Nexus Practice Foundations
A 90-day private practice development program for helping professionals
Three days to work on your practice. Ninety days to put the plan into action.
Building a private practice asks you to bring your professional skills into a whole new set of decisions. Who will you work with? How will people understand your service? What will it cost to deliver well? How will you manage enquiries, consent, records and the working week you actually want to live with?
Nexus Practice Foundations gives you time, structure and company to work through those questions. Begin with a three-day hotel intensive where you develop your own practice model and practical tools. Continue with small-group meetings, an individual practice review and guided implementation over 90 days. You leave the intensive with a working plan, then return to it as you learn what needs adjusting.
Enquire about the next cohort here.
Who this is for
This program is designed for emerging helping professionals preparing for private practice or establishing its early foundations. It also welcomes experienced practitioners who are moving from employment into independent work, or who want to bring more structure to a recently established practice.
Counsellors, coaches, occupational therapists, specialist personal trainers and related helping professionals can work alongside one another while developing plans appropriate to their own services. You might be preparing to see your first private clients, building a part-time practice around other commitments, or working out how to make an existing service more manageable.
Counselling provides the organising lens, with particular attention to informed consent, boundaries and information handling. Each participant applies the learning within their own training, competence and professional requirements. The program develops your practice foundations; it does not provide an initial qualification to practise.
What you can gain
You will clarify what your practice offers, who it serves and where its limits sit. That gives direction to decisions about fees, capacity, client processes and how you explain your work.
You will have time to ask questions, receive feedback and work on tasks that are easy to postpone. You might rehearse an agreement in a client conversation or examine the assumptions behind a fee. Each exercise helps you turn an idea into something you can use and review.
The group brings company to an often solitary transition. Training introduces tools, while coaching and mentorship help you examine decisions. Peer discussions offer different perspectives as you develop a practice you can understand and manage.
Our goals
· Help you define a service that fits your professional scope and the people you intend to support.
· Develop your understanding of the money, time and professional support the practice needs.
· Build clearer client processes and identify documents or decisions requiring further review.
· Help you communicate your work and develop appropriate referral relationships.
· Turn your priorities into achievable actions, with opportunities to review and revise them.
How the 90 days work
The program starts with three full days in a residential setting. Bring your questions, draft materials and ideas to develop through teaching, planning exercises, document work, rehearsals and feedback.
Day 1 focuses on the practice you want to build: its purpose, intended clients, service model, finances and capacity.
Day 2 follows the client experience, from an initial enquiry through agreements, information handling, payment and appropriate referral.
Day 3 connects your practice message and referral relationships with a realistic marketing approach and a sequenced implementation plan.
After the intensive, six 90-minute online seminars take place around Days 14, 28, 42, 56, 70 and 90. The first reviews your foundations and setup priorities. Later meetings revisit client processes, referral relationships, visibility, finances and capacity. The final meeting reviews your portfolio and helps you plan the next quarter moving forward.
You also receive one 30-minute individual practice review during the first month. This is an opportunity to bring a specific practice development question or decision and agree useful next actions. Between meetings, your working portfolio helps you keep track of what you have done, what you have learned and what still needs attention.
What you will learn
During the program, you will learn to:
· Describe your practice purpose, intended clients, services and professional boundaries.
· Examine community needs and test the assumptions behind your service model.
· Prepare a draft budget and cash-flow forecast, explain fee assumptions and relate them to your capacity.
· Map a client journey and draft service, consent and information-handling processes for appropriate review.
· Rehearse clear conversations about the service, fees, expectations, boundaries and referral.
· Identify the operational requirements, professional support and specialist advice your practice needs.
· Write a clear practice introduction and plan appropriate referral and visibility activities.
· Implement and review a 90-day action plan using completed work, feedback and revised assumptions.
The portfolio you build
Your Private Practice Working Portfolio brings the program together in one place. Across 12 sections, you develop your practice purpose and services, financial assumptions, working week, setup priorities, client journey, information arrangements, operating tools, professional message, referral map and marketing plan. You also record your starting point and the actions you take over the 90 days.
The portfolio is a working resource you can keep using. It holds drafts, feedback and revisions, including questions that need advice or verification. The aim is to make the reasoning behind your practice visible and give you a useful basis for the next decision.
What is included
· Three days of facilitated learning, planning and practice exercises.
· A participant working portfolio with guided worksheets and review prompts.
· Six small-group online follow-through seminars.
· One 30-minute individual practice development review.
· Facilitated peer discussions and feedback on your work.
· A 90-day implementation roadmap and a final review of your next priorities.
Time and participation
The learning design includes 19.5 hours during the intensive, nine hours of online group seminars and a 30-minute individual review: 29 facilitated hours in total. Preparation, breaks and your own implementation work are additional. Allow approximately two to three hours before the intensive and aim to reserve around two hours a week for your chosen tasks, adjusting this to your circumstances.
Bring a laptop and any existing practice notes or drafts. You are welcome to arrive with unanswered questions and incomplete ideas. Exercises use fictional examples; confidential client information stays outside the learning group. Tell us about access or learning needs when enquiring so we can discuss suitable arrangements.
Questions before you join
Do I need to have opened my practice already?
You can join while preparing to open or while establishing an early practice. Your implementation goals will reflect your starting point. Progress may mean completing and testing essential foundations before you begin seeing clients, or improving the way an existing service operates.
Is this suitable for my profession?
The core planning work is relevant across helping professions. We use a counselling lens while recognising that each discipline has its own responsibilities and service context. If you are unsure about fit, tell us about your training, intended work and practice stage when you enquire.
Is accommodation included?
The intensive is designed for a hotel setting with accommodation optional. Venue, accommodation options, meals and package inclusions will be specified for each cohort before booking opens.
Does this replace supervision or professional advice?
The individual review and group discussions focus on practice development. Participants continue to arrange the professional or clinical supervision relevant to their work, and seek tailored legal, tax, financial or other specialist advice where needed. The program helps you identify and organise those questions.
Can I claim CPD?
Participants may be able to claim relevant activities towards CPD, subject to their professional association's rules. The 29 facilitated hours describe the program design; they are not a claim of approved CPD hours. You can also enquire about Nexus College's optional CPD Live Assessment to demonstrate applied learning and receive Nexus certification following successful assessment. Assessment arrangements are separate from the included practice review and occur further fees. Details: https://www.nexuscollege.com.au/about/cpd-live-assessment
Take the next step
Tell us where you are starting, what you hope to build and which decisions you would like help to work through. We will share the next cohort's dates, location, fees and booking information as they become available. Email to enquire about Nexus Practice Foundations.
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