Â鶹ԭ´´ Private Practice conference 2025

How will you navigate your journey through Private Practice?

This year’s conference is for supporting practitioners just starting out in Private Practice as well as those who are experienced in the field. The conference theme ‘How will you navigate your journey through Private Practice?’ contains content with a reminder of the basics, and informative sessions to help you flourish in today’s market.

Workshops will take you on a journey through the process of setting up, running, and then eventually closing a ‘typical’ private practice in the counselling and therapeutic line of work.

Relevant signposting and clinical suggestions around contracting and adhering to ethical and governing body requirements will also be addressed.

Additionally, the conference provides an opportunity to network with peers, with a space to share and learn from other members experiences, challenges, and successes.

The Private Practice Conference presents an opportunity for members to come together for this highlight in the Â鶹ԭ´´ annual calendar. It will once again be a hybrid event, combining networking opportunities of the live event aa central London conference venue, with the nationwide participation through the live streaming of the full event on the day.

Book your place

The Private Practice conference 2025 is a hybrid event. Our hybrid events provide you with the opportunity to attend and engage both in person and online. In person attendance includes networking opportunities, lunch, refreshments and the chance to engage with divisional representatives and Â鶹ԭ´´ staff. Online access includes interactive Q&A's, a chatroom to network with peers, and interactive polls.

Building a thriving private practice isn’t just about being a great therapist—it’s about knowing how to attract and retain clients. This session will introduce 26 proven, ethical, and practical strategies that therapists can implement to grow their practice with confidence.Ìý

From marketing techniques to referral-building and community engagement, attendees will gain actionable insights that align with professional values while making their services more visible and accessible.

The aim of this session is to:

• provide private practitioners with a diverse toolkit of client-attraction strategies
• debunk common myths around marketing and business growth for therapists
• offer practical steps for increasing visibility, generating referrals, and improving client retention
• empower attendees to market their practice in a way that feels ethical and authentic
• ensure therapists are considering their own well-being, effectively working with difference and paying attention risk and safeguarding
• ensure therapists leave with a clear action plan they can implement immediately

Whether you’re just starting out or looking to expand, this session will provide fresh perspectives and real-world techniques to support your practice’s growth.

This session is available in person and online as part of strand one.

Afternoon keynote to be confirmed.

The rise of AI drive tools in mental health care presents both promising opportunities and
significant concerns. On one hand, these tools can increase access to mental health support, offering immediate assistance to those who may otherwise face barriers such as long wait times, stigma, or cost. They are often available 24/7, providing a sense of anonymity and convenience, which may encourage people to seek help they might not otherwise pursue. Additionally, therapybots can be programmed to offer evidence-based techniques such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and can assist in mood tracking or prompting healthy coping mechanisms.

However, many therapists have concerns about these technologies. A key issue is the
quality and depth of care that therapybots can offer. While they may be helpful for certain low-intensity issues, complex or deeply rooted mental health problems often require a human connection and nuanced understanding that AI may not be able to replicate. There are concerns that users may rely too heavily on these bots, avoiding human therapists when their issues require more thorough, empathetic intervention.

This session aims to give an overview of the landscape of AI tools in therapy, how clients
are using them; and what the implications are.

This session is available in person and online as part of strand one.

Imposter syndrome is a common yet often overlooked challenge for therapists in private practice. It manifests in both major milestones (Big I moments) and subtle, ongoing self-doubt (little i moments). This session will explore how imposter syndrome shows up in the unique context of private practice—whether it’s during periods of low referrals, self-marketing, or transitions from trainee to qualified therapist.

At the heart of many of these experiences is the quiet question: Am I good enough? — a question that often surfaces when doubt moves in. This doubt can quietly shape our professional identity, erode confidence, and influence how we engage with our work and clients. By naming and normalising these experiences, we can begin to shift their hold over us.

Through practical strategies and tools, attendees will learn how to navigate and manage feelings of inadequacy, boost resilience, and embrace their strengths. The session will offer reflection exercises and interactive discussions to help therapists identify their own experiences with imposter syndrome and build strategies for overcoming it.

Participants will leave with actionable steps to address both the overt and subtle ways imposter syndrome impacts their practice, equipping them to cultivate a more confident, grounded approach to their work. This session is designed to inspire therapists—both newly qualified and experienced—and create a supportive environment where they can share, learn, and grow together.

This session is available in person and online as part of strand two.

This session will aim to reinforce the requirements of the Ethical Framework for making contracts and agreements for counselling. There'll be a focus on what is meant by informed consent and will also look at how the client agreement is important in forming the therapeutic relationship, boundary setting and the role of the agreement in setting professional standards.

You will look in detail as to what ought to be included in the Client agreement for therapy.

This session is available in person as part of strand three.

The session aims to support therapist to identify and challenge some on the common misconceptions around race and working interracially with their clients. Rather than focusing on educating anti-racism, this session will highlight the ways in which individual racial identity and relation racial differences impact each other and how these barriers present at fear, shame, guilt and mistrust in therapeutic relationships. Through first-hand experiences and research this session will highlight the limitations to these common misconceptions, how these misconceptions then create personal barriers to genuine relationships and the ways in which therapists can recognise and dismantle these barriers. In doing so authentic and respectful interracial therapeutic work is achievable.

This session is available in person and online as part of strand one.

Have you thought about your clinical will recently? What did you do next? Act on those thoughts or push them to the back of your mind to do another time? This session provokes thoughts about what plans you have, or would need to have, in place if you suddenly stop working. Ìý

What would happen to your private practice? Do your nearest and dearest know who to contact so somebody can inform your clients? What would happen to your digital legacy, notes, and office etc? Ìý

Your professional body requires you to have a clinical will, but have you thoroughly explored what this involves? This presentation will offer a safe space to hear practical information about how to set up your clinical will and who you can appoint as an executor. Ìý The presentation will also discuss what Professional Clinical Wills can offer if you struggle to pull this together or find someone to fulfil your wishes. Ìý

This session is available in person and online as part of strand two.

This session will explore key supervision themes essential for therapists navigating private practice. Topics covered include ethical considerations, best practices, balancing support and challenge, managing difficult supervisees, and fostering reflective practice.

Participants will gain practical tools to enhance their supervisory skills, create a robust supervisory framework, and develop a deeper understanding of the responsibilities and boundaries within the supervisory relationship.

This session is available in person as part of strand three.