The Practice of Therapy Podcast with Gordon Brewer: Chris Swenson | The Inner Game Of Private Practice

Chris Swenson | The Inner Game Of Private Practice | TPOT 128

May 11, 2020

Chris Swenson joins Gordon on the podcast to explain why we shouldn’t forget about our inner game in private practice. Our inner game is always happening, and it’s continuously turning – it shouldn’t be ignored. Chris describes how he found his passions, purpose, and principles by diving deep into mindset and the importance of mental clarity. Then, Chris tells us all about what it means to be a Private Practice Warrior and why a bigger practice isn’t necessarily better.

Meet Chris Swenson

Chris Swenson, LMFT is the author of the recently published book, “Private Practice Warrior.” He is the Owner/Founder/solo-operator of Rhino Wellness Center which is Chris’ successful full-time solo practice in rural Colorado. Chris is a true Private Practice Warrior who is currently developing a program called, “Private Practice Warrior – A Powerful Mindset for Ambitious Practice Owners – The “Way” to True Fulfillment in Life and Business. To receive a free pdf copy of “Private Practice Warrior” and a special bonus, click https://rhinomentality.lpages.co/pp-warrior-ebook-pdf-giveaway/

The Inner Game

The biggest thing for Chris is that he has learned to never forget about the inner game. It’s always going on. Early on in Chris’s private practice, he felt like he was like a slave to the practice. It didn’t feel like it was his. There was almost this illusion, and he had no sense of fulfillment. But once Chris stepped back identified his purpose, he found his passion and lives by his principles. Plus, he realized the big things he could do each and every day to move the dial, things began to fall more into place, and he began to feel a lot more fulfilled. Even though there are still struggles and challenges, we all have to fly through that turbulence to build a practice.

Finding Mental Clarity

Chris probably took a different journey than most. He got ingrained within the warrior community and learned about mental toughness and mindset. Chris found his purpose, passion, and identified the principles which he operates by each and every day. Plus, he has daily practices to make sure that he is making the right decision instead of making decisions out of fear. Chris felt an internal struggle. However, once he began daily work and ingraining a new mentality, he feels great. Chris has a lot more confidence and is a lot calmer. Plus, Chris says he has more mental clarity for what he needs for decisions to be made.

Boosting Our Mindset

People will say to build your practice, scale your practice, expand your stuff, do all of these things, and then you’re going to reach that promised land and feel that sense of fulfillment. Chris found that it’s an illusion. If you have a bigger practice, you might end up more stressed, more mentally fatigued, and more tired. So, Chris looked at what really makes a successful practice for the long haul. He looked at numbers of failure rates over the years, and he noticed that the failure rate has remained the same even though we’ve got better technology and we’ve got a lot more programs. What is the missing variable? It’s our inner game. We have to get ourselves to do XYZ every day, and how do we get ourselves to do that?

Get yourself, your mindset, mentality, purpose, passion, all these things in line. From there, you can accomplish great things. However, the point of it is not just to create this great business; this great practice, it’s about being a better person through doing all of it. Chris is just tired of seeing people struggle and have a hard time not getting that joy and fulfillment from what they’re doing. It’s not just building the practice. It’s becoming a better person through the challenges of building a better practice – which, of course, requires some mental skills, but also just a different mentality on how you look at your practice.

Private Practice Warriors

Chris initially had the idea for Private Practice Warriors when he started seeing the struggles of private practice owners, he knew he needed to do something. Chris wanted to make a difference and what made a difference was being able to share stories with others. Chris thought about writing his book. He wrote it like a story. You get to follow the main character through their journey. There’s a lot of twists and some turns in the book as well. You begin to learn about the identity of being a warrior and identifying your purpose, your passion, never forgetting about the inner game, things like that. So you can take out a lot of those ideas as you learn from the story.

Bigger Isn’t Necessarily Better

What’s most important to you? What is the lifestyle that you want to have? What’s going to bring you fulfillment? Being a warrior is about wanting to be a better person. It’s about the personal growth that develops. It’s not only about becoming that way for a better practice but as a better person. There are challenges to grow or to put stuff out into the external world, those difficulties can lift and we can overcome them. As we begin to expand who we are now, we become that better person. Bigger could be better if it fits for you. There’s so much potential that a lot of us have as therapists to make a difference. There are times where a lot of great therapists could get a better reach if they were in private practice.

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