If you’re establishing a private practice, you likely have a lot of questions about what to expect. One of those questions probably is about how many clients you can expect to see. The average caseload for a private practice therapist is 20 to 25 clients a week, but your specific caseload will depend on what works for you.
Why It’s Important to Understand Your Average Caseload
It’s important to understand the average number of clients you need to see and can expect each week because it helps you manage your practice. By having a clear understanding of this number, you can:
- Understand What’s Feasible. If you’re just starting out, you might not have a clue of how many clients it’s even possible to see each week. Understanding what other therapists do can help you understand what’s feasible.
- Balance Your Budget. You’ll need to see a certain number of clients each week to pay for expenses, including your salary. Knowing the average caseload helps you know if the budget you set is realistic. Then, it helps you know what you need to do to balance the budget.
- Anticipate Recruitment. When you know how many clients you need to see each week, you know whether you have enough. Understanding the average caseload can help you determine whether you need to actively market and recruit new clients.
- Allocate Resources. Knowing how many clients you’ll see each week can help you allocate resources to ensure you can efficiently and productively see them. For example, you may determine that you need to hire an office manager or assistant because you can’t do things like paperwork or answering phone calls and maintain the client load necessary for your practice to succeed.
- Manage Expectations. When you know how many clients you need to see, you can determine how to best manage your time and expectations to be productive in your work and avoid burnout. You won’t be pushing yourself beyond your limits, never knowing if you’re doing enough to make your practice succeed.
Factors Influencing Average Caseload
Caseload isn’t all about what you can handle. Just because you can see seven or eight clients every day doesn’t mean it’s a good idea or that it’s even feasible. Instead, you want to consider factors about yourself and your practice that may influence what you set as your ideal caseload.
Factors that influence caseload include:
- Services. The type of services you offer may impact your caseload. For example, if you have a niche specialty, it may be more difficult for you to reach that average caseload number than it is for therapists who provide more general services.
- Location. Where your practice is located may be a real determinant of how many clients you can see in a day. If you’re practicing in a small town and don’t offer virtual services, seeing five or more people a day may not be possible.
- Competition. How many other providers practice in your location with your specialty? Demand for therapists tends to be high, but if you and another therapist specialize in marriage counseling in a small town, there may be limited need for services. And, if the other therapist has a strong, established reputation, it may be challenging for you to build your clientele.
- Referral Sources. Who is leading clients to your practice? Strong referral sources can impact your client load.
- Marketing. How much marketing can and are you doing? Your ability to market your services effectively is likely directly related to the number of people who come through your door.
- Credentials. Where are you licensed to practice? What type of therapy do you specialize in? Do you offer virtual therapy? Again, a larger pool of clients will likely help you reach caseload goals.
- Bandwidth. What can you personally handle? How many hours do you want to work each week? Is it better for your well-being to see a few clients in person each day and more clients remotely, or would you prefer to cut expenses and offer more focused care to fewer people? Recognizing your bandwidth helps you show up fully for each of your clients, building your reputation as a caring, compassionate, focused provider.
Overall, being realistic about your ideal caseload will help you dedicate enough time and attention to each client, care for your own well-being, and secure the ongoing success of your private practice.
Estimating Your Average Caseload
So, how many people do you need to see each week to keep your practice thriving? It comes down to some critical considerations and a little bit of math.
To estimate your average caseload, take the length of a therapy session and the number of hours you want to work each day to determine how many people you can realistically see each day. For example, if each client session is 40-60 minutes, and you work eight hours a day, you can expect to see six clients a day. That number gives you time for lunch and transitions between clients.
If you see six clients a day, that means you can see 30 clients a week. That number doesn’t provide much room for charting, education, or managing your office. It also doesn’t allow for any personal obligations, like doctor’s appointments, during your workday.
How many active clients do you need to have on your books to see 30 clients a week? That’s a bit more difficult to estimate because it depends on where each client is in their therapy journey. For example, if you only see each client once a week, you’ll need a lot of people (120) on your roster to see 30 people a week. But that’s unlikely. Instead, you’ll probably have many clients you see every other week and even some you see weekly. At the same time, you may have clients in maintenance who you only see once every three months or so.
Therefore, determining how to keep your weeks full means knowing where your clients are in their rotations and deciding how many clients you can accept overall.
You also can do basic math to determine how much money you will generate from your caseload. For example, let’s say you charge $150 per session. If you see 30 clients a week, you’ll bring in $4,500 a week or $18,000 a month. If that’s not enough to sustain your private practice, you’ll need to consider decreasing your expenses and/or increasing the price of sessions. Working with insurance companies also likely impacts the amount you earn from each client.
Building Your Caseload
Your goal as a private practice therapist probably is to have a full caseload. That means you aren’t accepting additional clients at this time because you have a full schedule. It also decreases the time and money you’ll need to spend on marketing your practice. But how do you get to that point?
4 ways to build your caseload:
- Network. Engage with people in the community where your practice is located and with other health and mental health professionals. Word-of-mouth is still the best advertising, and meeting people can help build up referrals.
- Market. You need an online presence for your practice, which means building a website. Using content marketing, like blogging, can help attract people looking for mental health services in your area to your practice’s website, making your services an option. Social media advertising, like Facebook ads, also can help attract people to your practice more immediately.
- Partner. Contact physicians in your area and ask for referrals. Be sure to write a marketing letter that clearly explains why they should refer their patients to you.
- Excel. Providing quality care means clients will want to recommend you to others they know who need your services, helping you get more referrals.
Remember that building a solid caseload takes time. Your goal is for clients to outgrow the consistent need for your services, so you’ll likely always be actively marketing your practice to some extent.
Let All Counseling Help
Now that you know what average caseloads are and what your ideal caseload should entail, you may need some help attracting clients. All Counseling is here to help. We offer ongoing advice on how to best market and grow your practice. In addition, claiming your profile in our therapist directory will help you get in front of people actively looking for therapy services. Claim your profile today and enjoy the benefits of being part of the All Counseling community.
