Productive Therapist Podcast

Hosted by Uriah Guilford, MFT

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Episodes

245

Latest episode

Aug 2026

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About the show

The podcast for private practice therapists who want to turn more calls into clients. Real strategies on intake, operations, and AI — helping you get more done, so you can have more fun!

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60 recent

August 20, 2026Episode 2476 min

Getting Generic AI Answers? Here's The Fix.

Ever feel like you're starting from scratch every time you open Claude or ChatGPT? 🤔 In this solo episode, Uriah shares a simple fix: the "Master Prompt." 🎉 Fresh off a three-hour presentation to testing psychologists in Fort Collins, Colorado, Uriah built a free tool to help practice owners give their AI assistants real context about who they are and how they run their business. This is the key to making every AI conversation feel like talking to someone who already knows you! What you'll learn: What a "Master Prompt" is and why it's the single best first step for getting better results from AI How to to build your own Master Prompt in about 15–20 minutes Exactly where to paste your Master Prompt in Claude (Settings → General → Instructions for Claude) or ChatGPT (as a source document in a Project) Try the Master Prompt here : http://crafted.productivetherapist.com Book a 1:1 AI strategy session with Uriah : http://productivetherapist.com/consulting Visit the website: https://productivetherapist.com/ Timestamps: 00:00 Intro + the Master Prompt Idea 01:57 Tool Walkthrough 03:22 Set Up in Claude + ChatGPT 04:36 More Free Tools 05:19 Wrap Up and Support

August 7, 2026Episode 24637 min

How to Feel Less Busy and Get More Done ft. Brittany Schank

Cleaning your inbox feels great. But is it actually moving your practice forward? Or is it just... busy work in disguise? 👀 That's the question at the heart of this episode. Uriah sits down with Brittany Shank, LCSW, 20-year military veteran, mom of four, and owner of Solace Counseling, a 13-clinician group practice in Fargo, North Dakota. She's also the founder of "I'm Here," a client check-in app she built because she got bored one day and decided to just... make something. Brittany and Uriah dig into the real difference between busy and productive, and it's not what you'd think. Spoiler : it has a lot to do with vulnerability, dopamine, and why you'd rather reorganize your inbox than have that one hard conversation you've been putting off. This conversation will make you rethink your to-do list. In a good way. A things you'll learn: Why "busy" often masks avoidance, and how to spot the difference between a task that's genuinely urgent and one that's just a comfortable distraction. How to reduce the emotional labor behind your admin tasks (templates, systems, and delegation can save you more than just time). Why the truly productive stuff usually feels a little scary, and why that's actually a good sign. A few quotes: "Busy is easy. Busy gives us a really good dopamine hit in the moment. Busy is usually what gets in the way of being productive." "Usually the vulnerable thing is the productive thing." "Build a system that reduces emotional labor as well as administrative labor." A few links: Solace Co Directory Solace Counseling

July 24, 2026Episode 24534 min

The Admin Cost Is $960 Billion, How To Start Shrinking Yours ft. Justin Ith

Your admin team is about to get superpowers. 🦸 Here's a fun fact that'll make your jaw drop: in 2024, more people went to a behavioral health appointment than a primary care one. That's never happened before. Therapists, you are in demand. Here's a less fun fact: Americans spend something like $960 billion a year just on healthcare admin. Not clinicians. Not care. Just the paperwork behind the paperwork. So what happens when someone builds a practice automation platform specifically to close that gap? Listen to this episode to find out. Justin Ith, co-founder and CEO of Aria, joins Uriah to talk AI, automation, and why "human in the loop" isn't going anywhere anytime soon — even as the tools get scary good. Top 3 things you'll learn: Not all AI is created equal. There's generic AI (your Claude, your ChatGPT, your Gemini) and there's purpose-built AI for practice-specific problems. Knowing which tool solves which problem is half the battle. The "big hospital" advantage is shrinking. Deep benefits verification used to take a human several minutes of digging through portals. Aria does it in 11 seconds — the kind of automation that used to be exclusive to billion-dollar health systems, now available to a 10-clinician group practice. AI won't replace your team — it'll supercharge them. The future isn't fewer people, it's fewer openings as your existing staff's capacity grows. You still need someone to "drive the car," as Justin puts it — these systems aren't perfect, and they're not fully autonomous. A few quotes: "You have to not just love the problem — you really have to love who you're trying to help. That's the one consistent through line." "The average person would take a couple minutes. We do it in 11 seconds." "These tools are not intentionally designed to replace you. They're intended to empower you." A few links: Head to heyaria.com/productive for one month free on Aria's practice reporting tool — Justin's gift to Productive Therapist listeners. Find out more about our services at https://productivetherapist.com/

July 10, 2026Episode 24436 min

Why Group Practice Owners Are Still Overwhelmed (Even With Good Systems) ft. Whitney Owens

Ever feel like your group practice is running you instead of the other way around? Yeah, you're not alone. That's why Uriah sat down with his friend Whitney Owens, founder of Wise Practice Consulting and one of the smartest group practice owners he knows, for her fifth time on the show. They got into the systems that keep a growing practice from turning into chaos, and the kinds of overwhelm almost every owner runs into along the way. In this episode, they talk about the first systems you need to get right (intake, billing, and hiring), why hiring for values beats hiring for experience, the real reasons group practice owners feel so overwhelmed, and how a solid team and good SOPs can give you the freedom to step away when life calls for it. Whether you're in year one or year ten, building your first systems or fine-tuning the ones you've got, this one will help you grow without burning out. 🎙️

June 26, 2026Episode 24337 min

From Click to Client: How to Turn Website Visitors Into Therapy Clients ft. Kat Love

If you've ever felt a little weird about asking people to book a call on your website, you're in good company. Asking someone to book a call can feel salesy. Pushy. Kind of the opposite of why you became a therapist in the first place. So this week Uriah sat down with Kat Love, founder of Empathy Sites, who's spent 11 years building websites for therapists, to talk about calls to action and why they're so much kinder than they feel. Her big reframe? A clear next step isn't a sales tactic. It's compassion. If someone's in pain and you know how to help, the warm thing to do is hold out your hand and show them the way. Hit play, and you might never look at that little button the same way again. 🎙️ Links: Empathy Sites : Therapist websites that help right-fit clients say "yes, this is my therapist." SimpleIntake : All-in-one mental health CRM with a 24/7 AI receptionist Productive Therapist : Virtual assistants who know the therapy world

June 12, 2026Episode 24218 min

Workshop: How To Never Miss A Client

Are you losing potential clients simply because no one got back to them fast enough? This episode is for you! Join Uriah as he walks you through why your intake process might be quietly costing you clients... and exactly what to do about it. It's not a marketing problem. It's not a clinical problem. It's an intake problem, and the good news is it's totally fixable. Links: SimpleIntake.ai : AI-powered intake CRM for therapists Productive Therapist : Find the best solution for your practice. Watch the workshop

May 29, 2026Episode 24136 min

How To See Your Numbers Clearly ft. Jeff Bourque

You don't have to love numbers to benefit from them. That's kind of the whole point of this episode. Uriah sits down with Jeff Bourque: data nerd, group practice husband, and the guy who basically built a dashboard so good that his wife's therapist friends started knocking on his door. Three years later? It's a whole business. Jeff spent over a decade wrangling million-row datasets for hospital corporations and companies like Sony and HealthTrust. Then his wife Kelly launched Red Therapy Group in 2019, and Jeff did what any self-respecting data guy would do: he built her a dashboard. Kelly's practice owner friends saw it, wanted one, and the rest is history. Now Jeff helps group practice owners stop flying blind and actually see what's happening in their businesses. This one's a little in the weeds, in the best possible way. 🤓 Links: SimpleIntake , all-in-one mental health CRM with a 24/7 AI receptionist Therapy Intake Pro , expert training for your intake coordinator, level up their skills, increase your conversions grouppracticedashboards.com , grab a free 30-minute consult, no commitment, just a conversation about what you'd actually want to see.

May 15, 2026Episode 24048 min

Stop Making Expensive Decisions in the Dark ft. James Childress

You didn't start your practice because you love spreadsheets. You started it because you wanted to help people. In this episode, I sit down with James Childress, CPA, and founder of CAC Advisors, a financial advisory firm built specifically for therapy practice owners. James's perspective is one I hadn't heard framed this way before: the revenue cycle starts at the inquiry, not the invoice. That first phone call, that first contact form; that's already a financial decision. Most practices are treating it like admin, and it's costing them. He breaks down his wish list vs. strategy filter, three green lights you can check today even if your books aren't perfect, and why the financial decisions that matter most happen before you ever send a bill. Links: CAC Advisors , financial guidance built for mental health practice owners SimpleIntake , all-in-one mental health CRM with a 24/7 AI receptionist Therapy Intake Pro , done-for-you intake coordination with US-based, HIPAA-trained specialists

May 1, 2026Episode 23910 min

The AI Receptionist Blueprint

What happens when someone finally works up the nerve to call your practice? Someone who's been sitting with something heavy for weeks. Maybe months. Who talked themselves out of reaching out over and over again. Who finally said, "Okay, I need help," and picked up the phone. That moment is everything. And what your practice does in the next few minutes (or hours) determines whether that person becomes your client or ends up on someone else's intake form. In this episode, Uriah shares a story that kind of changed how he thinks about all of this (a personal one, from the other side of the phone) and then breaks down a framework that completely reframes intake. Not as an admin problem. As a care problem. This is the AI Receptionist Blueprint. 🎙️ https://productivetherapist.com/blueprint/

April 16, 2026Episode 23833 min

From Clinician to CEO ft. Lisa Catallo

This week's guest is Lisa Catallo, group practice champion. Nobody hands you a leadership manual when you start a group practice. You just... figure it out. Or you don't. 😬 Lisa Catallo figured it out, twice, and now she helps other group practice owners do the same. Lisa Catallo is a psychotherapist turned business coach who helps Canadian therapists build profitable, sustainable group practices, without losing their minds (or their values) in the process. She's the founder of the Group Practice Network , host of the Empower to Lead podcast , and someone who has genuinely lived the messy, beautiful, complicated journey of building not just one but two group practices from scratch. And fun fact, she got her master's degree the week she turned 50. Late bloomer energy, fully activated. 🌟