Call-out to Burlington professionals:

Is The Arterie a home for your practice?

We have two rooms opening up amongst a small number of excellent, devoted, intuitive clinicians who all house our practices together. We wish our present occupants could stay, but life calls people elsewhere, too! As we bid them adieu, we wonder who will come to fill a cozy and bright consulting room alongside us in our sage coloured bungalow on Guelph Line?

You could be:

a registered psychotherapist, a psychologist, an MD psychotherapist, a social worker (all of these are represented in our collective) ; or RN- / OT- psychotherapist; a mental health professional, y’know ;)
a body worker/ holistic professional that works as a sole practitioner
a tutor, a coach, a child life specialist with a specialty that works well alongside our family friendly general practice

We are steps from the lake along what was once a foot trail that traced from escarpment to the sparkling horizon, the bay that flows Niagara way. I pull the land and the waters to mind because it must be the abundance of the waters here that bring good flow to this place. No one has lacked for clients amongst the 6 full-time + more part-time practices that operate here. We share referrals, but it is not a group practice: a collective, rather.

What is a collective? Think union, think association, but without dues (we do share some costs, i.e. webstuff). Also think artist collective, in this case: the art of therapy. Referrals are not monetized, they’re shared out during our biweekly peer supervision meet-ups. Then the good healing that happens brings more people to The Arterie, and clients are so consistently well-served that we do not lack (Claudia & Sarah pass along referrals until therapists say ‘stop’). We do not market much beyond word of mouth (though we mean to, as we underuse our subscriber list); respected professional referral sources make a network of doctors, psychologists, therapists of all stripes, and others in the community with whom we look forward to making the time to converge and talk shop / best-practice.

As therapists, don’t we all craft our relations with our clients pristinely so as to HEAL other relations inside and out, past and future? For this, we work to maintain good relations —ethics, yes, but not only good ethics, overall good relations with our peers alongside our own people. Having a house of human humanists means we get to practice together, ever growing in humility, competency, and ultimately, wisdom.

The (so far) women who have worked in this house alongside me since 2017 are my teachers, mentors, friends, and fellows. Would that any of them who have worked here pre-pandemic, before the place was flushed by lockdown, return? I miss those days.

Claudia, with whom I started the Arterie in 2014, and one of three partner-owner/operators—speaking of good relations—is my correlate; we have sister-practices side-by-each, within which we work together often. That shared centre of gravity has made sole-practionerhood into a dance, over the years. In our peer supervision, biweekly and impromptu, house-wide, we advise and get advice. I wouldn’t be…I just wouldn’t *BE* without it.

Beth too, here since the start, MD psychotherapist, by whose lunch hours you can set a clock, works with complex trauma, somatically, and is TAPPED IN. And there are enough other smart-hearted clinicians here that I won’t list them all—a half-dozen busy full & part-timers who also inspire me. The presence of such generous spirits is my best company. This camaraderie allows me to take risks, and to deepen the work I do as a healer. Therapists who have heeded their calling then survived it long enough to practice for two decades, as I have, know this: the best measure of a client’s healing is our own learning, and healing too. It is my decade of Burlington clients, all-ages, and my decade of Montreal clients that have trained me, and healed me too. Of course, healing is never quite a faît-accompli. But in our bi-weekly supervision sessions, other Arterie-based practitioners will agree, we exponentially multiply the learning and the healing amongst ourselves, pooling the stories of the big adventures we each get up to in our play/consulting rooms, day after day.

One rooms is $1050/mo (avail from Feb 1st) and the other is $1175/mo (start date negotiable) plus HST/ tax. There are two additional shared costs that are not included in a lease: 1) supplies/internet (30$/mo) and 2) cleaning (we take turns picking up the monthly ‘tab’ for the cleaning company, which is about 350$, twice a year).

Either room is excellent value for either a full-time practice (let’s say 20 billable-consultations per week for 45 weeks of the year; OR a pair of part-time practitioners sharing a room), when charging market value for professional consultation / services.

The house enables full-time practice with the above supports (camaraderie, cross-referrals, shared amenities including a parking spot-per-consulting room), all of which are NOT contracted (i.e., supervision is optional, we’re not a group practice, referrals are not guaranteed, rather shared). Thus clinicians, of course, collect full-fee, and take full responsibility for the good management of their own private practice. It bears repeating that the consistency & progress of my own private practice has been the consequence of the good ballast and joyful camaraderie that the Arterie offers. And, my neighbour, beloved lake Ontario. Join me for a walk there if we have matching cancellations :)

Intimidated? By the commitment to self-employment? By the leap of faith of relying solely on the relational arts to earn your keep? I understand. There’s sometimes a scarcity-mentality out there, in therapist-circles, I’ve noticed as I’ve begun to circulate this vacancy posting. However, if you’re in this for long-term, in-person, private practice, here’s a sketch of the math: you’ll likely budget about 40% of a full-time practice income toward overhead costs, including income-tax of ~ 22% which is deducted after expenses. In this loose private-practice budget, the largest expenses of practicing as a therapist are perhaps training, and then second, the lease for your consulting room, both of which are expenses that are deducted before taxation, and both of which (i.e., training & lease) should ensure that your hard work is both rewarding and sustainable. Both rooms available at The Arterie range around/about 10% net overhead cost of a net full-time practice income (I’m calculating from that ‘sweet spot’ of 20 consults/week x 45 weeks/year). New practitioners would be savvy to budget for a couple of years of profit-loss in the name of start-up, but do it somewhere they can build well and stay put. With good supervision, ‘safe and effective use of self,’ as they call it, and professional development, the flow of 20 consultations per week is baseline, in our experience. But, yes, it’s A LOT. This work is haaaaaaard on the chassis in ways no one can overestimate. Hence the need for one another. And the need for beauty. The Arterie is pretty, homey, cozy, and well-appointed. Every client exclaims this spontaneously upon arriving for the first time. And when well-served by our good work of psychotherapy, our clients stay for the deep stuff, longer-term, which is the way to achieve both deep healing & that baseline of consults where we earn our keep.

Inspired? Maybe, like me, this spot is tugging at you, like a compulsion. 384 Guelph Line was fully gutted and renovated in 2017 by the previous owner, from whom Claudia and I rented at these same rates as listed here for years pre-pandemic. Before 2017, the house hosted a psychologists’ practice for 25 years prior, as if the house wants our kind of work to happen here. For me, this house, The Arterie, is my co-therapist. I lean back, shivasana-styles, and feel supported, and my clients lean on me. The ground has got us all (and the lake is waving).

We can talk about the details, the numbers, we can negotiate, sure. With serious inquiries, we will be transparent with our math, our vision, our finances. We’re open to partnerships. We’re all about working together. We have goals of more workshops, groups, courses, trainings out of our super sweet downstairs studio. I think I underserve the community, and I want to up my group-game.

We have spoken to some interested clinicians who were seeking short-term/ part-time commitments. There are great options for practitioners who want those kinds of terms (therapist-centred co-working spaces and group practices abound). Here, however, on a day that slays, you can leave your desk as-is, and conquer the wreckage the following workday. There are lots and lots of advantages. You can hang your diplomas; it’s far easier to schedule within a breadth of days; compartmentalize between office/work and life/everywhere eles. We work on-line, yes, and in-person. There is a clientele that prefers in-person, and, as it happens, so do I (sarah b).

We’re looking for a housemate who wants to stick around & love the place where they practice and the fellows whom they practice alongside. The Arterie is well-appointed, well-cared for, and so will you be, if you join us.