Discovering Your Niche in Private Practice

Camille McDaniel (00:05.492)
Welcome back to another episode. If you happen to be new here, wonderful. Welcome to have you aboard. We are going to be talking today a little bit about something that you’ve probably heard on and off or you have considered yourself. And that is regarding how do I actually find my niche or my specialization in this counseling field.

Now, for some people, they have heard that having a niche is absolutely crucial to your private practice. And for some people, they have heard that it’s like optional, but you know, some people have one. I would probably say that it depends on where your practice is located. You know, for some practitioners, if you happen to be in a location where there’s not really a lot of other mental health professionals, so it’s kind of hard to come by.

then you may find yourself being a bit more general just so that you can help more people in areas that seem to have a lot of mental health professionals in them. mean, literally, you could throw a rock and hit like 20 mental health professionals, right? There are just really a lot of individuals who are doing similar career paths. Then specializing can really be quite helpful.

And then I would even just say that in general, specializing can actually help you to just build your brand, what you’re known for, but in all things, it’s really how you actually market and where you’re located. If you happen to be someone who, which we have this happening more and more now, people who happen to be licensed in more than one state, it actually can help you to be specialized to kind of carve out

your slice of the pie, if you will, and what you’re known for in different areas. So we’re going to kind of just talk about how do you actually even do that? Because it’s not always easy for some of us. We have been able to do that. And for others, it just really feels kind of overwhelming. Where do I start? How do I go about it?

Camille McDaniel (02:25.55)
How does all of this work within Christian counseling? And so we’re gonna kind of take a look at that today and how this is going to kind of essentially help you to define not only like your niche, but who’s the ideal person that you feel led to serve. And it also can help you to avoid burnout. So you’re not finding yourself marketing

for every single different mental health challenge that is out there. Because for the different mental health challenges, there are different referral sources and there are different ways that you need to market and different groups you need to market too. And that could kind of all burn you out. I you are one person. So unless you have a team of people working behind you, then it can be very helpful to start really with just a…

of key specializations. And you know as we talk about that, let’s kind of, let’s just dive right on in and look at, know, where do we get started then? So with prayer and, you know, and just spending time with the Lord, you want to be able to identify what are the strengths that He has given you.

What are the gifts and talents? Like what areas are you finding yourself really, really passionate about? You know, what do you feel that the Lord has just gifted you to just be just rocking and rolling in that lane? You know, and that that lane could be children and teens, that lane could be trauma work, that lane could be couples or addictions, but

what do you feel drawn to when you happen to be working with individuals who are needing help in their lives? So just kind of reflect on your own personal experiences. If you have been in the field for some time now, you might be at a place where you’re having to kind of pivot. You know, we have a lot of transitions no matter how long we have been in private practice. Maybe your life has changed and now you’re thinking about

Camille McDaniel (04:48.0)
where you feel led to serve at this time in your life. But we wanna kind of take a look at it from the standpoint of reflect on just your experiences, reflect on how that has shaped your counseling approach, reflect on where you feel most energized and where you feel most drained. If you happen to be new to the field of counseling and new to private practice,

and the idea of even specializing in certain areas, certain challenges with certain populations, then in the time that you were in graduate studies or in your internship, you know, what challenges really seem to intrigue you or what things did you hear your classmates working on that really seemed to be exciting to you? So that’s what I would use just as a foundation. First, go to the Lord in prayer.

Next you want to be able to look at what kinds of passions, gifts, talents he has given you and start to look and reflect over your life and over your experiences working with other individuals and what comes up for you. So you know as you’re as you’re using your faith and you’re using your experiences it starts to guide you into identifying areas where you just feel most called to serve.

The next thing that you really want to consider is understanding your target client. So who do you feel most called to help and, you know, explore the different client demographics and specializations? So I just listed some when I was talking about, is it addictions? Is it couples counseling? Is it, you know, is it working with adolescents? Are you working with trauma survivors? You know, just…

as you are like discerning because as you’re praying and asking the Lord who have you placed me here to touch, to reach, to help, to heal at this point in time in my life you know then there’s the discernment in just deciding who you’re supposed to move forward to start to reach out to and you know can just kind of explore there’s a lot of different

Camille McDaniel (07:07.886)
niches, a lot of different niches that integrate, you know, you can integrate your faith with grief, anxiety, depression, you know, there’s, there’s just a multitude of things, but you want to look at what really excites you. So for me, what really excites me and just gets me going are the clients who are coming who are hopeless, who are feeling worthless, the clients who feel as though they’ve kind of

lost their purpose, they don’t know exactly what they’re supposed to be doing here. Do they have any value here? I tend to be a person who if I reflect on my life and reflect on the way that I behave or do things, I’m like a big instiller of hope and encouragement that there is a light at the end of the tunnel if you just keep putting one foot in front of the other, you know, and then how that translates into

my work over the years is that I have worked really well with individuals who are struggling with thoughts of suicide or depression, individuals now and you know as I have pivoted in a lot of ways today, I find that still individuals who are struggling with depression and mood disorders, thoughts of suicide but now also individuals who are finding themselves

struggling with a lot of stress and anxiety over finding balance between their work life and their personal life and finding ways to be able to just live because maybe they have really been focusing heavily on the work, not so much on life fulfillment. It just energizes me to know in to be able to integrate.

Christ-centered you know counseling into their experience. So these things then that light me up, I get excited, I feel really recharged and rejuvenated working with these clients and you know also some other specializations as well. That lets me know this is my lane, this this is it, this is awesome. I have another I’m pointing this way because I’m in my office and their office is right down the hall but

Camille McDaniel (09:24.878)
I have another clinician in the practice who’s a buddy of mine and they are a rock star when it comes to trauma. You know, and I have mentioned this in other episodes, you know, it’s very interesting just how, you know, our specializations and what we are called to do at this point in time in our lives, how that works. Because while she is a rock star with trauma, you know, she, her mind just really doesn’t process the suicidal

challenges the same way. And while my mind really loves to be able to instill hope and work on therapeutic techniques and integration of faith when it comes to things like suicidal thoughts or depression, my mind does not do the same thing for trauma. She has a specialization when it comes to sexual trauma. And my mind doesn’t necessarily work that way. And I don’t believe that my gifts and talents have me in that lane the way she’s in that lane.

You know, and so you want to really be able to see like, okay, where do I start to notice that I am actually like, you know, kind of getting excited and it’s like a light shines when I think about helping certain individuals through certain challenges. You know, it helps you like here’s something else to think about. You stand out when you have a specialization.

this is the thing that you can build the deeper expertise on and you can build trust within your referral base or with your client base, you become a known for the thing. Your name is attached to then something much more specific. So when you are able to do that, you can then narrow down your marketing materials so that when you advertise,

you advertise with a clear message that like is targeting certain challenges and that actually can increase the number of individuals who come to you. You become known for helping in this area so people don’t have to really guess. Now here’s some ways also you know we talked about prayer when we’re talking about here’s some ways to kind of like define your specialization and your niche we’ve talked about

Camille McDaniel (11:48.77)
your gifts, your talents, what excites you, your natural personality and what you notice you find yourself kind of like leaning toward. How does your mind process these different challenges and then the interventions, the therapeutic interventions, you know, start taking an account of all of that. And you can actually start with something like very broad. So you might start with something like saying stress.

and then you can start to narrow it down over time. So it might be individuals who are experiencing workplace stress, or it might be working with the athlete who is experiencing performance-based stress, right? You know, you don’t necessarily have to go super, super niche, but you can actually just narrow it to the overall umbrella of stress.

And then as you start working with and talking about how you help people deal with stress in their lives and how stress can impact their lives and ways that you help them to regain control over their stress and coping skills, then you might start to notice that, you know, I really, really seem to love and be rocking and rolling when I’m working with athletes and performance, you know, or.

you know, when I happen to be working with new moms and being able to transition into that stage of life with less stress or, you know, whatever, fill in the blank, right? You can also look kind of to see, you know, the thing that I feel really passionate about, does that seem to be a big need, you know, in the marketplace? Because we can narrow down too much to the point where…

Well, there’s maybe some people who need that help, but there might not necessarily be a ton of people who need help in that area, which can then make it a little bit difficult to build your practice. So an example of that might be, again, if we go along the lines with talking about stress. So yeah, you may help individuals with stress, but then if you decide that you want to go a little bit further and you’re like,

Camille McDaniel (14:02.554)
I want to help the artist who rides unicycles for a living and deals with the stress of marketing their art. And it’s like, okay, you know, there are individuals who are artists and I guess there are some artists who ride unicycles, but that is probably not a really big population as far as individuals who are artists ride unicycles.

and need counseling for stress-related challenges. So we want to make sure that we are not going so narrow that we really kind of kick ourselves out of the market for helping people but we don’t have to go so broad that we feel overwhelmed. So it can help to do a little bit of marketing research, you can look online just to see you know what are the most common things that people find themselves stressed over.

and which populations or age ranges seem to be experiencing the most stress in this particular time or this particular year. So you can do a little bit of research yourself that will then help you to be able to kind of refine your message and all of that you know. You kind of want to also as we are like thinking about how to niche ourselves and specialize

You want to be able to overcome fears of like limiting your client base. So I know that for some people, if you think about, gosh, if I actually get a specialization, what about the people that I’m not going to help? I don’t want to have to turn people away. You know, that could cause me to have a decline in income, in my business. you know, addressing all those fears about like limiting potential clients is going to be really important.

So, you know, being niche focused doesn’t mean that we have to turn people away. It really just means that we are going to be instead attracting the right client for what we can do. The person who is going to get the most out of the experience with us may be the individual under this specialization that we offer.

Camille McDaniel (16:22.786)
So don’t ever be afraid of that. And really when you’re talking about, my goodness, will I turn away clients? That’s going to go back to what I had just mentioned a little earlier when I said, you can do a little market research. So you might be the the stress therapist, right? But again, if you’re the stress therapist for artists who ride unicycles,

Well then yeah, you might actually be turning a ton of people away and you may not actually be getting a lot of individuals in that category at all. So you can start to do a little research to know, you know, how strong of a niche you’ll have when it comes to that, but then rock and roll with it because there are so many people who need what you will be offering. So many. So,

I would encourage you to pray, to take an assessment. What are your gifts? What are your talents? What do you find your most passionate about at this period of time in your life? What life experiences have you had that might contribute to how you feel called to serve at this particular time in your life? Know that it is okay if you happen to be very new.

private practice or new to the mental health field, then you can start to reflect on your life and the things that you have done over the years and what you feel most passionate about and your internship and whether you really felt like you were rocking it or did you feel like you struggled more than you really should have struggled to really help particular populations. I know for example

back in graduate school, my internship was at a drug and alcohol treatment facility and I got a lot of good information while I was there, especially when I was in the group format, sitting in on other groups that were being led by addiction specialists. I also found out during that time that really wasn’t where I shine. I was able to definitely

Camille McDaniel (18:39.112)
do good work, help in a lot of ways, but you can feel internally like when you are super excited and feeling like this is your lane. I have seen people in the field of addiction counseling who they have that same level of excitement that I have when I’m working with individuals who want faith integration or when they’re struggling with depression and

life transitions and their purpose and whether or not they even have a reason to be here at all. Like I know that that is how I feel about the the individuals I serve and I knew I wasn’t feeling that spark back then and that’s okay. It just tells you okay maybe not this area but then what area? Start thinking about that now and if you happen to been in this field for a very long time now

Again, like I was saying, it just might be that at this point in time, you’re at a place of transition. Maybe your family structure has changed and you need to make some transitions. Maybe you happen to be just moving into a season of life where you want to focus on certain things outside of your business. And that means that you’re not going to be able to see certain populations who need to see you at certain hours of the day, or that might have more

intense needs and you have to be more available. So there might be a lot of reasons why you’re pivoting and now taking a look at yourself and you’re going into prayer and you’re going to see what lights me up at this point in time because I have to make some changes. I have to pivot. Either way, I encourage you to dig into this and see what comes up for you. And if you’re so inclined, share that with the group.

We’re over on Facebook. You could also share it in the comments section of this episode if you want to. You can send me a message through email. I’m at hello at christinprivatepractice.com. I hope that this gives you a lot to think about and all the very best as we move forward in this world, helping all the people that are assigned to us. Until next time, bye-bye.