Colleen Hilton is the founder & CEO of Acuity Counseling, Acuity
Consulting and Thrivelution
LLC. She is also a licensed Marriage & Family Therapist & an AAMFT
approved Supervisor, with over 14 years of experience in the
industry.
Since 2016, Acuity Counseling has been providing boutique
therapy services, with a retail-style model, making high-quality
mental health available to the general public. With 3 brick and
mortar locations and a strong online presence throughout the state
via telehealth, Acuity is seeking to make a difference across all
of Washington state.
Acuity Consulting focuses on creating change in the business
world by offering leadership coaching, and organizational mental
health training. By supporting individuals and organizations in
personal and professional change, believing in the systemic impact
we will have together.
Colleen co-founded Thrivelution LLC in 2020, amidst
the unprecedented circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Thrivelution is disrupting the current market space by throwing out
the antiquated practice of directory style searches, focusing on
the quality of matches, and demonstrating a return on investment
for small business owners.
Colleen is outspoken as a leader and educator on the business
side of the mental health industry. She is active in coaching
private practice owners, as well as new group practice owners, in
how to align their values as a helper, with their role as a
business owner to assist them in creating successful, profitable
businesses.
Personally, Colleen is a wife and the proud mother of two
inspiring young women. She is passionate about warm weather (still
missing
SoCal), boating, and finding great food wherever she is at.
Colleen loves people and making new connections, finding great joy
in learning from others, and hearing the amazing stories every
person has to share.
Success Mindset
Many therapists think that marketing is icky or too salesy.
Colleen is working on debunking that marketing mindset for private
practice owners. Instead, we should use marketing to create
a mindset
for success. Marketing and advertising get an awful rap in the
mental health industry. We feel like somehow being a helper doesn't
align with marketing and advertising, but Colleen honestly believes
that our professional ethics require that we do beneficial
marketing and advertising.
Charge What You're Worth
Your marketing mindset has a lot to do with finances too. If you
don't have enough money, then you are struggling. How will that
impact the work that you do for clients? If you can hone in
on marketing,
then you can market to your ideal client and attract the person
into your practice. That is why it's essential to have an exact
brand. Then, the feedback loop just starts to work in a beautiful
way where the clients are coming to us. We can charge what we're
worth!
Market To Your Ideal Client
When we do effective marketing, we reach our ideal client and
provide the most qualified help. While on the other hand, if our
net is too broad or there is no net at all, we can't help our ideal
clients. Clients will not magically find you when you build a
website. We should be practicing from an abundance mindset - there
are many clients out there, and you really should be helping the
people you are passionate about supporting.
Colleen will reverse engineer her marketing. So, think about
your
ideal client and answer these questions:
- What do they do for a living?
- What gender do they identify as?
- Where do they hang out?
- What are their problems?
- How can you solve their problems?
Then, start thinking about ways you can engage with your ideal
client. We are not selling something. Instead, we are communicating
the value that we have and how we can provide help. Marketing is
the ability to help people find you. Potential clients are out
there, and they are struggling. By using doing effective marketing,
we can provide them the exact solution that they are looking
for.
Get More Clients Through Marketing
What if your ideal client is out there with the wrong therapist?
They have a terrible experience, so they visit another therapist.
Yet again, they have a terrible experience. Sadly, this keeps
happening to your ideal client. Eventually, they give up on therapy
altogether. Now, their problems keep getting worse and worse. They
are digging a hole for themselves, and they can't figure out how to
get out. Maybe ten years pass by, and they finally find you. If you
could find that ideal client ten years ago, they would be in a much
different place today.
Give your clients what they are looking for in the first place.
When you find your ideal client, you help them, and they get to
help you. Working with our ideal client allows us to be supported
financially. When we are supported financially, then we can do our
best work. After grad school, we have the hopes and dreams to open
a private practice. Like any business, marketing is a crucial
component to getting more
clients. For therapists, it's no different – we need to
practice effective marketing techniques!
About Thrivelution
Colleen stumbled with her marketing at first. She didn't know
how to communicate with potential clients. She had referral
relationships, the directory listing, yet she didn't find herself
with the right clients. Unfortunately, when you don't have the
right clients, then you need to turn them away. It's a shame for
the client because they ask for help, yet they find themselves with
a roadblock.
So, Colleen wanted to know why there wasn't a "dating app" for
finding a therapist. Clients should go on the app and ask for what
they want. Then, therapists should advertise their services. We
need a matching system that focuses on clinical fit. Thrivelution is an algorithm that
will present options to clients and clinicians. That way, they can
mutually agree to the relationship. Once it's a good fit, the
clinicians can take it from there. Clinicians can build thriving
private practices, and clients can find the best therapist for them
– it's a win-win!