The Australia Counselling Podcast Clinton Power

For the 100th and final episode The Australia Counselling Podcast, we invited psychotherapist Bill O'Hanlon back, who had one of the most downloaded episodes of all 100 episodes.

Bill's solution-oriented approach is a powerful approach to working with clients that can help discover their own abilities and dissolve their resistance to change.


In this interview Bill discusses:


how he came to create the Solution-Oriented Approach. 
the basic premises of the Solution-Oriented Approach
some of the methods used in the Solution-Oriented Approach
the difference between Solution-Focused Therapy or Solution-Focused Brief Therapy and the Solution-Oriented Approach
how this approach combines with hypnosis.

The premises of his solution-oriented approach are:


people have resources, strengths, abilities and solutions they may not be aware of
what you focus on tends to expand
people are more than their diagnosis
focus on the present towards the future

Get the show notes with all the links and resources mentioned in this episode at http://australiacounselling.com.au/100

The Australia Counselling Podcast has come a long way since I published the first podcast on September 8, 2013.

In just over 2 years the podcast has been downloaded over 63,000 times and listened to in 98 countries across the world.

So for episode 99 I decided to go back through the archives and check out which of our podcasts were the most downloaded episodes of all time.

In this compilation podcast, you can hear highlights from our most popular episodes of all time.

The top 10 Australia Counselling Podcasts of all time (based on downloads) are:


#10 077: Coming Out: What Therapists Need to Know When Working with LGBTI Clients - an interview with Matt Glover
#9 063: What is Narcissism and Why is it Becoming an Epidemic? - an interview with Dr Jean Twenge
#8 020: Positive Psychology: Powerful Interventions for Helping Clients Change - an interview with Dr Kate Lemerle
#7 004: Gestalt Therapy: A Relational (Re)turn - an interview with Dr Michael Reed
#6 080: The Neuroscience of Resilience - an interview with Linda Graham, MFT
#5 073: Overcoming Shock: Healing the Traumatised Mind and Heart - an interview with Diane Zimberoff and David Hartman
#4 078: The Challenges of Working with High-Conflict Couples - an interview with Jacqueline McDiarmid
#3 064: The Lived Experience of Borderline Personality - an interview with Sonia Neale
#2 075: The Yalom Interview: Creatures of a Day and Other Tales of Psychotherapy - an interview with Irvin D. Yalom
#1 072: Out of the Blue: Six Non-Medication Ways to Relieve Depression - an interview with Bill O'Hanlon

Get the show notes with all the links and resources mentioned in this episode at http://australiacounselling.com.au/99

The end of the year and the start of the New Year is the perfect time to reflect on the wins and challenges from the year just passed, as well as your goals for the coming year.

As a therapist, one of your goals for the coming year will likely be to earn more income.

There are a number of ways you can use your skills and knowledge as a therapist to generate more income.

In this episode of the Australia Counselling Podcast I share 5 strategies that will help you make more income from your therapy practice in 2016.

The 5 strategies I discuss are:



Raise your fees



the New Year (or start of your new financial year) is a good time to raise fees
raise fees for all clients from January 1
separate out the GST (or your tax) from your main fee in case GST goes up
Clients excpect that fees will raise over time - you are a business and you have rising costs, so operate like a business



Add new services



can you add coaching as a service? eg coaching for singles
can you start a therapy group? - funnel existing/ending clients into your therapy group
think outside the box and get creative with new services - e.g. offer phone support packages so clients can pre-pay for phone support and use as needed
have you learned a new skill/technique such as EFT, hypnosis or EMDR and are you marketing? Don't forget to do marketing of any new techniques and skills



Create joint ventures



can you form a partnership with someone you know or would like to work with?
put together a group/workshop/PD event
share the load of the marketing and administration work
joint ventures can be fun, reduce the isolation of working in private practice and help you earn more income



Get more clients (is your marketing up to scratch)



getting more clients is always the quickest way to increase your income
is your marketing following best practices?
is your website professional with compelling copy on your that speaks to the core issues of your clients?
are you following best practices on social media?
are you collecting email addresses through your website and sending an email newsletter?
are you doing community marketing and networking on a regular basis with other professionals in your local area?



Create a product 



it’s never been easier to create a product and start to earn a passive income
can you sell a meditation series? -  record meditations and guided relaxations and sell them online
can you put your intellectual property into an ebook and sell it through your website or the Amazon marketplace?
do you want to create a membership site or an online community where you provide ongoing support and content?

Get the show notes with all the links and resources mentioned in this episode at http://australiacounselling.com.au

Have you ever considered starting a podcast? If you want to start a podcast, now may be the perfect time to catch the wave of the podcast revolution taking the world by storm.

Never before in our history has it been so easy to reach a worldwide audience via podcasting. This is the perfect vehicle to get your message out to new people and raise awareness of you, your ideas, your services and products.

Podcast growth has been enormous over the last few years. The Pew Research Centre has found that:


podcast listenership has more than doubled since 2008
awareness of podcasts has more than doubled since 2006
podcast creation is rising with more than 22,000 podcasts hosted on Libsyn, one of the most popular hosting companies for podcasters
in 2014 over 2.5 billion requests for podcast downloads were processed

In this episode of The Australia Counselling Podcast I talk you through how to start your own podcast from scratch. After producing almost 100 episodes with 61,000 downloads to date, I've got some idea of what's involved and some great tips for you as well.

Here's what I cover in this episode:

Why start a podcast?

you can expand your reach of people and expose your ideas and your business to countless people across the world
The Australia Counselling Podcast has to date 96 episodes, 61,000 episodes and has been listened to in 98 countries
50% of our listeners are from Australia, 25% from the USA, 10% from the UK and the remaining from other countries
podcasting is great for networking and building relationships with other therapists - on this podcast I’ve interviewed world-renowned therapists Michael Yapko, Sue Johnson, Harville Hendrix, Bill O’Hanlon, Rick Hanson and Irvin Yalom, just to name a few
You get more attention from the media - I’ve been interviewed for numerous media outlets, magazines and radio stations - plus I’ve secured media interviews for Australia Counselling members
you can improve your confidence as a speaker
you can build the know, like and trust factor with your listeners
it can assist if you want to create products for sales or promote your services to a wider audience

What’s involved in podcasting?

the most import thing is the commitment - be aware it’s a huge commitment of time and resources
if you’re not willing to commit to podcasting on a regular basis, don’t start!
securing interviews can be time consuming and challenging with negotiating time zones
recording of episodes need to be either batched or done in advance
editing episodes takes time, especially if your guest is not a confident speaker
you may need to create blog posts for the show notes of each episode
after editing you need to upload the audio to your audio hosting
once your episode is published it's important to do marketing so new audiences can listen to your episodes
this is a slow marketing strategy - results take time

How podcasting works

every episode is an mp3 audio file
you need to tag the file with 'meta data' before uploading to your hosting
you need a server to host your audio
you need to create a feed - I use Libsyn - which is the gold standard in the industry (I pay USD $20 a month)
the feed is what goes into iTunes and every time you upload a new audio, iTunes gets the audio on the feed

Questions to ask before you start a podcast

what are you going to podcast about?
are you going to do interview style or just you speaking?
what is the purpose or end goal of your podcast?
what is your podcast title?
what is your podcast subtitle?
what is your podcast description? (this goes in iTunes)
what will be on your artwork? - look at other top podcasts in iTunes and what graphics they have (I recommend 99designs for getting your iTunes artwork)
do you want a professional intro and outro (try fiverr.com for voice-over artists)
is your music royalty free?

Podcasting equipment and software needed to start a podcast

sound quality is the most important part of recording - invest in a great microphone

Constellation work is a powerful way of resolving issues within systems that keep individuals, couples, families and organisations stuck.

Constellation work allows people to experience a completely new view of a system so they are aware of the patterns in a system and respond in healthier ways.

It’s a powerful way to work in a group setting that involves choosing representatives from the group and setting up the system so it can be understood better.

While there is still much we don’t know about constellations because it’s a new field, we do know that they are powerful agents of change that can affect how people can handle their personal and professional lives.

In this interview Jan discusses:


what is constellation work, how and why it works
how constellation work is set up in a group setting
what settings can constellation work be used in
his work with organisational change
the most difficult family dynamics to shift in organisations
what is a double bind and why they are so challenging in systems
the most powerful impact family/organisational constellations have had on his personal and business life
why rituals are important in constellation work
case studies of how constellation work has opened up greater possibilities for an organisation

Get the show notes at http://australiacounselling.com.au/session96

Have you ever wondered why someone chooses one therapist over another when searching online?

Believe it or not, there's a whole psychology behind choosing a therapist online. And when it comes to online counselling directories, visitors often have hundreds of therapists to choose from.

So we spoke with Vancouver-based marketing coach and copywriter Juliet Austin about how to create a compelling counselling directory listing that gets you clients.

In this interview Juliet shares:


What people care about when choosing a therapist online
Why it's important to spend some time creating a compelling directory listing
What psychological factors influence the decision making process of a website visitor choosing one therapist over another
The elements and must-haves of a compelling directory listing
The most common mistakes therapists are making on directory listings
How to write your copy when you have a limited word count
Whether clients care about qualifications, degrees and specialised training

Get the show notes at http://australiacounselling.com.au/session95