The Business of Professional Psychology: Ideas for Building a Successful Private Practice and Psychoanalytic Art Therapy: A Personal History

Abstract

Presentation #1: "The Business of Professional Psychology: Ideas for Building a Successful Private Practice" There have been a number of “how to start a private practice” workshops offered in the past several years. These workshops provide essential basics and are necessary for ethical professional practice as a psychologist. But once you have a practice set up, then what? How do you build a practice so that you can make a living? This Conversation Session focuses on making use of commonly available data to build a successful business. For psychologists, there are several sources of data that we can use to consider our career choices, position our choice of practice activities, and plan our education and training paths. They include the obvious sources like the DSM-IV-TR (for base rates of disorders) and the research literature. They also include less obvious sources such as Stats Canada population pyramids that show generational projections for regions as large as the whole country to as small as a tiny prairie town. Finally, they include “hidden” information that we might not think to tap, such as demographic profiles of membership found in psychology regulators’ databases. Attendees of this session will walk away with ideas on how to use this data to make an informed and longer-term projection as to where the need for psychological services will emerge, and thus, where financial success might lie. A variety of current Canadian examples will be used.

Presentation #2: Psychoanalytic Art Therapy: A Personal History" Sylvia Singer Weininger has been involved in art and therapy for four decades. Her early work, funded by the Ontario government, was to start and support art programs in hospitals and schools. This work led her to art therapy, more programs in schools and private practice. Sylvia evolved method and presence for the creative use of art in therapy through her study of psychodynamic theory, In particular the work of Melanie Klein. Section members will know Sylvia by her long-time marriage to Dr. Otto Weininger, in whose name we offer the Section's Annual Award. This close association hints at the psychodynamic nature of her evolving work. This session will take the form of an interview between the Section Chair and Sylvia, with the intent of recalling the history of this creative and valuable work, highlighting a pioneer in the field. Our hope is to present attendees with an intimate and personal reflection of a skilled clinician.