Why Private Practice Feels Like Six Jobs at Once
Hear Emily Mori unpack the hidden jobs, freedom fantasy, and real structure behind private practice, with timestamps and honest transcript status.
29:17 · Published 2026-06-17
Listening map
- 00:41 — Why the title is intentional
- 02:59 — The business roles clinicians were not trained for
- 10:14 — The show's candid and imperfect format
- 15:25 — The freedom fantasy of private practice
- 20:36 — Structure, sustainability, and the cost of scaling
- 25:35 — What future episodes will hold
Machine transcript
Machine transcript — may contain wording, punctuation, or speaker-label errors. This is the complete timestamped source record, published for reading alongside the episode. It is not quotation approval.
00:00 — Cold open
You didn't go into therapy to become the biller, marketer, tech department.
00:06 — Cold open
An emotional support human for your own business. But here we are.
00:13 — Show intro
This is Private Practice Is a Bitch, a Ludara original. Real talk, zero filter, better systems, less burnout. Private Practice Is a Bitch. Private Practice Is a Bitch. Private Practice Is a Bitch. Private Practice Is a Bitch.
00:41 — Why the title is intentional
So yeah, here we go. So this is episode one, Real Talk, Zero Filter. So hey everyone and welcome to the very first episode of Private Practice Is a Bitch. A Brutally Honest Podcast About Running a Therapy Practice. I'm your host, Emily Mori. And yes, the title is intentional because if you've ever owned a private practice or tried to grow a private practice, worked in a group practice, hired clinicians, possibly dealt with billing, you know, stared at your Psychology Today profile, wondering if it needs a complete personality transplant. Or cried over a cancellation policy, you already know. You know, you get what I'm talking about. Private Practice Can Absolutely Be Beautiful. It can be flexible. It can be empowering. It can be financially and creatively life-changing, right? Like you can put everything into that. But private practice is absolute bitch.
01:52 — The freedom and the 10:47 p.m. email
Sometimes it's a generous bitch. But other times, the freedom, the autonomy, the meaningful work, and the ability, you know, to build something that actually fits your life is really awesome. And sometimes you're standing in your kitchen at 1030 asking why notes aren't done, why your website is outdated, you know, where is your referral sources and why are they all dried up? You know, why is your contractor confused, you know, do you have 47 unread emails? Sometimes I do. And it's fucking annoying. And sometimes why your nervous system is vibrating, like almost a haunted printer. This podcast is all about that. This is for the therapist, the practice owners, the consultants, the supervisors, the group practice leaders, and the exhausted clinicians who are trying to do meaningful work while also running a business in a field. That did not prepare us for the business part.
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02:59 — Therapists were not trained for operations
Because let's be honest, most of us were trained to be therapists. We were trained to listen deeply. We were trained to sit with pain. We were trained to assess risk, create treatment plans, document, maintain boundaries, family systems, listen to trauma, and care about humans in very real ways. And that's awesome. I love all of that. But very few of us were actually trained to be CEOs. We weren't trained to understand cash flow. We weren't trained to hire. We were not trained to fire. And we were trained to create systems. Supervise contractors, manage payroll, evaluate profit margins, build websites, run ethical marketing. That makes sense.
03:53 — Learning every business job the hard way
Write copies, respond to bad fits, negotiating leases. I learned a lot doing that. And, you know, for me, even selling my practice or figuring out what to do when the thing maybe that you once loved starts eating your entire life. And I'm not trying to bash it because it is beautiful. But I hear that a lot now. And that's why, you know, another reason why I want to do this podcast. One day we wake up and we are somehow expected to be a therapist. And then the next day, a business owner. And then a marketer. And then an HR department. And then sometimes you're a billing specialist. Compliance officer, which many people don't do that well. No offense. I learned the hard way in some ways. A content creator. Sometimes a receptionist, an accountant, a crisis line. And then you have to turn that off somehow and go be a regulated adult. Which, frankly, feels a little bit aggressive.
05:02 — Meet Emily Mori
So that's, you know, a reason why I wanted to create this space. I think I mentioned this, but I'm Emily Mori. I'm a therapist from Maryland. Born and raised. I live, you know, in the Harford County area. I am a former large group practice owner. And someone who has lived through a lot of different versions of private practice. I built and scaled a large group practice. And eventually I sold it. I now work as a consultant through Ludara Health and Wellness. And I also have other personal projects that I deeply care about. Including another podcast that's devoted to the neurodivergent community. Some books and other things that, you know, probably come and go and start as a random idea. Maybe it's at the worst possible time. And I just kind of go with it. That's how my brain personally operates. Anybody that knows me knows I jump from thing to thing. But, you know, I get really passionate about it as I go.
06:03 — The real questions practice owners ask
But over the years, people have repeatedly come to me for the other stuff, the real stuff. You know, they've wanted to know the behind the scenes. People have wanted my honest takes on private practice. Group practice. Leadership. Scaling. Burnout. Money. Hiring. Boundaries. Selling. Identity. And, you know, and leadership. And many emotional breakdowns that can happen between I want to start a practice and why do I own 14 flipboards and I hate everybody. And for maybe some of my former teammates that are listening, I never actually hated anybody. But sometimes your head is, you know, spinning in circles. I realize so many of these conversations are happening privately, you know, in text, consultant calls, side conversations, voice notes, DMs. And those, you know, whispered conversations between therapists or someone finally normal, like, I don't think I want to take any more clients. And everyone exhales because we are all pretending less than we think we are. So this podcast is where we're going to put those things in the conversation.
07:11 — Experience, not commandments
You know, this is not a space where I'm claiming to be all knowing. I am here as, you know, not like the sacred oracle of the private practice space. I'm not here to say, you know, this is the way and my way is the only way. And I'm certainly not here to pretend that everything was perfect because it wasn't. You know, I definitely have built certain systems that worked out beautifully. I've met with amazing people that have helped me along the way and have worked with other businesses that have taught me so many things. I've also, you know, built things, you know, that took a piece of my soul and then sent me an invoice. And it's been tough. You know, I've made smart decisions. I've made expensive decisions, you know, from wisdom, from people that have maybe fear mongered me a little bit. I've made decisions when I was really tired. You know, I have small children and I would have a laptop and lots of caffeine and, you know, sometimes maybe a little bit too much confidence. But I did it.
08:21 — Good at therapy, overwhelmed by business
But I want to be clear that this podcast is not about, you know, perfection. It's about honesty. It's about the reality that you can be good at your work and still be overwhelmed by your business.
08:36 — Care, money, boundaries, and sustainability
You can deeply ethically, you know, care about your clients and still make money. You can love your clients and still need strong boundaries. You can care about accessibility and still need your practice to be sustainable.
08:54 — When an impressive practice stops fitting
You can build something impressive and still realize it's no longer fit your life. You can be proud of what you created and still want to burn the whole thing down on a Tuesday. Those things can be true. And I tell everybody, I personally see a therapist, she's worked with me for a long time to know that both things can be true.
09:18 — Both things can be true
That's one of the big things that I'll probably come back to a few times throughout the podcast series, at least in season one. Both things can be true. Grateful, exhaustion, success and resent. Clinically skilled, business confusion, ambitious and overwhelmed. Right. I think everybody I talk to wants freedom and accidentally build yourself a very, very fancy cage. I think we need to be more open about that. We need more spaces where therapists can say those things out loud. Where the media in a thing isn't like trying to shame it, you know, or turn it into a webinar. So welcome. This is kind of going to be my brain dump of a lot of things. A little housekeeping before we go too deep into episode one or podcast one. I don't know, whatever we want to call it.
10:14 — A polished and unpolished podcast
This podcast may sometimes be polished, but sometimes it's going to be deeply unpolished. It may be recorded. You know, after I put the kids down, it may involve a guest or two. It may involve having a glass of wine, maybe a beer, especially on these summer nights or an edible. I'm saying, okay, but let's actually talk about what nobody is saying. Right. It might be funny, maybe a little spicy, a little heartfelt. Maybe occasional, maybe occasionally sounding like, you know, a therapy TED talk or a TED talk about therapy business, so to speak. Kind of like they got in a bar fight with like a group chat. That's kind of the vibe that I want. And if you take something from it, fantastic. And if you don't, that's also okay. But please don't, you know, kill me. I say that with love and I have a strange, you know, sense of humor I'm aware of. If any of my clients who somehow find this listen, please remember I'm human. I have many sides.
11:15 — Therapists are whole people
I can be a thoughtful therapist and also a person with opinions, humor, frustration, kids, right, hobbies, sarcasm, all types of things outside of just a therapy room. That, you know, doesn't make our clinical relationship any less real. It makes me a person. And honestly, that's part of what I want to model here too. Therapists are human. We're allowed to be human.
11:37 — Life beyond the therapy room
Beacon of boundaries and all different types of personalities that are allowed in different spaces, right? We're allowed to have a life that's not just, you know, drinking tea and, you know, endless cups of coffee, you know, that type of thing.
11:54 — A quick rabbit interruption
I'm looking down to this side because anybody that knows me knows that I have a tiny ravitry and I have some bunnies and the one is being crazy right now. But anywho.
12:08 — What season one will cover
Throughout the time we're together, we're going to talk about solo practice, group practice, scaling, burnout, maybe a little bit of neurodivergence. I'll try to keep that on the other one. But that's something I'm really passionate about. Marketing, boundaries, money. Maybe selling a practice a little bit, depending on what people want to hear about. You know, if there's anything that we're going to talk about, you know, it might come from a client filling out an inquiry form all the way to writing due ticket insurance. When your entire website, you know, says private pay. I know that's a big frustrating thing right now. You know, we are going to talk about all of it. We're going to do it with honesty because, you know, this field, it needs honesty, not shame, not more polished guru content, not more manifest. Your ideal case that I'm not a manifesting person. I mean, if you do that, that's cool. But that's not me. You know, but I don't know. We'll see what we end up doing here. And with that said, let's get into the first big thing I want to say. Private practice is hard because most of us enter it, you know, thinking we are choosing freedom.
13:18 — Freedom needs structure
And we are. And freedom without structure becomes very, very chaotic quickly. Many therapists don't realize that until they're already in it. And that's where we're going next. All right, guys. I'll be back with you after this short break.
13:40 — Ludara sponsor message
Today's episode is brought to you by Ludara. If you own a health care or mental health practice, you already know that running a practice is about more than serving your clients well. It also takes clear systems behind the scenes. Ludara created a free practice operations health check called Is Your Practice Built to Last? It is a quick 10-minute checklist designed to help practice owners spot gaps in areas like intake, onboarding, EHR setup, documentation, staff roles, business email, file organization, Hippaea conscious workflows, website visibility, and growth readiness. Here's how it works. Fill out the checklist by marking each area as yes, needs attention, or no. Then look at your results. Choose your top three priorities and pick one next step you can take this week. And if you fill it out and realize you want help turning it into an action plan, send me an email. I'd be happy to share tips and tricks for making your practice run more smoothly behind the scenes. You can learn more at ludara.org. Again, that's ludara.org.
14:51 — Back from the break
All right, guys. I am back. It's kind of late where I'm at. It's 9 o'clock Eastern Time, Maryland. I'm drinking coffee. I think when I'm done this, I'm going to go watch Married at First Sight because my friend told me about it. Not that I've never heard of it, but I didn't realize that I had it on Peacock, so I'm going to go watch that and see what the last season is about. I think it's 19 seasons, but anyways, let's kind of get back. Sorry about the commercial break.
15:25 — The private-practice freedom fantasy
I'm going to take this little coffee and put that down. But yeah, so private practices, you know, in truth, private practice business ownership and scaling is not as easy as everybody thinks it is. I think there's like a freedom fantasy where everybody kind of starts out with this idea, you know, and I say this from back where I graduated. So I graduated in 2018 and it was right around. Well, yeah, I graduated in 2018. I got married and then I worked in a private practice. I also worked in a community based setting and then I had started. Yeah, I think right towards the end of 2018. My private practice with a buddy of mine right around that. And so different scopes and vantage points for the mental health field.
16:25 — How the path into practice has changed
But then, you know, I think fast forward to now, right, for those that maybe graduate after COVID, there's less people entering the community mental health fields right away. So a lot of people are, you know, working in private practice. I'm doing this idea of freedom fantasy. And that can be because it's just easier to enter now. You know, there's it's easier to credential people now. It's easier to have startup private practices now. You know, agency or community mental health hospitals, all those types of things. People it's definitely overworked. Right. And people feel more micromanaged. So we get this freedom idea. I want to choose my clients. I want to choose my schedule, office, all those things, all phone Fridays. And I say that being that person. Right. Set my rates. Right. Not asking permission from anybody. And that is all valid. That's all true. And it's also really, really hard. I know for me, the biggest thing is a little bit of the lonely loneliness.
17:33 — Solo practice can be isolating
Right. You're not always, you know, you've got to make an effort, especially if you're a solo person.
17:39 — Leaving a system means building one
But when you leave somebody else's system, a lot of times you don't realize you kind of have to build your own. Even if you're a solo person. Right. You have to build anything from an intake process, possibly to how you're going to build your clients. Right. To how you're going to do a reminder email, cancellation policies, marketing plans, note audits. Right. Crisis protocols. You become that person that has to know everything. And it's not that you can't have resources. You should. But a lot of people, you know, that that's what they ask me is like, where do you start? I was like, I don't know. Right. I know for me, as I got like kind of older, because I started private practice work when I was really young. At least to me, I felt young. I feel really old. Is my hair. I just started them today. But typically it's gray at this point with the kids. They drive me crazy some days, but I love them. But anyways, you know, I I feel that like there's so much going on. Dinner plans, like the client material, school forms. And, you know, I want to give 100 percent to everything.
18:48 — Systems that work until they do not
But then you also want to make things feel manageable. And especially in solar practice, that can be really, really, really hard. For a while, there's going to be systems at work and then you figure out that they don't. You know, you might not have enough clients in the beginning. You might be struggling until you're booked. Some people might ask for super bills and you might not even know what that is. How do you hinder a no show when you really want, you know, to balance, you know, understanding? Right. What do you do? Right. How do you find referrals that are appropriate? What about consultations? Right. All of those things. Until your calendar starts looking like a game of Tetris. Right. It can kind of be like, oh, I did not build a private practice yet. Right. And and you might also feel like crap when it gets to be that busy. You know, it was meant to have good intentions. Right. But at the same time, you know, you want to balance out your clinical skills and not having half finished admin tasks. Right.
19:58 — Sunday-night resentment
Sunday night resentment comes around and then everybody's feeling burned out. Right. I know, like I've thought of different jobs over time that I would really like to do, you know, because I would be like, oh, that would make me less burnt out. And I just think it's how you use your energy. I know lately I would love to own a Jersey Mike's. That would be my favorite thing. But alas, I'm sure that everything comes as it's shown.
20:36 — Start with a sustainable structure
That, you know, you need to start with a sustainable practice structure. Structure that makes the practice easier to run. Structure that helps people know what to expect. Makes money less mysterious. Right. You want to give your place, you know, yourself a place to put things. You know, scaling is another thing that people ask me about a lot. I do a lot of work with scaling aside from building structure. And that's because I built a small practice and then built it to be pretty large. And I can tell you that that's often super glamorized. People see the outside. They see the growth team, all the things. They, you know, they see the larger revenue, the brand, referrals. That's great. I love that. I loved that. Still do.
21:30 — Growth changes your job
But everything comes at the cost. And it's not necessarily a bad one, but a real one. Right. Your job is constantly changing. I know that's something I like structure. So constantly having a changing role was something that found overwhelming. You know, leadership is definitely, it's a different skill set. Hiring is a skill. One boarding training, getting feedback, like receiving it. That's a special skill that I think it took me a minute to learn. But I think it's just another way of listening, right? And figuring that out. But that's tough. Holding people accountable. And managing, you know, culture is a big thing. That was always my favorite thing in my practice. Is, you know, trying to have a place. You know, I never wanted anybody to feel like they didn't like coming to work. That was always very important to me. But, you know, for therapists, this can get extra weird. Because we're kind of trained to understand people and empathize. And, you know, see context. But then we're trained to see trauma and to understand.
22:39 — When flexibility becomes over-accommodation
You know, when someone's avoiding a task. Why someone's upset about a policy. You know, and sometimes you might tolerate it too much. And you might over-accommodate. And, you know, I've lived that. I've, you know, there's a point in group practice ownership. Where you learn that understanding behavior doesn't mean you have to reorganize your business around it. And that's a hard lesson for a lot of therapists. Because we want to be kind. And we want to be fair. And, you know, we're not wanting to be a cool at all for awful boss. Right? But it's kind of like how we balance both forces. And that's something that I talk about a lot too. And plan to dive in, you know, more when we have more time about those types of things. You know, because a lot of times I feel like people, you know, they bring, you know, more people on. And they want to understand how do we do it in a way where we don't get burnt out. You know, and it becomes more manageable.
23:39 — Rates, hiring, and changing systems
I find other stuff that people ask, you know, how can we get in a field, you know, where things are changing so much. Right? Sometimes people are struggling, you know, to raise rates. They're trying to, you know, build a group. You know, they see people opening new locations. And, you know, you want to make decisions from your own values. And that's something that was always really important to me. And that's something that we'll continue talking about. I talk about my values a lot in those types of situations.
24:16 — What the show will sound like
So, yeah. So, this was a first episode here. Like I said, I have another podcast where I talk about different neurodivergent things. I'm going to be putting some things out there on my social media. Different things. Stuff maybe to share clients that you might just enjoy. Have a weekly podcast. Right? Future topics. And, you know, different things we're going to do are going to be pretty fun. I think we're going to do a different spin on it. And it's really going to be where chaos happens. And we're kind of going to just chill out. You know, I think that moving forward, this podcast is going to be less about who I am. Right? And why I don't even know that I feel like I have a reason to have a podcast. But people ask me to put my thoughts in one place. So, I figured maybe I'd start here. Especially about this topic. But some episodes are going to be different. Right? Going to be a mixed personal experience. Practice strategy. Honest reflections. Listener questions. Listener questions. I get lots of questions. So, I'll throw that in.
25:27 — Guests who know more than Emily
Conversations with people who know more than I do about a lot of things. And maybe therapists. Other practice owners.
25:35 — Education, stories, and rants
Some episodes are definitely going to be more educational. More story-based. Some would be more rants. I have a lot of thoughts. And I have no place to put them. So, you might hear that sometimes. And maybe I'll even have some guest conversations. I love the idea of hot seat fishbowl episodes. Or I randomly pull questions that I don't know about beforehand. Maybe topics the listeners put in.
26:03 — Listener feedback will shape the show
Take and even sometimes having guests on while we do that. I think that would be really fun. I want this to be a place where listener feedback really takes shape. I want this to be a place where, you know, I kind of throw out my two cents. But also a place where we talk about things. Maybe things you're embarrassed to ask. Things you're confused about. You're overthinking. You're secretly resentful about. And want to see if other practice owners, you know, relate to. Practice owning is a bitch. And sometimes there's not like an everyday manual. And, you know, you might have to make compromises. I want to hear all of those random thoughts in a fishbowl, right? Anonymous questions, scenarios, whatever you think. Obviously, though, like we're going to protect confidentiality. We're not going to be reckless. Don't send any client details. Do not send anything that's going to put a HIPAA violation in check. Send themes. Send questions. What would you do with situations? Because those are like most often the questions people are asking me. Some things I might talk about in the future.
27:13 — Questions for the fishbowl
Potential fishbowls, right? What do I do if I'm full but still not making enough money? Is it okay to not want to work evenings? Right? When do I not hire? When do I fire? How do I know if I just need a vacation? How do I manage it with kids maternity leave, right? All these questions and different thoughts. I have an opinion, right? But it might not be the same one as you. You know, so send questions in. It's not a bad thing. We're going to talk about all different types of boundaries, how we set them. It took me a long time, especially as a large group owner, to learn boundaries. We'll talk about different kind of laughable moments I had as a group owner. I feel like I've experienced so many interesting things. You know, we'll see. You know, we'll see what happens. We'll also talk about some little clinical things, but I want to try to keep it separate. Admin is a big thing that a lot of people ask me about.
28:17 — Insurance changes and how to reach the show
And right now, I'm hearing a lot of people asking me, what do I think of some of the insurance changes? So we'll talk about that. If anybody ever, you know, needs help with anything, you know, you can feel free to reach me at contact at emilymorey.com. We'll see where this goes. We'll see where this goes. Private practice, like I said, can be a bitch, but it can also be, you know, yours. And I think it's all about how you work it. When you stop, you know, building comparison from what you see on the outside, especially when you're in these large groups, you know, you're really working to build performance and, you know, something that's sustainable and aligned, more human. And then that's where we're really going to dive into it, where things are going to get interesting. But, yeah, I'm Emily Moria, and this is Private Practice is a Bitch. Thank you for being here for Episode 1, and I'll see you next time. Please follow. Have a great night. Bye.