By participating in a clinical consultation group, you are investing in your own professional growth and development. Getting regular, ongoing clinical support can make a big difference in your job satisfaction and career longevity. There are many advantages of participating in clinical consultation groups, as I detail below.

Peer Support and Camaraderie:

If you are a solo private practitioner, you may be missing a team atmosphere. Or perhaps you moved into private practice after agency work or community mental health, and you are seeking others to connect with who understand you.

You may not have known that you would miss having instant availability to a peer or supervisor who you can discuss cases with. Knowing that you have a group of peers to come to when you need consultation on your cases or to discuss ethical dilemmas is good peace of mind. The peer support that others who you know and trust give you is more effective than looking up an answer online.

Enhanced Clinical Skills and Expertise:

Every single clinical consultation group I’ve been to, I’ve learned more about different clinical interventions or modalities. I’ve never attended a group where I did not learn. And learning leads to expertise. You may not become an overnight expert on a new theoretical orientation, but you may learn enough to implement a new technique with a client that you feel stuck on!

Ethical and Legal Guidance:

If you work alone, you may not have a trusted source to go to when you encounter potential ethical or legal issues. For example, if you are unsure how, or even if, you should complete paperwork requested by your client, you want to get a thorough answer. And once you’re part of a clinical consultation group, you automatically have all the other group members and/or the group supervisor to ask these tough questions to.

Stress Reduction and Self-Care:

Counseling is a stressful field. You are listening to your clients stories, day in and day out, for weeks and then months at a time. Even year after year, the stress of vicarious trauma can get to you. Belonging to a clinical consultation group is an hour out of your day of hearing others, and is a time to focus on just you.

You all know how important self-care is. I believe that self-care as a generalized category is the most important thing you can do to prevent burnout and deal with compassion fatigue. And everyone has different self-care. Why not add in group support from your peers into your self-care routine?

Networking Opportunities:

As a solo private practice therapist, you may have a need to refer to other professionals outside of your scope of expertise at times. Perhaps you specialize in treating grief and loss, but you have a client asking for a recommendation for couples therapy. The other therapists in your clinical consultation are a natural referral source because you already know and trust them.

Networking is really essential if you want to grow your practice and get the types of client referrals that you want. And networking is not a once-and-done thing. Networking that works is really about developing relationships with potential referral sources, and this is natural to do within your clinical consultation group.