Season 6 Episode 7: Beyond the Waitlist: Building a Service That Supports Your Community

 In this episode of OT Coaching Confidential, I’m joined by Luana, a paediatric occupational therapist who stepped into private practice 12 months ago after almost a decade working across clinical practice, leadership and education.

Now running a mobile paediatric practice in a regional community, Luana has gone from wondering where her referrals would come from to managing a full caseload and a growing waitlist.

Together, we explore what happens when the challenge is no longer finding enough work, but deciding how you want your service to show up for your community. We unpack different ways of supporting families beyond ongoing one-to-one therapy, creating clearer referral and intake pathways, and valuing your expertise when opportunities arise outside traditional clinical work.

We explore:

• Moving from managing a waitlist to thinking about how you want to service your community
• Creating referral pathways that gather the right information before families reach your waitlist
• Rethinking weekly and fortnightly therapy as funding models change
• Assessment pathways, one-off consultations and other alternatives to ongoing therapy
• Designing a caseload around the way you actually want to practise
• Using parent education, workshops and school consultation to support your broader community
• Deciding when offering your expertise for free is worthwhile and when it needs to be paid
• Moving beyond the NDIS hourly rate when pricing consultation and professional learning
• Using daily, half-day and consultation rates to value your time more intentionally
• Thinking about pricing from the top down: how much you want to work, what the business needs to earn, and what your services need to cost

Key takeaways:

• A growing waitlist doesn’t automatically mean you need to fit more one-to-one clients into your week
• Families sitting on a waitlist are not yet active clients, and your systems need to reflect that boundary
• Asking better questions at referral can reduce administration while helping you identify the right clients for your service
• Families may benefit from an assessment, one-off consultation or practical recommendations without immediately entering ongoing therapy
• Service delivery should be based on what is clinically indicated, rather than simply continuing the weekly or fortnightly models we have become accustomed to
• Free professional opportunities can still have value when you are clear about the intention and return, whether that is community connection, marketing, referrals or professional fulfilment
• Consultation and training are different service offerings from therapy and do not need to be priced at the same hourly rate
• Knowing what you want your business to earn and how much you want to work can help you price services more sustainably

Mentioned in this episode:

• My Murphy’s Single Session Therapy approach and training
• Community and parent education as an alternative way of supporting families
• Regional grants to fund community education initiatives
• The Sole Trader Hub at The OT Coach Academy

Brought to you by Alyce Svensk at The OT Coach Australia.

Supporting allied health professionals to build confidence, clarity, and connection through mentoring, supervision, workshops, and The OT Coach Academy.

If this conversation resonated with you and you would like support through supervision, business mentoring, or reflective practice, visit www.theotcoach.au to explore how The OT Coach Australia can support you.

The OT Coach Australia. Where therapists come to grow.