Last week, I updated my Best Online Resources for Therapists in Private Practice guide for 2026.

I've been maintaining some version of this list for several years, but as I was writing this year's version, I started wondering if we still need resource lists at all.

There's so much information about building a private practice already.

Podcasts about starting and growing a practice, newsletters, Facebook groups, blogs, YouTube channels, consultants, courses, and now AI tools that can answer almost any business question you have in seconds.

So finding information is not a problem. The real challenge is knowing which information deserves your immediate attention.

And I think this can become confusing for practice owners.

You can spend an hour listening to a podcast about raising your fees, open Instagram and see someone telling you to start running Google Ads, check your email and read that SEO is the answer, and then ask ChatGPT what you should do and walk away with an entirely different marketing plan.

Ironically, none of this advice is wrong. It can simply be wrong for you, right now.

For example, advice that makes perfect sense for an insurance-based group practice trying to scale may be completely wrong for a solo private-pay therapist charging $300 per session.

A therapist starting a practice needs very different information from someone with a full caseload who wants to hire clinicians.

And someone struggling to generate any inquiries at all probably shouldn't be following the same marketing advice as someone getting plenty of inquiries from the wrong people.

So instead of asking, "What are the best resources for therapists?" I think a more useful question is:

"What do I need right now?"

If you want to use online resources without becoming confused by them, I'd start by dividing helpful information into a few categories.

1. Understand your business

You need a small number of reliable resources that help you understand the financial and operational side of running a practice.

That might include fee setting, profitability, taxes, hiring, insurance, or managing a group practice.

You don't need to become an expert in all of these things. But you do need enough business literacy to recognize when something in your practice deserves attention.

2. Learn how to reach your market

This is where marketing resources become useful.

Depending on your immediate problem, you may want to learn about positioning, SEO, referrals, Google Business Profile, advertising, email marketing, or another channel.

The important thing is not to mistake learning about a marketing tactic for needing that tactic.

Just because you listened to a great podcast about Google Ads doesn't mean Google Ads should become your next step.

3. Pay attention to what's changing around you

This is the category I think practice owners often overlook.

Your practice doesn't exist in a vacuum.

Changes in insurance, healthcare investment, AI, consumer behavior, search, regulation, and the larger mental health industry can eventually affect how people find care and what they're willing to pay for.

You don't need to follow every healthcare headline. But understanding the environment around your practice can help you make better long-term decisions.

4. Choose resources that match your current stage

This may be the most important filter.

Before adding another podcast, newsletter, expert, or AI-generated recommendation to your information diet, ask yourself:

Does this person understand the kind of practice I'm actually trying to build?

Someone can give excellent advice and still be the wrong person for you to listen to.

That's why I don't think the goal should be consuming as much business information as possible.

The goal is to build a small group of trusted resources you can turn to when you need to understand something, make a decision, or see your practice from a different perspective.

That's also how I approached my newly updated Best Online Resources for Therapists in Private Practice: 2026 Guide.

I've collected podcasts, newsletters, websites, and other resources that I think are genuinely useful for practice owners, particularly around the business side of private practice.

You certainly don't need to follow all of them.

Take a look at the guide, find the resources that match what you're trying to accomplish right now, and ignore the rest until you need them.

See you next week,

Avivit

P.S. If there's a resource you think belongs on the list, reply and send it my way. I read every email.