How We Built Our Dream Practice: Innovative Ideas for Building Yours

Dave Verhaagen and Frank Gaskill and their colleagues at SoutheastPsych in Charlotte have built a creative and successful clinical practice that could be the envy of any private practitioner. Influenced by their core values of FIRE (Fun, Innovation, Relationship, and Excellence) the authors describe their experiences of creating a group practice of more than 30 clinicians, all with full clinical caseloads, working completely outside of managed care. Written in a reader-friendly and personal style, the authors provide a perspective and framework that you can adapt to create your own unique dream practice. Unified and strengthened by a clear mission, values, and culture, SoutheastPsych has flourished much more than Verhaagen and Gaskill had ever dreamed. They hope that How We Built Our Dream Practice: Innovative Ideas for Building Yours will do the same for you.

Dave Verhaagen is a founding partner and the former CEO of Southeast Psych. He earned his PhD from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and is nationally board-certified (American Board of Professional Psychology) in clinical child and adolescent psychology. He is a fellow of both the American Board of Clinical Psychology and the American Board of Child and Adolescent Psychology. Before starting Southeast Psych, he served as the clinical director of three mental health agencies. He is the author or coauthor of six other books, including Therapy With Young Men and Parenting the Millennial Generation. He and his wife, Ellen, have four teenage and young adult children, Daniel, Christy, Maddie, and Abbey.

Frank Gaskill cofounded Southeast Psych and currently serves as Director of Mentoring and Marketing. He earned his PhD from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and previously served as a senior research psychologist for the Devereux Foundation's Institute of Clinical Training and Research. He is the coauthor of Max Gamer, a graphic novel about a boy with Asperger's who uses his special abilities to become a superhero. He and his wife, Liz, have two children, Olivia and Maddox.