Starting and Growing a Socially Minded and Neurodiversity Affirming Therapy Practice with Caitlin Zeien

Private Practice Success Stories

Dreaming about specializing and opening a non-traditional private practice? You don’t want to miss this episode of Private Practice Success Stories!

I sat down with Caitlin Zeien, a speech language pathologist with a private practice in Chicago, Illinois that offers highly-specialized social cognitive language-based therapy.

Caitlin developed a passion for social cognition and social pragmatic language, leading her to specialize in neurodiversity-affirming therapy. Her practice focuses on older children and young adults, a niche that differentiates her from other practitioners.

In this episode, Caitlin discusses her journey and experiences, highlighting the non-traditional ways she has built her private practice.

Despite the challenges, including a cross-country move and adapting to new professional environments, Caitlin's passion for specializing in social cognition and pragmatic language continued to grow and now she has a successful private practice.

Caitlin is the proud owner of Socially Minded Therapy. She is a Chicago-based Speech-Language Pathologist who specializes in social cognitive therapy. She provides Neurodiversity Affirming support and services for neurodivergent children, teens, young adults, and their families in Chicago and the surrounding areas. The goal of Socially Minded Therapy is to help others achieve their goals in the social world. Caitlin is so excited to be a part of this community as an ally and forever learner.

With Socially Minded Therapy, Caitlin goes beyond social skills training in the pursuit of empowering individuals by teaching abstract concepts in a concrete way. She provides highly specialized and individualized therapy to support individuals as they develop social competencies and social problem-solving abilities. Together, in partnership with her clients, they create goals that match the client's own intentions and social areas of interest.

In Today's Episode, We Discuss:

• How Caitlin discovered neurodiversity-affirming care and found her passion
• What happens when you have a support system during your private practice journey
• How your private practice can level up your life
• The huge impact the Facebook group in the Start program can have on your success
• The power of collaboration and an abundance mindset
• The key to finding clients for your private practice
• The impact of niching down in your private practice
• Caitlin’s plans for the future and a scholarship program
• How you can serve people on a bigger level with your practice

I hope you loved this episode with Caitlin! She started her journey in the Start Your Private Practice Program, which helped overcome her business-related apprehensions. She is now part of our Grow program and it has been amazing to see the evolution of her practice!

I love Caitlin’s encouragement to others to pursue their private practice dreams and the importance of having a supportive community, just like she found in the Start and Grow programs.

If you would like to know more about our Programs and how we help support SLPs and OTs who want our help to start and grow their practices, please visit www.IndependentClinician.com/Resources.

Resources Mentioned:

Visit Caitlin’s website: https://www.sociallymindedtherapy.com/

Follow Caitlin on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sociallymindedtherapy/

Where We Can Connect:

Follow the Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/private-practice-success-stories/id1374716199

Follow Me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/independentclinician/

Connect on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/slp.private.practice.beginners/

Mentioned in this episode:

October enrollment for the Grow Your Private Practice Program is now open through Friday, October 11th - and spots are limited. So visit growyourprivatepractice.com/join to grab your spot now.