Building a Practice That Honors Nap Time: How to Grow a Group Practice Without Burning Out

So many therapists start private practice because they're looking for more freedom. 

More flexibility.
More time with their children.
More ownership over how they spend their days.

And yet somewhere along the way, many end up recreating the exact thing they were trying to leave behind.

What if success didn't require sacrificing your family, your nervous system, or the life you're trying to build?

What if there’s another way?

What you’ll learn about building a group practice without burning out

That's why I loved this conversation with Alicia Murray.

As a licensed therapist, group practice owner, and founder of The Therapist HQ, Alicia has built a six-figure group practice, a thriving coaching business for therapists, and a life that allows her to prioritize motherhood alongside entrepreneurship.

But what stood out most to me wasn't where she ended up. It was how she got there.

Not through hustle.
Not through complicated marketing.
Not through sacrificing herself for her business.

But through intentional decisions, supportive relationships, and a willingness to build slowly.



In this episode, we discuss:

• 1:39 - How Alicia started her private practice and how it snowballed into the 6-figure group practice and coaching business she runs now.
• 4:51 - The networking strategy that filled her caseload without relying on complicated marketing
• 9:50 - The process of expanding to a group practice
• 13:13 - How hiring support actually helped her make more money and create more freedom
• 17:32 - Pricing and owning your value as a therapist
• 20:31 - Sustainably using sliding scale fees in your therapy practice
• 26:09 - Growing from therapist to building a coaching business for therapists
• 30:39 - The ins and outs of building a coaching business supporting therapists
• 35:28 - Using AI in your therapy business to save time and reduce administrative overwhelm
• 39:37 - How Alicia learned to market herself as a therapist and coach
• 41:57 - How she builds visibility on social media as a therapist
• 46:25 - The marketing methods that really work in growing a group practice and coaching business
• 49:55 - Alicia's advice for everyone wanting to start a private practice, group practice or coaching business.
  

How Alicia built a private practice, group practice, and coaching business from scratch

Before private practice, Alicia was working in community mental health and supporting veterans with severe mental illness. 

The work was meaningful, but it was also heavy. The workload was demanding, the income was fixed, and the life she envisioned for herself, especially as a future mom, felt increasingly out of reach.

So she started preparing.

She read the books.
Listened to the podcasts.
Watched the YouTube videos. 

And in January 2020, she launched her private practice. While three months pregnant.

Then the pandemic hit.

Suddenly, private practice wasn't just a dream. It had to work.

Looking back, it's easy to focus on the successful group practice owner and entrepreneur she became. But what I love about her story is that it started exactly where so many therapists are today: with uncertainty.

She didn't have everything figured out.

She simply took the next step.



And then the next.

The networking strategy that filled her caseload without complicated marketing

When therapists think about marketing, they often assume we need a perfect website, a social media strategy, SEO knowledge, and a content plan before they can attract clients.

But Alicia built her practice through something much simpler.

Relationships.

And the reciprocity therapists often overlook in networking. 

Instead of only focusing on getting referrals, she focused on helping other therapists.

When a potential client wasn't the right fit, she made warm referrals to colleagues.

She checked in on people.
She supported others in her community.

Over time, those relationships became one of the strongest referral sources for her practice.

It's such a good reminder that marketing isn't always about visibility.

Sometimes it's about community.

People refer to people they trust.

How Alicia grew her private practice into a sustainable group practice

Unlike some other therapists, Alicia didn't immediately jump in.

She sat with the idea for months.

After returning from maternity leave, she had reduced her own caseload significantly to make room for motherhood. But the referrals kept coming.

For six months, she continued referring people out while wondering whether she was ready to take the next step.

Eventually, she decided to hire her first therapist.

The biggest take away? She approached growth with intentionality. 

Instead of hiring several clinicians at once, she focused on filling one therapist's caseload before bringing on another.

That meant growth happened more slowly than it does for some practices. But it also meant her therapists received more support, more mentorship, and more attention.



Looking back, she believes that slower approach helped create stronger retention and a healthier team culture.

How hiring support created more freedom and more revenue

Motherhood became one of Alicia's greatest teachers.

And listening to her talk about the difference between becoming a first-time mom and becoming a second-time mom was incredibly relatable.

With her first baby, she was learning everything at once.

How to be a mom.
How to run a private practice.
How to navigate a pandemic.
How to manage postpartum life.

She described it as a lot of trial and error.

Looking back, she can now see how hard that season really was.

There were emails that sat unanswered.
Tasks that fell through the cracks.
Days where she was simply putting out the fires directly in front of her.

And honestly?

I think many therapist moms will recognize themselves in that story.

Then came her second baby.

And with that experience came a realization she wishes she could have given her younger self:

Hire support sooner.

Not because she couldn't do everything herself.

But because trying to do everything herself was costing her time, energy, and mental space.

Billing.
Client inquiry emails.
Administrative tasks.

The things that constantly drained her could be handed to someone who was actually great at them.

Alicia shared something I hear over and over from successful business owners:

When you buy back your time, growth becomes easier.

Not because you're working more. But because you're finally spending your energy where it matters most.

Pricing, scarcity mindset, and learning to own your value as a therapist

Like many therapists, Alicia didn't start her business with perfect confidence around pricing.

In fact, she openly shared that she was operating from scarcity.

She had set her full fee at $140 per session but often accepted clients for $40, $50, or $60.

Then the pandemic added another layer of uncertainty.

And scarcity became even easier to justify.

Over time, though, she began asking herself a different question:

Is this sustainable?

Because a therapy practice isn't free to run.

There are continuing education costs.
Business expenses.
Technology expenses.
Licensing fees.

And as a therapist, you deserve to create a business that supports you financially.

What I appreciated most about this part of our conversation is that Alicia wasn't talking about charging more for the sake of charging more.

She was talking about creating a business that can continue to exist.



A business that allows you to keep helping people.

How to use sliding scale fees without burning out

Alicia still believes deeply in accessibility. She still believes in offering sliding scale spots when possible.

What changed was how she approached those arrangements.

And there’s an important lesson to learn from her new approach.

Rather than allowing reduced rates to continue indefinitely, she now recommends setting clear expectations from the beginning and revisiting fees every six to twelve months.

That boundary protects the therapist.

But it also protects future clients who may need access to those reduced-fee spots.

It’s a beautiful reminder that boundaries aren't what stop us from helping people.



They're what allow us to keep helping people.

Growing from therapist to business coach for therapists

The Therapist HQ wasn't part of some grand business plan.

It started because her friends kept coming to her for advice on how she had built her practice. 

She'd meet them for coffee and literally share her notes.

Line by line.

Eventually, several of those therapists sat her down and told her something she didn't want to hear:

"You need to charge for this."

At first she resisted.

But thankfully, she eventually listened.

What began as helping a few colleagues eventually grew into guides, trainings, a membership community, and a thriving coaching business helping therapists start and grow their own practices.

Building a coaching business one step at a time

One of my favorite parts of Alicia's story is what happened during her second maternity leave.

Because while most people would probably look at a newborn and think, "Now is not the time to start something new," Alicia found herself creating.

Not because she was trying to build an empire.
Not because she was chasing another income stream.

But because it genuinely helped her.

After a difficult postpartum experience with her first child, creating gave her an outlet. It allowed her to engage the creative and educational parts of her brain while spending time with her newborn.

Between feedings and naps, she worked on what would become her flagship guide for therapists building private practices.

She finished it around four months postpartum and launched it.

People wanted it.
More therapists found her.
The community grew.
Her Instagram grew.

And what she originally thought would simply be a helpful resource slowly evolved into an entire business.

Using AI to save time in your therapy business

One of the most fascinating parts of our conversation was hearing how Alicia built a custom GPT specifically for therapists.

And true to Alicia's style, she casually mentioned it as if building custom AI tools was a completely normal thing to do.

The idea started because she became curious.

She listened to podcasts about AI while spending time with her kids and eventually found herself wondering:

"What if I just tried building one?"

So she did.

She trained it using her frameworks, resources, and educational materials so therapists could receive support tailored to their practice, niche, ideal clients, and goals.

What I loved most wasn't the technology itself.

It was her reason for creating it.

She wanted therapists to save time.
To reduce administrative burden.
To get support without immediately needing to hire another person.

And in a profession where burnout is so common, that feels incredibly valuable.

How Alicia learned to market herself without losing herself

What’s important to realize, is that none of this happened overnight.

Her Instagram growth wasn't the result of a magical strategy.

It was the result of consistency.

Trial and error.
Learning.
Adjusting.
And showing up again.

She shared that she has created nearly 2,000 Instagram posts over the years.

Two thousand!

I think that's important because we often compare our beginning to someone else's middle.

We see the followers, the visibility, the success.

But we don't see the hundreds and hundreds of posts that came before it.

Marketing is a skill.

And like every skill, it gets stronger through practice.

Building visibility on social media without burning out

For many therapists, consistently showing up on social media feels exhausting. 

But we can learn from how Alicia approaches social media today.

Take last week, when she didn’t try to sell anything through Instagram at all.

Instead, she talked about AI, insurance companies, business ownership, and shared her opinions as a therapist.

And yet she gained 200 new followers.

This is so good to realize.

Because so many therapists think every piece of content needs to lead directly to a sale.

But often the content that builds trust isn't selling anything at all. It's simply allowing people to get to know you.

Alicia doesn't force herself into rigid content pillars or overly structured posting systems.

Some weeks she's promoting an offer.

Other weeks she's documenting her day, sharing what she's learning, or talking about things she finds interesting.



And somehow, that's exactly what makes people want to follow her.

The marketing methods that actually grow a therapy practice

One of the most valuable takeaways from this conversation was hearing where Alicia's referrals actually come from today.

For her therapy practice, the biggest drivers are:

• Her website
• Blogging
• Google Business Profile
• Word-of-mouth referrals

Not Instagram.
Not posting every day.
Not chasing trends.

And I think that's incredibly freeing.

Because when Alicia teaches marketing to therapists, she doesn't tell everyone to use the same strategy.

Instead, she walks them through the options and asks a simple question:

"Which one do you like?"

Do you enjoy networking?
Do you enjoy social media?
Do you enjoy writing?

Start there.

Because the best marketing strategy isn't necessarily the trendiest one.

It's often the one you'll actually keep doing.

Alicia's advice for therapists who want to build something bigger

Toward the end of our conversation, I asked Alicia what advice she would give herself if she could go back to 2020.

Her answer was simple:

Stop overthinking and try the idea.

So many therapists spend years waiting until they feel ready. 

But confidence rarely comes before action. It comes from action.

And that's the lesson we kept coming back to throughout this conversation.

Not the group practice.
Not the coaching business.
Not the Instagram growth.

The freedom.

The image Alicia shared of sitting in a rocking chair with her baby on a random weekday afternoon, realizing she had built a life that allowed her to be there.

Not in an office.
Not caught in workplace politics.
Not wishing she were somewhere else.

Just present.

That's what all of this was really about.

Not building a bigger business.

But building a business that supports the life you actually want to live.

Listen to the full conversation on The Marketing Couch Podcast

If you're looking for proof that it's possible to build a thriving business without sacrificing your family, your energy, or yourself, I think you'll love this conversation with Alicia. 



You can listen to the full conversation with Alicia on The Marketing Couch on your favorite listening platform.