In the beginning, probably my biggest problem was finding
patients to work with and in the process, building a focus and
specialties. I began private practice in February 2003. At that
time, there was not yet a License credential for creative arts
therapists. I believe it was not until late 2005 that the license was
available and that finally an art therapist had to have a NY State
License to practice art therapy. So back in 2003, there were no
options for any kind of reimbursement from any health insurance
companies, so all my patients had to pay directly even if they
could get some kind of coverage through some reimbursement
at their jobs, meaning that I had to find referrals for people who
were willing to pay my fee or sliding scale fee. In addition, it took
me a while to learn about advertising on the Internet. Back then,
when I found out about psychologytoday.com from an
experienced much older colleague, it was not like now, so a lot of
therapists did not advertise on such websites or even have much
of an internet presence. I remember hearing about the website
from her not long into my practice before the license began, and
for a while, most of my patients found me off of
psychologytoday.com as they would look up therapists in
proximity to their job or home, so that website was very
revolutionary and useful for people to quickly find choices of
therapists and find out about their focus and them.Most of the people I knew were more seasoned therapists used
to the old fashioned kind of referrals, from other therapists,
patients, students, etc. I also at that time began working with
graduate art therapy students, as their programs usually
encouraged them to find therapy if they did not already have a
therapist. So that began also my interest in working with
students, especially those who wanted to have an art therapy
experience as a patient while training to be an art therapist.
As the years went on, psychologytoday.com got much bigger,
but it was exciting to be on the cusp of a new trend and the
cutting edge of the business of private practice. I would say the
Internet has been the most revolutionary system that has
changed the business of psychotherapy private practice of all
types of psychotherapists. I always tell people new to private
practice to jump into the online world, and not just use old
fashioned websites, but social media, which of course was not
part of things when I first began 11 years ago…

I usually give advice to people in person at my office/art studio.
In fact on Monday, I had a meeting with a colleague whose work
I am familiar with to discuss aspects of private practice especially
business. He is not an art therapist but sat in my studio and
made art with me while we discussed business, insurance
companies, and paperwork.So I think it is great to have someone come to my office and be
in my unique environment to get the idea that you need to be
your authentic self with your patients and that the setting of your
practice, if you are choosing private practice, is extremely
important. Most patients get a lot of information just from walking
into your office, even the building you are in, but especially your
office. I have many adult individual therapy patients who do not
come to me for “art therapy” specifically but who find my studio
environment to be very comfortable and inviting. You will be
offered all kinds of tea and even the choice of sitting in one of
two rooms, both of which are art studio environments. It’s also a
good way for someone to know right away that they find the
environment wrong for them, and quickly figure out we are not a
good fit.Anyway, to give advice just generally, I would say, figure out
whom you want to work with and how you want to work. Do you
want to be on your own in an office of your choosing and
completely control the environment? Do you want to rent an
office from another therapist in a suite of therapy offices, which is
a common way to work in New York City? Do you want to be part
of a wellness center and have more contact with other healers
and even collaborate with people in other complimentary types of
therapy (yoga therapy, energy work, massage, music or dance
or other creative arts therapies)? Do you want to partner with
someone and grow your practice into an LLC and start your own
kind of wellness center where you end up hiring colleagues
and/or training interns and have a community type of focus?
What is your ideal patient? What is your passion?
Also I recommend the book, “Building Your Ideal Private
Practice”, by Lynn Grodzki. Also look at her website:
http://www.privatepracticesuccess.com/books/building-your-
ideal-private-practice/

It can be helpful when you are starting out to go to a workshop
such as the ones she does, or to other similar workshops about
the business of therapy. Look for those types of workshops; look
for online classes and webinars about the nuts and bolts of being
your own business as a therapist. Look at blogs and other
resources online. There is one blog of interviews with very
experienced creative arts therapists about how they built their
current work situation, and you can see how many options there
are for people with similar training. (That website is:
http://victoriascarborough.wordpress.com/tag/art-therapist/) I
have a two-part interview on there with more details about my
career.

And the Internet again: get a profile up on psychologytoday
which is kind of the Wikipedia of therapists, the first place people
will find you even if you have a great website. Also, start a blog;
it will help you figure out what your focus is and interests are,
and unexpected things can come of it. Get on LinkedIn and join
LinkedIn groups like “Links for Shrinks”. There are many of them.
If you’re into Facebook, start a Public Page about yourself and
your business. It’s a great way to post photos of your office,
descriptions of your work, links to articles, even helpful quotes
and affirmations. It’s a great opportunity to be personal and
professional. I sometimes with permission from patients post
photos of their artwork as well… I do not Twitter but if you do,
more power to you. I just discovered YouTube as a vehicle for
my business. I had something on there as an artist, but realized I
could showcase my Altered Books, best experienced through
video, and thus give an instant glance at some of the art
therapy/artist experience. So be creative; start a YouTube
channel and talk about yourself as a professional and what you
do. Find places where you can give a workshop that is low fee to
get people in the community to see you in action and get to know
you better. Go to conferences and present at them. Network
online and offline.

Also, very important: do not isolate: go to a supervision group of
like minded professionals that meets at least twice a month,
either one facilitated by someone more experienced or a peer
run group where you can regularly meet with others and hear
about their business successes and pitfalls. Hang out with your
competition and give and share; refer patients you cannot or
don’t want to work with with your colleagues. Keep in mind
others in different neighborhoods. I call it referral karma. When I
refer people I usually send the prospective patient to the
therapists psychologytoday.com profile. Another tip: Get a photo
of yourself up, so people can see what you look like. It’s
important!

I really wish someone had told me that it’s important to be
very direct at the beginning; make sure in the first session
that you ask the prospective patient how they feel about
you and your environment. Find out if they are trying out
other therapists or if they have been on the hunt for a while.
In the first 4-6 sessions, keep checking in with direct
questions if they do not volunteer the info. How are you
feeling now about coming here? How do you feel before
and after our sessions? Are you feeling more comfortable
with me? Or whatever is right for you, but be extremely
direct and find out what this new person is feeling about you
and coming to you and the sessions. It sounds very simple,
but it took me years to get that direct and consistently so,
and it is still a challenge…

I see a lot of room for growth. Also a need to embrace
technology and enjoy being in the realm of the “unknown” and
new. Work with others in some capacity if you are on your own. I
like working alone and not sharing my office or business, but
early on, I enjoyed co facilitating workshops with my colleague
who is a yoga and art therapist. We did workshops together at
conferences and in a yoga studio. The latest challenge for me is
embracing the idea of Skype therapy, which I am a little late in
getting into but about to jump in with current patients and hoping
to start working with new people through Skype and other
Videophone combos. I think it can enhance art therapy for
people who cannot get to my office but we can still be making art
together. Phone sessions are limiting and problematic, so I wish I
had started the Skyping a while ago.One persistent problem is dealing with health insurance
companies, which is a different problem for each type of
therapist. For art therapists, the persistent problem is to get the
public to see that we work with people of all ages, not just
children, and for more insurance companies to accept our
license for reimbursement. I know that getting on an insurance
panel after getting my license was a very important move.
Dealing with the limitations of these health insurance companies
is a challenge for all therapists; few of them reimburse our full
fee, and many limit the number of sessions too much or make
reimbursement very difficult for patients and professionals.

My office is my two-room art studio in downtown Tribeca,
NYC, a few blocks south of Canal St. As I’ve said, I’m a
Licensed Creative Arts Therapist (LCAT), specifically an art
therapist, also Registered and Board Certified, ATR-BC,
which are credentials from the ATCB, the art therapy
credentials board.
You can email me: natashar@yahoo.com
My practice website: http://www.tribecahealingarts.com/
It has photo and more info about me.
My art therapy blog:
http://natashashapiroarttherapy.wordpress.com/
Public Facebook Pages:
Art therapy: https://www.facebook.com/TribecaHealingArts
Artist Facebook Page
https://www.facebook.com/TribecaNatashaShapiroArt
Artist website: http://www.natashart.com
And you can of course find my profile on psychologytoday:
http://therapists.psychologytoday.com/rms/name/Natasha_
Shapiro_LCATATR-BC_New+York_New+York_65057