Financial Success in Mental Health Practice: Essential Tools and Strategies for Practitioners

In this volume, authors Walfish and Barnett provide a comprehensive toolkit for practitioners to develop their business acumen and fully complement their extensive clinical training. Without question, top-notch clinical expertise in addition to sound business practices are the winning combination for long-term success.

Financial Success in Mental Health Practice shows readers how to market their practice, ensure its profitability, provide quality client service delivery, manage office overhead, implement effective accounting practices, handle commercial taxes and business expenses, navigate insurance claims and reimbursements, and plan for retirement. Written in an accessible and engaging style, this volume is packed with sample forms, letters, and question lists and also includes fee schedules, key principles of private practice, and interviews with highly successful entrepreneurs and executive managers.

This complete resource will equip the early career or seasoned clinician with the tools and strategies needed for a rewarding and fruitful career.

Steven Walfish, PhD, is a licensed psychologist in independent practice in Atlanta, Georgia. He is the associate editor of the Independent Practitioner and has served on the editorial boards of several journals. He has published in the areas of substance abuse, weight loss surgery, and professional training and practice. He received the American Psychological Association Division of Consulting Psychology Award for Outstanding Research in Consulting Psychology and the Walter Barton Award for Outstanding Research in Mental Health Administration from the American College of Mental Health Administration. His first book (co-edited with Allen Hess, 2001) was Succeeding in Graduate School: The Career Guide for Psychology Students. He received his PhD in clinical/community psychology from the University of South Florida and has been a visiting professor at Kennesaw State University and Georgia State University. He is currently a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University School of Medicine.

Jeffrey E. Barnett, PsyD, ABPP, is a licensed psychologist in independent practice in Arnold, Maryland, and a professor on the affiliate faculty in the Department of Psychology at Loyola College in Maryland. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Professional Psychology in clinical psychology and in clinical child and adolescent psychology and is a Distinguished Practitioner in Psychology of the National Academies of Practice. Dr. Barnett is a fellow of seven divisions of the American Psychological Association (APA) and has served on the APA Ethics Committee. He is an associate editor of the journal Professional Psychology: Research and Practice and editor of its "Focus on Ethics" section. His recent book (coauthored with W. Brad Johnson, 2008), Ethics Desk Reference for Psychologists, is published by APA Books. He is active in leadership positions in the profession of psychology and has served as president of the Maryland Psychological Association and three APA Divisions.