How to Navigate Running into Therapy Clients Outside the Office

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It seems that the longer I’m in private practice, the more often I run into my clients outside the office. And many of you have asked about what to do when this happens. So in this video I share some tips for how to navigate running into therapy clients outside the office.

This video is geared for therapists of all kinds, including psychologists, MFTs, LPCCs, social workers, and others in the clinical counseling field.

Welcome to Private Practice Skills! I’m Dr. Marie Fang, psychologist in private practice. I post videos offering tools I learned the hard way about starting and growing private practice so that you don’t have to.

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This video is not intended as professional or legal advice. Be sure to seek the services of a professional if you are in need of them.

So…running into clients outside the office. I’m still constantly amazed by how often it happens given how large a city I live in. I live in the city of San Jose, which has nearly a million people in it. I also used to work over 50 miles away in San Francisco and I STILL would run into clients all the time.

This is especially true for me in private practice, as my ideal client looks pretty similar to me - maybe just in a slightly earlier phase of life than me. So it makes sense that the clients I work with also tend to hang out in the same places, shop at the same stores, and run in the same church circles.

I used to stress a LOT about running into my clients. In grad school it seemed to be this huge deal and I felt like I needed to avoid it at all costs. But that just led me to always carry a low level of anxiety as I went about my day because I never knew when I might run into someone.

Now it’s happened so often that I realize my stress was completely unnecessary. In fact, it can be helpful sometimes for our clients to see that we are normal human beings. We go grocery shopping, we hang out with friends at the coffee shop, and we attend workout classes. We are no less human than than anyone else!

So what do we do about this running into clients? I’ve really changed how I navigate this over the years, so I’m going to share the tips I’ve learned with you here.

1. Bring it up in the first session.
2. Always respect confidentiality
3. Allow the client to take the lead
4. Know your boundaries
5. Document
6. Revisit later

I hope you found these tips useful as you will inevitably run into clients outside the office as your practice grows. Let me know in the comments if there are any tips you would add. And until next time, from one therapist to another: I wish you well!

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