The document discusses the pitfalls private practice speech pathologists may face, including exploitation, fatigue and burnout from intense client interactions, isolation, risk of de-skilling from a narrow scope of practice, inadequate supervision and support, incompetence, fuzzy professional boundaries, advocacy and reputation challenges, closing down to cope with repetitive work, and becoming too generic in practice. It provides tips to avoid these pitfalls, such as knowing your legal rights and responsibilities, prioritizing health, maintaining connections outside work, continuing education and skills development, finding mentors, staying within professional boundaries, handling complaints constructively, stepping outside comfort zones, and reflecting the diverse communities served.

1. Private Practice
Pitfalls and Privileges

2. HELLO
David Kinnane
You can find me at @speechbloke
and on LinkedIn
You can read about my practice at
www.banterspeech.com.au
You can read my thoughts on
private practice issues at
www.speechiesinbusiness.com
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3. Things I get to do with my
life:
Help clients
See my wife and kids every
day
Work and live in my
community
Educate SLPs and students
about legal rights
Employ people
Disclaimers:
(1) I love private practice
(2) I’ve been very lucky
(3) I’m not (necessarily) normal
Opportunities I’ve had
Talking to schools and
community groups
Publishing over 400 articles,
3 ebooks, about speech
pathology research and
issues
Connect with people all over
the world
Review new research
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4. How I fill my days

5. Pitfalls and what
to do about them
Practical lessons from my mistakes (to date)
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6. “I know, you never intended to be in
this world.
But you’re in it all the same.
So why not get started
immediately.
I mean, belonging to it.
There is so much to admire, to
weep over.
And to write music or poems
about.
Mary Oliver
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7. 1. Exploitation
╺ A few bad apples, but much of it happens
because of ignorance (on both sides)
╺ Volunteer “opportunities”
╺ Sham contracting arrangements
╺ Deferred pay arrangements
╺ Dodgy employment practices, e.g. 15 clients a
day
= atrocious.
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8. Don’t get used
Know your
legal
status
Know your
legal
rights
Know your legal responsibilities
(Alert: free resource at the end)
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9. Employees: don’t get
exploited
• Fair Work Australia
Know your 10 minimum
employment standards
• Health Professional Employee - Level 1 (full-time
wage per week)
• Four year degree (pay point 3) $920.40
• Masters degree (pay point 4) $952.20
Read Health
Professionals and
Support Services Award
2010 (MA000027):
• Have a written contract
• Read it - before you sign!
• Read all documents incorporated by reference
• Watch out for restrictive covenants/non-competes
Read your contract

10. Owner operators and contractors: you only start once
Get legal and accounting advice
Right legal structure
Tax file number/ABN
Insurance
Medicare provider
Health funds/HICAPS

11. You have an ABN
“Everyone does it this way”
“All short-term work is contract work”
You have a registered business name
You issue invoices
You are paid a commission
If in doubt, seek legal advice.
Contractor? Ignore people who say you are contracting just because…

12. Employee versus
contractor.
It’s a grey area (but
don’t get ripped off)

13. 2. Fatigue and burnout
(not just talking about hard work)
Intense, long social interactions
Low level “performance” pressure
Constantly reviewing, reflecting, reporting, planning –
dwelling on past and future instead of right now
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14. Not a sprint.
Get and stay well
Physical
health
Mental
health
Social
health
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Time management
and systems
Busy does not
always mean
productive

15. 3. Isolation
╺ Water, water everywhere…
Having lots of clients is not the same thing as having a
life.
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16. Maintain real
connections
In the SLP bubble (your
best network is sitting in
this room)
Outside of the bubble
Online
In the real world
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17. 4. De-skilling risk
╺ Narrow scope of practice
╺ Comfort zone (bored)
╺ Poor management (demotivated)
╺ Lack of training (incompetent)
╺ Lack of supervision/mentoring
= rapid loss of skills.
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18. Invest in yourself
Look for practices that
support training
Invest, learn and teach
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19. 5. Inadequate
supervision/
support
╺ The contracting conundrum
╺ Big organisation does not always mean proper
support
╺ The NDIS challenge
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20. Mentors and
supervisors
Negotiate
If you’re not getting
enough, find someone
who can help you
Pay for it if necessary
In private practice you
need business skills, so
learn them!
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21. 6. Incompetence
╺ Imposter syndrome – everyone has it
╺ Faking it until you make it is not a good strategy
in health!
╺ Not knowing what you don’t know
╺ The legal advantage of evidence-based practice
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22. Risk manage
Seek help early
Refer on early
SPA Position Papers
Reflect on your work,
measure outcomes and
get better
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23. 7. Fuzzy Boundaries
╺ Operating outside scope of practice
╺ Over-promising
╺ Too connected and accessible
╺ Working with friends and family
╺ Over-servicing
╺ Over-dependency
╺ Thinking you are more important than you are
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24. Stay professional
Don’t overpromise and
under-deliver
Clarify role(s) – in writing
Be careful about personal
relationships
Be careful with financial
relationships
Be careful with
life/parenting/financial
advice
Be careful with friends
and family
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25. 8. Advocacy and
reputation pitfalls
╺ Ethical duty to advocate
╺ Status anxiety, e.g. public v private
╺ Social media groups
╺ Online reviews (can be very hurtful!)
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26. Stay cool
Don’t be defensive
Deal with complaints
early
Learn from mistakes
Stay healthy
Keep perspective
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27. 9. Closing down to
cope
╺ High volume, repetitive churn can wear you
down
╺ Frequently changing jobs – looking for the
“perfect job”
╺ Conveyer belt mentality
╺ Selling time for money
╺ “I know all I need to”
╺ Why take risks? What’s in it for me?
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28. Remember your
purpose
Success does not mean
significance.
Leave a legacy.
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29. “The whole process of nature is an
integrated process of immense
complexity, and it’s really
impossible to tell whether
anything that happens in it is good
or bad — because you never know
what will be the consequence of
the misfortune; or, you never know
what will be the consequences of
good fortune.
Alan Watts
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30. Back yourself: step
out of your comfort
zone
Feel the fear and do it
anyway.
You never know what will
happen.
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31. 10. Being generic
╺ Google image SLP – depressing
╺ Lack of racial, cultural, gender, socio-economic,
cultural and political diversity = echo chamber,
group think
╺ Fixed ideas of what it is to be a speech
pathologist limits us all
╺ We need to reflect the communities we serve
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32. Be authentic
It’s possible to be
professional and
different!
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33. Top 11 tips
Learn from my blunders!
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Know your legal
rights and
responsibilities
Stay healthy
Stay connected to
people you care
about
Invest in skills,
learn, then teach
others
Find mentors and
supervisors
Maintain
professional
boundaries
Stay cool under fire
and remember your
purpose
Share your talents
Give back to the
profession
Be grateful
Be yourself!

35. Free resource
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speechiesinbusiness.com/tag/sydney-university/

36. “Bless the feet that take you to and fro.
Bless the eyes and the listening ears.
Bless the tongue, the marvel of taste.
Bless touching.
You could live a hundred years, it’s happened.
Or not.
I am speaking from the fortunate platform
of many years,
none of which, I think, I ever wasted.
Do you need a prod?
Do you need a little darkness to get you going?
Let me be as urgent as a knife, then,
and remind you of Keats,
so single of purpose and thinking, for a while,
he had a lifetime.
Mary Oliver36

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THANK YOU!
Connect with me:
╺ @speechbloke on Twitter
╺ Banter Speech on Facebook
╺ LinkedIn
╺ david.kinnane@banterspeech.com.au

38. CREDITS
Special thanks to:
╺ Presentation template by SlidesCarnival
╺ Photographs by Pexels and Unsplash
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