Any private psychologists out there?

[bowbluebell]

Hello

I'm just finishing a year of maternity leave (boo!) and am going back to my job as a senior (educational) psychologist in a LA two days a week. I'm thinking of supplementing this work with a little private casework. Are there any chartered psychologists (or similar) out there who can give me any tips? Is it better to join an agency? I was considering sending my CV to local establishments to offer consultation work too, has anyone done this? To be honest I'd be happy with a couple of days a month doing assessment and staff training/consultation as that's what I feel most experienced in. Also, I'm registered with HPC but dropped my chartered status with BPS during maternity leave, is this a problem? Is there anywhere I can find out about the 'rules' of undertaking private work (and, er, the going rates!)?

Thanks in advance

the "going rates" thing is impossible to find out, because of price fixing debates etc.

There is a BPS forum for private practitioners where you can trawl through LOADS of posts about the pros and cons of it all, different ways of approaching it etc. The BPS also have a new position paper on private work on their website somewhere (on ML myself so no damn way I am going anywhere near that site just yet!!).

HTH.

Thanks for the advice.

I'll look through the BPS forum. I do wonder if private work is more trouble that it's worth with a young family, but some of my colleagues seem to do rather well out of it.

Hi, I'm pvt Chartered Counselling Psychologist (and HPC): do two days private work and two days work for company. Finds it realy hard carrying private case-loads with childcare, also, motherhood gives you different perspective on things. Advantage of being in work environment is to be able to leave work at work, private work and the responsibility is a lot to carry on your own! Good luck!