Congratulations! You’ve decided to start a private practice!
Now what??
Instead of feeling…
confident about your future
clear about what you have to offer your clients
creative about the process of crafting a container for the work you feel passionate about
curious about what this next adventure will bring
You are…
confused about where to start
unsure where to turn for guidance and support
questioning whether or not you have what it takes to make it in private practice
second-guessing all your decisions, including the decision to start a private practice.
It doesn’t have to be this way!
I can help! In Consult the Cosmos, I combine my 10 years as a private practice owner with my obsessive study of astrology to guide you towards the confidence and clarity you’re seeking as you build your private practice. The breadcrumbs scattered through your birth chart will guide you toward the private practice building choices most aligned with your innate talents, strengths and abilities, as well as your social, emotional and financial needs. By translating the wisdom of this ancient technology, I’ll help you achieve greater clarity about who you are and what you’re here to do. Are you ready to craft a private practice aligned with your innate gifts and unique purpose in the world? Let’s get started.
How Do I Consult the Cosmos?
Our work begins with an overview of your birth chart, a snapshot of the sky at the moment you were born.
I’ll translate in plain terms what your chart says about your life’s purpose, how you project yourself to the world, how you respond emotionally and what you need to feel secure.
Then, to understand your potential in private practice, we’ll explore what your chart says about your professional roles, resources, routines and requirements.
Finally, we’ll use what we’ve learned to create an action plan to move you forward in crafting a private practice designed just for you.
This does require that you have an accurate birth time and location to create an accurate chart. There is information I can share without a birth time, but it will be less personalized to you. Please reach out if you have questions about the accuracy of your birth information or don’t have this information and we can discuss options.
Step by step, we’re crafting a practice designed to fit you.
To allow you time to digest what you’re learning from your chart and turn it into tangible actions, we’ll break this up into three steps:
Step 1: Your Big Three - Sun, Moon & Rising Signs
In session 1, you’ll get a PDF that lays out all the material we’ll cover in clear, accessible language, not astrological jargon. You can refer back to this document throughout our work together and after.
This map of your chart includes reflection questions to help you connect what you’re discovering about yourself through your birth chart with your private practice building work.
Step 2: Your Professional Roles, Resources, Routines & Requirements
In session 2, we’ll look closely at what your birth chart has to say about your resources, assets and attitudes about money, your ideal work environment and your public and professional roles and potential.
Step 3: Putting It All Together - An Action Plan for Crafting a Private Practice Built for You
After the first two sessions, you’ll have time to digest what you learned and consider how you want to apply it.
Depending on where you are in the practice building process, you might be deciding:
whether to start a solo practice, join a group practice, or have a small private practice in addition to agency work
what clients you work best with
how to market your services
who to network with and how to go about making those connections
how to set your rates
whether or not to get credentialed with insurance panels
what training or certifications will get you where you want to be
whether to see clients virtually or in-person (or both)
whether to rent an office or work from home
I have asked all of these questions in my own private practice and supported many others in finding their own unique answers.
Together with your birth chart, we’ll get clear about the best answers for you.
Ready to get started?
Let’s chat to see if Consult the Cosmos is right for you.
Let’s talk logistics.
We’ll meet for three 60 minute sessions. In the first two sessions, you’ll get a PDF that maps out your chart’s wisdom in clear language, along with reflection questions to deepen your understanding.
In session three, we’ll compare what we’ve learned from your birth chart with your private practice goals to craft a realistic action plan to build your private practice - a private practice crafted just for you.
Sessions one and two can happen as close together as make sense for our schedules. Then I’ll want you to take at least a week to think about what you’ve learned from your birth chart, journal about it, maybe talk to some trusted people about it and then schedule session three.
This action plan will not build your practice for you.
What it will do is put you on a firm foundation so that you can make future decisions (and, oh, there are always so many decisions to be made!) informed by a deep understanding of yourself, your needs, your vulnerabilities and your potential.
You can take all of this clarity and confidence with you as you sort through the barrage of advice out there about a mulitude of business decisions.
Not all of the private practice building advice will be right for you. Bolstered by knowledge of yourself and your professional path you receive in our sessions, the details will fall into place much more easily than without it.
It feels good to know you’re on the right track, you know?
Consult the Cosmos is offered as a 3-session package for $549. Payment plans and sliding scale options are available to make this service accessible for those whose access to wealth and class privilege is impacted by marginalization on the basis of race, gender, disability, citizenship or other factors.
Here’s what’s included:
A personalized explanation of the parts of your birth chart most relevant to your professional path - offered in a downloadable PDF you can refer to whenever you feel lost, stuck or just need to find your center again
Reflection questions and prompts designed to guide you toward a deeper understanding of yourself, your purpose and your practice building path
Three 1-hour consultations where we unpack the lessons of your chart and apply them to your private practice building project - no matter where you are in the process
You don’t have to figure this out alone.
This offering can help you if:
You’re unsure if private practice is the right path for you. (Can I do this? Should I do this?)
You think private practice is the right path but aren’t sure where to start. (What’s the best way to do this?)
You’ve started down the path to private practice and would like more guidance and support. (I’m doing this, but why do I feel so alone?)
You have a private practice and you’re tired of second-guessing all the decisions you make in your practice. (Why can’t I just figure out how to do this??)
This is not a great fit if:
You’re looking for general career coaching. This is designed for healing arts practitioners considering private practice.
You’re looking for templates of forms and checklists of tasks to start your private practice. There are a ton of online resources related to the legal, financial and corporate details of setting up a business. I can point you in the direction of those super valuable resources if you’re not sure where to look. Already have a list of things to do but feel overwhelmed by it? I can use my strong Virgo placements to help you sort and organize it into an actual plan.
You think astrology is bullshit. You don’t need to know anything about astrology, or even want to learn about astrology, but you do need to be open and somewhat curious about what the stars have to say about you and your work.
Meet Your Guide: Heather Branham, LCSW
Consult the Cosmos combines two of my passions: helping new therapists build sustainable private practices and the study of astrology.
I never set out to be a private practice building consultant, but as I started seeing more and more private practice clinicians for clinical supervision and consultation, the conversations naturally shifted to questions about how to build a private practice that fit their needs
Questions like, What do I say on my website to attract my ideal clients? How do I decide whether to bill insurance or do private pay or a sliding scale? What training should I take to help me with x, y, or z problem that keeps coming up in my sessions? How do I make this business work for me and not just for my clients?
My answers to these questions usually involved refocusing on the needs, values and resources of the person asking them.
As I reached for tools to explain how I had made choices in my own private practice that were authentic to and supportive of me, astrology kept coming up. Regular study of astrology has been a practice that’s served me and the business I’ve created since before I went to graduate school to become a therapist. Studying my own chart has been a big part of my personal growth and has helped me make my own practice building decisions.
As these conversations about private practice building and astrology occurred more frequently, it made sense to be more intentional about how I presented them. And Consult the Cosmos was born.