Starting a private practice requires more than clinical training. You need a physical or virtual space, dedicated business systems, the right legal and financial structure, and software that keeps administrative work from consuming clinical time.

Launching a private practice is one of the most significant professional transitions a clinician makes. The clinical training is already there. What is less familiar is everything else: lease decisions, business accounts, insurance questions, and software choices. Each decision shapes the practice you build.

Key takeaways

  • Set up your physical or virtual space before committing to referral sources or marketing.
  • Separate business and personal finances from day one.
  • Hire an attorney and accountant early.
  • Malpractice insurance and liability coverage must be in place before you see a client.
  • Your EHR choice affects documentation, billing, and administrative time.

Step 1: Find your space

You cannot book clients before you know where you will see them. Space decisions affect commute, client demographics, privacy, and cost structure.

Main options include a part-time sublet, full-time lease, or wellness co-work space. If you are exclusively teletherapy from the start, this step shifts to setting up a HIPAA-conscious home workspace with privacy and soundproofing.

Step 2: Set up a business phone

Using a personal cell phone for client calls is common at the start, but boundaries can erode quickly. Options include a dedicated business phone, a forwarding service such as Google Voice or Grasshopper, or a call center or virtual assistant as volume grows.

Your outgoing message should include required crisis information and clear emergency instructions. Check with your licensing board for profession- and state-specific requirements.

Step 3: Build your website and professional email

Your website helps referral sources and prospective clients understand your approach and decide whether to reach out. It should include credentials, clinical approach, populations served, office location, contact information, and a clear call to action.

A professional email address using your domain reinforces credibility. Include your title, degree, and contact information in your email signature.

Step 4: Hire the right professional help

Running a practice means running a business. Attorneys can help with client contracts, HIPAA forms, consent documents, employment questions, and labor law. Accountants can advise on business structure, quarterly taxes, deductions, and financial planning.

Marketing support may also be useful. If you use paid advertising, track return on investment and know your client acquisition cost.

Step 5: Choose your business structure

This decision should be guided by your accountant and attorney. The right structure depends on your profession, state, number of owners, and services offered. Common structures include LLC, PLLC, S-Corp, and Professional Corporation.

Step 6: Open a business bank account and credit card

Every business transaction should flow through a dedicated business account. Mixing personal and business finances creates accounting problems and can complicate liability protection depending on your structure.

A business credit card helps build business credit and makes expense tracking cleaner.

Step 7: Get your insurance in order

Malpractice insurance should be secured before seeing clients. General liability insurance may be required by your lease and covers incidents in your office space. Health insurance also needs planning if you are leaving an employed position.

An insurance broker can present multiple plans and explain coverage and cost structures.

Step 8: Choose your software

The right practice management software is the infrastructure everything else runs on. For most behavioral health practices, that means an EHR that handles clinical documentation, billing, and scheduling in a single system.

Evaluate how many steps it takes to go from a completed session note to a submitted claim, whether billing is integrated, whether documentation templates fit behavioral health workflows, whether there is a mobile app, and what onboarding and support look like.

My Best Practice was built specifically for behavioral health clinicians. It combines documentation, integrated billing, telehealth, scheduling, AI Notes, and White Glove Migration for practices switching from another system.

One more thing: know your caseload goals

Before accepting referrals, get clear on what you are building toward. How many clients do you want to see per week? What populations and payer mix? Will you accept insurance, operate out of network, or use a hybrid model?

These answers shape your fee structure, marketing, credentialing decisions, and long-term sustainability.

References

Tragantzopoulou, P., & Giannouli, V. (2024). Burnout and coping strategies in integrative psychotherapists: Findings from qualitative interviews. Healthcare, 12(18), 1820.

U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration. (2025). State of the behavioral health workforce, 2025.