Breaking away from an agency setting to fly solo is an appealing idea to many professional counselors who yearn to provide direct service to their clients and gain control over his or her professional development. But opening a private practice takes more than just hanging a shingle and furnishing an office with a cozy couch and Kleenex. A conscientious therapist may be a bit overwhelmed to find that the tasks they face include myriad business-related details that cannot be ignored. Starting and managing a private practice requires discipline, commitment and a quality that few practitioners learn in their counseling training and even fewer believe blends ethically with psychotherapy business savvy.

People with ADHD commonly attempt to soothe their restless brains and bodies with addictive substances such as alcohol, marijuana, heroin, prescription tranquilizers and pain killers, nicotine, caffeine, sugar, cocaine and street amphetamines. When people use substances to try to improve their abilities, or decrease and/or numb their feelings it is called self-medicating.

For years, clinicians have been using stories, scripts and fables in the therapeutic process, but somehow one of the most enduring and powerful forms of metaphor has been routinely overlooked.

Dr. B, an obstetrician-gynecologist with a thriving group practice, arrived at work after a night of drinking to discover that he’d been on call the previous evening.