Conditions for opening a psychological counseling studio

Industrial and commercial/civil affairs compliance management qualifications, a venue that complies with professional ethics, at least one full-time practicing consultant that meets local regulatory requirements, a complete ethics and risk prevention and control mechanism, and cash flow that can cover the operating costs in the first six months - it is difficult to achieve long-term success if you lack one.

There has been a lot of quarrel in the circle before about "whether only registered system psychologists can be studio leaders." In fact, it depends on the nature of your registration: if it is a private non-enterprise social service organization with office benefits, the civil affairs department in most areas does require that the person in charge must hold an intermediate psychotherapist certificate or above, or a registered system supervisor/registered psychologist qualification； If you are just opening a sole proprietorship or an ordinary limited liability company, select the business scope of "psychological consulting services (excluding diagnosis and treatment)" for industrial and commercial registration. As long as the person in charge has no illegal or criminal record, he can pass the review. The professional qualification card is for the person who actually provides consulting services, not the boss himself. Last year, I helped a colleague who works in family therapy in Hangzhou apply for qualifications. She is an operator with a third-level psychological counselor certificate and hired two registered system psychologists to work. The whole process was smooth and she got all the certificates in half a month.

There is no uniform area limit for the venue, but there are two bottom lines that cannot be touched: First, the independent meeting room must be soundproofed to meet the standard, and no one can intrude during the meeting. A lightable "Consultation, Do Not Disturb" sign must be installed at the door.； The second is that there must be a separate storage area for confidential information. Visitors’ consultation records, evaluation reports, and informed consent forms must be locked in a special safe and must not be mixed with ordinary office materials. I have seen a studio that does play therapy purposely make the children's consultation room completely soft-covered, and not even a protruding hook is left on the wall, for fear of being bumped when the visitor gets emotional. ； There are also studios for groups, renting a loft of 120 square meters for both commercial and residential use, with a group activity room downstairs and three independent case rooms upstairs, which is just enough. Oh, by the way, if you also provide services such as psychological assessment and biofeedback training, it is best to separate the assessment room separately and not mix it with the case interview room. This is an ethical requirement of the registration system. Although the industrial and commercial administration does not investigate, when there is an ethics complaint, this is a core assessment item.

There have always been two completely different ideas in the circle about the configuration of the practice team: the conservative studio insists that all consultants must be full-time, regularly participate in group supervision every week, and have no less than 100 hours of personal experience, which can maximize the professionalism of consultation.； There are also many small but beautiful studios. The person in charge is a mature consultant himself. They only hire an administrative receptionist and the rest of the consultants are part-time employees in a cooperative system. As long as the qualifications, case duration, continuous supervision certificates and ethics agreements are reviewed in advance, the operating costs can be reduced a lot. But no matter which model you adopt, one thing is deadlock: You must not let "emotional coaches" or "life planners" without formal qualifications take on cases. Last year, a studio in Shanghai had its business license revoked after complaints from people who had fake ACI certificates. It also paid hundreds of thousands of yuan in compensation.

The most common thing that many novices miss when opening a studio is risk prevention and control. This is not an alarmist statement. I once met a young girl who had just graduated two years ago. She found it too troublesome when she opened the studio. She did not go through the high-risk visitor assessment process and did not ask the visitor to sign a risk informed consent form. She received a visitor who was severely depressed and had a tendency to self-harm. After the third consultation, the client went home and slit his wrists. The family members brought trouble to the studio. In the end, they paid more than 200,000 yuan and the studio closed down. Therefore, no matter how small your studio is, four things, including informed consent, confidentiality agreement, crisis intervention process, and stable psychiatric referral channels, must be prepared in advance. It is best to find a lawyer who understands medical disputes as a legal consultant. It does not cost thousands of dollars a year and can save half your life if something goes wrong. Don't think that if you are ethical, you will not encounter complaints. I have also seen people complain to the registration system because the consultant was 10 minutes late. If you have a plan in advance, you will not panic.

Finally, let me tell you a reality that everyone doesn’t like to hear: It is best to prepare at least 6 months of operating funds before opening a studio. Don’t think that your skills are good and you will be packed with visitors as soon as you open your studio. Among my colleagues who open studios, less than 10% can break even in the first three months, and most of them need more than half a year to have a stable customer base. If you only have enough money to pay 3 months' rent, I advise you to save more, otherwise you will have to close the house if you can't pay the rent, and all the visits you accumulated before will be lost, which is not worth the gain.

In fact, to put it bluntly, opening a psychological counseling studio is both difficult and simple. Those who list more than a dozen requirements for you at the beginning are mostly copied online by people who have never opened one. If you really make up your mind to start, first put together the five conditions mentioned at the beginning and adjust the rest as you go. There is no need to wait for everything to be perfect before starting. Oh, by the way, if you have nothing to do, go to the local psychological industry association or street social work station. There are many policies for entrepreneurship support and purchase of services that you would never know unless you ask. One of my colleagues applied for a college student entrepreneurship subsidy last year, which directly covered half a year's rent. It was very good.