Recently I was involved in a panel of social workers to discuss business structure. At Continuum, we are a company structure and this structure has really always been determined by size of the organisation. I found it an uncomfortable discussion, to talk about financials to a group of peers, particularly peers that I did not know and some I had only heard of. I do not generally talk of money and it is not something that I see as a part of a definition of success, it really is my least favourite part of being in private practice. Success in social work to me, is meeting the needs of our community. I have always said to my team, I am not worried about the bottom line, as long as it is black and not in the red, we can keep going… an unusual concept for the accountant I might add.

At the end of the day, I am in private practice, a choice I made from previously working in government. I never made this choice as a financial decision, but to be the social worker that I wanted to be. As a social worker, seeing areas for change and things that could be different for the children that we worked with. I wanted to provide services for children and their families, not services that were bound by tender agreements and eligibility criteria, but services that met the needs of children that did not quite fit in the box. I’ve learned more than I could ever dream of.

Working in private practice, it does not come without criticism in our field, I’ve heard, “Oh, so you do the same thing but for three times the price”, referring to contracting services and “you make money out of the vulnerable”. To be honest, I would be making more if I stayed in government and some days, I wish I had sick days, flex time or annual leave… and much less stressful in a pandemic. To me, leading a team in private practice is an honour, it is about passion, inspiration, innovation and making a difference.

In our office, we see everyone who needs a service, some of our clients can only attend therapy under Medicare, some run out of sessions and we have seen them pro-bono or for a small fee because what we do can help them make the changes they need. We believe in alternative therapeutic interventions, using interventions like EMDR and Theraplay over conventional talk therapies. We will soon add neurofeedback to the list, along with trauma informed yoga and other strategies. When I hear, “I’ve never seen a therapist quite like you”, I know I am on the right track.

Today I was asked where it was on our website, the corporate social responsibility that we engage in, where do we talk about it? I realised we do not, and I have never felt that we needed to. Whilst we volunteer and provide sponsorship for the annual Illawarra Brick Show event for Kidzwish and we have hosted free community education sessions on trauma, we do this as part of being social workers, working in a community with vulnerable children and families, not as a marketing strategy.

We also invest profits in education, educating our team to be the best and the most innovative to help people engage in change. We invest in the education of others, taking on student placements, sharing our time and knowledge in growing the next generation of social workers. Since 2016, we have grown nearly 35 social work students, they have lived and breathed theory to practice and been inspired to work in the sector. We have stayed with them, helping them with resumes, interviewing skills and exploring their identity as a social worker. We celebrate with them when they move into their dream social worker positions and take their Continuum experience with them. We are so proud of each and every one of them.

Private practice is not about making bundles of money as a social worker, if any of us wanted to do that, we would never have gotten into social work. We need to live and grow our own families obviously, but it is about having the freedom to empower people to make change, to give them tools, provide effective training, assessment and therapy and to hope that at the end of the day, our community can be a better and safer place for everyone.