This phase is where clinical work and practice structure meet and where a lot of newer therapists get lost.