265: Transitioning From Conventional Business Model in Private Practice in 2021 And Beyond with Brant Thomsen, LICSW

Many of us are wondering what our careers are going to look like in 2021 and beyond. We know the therapy model of 2019 as we knew it is not coming back. How do we pivot and move forward? We are answering this question in today’s show. Our Featured GuestBrant ThomsenBrant Thomsen is a therapist in private practice in the twin cities area of MN. He has an interesting life and career because he became a social worker after training at a music school in high-level piano performance. He is now making the move into less therapy and more coaching. Through interesting and unexpected circumstances, Brant was forced to make a quick transition to telehealth during the early days of the 2020 pandemic. He’s here to share what he considered and what he encountered, along with three lessons learned during the transition.Connect with Brant: Online Practice Builder  You’ll Learn:●     How 2020 played out for Brant when he was abruptly quarantined because of a client’s positive exposure●     How Brant transitioned smoothly to telehealth in 48 hours’ time●     What it was like to quarantine in his room for two weeks, and why Brant calls it a focused, peaceful, almost monastic experience that brought increased connection with clients and colleagues●     How Brant’s diverse range of careers helped prepare him mentally for his transition●     How Brant navigated the struggle to be authentic in his online presence and realize what he can give to others●     Three life lessons learned in Brant’s transition to online therapy:●   “I realized how much passion, focus, and readiness I have in supporting other therapists in a coaching role.”●   “I realized the importance of staying connected to the natural environment around me.”●    “I realized the lack of permanence in our lives and that what we give each other is temporary.”●     How Brant is handling the day-to-day stress of the pandemicPODCAST SPONSORHushmail: Hushmail is a secure, HIPAA-compliant way to communicate with clients via email and to fill out clinical forms like intake packets securely. Please visit sellingthecouch.com/hushmail and let them know that Mel sent you =). Transcript:Melvin:Hello, welcome tosession 265 of Selling the Couch, I hope that you are having a wonderful dayI'm actually recording this at the very tail end of December; December 30. Iknow how difficult Well, I don't know, the individual stories, but on the collectivewhole, I know how hard of a year 2020 has been for so many of us. And I knowthat many of us are ready to make this transition into 2021. So I hope thatwhen this session airs that you are doing well, that you are making thistransition and we have more clarity with regard to vaccines and all of thosedifferent things.Today’s conversationis with Brant Thomsen from onlinepracticebuilder.com. Brant is actually atherapist in private practice in the Twin Cities in Minnesota. And Brant has apretty interesting life career. So he's a social worker, but his original majorin college was high level like piano performance, and so he actually went to amusic school and was going to become a professional musician and then decidedto make this transition into social work and has done some pretty amazing stuffthroughout his career.But I wanted tohave Brant on the podcast, we've been friends for a number of years and Brantdecided as for many of us who have made this transition this past year to Telehealth,Brant had a pretty crazy situation, which you'll hear on the podcast about justhow real this became. In short, he had to make a really quick transition intotelehealth.And here intoday's session where we're planning on just talking about that, what are someof the things that he had to consider? What are the struggles that he had? Andthen wrapping up with what are three of the business or life lessons that Brantlearned during this transition?I wanted to haveBrant on because many of us are in this season, where we might be thinking,what is our career going to look like in 2021 and beyond? And I mentioned thison the podcast interview. But it's therapy and private practice. As we know it,the 2019 version of this is not coming back. There's just too many changes toomany things now to factor.And so what doesthis look like and how do we honour that part of ourselves that desires to makethat transition and not listen to fears and all of those different things.Before we get to today's podcast session, just wanted to take a moment to thankthe team over at Hushmail for supporting this month's podcast sessions. I knowthat you guys know a lot about Hushmail, but if you don't know about Hushmail,Hushmail basically allows you to send and receive private encrypted email and thenalso allows you to get your forms completed and signed faster.So for example,your initial documentation for clients and things, it allows you to do that inan encrypted way and you can actually put forms and things like that on yourwebsite. So clients can fill that out through the website instead of kind ofgoing back and forth and just generally not being efficient.You can learn moreabout Hushmail over at sellingthecouch.com/hushmail. So we'll get right totoday's podcast session. Here is my conversation with Brant Thompson, fromonlinepracticebuilder.com.Hey Brant, welcometo Selling the Couch.Brant:Thank you, Melvin.It is great to be here.Melvin:It's been reallynice. I think we've known each other a couple of years now.Brant:I think so wefirst made contact a couple of years ago, although I first became familiar withyour podcast, as it was beginning around four years ago for myself.Melvin:Wow, I didn'trealize that it had been that long. One, I'm sorry that it took so long toreach out. But I really am grateful for this conversation because I know thisis something that many of us have done in the field, which is make thistransition to telehealth and more specifically even thinking through what thismeans for our businesses going forward. So I really am just grateful for thistime.Brant:Great! Myself aswell.Melvin:I was trying tothink about where to even start this conversation. And I think that questionthat I wanted to ask you was, tell us a little bit about what was happening foryou as you transition to talk therapy, especially in the start of 2020 as thispandemic as we were learning more, and all of those different things.Brant:For me, thingschanged quite abruptly. My last in person client here, I am actually in myoffice, although I do telehealth entirely, had an exposure and he informed methe next day. And we just did not know enough about COVID its features etc. Therewere not even masks for health care providers and putting that out there as acontext, and it meant for me quarantining immediately. We have a day-care inour home and to keep those kiddos and families safe, and because we knew solittle about COVID, I ended up quarantined in my own bedroom for two or threeweeks.Melvin:Oh, my Gosh, youknow what I didn't even realize that had happened. Talk about like, somethingthat is abstract and happening somewhere else, and then becoming very real injust the course one session.Brant:So within a matterof 48 hours, I had everything set up and ready to go my computer, my laptop, mybed, my bedside table, a chair, and brought a table in, and I was figurativelyand literally in business and quite smoothly, virtually missed no sessions withmy clients.Melvin:How did you Iguess, communicate with the remainder of your clients about this transition andpotential exposure? Like how much I guess disclosure did you have with that?Brant:Yeah, thank you.Good question. I tend to do long term work with my clients. So about 80% of myclients have been with me for more than two years approach being psychodynamicprimarily, and in those cases, it was fairly easy, we have a fairly closerelationship and of course, with boundaries. What I found was, it was nice wasthere really was a lot of parallel process happening with my clients, many ofthem are professional, and supporting them in the transition from being at workto needing to be at home, while the same thing was