One of the big differences I noticed from working in agencies to working in private practice, is the change in opportunities to get peer consultation. As a therapist who started my career in community mental health, I miss the wide range of options I had when working around others to get input, feedback, and even advice.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I love my job as a private practice therapist and owner. The schedule flexibility, the ability to choose my own clients, and the benefits of working with clients who actually want to be in therapy are just some reasons why I’m drawn to private practice work. But, private practice can also be isolating, and feel lonely. Especially if you came from a place where you’re working with teams of practitioners, going out to work on your own is quite different.

In agency work, almost every day I had the opportunity to talk with another team member, a prescriber, a colleague or peer, or a supervisor about client-specific challenges. There was never a lack of resources to assist you with your case conceptualization. We even had a separate crisis team that specialized in working with clients who were “in crisis” or had high-risk issues.

And now, in private practice, I’m lucky to get the opportunity to chat with a client’s prescriber once a year. Granted, I am dealing with much less complex and challenging cases, systems-wise. But I still miss the team atmosphere and the camaraderie of working within a team.

Knowing that myself, and you too, aren’t likely to leave private practice to go back into agency work, how can you duplicate the case consultation and clinical support from agency work into private practice? While I don’t think we can ever fully replace the wide range of professionals who are all together in one agency, there are some things you can do to get the clinical support you need while in private practice.