Vivian

Working in Business can be a lonely experience. Who do you seek out to use as a sounding board?  Will you find your inner creativity and move past todays obstacles?

Running a business is often like raising a child.  There are days when you think it will last forever and times when you look back over vast amount of work achieved.  Does it work out in the end?  Like raising children there is no clear answer.  I think each day has its own challenges and it takes considerable effort to step back and see what you are doing and where things are going.

In my role as a psychologist I often provide a feedback process.  Will clients like your product or ideas?  Will your website attract visitors? What matters when running a business from your home office? How can your family be involved without killing each other in the process?

I have run businesses from construction to dress-making and now innovating and reinventing how psychology services are provided in Brisbane.  Over the years many lessons came from life and not a text book! If you need help with your business don’t hesitate to visit me at Mt Gravatt or Loganholme in Brisbane.

What are your priorities?  Managing a business and a family can be challenging. What are my 5 top tips on keeping on top of both?

1. Take time off when you need it.  Running a business and family are both 7 day a week jobs.  Evaluate your own needs each day and don’t run yourself to into the dangerous territory of burnout.  If you stop loving what you do, it’s ok to take an afternoon off and walk on the beach, cook a meal, go out with friends. If you make your job part of every living moment it will eventually become draining.  The energy for new ideas and evaluating your business strategies often occurs when you are not doing working on business activities.
2. Step back occasionally and find expert help. In my business coaching role I see many business owners undertake too many roles that might be better completed by another. Constantly assess if you are the best person to complete a task.  Sometimes a little expert help from sources like local business networks (free), professionals in banking, law or psychology can help. Be wary of the number of SEO companies that will take your money for little effort.  It is not helpful to be first on google, it is helpful to be on the first page of google for a few hundred words and phrases!
3. Do what you enjoy. The goal of running a business is that you enjoy the freedom of ownership of your intellectual efforts and have enjoyment from the outputs of the business. These include respect, financial security and satisfaction in having products or services that are useful and appreciated by clients.  If you are investing in a business and it doesn’t have sufficient rewards, then you will find the long hours in business development boring and exhausting.  If you have employees considering employing someone to do the things you don’t enjoy and over time increase the tasks that you do enjoy.
4. Find support. In business there are many aspects that cannot be shared because of commercial confidentiality, lack of time and inadequate relationships.  It is important to have business support by either people you can trust who are invested in your long term success.  A partner, adult children or parents, long term friends with business experience.  It may feel like a luxury to talk about your future directions over coffee when things are going well, but sharing what goes well and what is challenging can help you to evaluate your risks and likely roads to success.  Your closest friends will know you well and not be easily convinced that every idea is a good one and you need people to share when they think you shouldn’t proceed with a risky activity.
5. Diversify. When things are going well allocate a small amount of time to diversifying your client base, products or experiment with new ways to minimise costs.  I tend to think about 10% of my ideas will be very useful, about 10% won’t work and about 80% neither work, nor fail so I learn about why.  I have like to keep a steady flow of new ideas being tested in my business, while channelling most of the business energy into what has already worked well.

Hope this helps your business!

Some days working between a 7 day a week clinic, logging on and off about a dozen devices a day and finding time to be involved in family can be difficult.  I embarked on a quest this year to master icloud, google circles and try to reduce spam mail so I could find my real mail.  In my quest to simply my life I think I’ve made it far more complicated, but as the months are going on it is becoming easier.  My strategy has been to set aside 1-2 hours to master technology each week and another 1-2 hours to maintain it.  I find that web stuff can be rather addictive and cause me to lose focus.  If I add it into my day as a task then I find it doesn’t absorb my every waking minute!

One of the most common reasons clients book counselling with me, is around issues with sexual performance anxiety, self confidence, effective couple communication, and managing intimacy.  Being a sex therapist means that I have attended special training on sexual problems, intimacy and how to improve relationships when sexual issues are the problem.

I find that many issues require some amount of planning or problem solving, talking about options without fear of embarrassment. I see opposite and same-sex couples, with many issues being the same although there are also many differences.  I view all individuals as having an ability to develop masculine or feminine skills, with research supporting that being both skilled in masculine and feminine skills are helpful for long term relationships in both men and women.

 

What is Interpersonal Psychotherapy?  IPT is one of the most effective treatments for depression!  IPT was discovered in the 1970s when they invented a counselling treatment to compare to anti-depressants.  By surprise they found that IPT was equally effective and just as quick as medication for the average person with depression.  In Australia, Medicare provides subsidised counselling for depression and IPT is one of the preferred treatments called a “focused psychological strategy”.  Often psychologists will provide counselling like IPT for 6-12 sessions and if counselling is not effective then we will suggest clients return to the referring GP and seek advice on medication options.  Trail and error often finds that either counselling or medication or both will be the best solution.  If you would like IPT please ask when you visit.  I can provide IPT counselling supervision to health professionals and psychotherapists if needed.