Liquic.com is a comprehensive online health and wellness resource for individuals seeking a better quality of life, providing access to coaches, psychologists, yoga instructors, dieticians, fitness experts, relationship therapists, counselors and financial advisors regardless of physical location.  By merging the traditional world of psychology, the practical hands-on touch of the coaching and counseling industry, and the exciting techniques of alternative and holistic wellness, Liquic is able to serve as a gateway to improved overall well being.

Today, Liquic.com launches its eClinic facility in beta test mode, connecting mental health and wellness professionals with consumers online. Signaling the convergence of professional consultations and online communication, Liquic enables professionals worldwide to grow their practice area virtually through bylined articles, videos, online chat, email sessions and more.

Included in the eClinic’s areas of expertise are body and health wellness; mental health and personal development; finances and money; family; children; and intimacy.  Consumers can utilize the site’s comprehensive database to find practitioners based on their individual needs, browse a variety of health related articles and videos, or connect directly with select professionals. Since the site is location sensitive, professionals with premium listings are presented on the home page to consumers in their area.

“Liquic brings two eager groups in contact with each other – professionals who want to reach out to new clients with new techniques, and individuals who are looking for a low-barrier of entry for personal help,” said John Khoury, CEO of Liquic.com. “People are looking more and more to preventative health measures and are increasingly rejecting medical solutions to cognitive and emotional issues. Liquic offers a single online location for consumers to educate themselves on treatment options and connect with professionals – as well as a one-stop-shop for professionals to present themselves and conduct their work online.”

For March, 2010,  create a profile for the online sessions and get a free premium listing for 6 months (usually 500 bucks).

Here’s a nice, shiny, new avenue to help promote your practice:  YourTango.com ProConnect.  The site is offering nine months free for new clinician sign-ups this month.  Melanie Gorman, the company’s Director of Marketing & Business Development explains:

Each relationship expert who lists on ProConnect receives a 3-6 page website that details their professional bio, contact information, services offered and more. Professionals are able to directly access potential clients and make a name for themselves within the YourTango community by posting content and answering questions from our readers.

My hope is that lots of Pros will take advantage of the free offer because for so many, marketing is a barrier to a successful practice. A smart marketing package holds so many different components and that’s the beauty of ProConnect, it’s one site that covers all of the most important bases and it’s easy for anyone to use. What better time to do something like this than when it’s free? Not to mention it will give a great depth to our list of Pros and that will allow our audience find the exact person they need to work with.

Here’s the press release regarding the free offer:

YourTango.com, the premiere women’s website for relationship advice with over 1 million readers each month, proudly announces the beta launch of its latest channel, ProConnect.

ProConnect (as the name implies) is a unique service integrated within the YourTango community designed to connect relationship and dating professionals with readers who are seeking advice. ProConnect is seeking professionals like therapists & counselors, relationship/dating/life coaches and educators, faith-based professionals, matchmakers and more to participate in ProConnect for absolutely no cost for 9-months.

Throughout January 2010, Up till Valentine’s Day, 2010, professionals who list on ProConnect will receive a 9-month membership absolutely FREE.

If you are looking for an innovative, inexpensive and quick ways to market your practice, then we want to you to join our team.

Here’s what ProConnect will do for you:

• Establish or expand your online web presence—with countless people using search engines like Google to find information, being on the web is imperative to your success!
• Generate interest in the your activities and workshops to increase your client base
• Help improve the power of your name and brand by promoting your services to our vast community.
• Complement other directory listings you’re already paying for to boost your existing marketing efforts

Additionally, this free offer includes:

• A 6-page website designed to highlight the Pro’s practice & services
• Services to generate new client leads by:
  • Submitting articles for publication on YourTango & partner sites –reaching not just YourTango’s 1mm+ readers, but millions more through our content partnerships with sites like Yahoo, MSN, AOL and many more.
  • Answering reader’s ‘Free consultation’ questions
  • Participating in the Ask YourTango community – to establish your expertise among our readers who are looking for advice
  • Commenting on content and sharing professional opinions
  • Becoming a part of our network of Pros we look to for expert opinions and comments when requested for by larger media outlets
• Promoting events & workshops
• Selling their products available via Amazon.com
• Education, advice and tips on how to market your practice ethically on the web

No credit card or payment required; this is a 100% legitimately free offer

All the details on this exciting offer are available at:

http://www.yourtango.com/proconnect/freeoffer

http://www.yourtango.com/proconnect/sneakpeek

Receive a free ProConnect membership in 3 easy steps!

1. Click http://www.yourtango.com/proconnect/join?m=2
2. Choose “Advanced Membership”
3. Enter Coupon Code = FREEPRO

For additional questions or help, contact ProConnect customer service:

Email: pchelp@yourtango.com; Phone: 410-923-6905 or 321-459-1399

Corey Quinn is founder of WTCI affliate MyTherapistMatch.com, a service that matches clients and therapists based upon results of a personality-traits survey. He talked to WTCI via email about why he started the company and how it does what it does.

MyTherapistMatch.com is offering one month free to WTCI readers. Sign up using coupon code 204.

What’s your background?

I was born and raised as an only child in an entrepreneurial family here in Los Angeles. After graduating college, I started up an Internet company in 1999, where we raised $6 million in seed funding. The company streamed live events on the web (webcasting) and unfortunately took a hit in the bubble burst of 2000/2001. After that, I went into financial services and eventually made my way back to school to get my MBA in finance and entrepreneurship from the Marshall School of Business at USC. Just before entering business school, I went back into the internet industry, where I’ve been ever since.

Currently, I am the founder and CEO of MyTherapistMatch.com. MyTherapistMatch.com is a website that matches individuals with therapists based on compatibility.

What made you start MyTherapistMatch.com?

When my parents decided to get a divorce, they put me in therapy. I was 12 years old. My first experiences with being in therapy were positive. My therapist Jackie and I played games, ate candy and just kind of hung out. Her low key approach to therapy worked for me, and as we became friends, I began to open up to her. She was my ally and helped me successfully deal with the range of emotions I was experiencing though the divorce.

Several years later, when I was in high school I wanted to speak with another therapist about typical “growing up” type issues. I began having sessions with Cathy, the school counselor. Cathy was amazing – I felt like she and I were able to talk and relate on a deep level. I felt like she could really understand me – more than anyone else ever could. The work that she and I did fundamentally transformed and improved my life in amazing ways. Looking back, I am so grateful for her and our therapy sessions.

That was the last time that therapy was amazing for me until recently (I am 35 years old). I had a series of mildly disappointing experiences while seeking therapy after high school. Each time, I would go to a website to find a therapist (such as an insurance website, therapist finder directory, etc.) and would find a couple of therapists that seemed to have the right experience, areas of focus, etc., call them and set up initial appointments.

My hope was that I would find another Jackie or Cathy, but what I found were therapists who were not quite what I had previously experienced. All were licensed, competent and well intentioned, but there wasn’t that connection, I didn’t feel that powerful chemistry that was the important ingredient in the transformational process.

Instead of continuing to shop around to find the “right” therapist, I would decide to stay with a good, but not great (for me) therapist – more out of convenience than anything else. I was not in the mood to interview a large number of therapists to find the right one. I was ready to begin the therapeutic process – to start the work. I would come to find that the outcome of these therapy sessions was positive but it was not the transformational experience I was hoping for.

At the end of one not so satisfying therapy session, I thought to myself – “there has got to be a better way to find a ‘good’ therapist.” Good meaning one that I can really feel connected to and trust at a deep level.

I spent some time thinking about different ways to solve this puzzle, and it hit me – take an eHarmony style compatibility approach and apply it to the finding a therapist process. While the client/therapist relationship is not romantic in nature, the requirement for interpersonal trust and rapport does apply. This was the genesis for MyTherapistMatch.com

What do you do now?

As the founder and CEO of MyTherapistMatch.com, I spend much of my time improving the visibility of the MyTherapistMatch.com site to individuals who are actively seeking a therapist. Finding the right therapist is the most important decision in therapy, and by using MyTherapistMatch.com, individuals looking for a therapist can dramatically reduce the amount of time and improve the probability of finding a compatible therapist. In our first month (we launched in November 2009), we had two times the number of people complete our compatibility survey than we had therapists on our site. We are growing in January and look forward to a great 2010.

How’d you come up with the criteria? Why, for instance, “preferred orientation in time”?

My co-founder and I created the matching survey and algorithm. We base the matching criteria found in our survey and algorithm on our understanding of interpersonal rapport. Dr. Robert Dee McDonald, co-founder of MyTherapistMatch.com, is a therapist who has taught interpersonal communication skills in 18 countries to thousands of students. He has been in private practice for over 35 years, has taught psychology as the University of San Francisco, and is a co-author of the best selling NLP book of all time: The New Technology of Achievement.

We know that in general, people like people who are like them. The same is true for therapists and clients. In the therapeutic realm, the client must feel a great deal of trust in the therapist for real change to happen. Without this trust, clients will not open themselves up to the therapist, making the effort futile, extending the therapeutic process for the client, running up the cost of doing therapy and more. The premise of MyTherapistMatch.com is that we help people find the right therapist by getting connected with a therapist who moves through the world in a similar way to the client, thereby increasing the probability of natural rapport and trust.

In the case of “preferred orientation in time,” which is just one of the 23 criteria with which we match therapists and clients, people tend to “live” in either the present, future or past. We match therapists and clients who prefer one of the three orientations similiarly. Contrarily, if we were to match up a client who prefers to be future oriented with a therapist who prefers to be past oriented, there will most likely be a subtle disconnect. Providing support for the preferred orientation in time concept, Dr. Philip Zimbardo, former president of the APA and Professor Emeritus at Stanford University, has recently presented his findings, called Time Perspectives. Please see the following video clip (duration 2:23): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlTphlvB0xs.

Is there evidence that this kind of compatibility helps in a therapeutic relationship?

There is no hard evidence to support our ideas about this particular kind of compatibility. But we do know from clinical evidence that therapists report that when there is deep rapport, there is a higher probability of therapeutic movement. Carl Rogers, PhD., founder of Person Centered Counseling, said that compatibility is absolutely necessary to create a climate for therapeutic change. In addition, Bruce Wampold, from the University of Wisconsin, reported in 2001 that the therapeutic alliance, i.e., rapport, is a key factor in psychotherapy.

In addition, much of the criteria with which we match people are based on the works of well known psychologists, such as Carl Rogers, PhD, Virginia Satir, PhD, Fritz Perls, MD and Milton Erickson, MD.

Has My Therapist Match been working–are clients and therapists matching up and doing good work so far…?

I am grateful to say that MTM is working. We are only in our 3rd month, so the feedback is just starting to come in. The feedback that we have received so far from therapists on our site has been generally positive. In addition, the feedback we collect from our therapist members gets fed back into our matching algorithm, allowing us to better understand the core drivers of a good match for clients and therapists. In that way, our algorithm learns and improves over time.

Corey Quinn’s company is MyTherapistMatch.com. Find more information at the company’s blog, The Compatible Therapist.

Private Practice Blogs is an ever-updating, growing directory of blogs by and about psychotherapists and psychotherapy–maintained by yours truly, the WTCI ed.  Here’s a cut-and-paste from the list as this post was entered:

• ShrinkWrapped

  From Malthus to Copenhagen: Addendum  

  2 hours ago
• Psychology Today Blogs

  A Love-Hate Relationship  

  2 hours ago
• Therapy Worksheets

  Dealing with Depression Workbook (for Teens)

  4 hours ago
• Good Therapy

  Self-Esteem: How Much is Too Much?  

  5 hours ago
• The Happiness Project

  Does Everyone Need a Theme Song? Come On, Get Happy.  

  8 hours ago
• Psychjourney Podcast

  The Brain Advantage  

  8 hours ago
• HealthSkills Weblog

  …unexpectedly absent  

  8 hours ago
• World of Psychology

  Psych Central & MindApps Offer eCBT iPhone App  

  9 hours ago
• Shrink Rap

  Unemployment Is Not Good For Your Mental Health

  9 hours ago
• Your Mind Your Body

  Generosity – Not Just For The Holidays  

  9 hours ago
• PsyBlog

  When Situations Not Personality Dictate Our Behaviour  

  11 hours ago
• Dr. Deb

  Tips for Dealing With Ghost Networks  

  12 hours ago

It goes on from there.  Submit your blog to privatepracticeblogs@gmail.com.

What’s your background?

Well, I’ve been working in the mental health field for about a decade. A few years ago, I moved from Virginia to Boston, Massachusetts. I had recently finished a Ph.D. in counseling, and wanted to see if I could compete in a city that has more therapists per capita than anywhere else in the country (many of them Ivy League trained). I started a company just outside Harvard Square in Cambridge, MA called Thrive Boston Counseling. Thrive now has 10 clinicians—and a really strong reputation in Boston.

What do you do now?

It seems that I do a little bit of everything. I maintain a small caseload of clients at “Thrive Boston,” but most of my time is spent managing the practice and helping other counselors build their practices. I started the Free Therapist Directory at www.ThriveNation.com because I know how hard some really good therapists have it trying to build a caseload of clients, and because I think most online therapist directories cost too much for the results they produce for subscribers. Plus, I thought it would be fun to create a site that was free to both clients and counselors.

How did you first build your practice? What worked? What didn’t?

There are a few things we do that have helped to build Thrive Boston Counseling.

First, I make sure the care that clients receive at Thrive is noticeably different than other counseling practices around Boston. I can’t say that our therapists are the best therapists in Boston—it’s pretty hard to know that. But we do make sure that we provide lots of value to our clients. When our clients leave their sessions, they feel supported, encouraged, challenged; and they’ve learned things they didn’t know when they came in.

Second, we have a message, and we tell it to anyone who will listen. We believe that everyone has the ability to live a meaningful, exciting life. Anyone can thrive! We write articles on life topics. We call reporters and volunteer information for stories they’re writing. We do everything we can to get our message out, and to let people who are looking for therapy know that “we’re here, and we’re the counselors who are going to help you get where you want to go.”

Third, we pay attention to “customer care.” For instance, when someone calls our office, we answer the phone. This, believe it or not, is the exception to the rule. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve called a counseling practice and heard “We’re sorry we missed your call…” Also, we have a “no waiting list policy.” This means that every person who wants an appointment is offered an appointment that same week.

What’s eCounseling.com? Do you recommend online therapy for people starting a new private practice?

Everyone asks about eCounseling.com. I founded eCounseling.com when I was getting my doctorate (I wrote my dissertation on online counseling). I think online counseling (and telephone counseling) can be a great adjunct to an in-person practice, but I would advise counselors not to try and make it their bread and butter. However, I still provide consultations to persons wanting to succeed as an online therapist; and there are ways to make it happen if you’re determined.

Any final words of wisdom for people trying to get their private practice to…thrive?

Figure out how your practice is unique from other practices, and accentuate that difference. Also, get consulting from others who have built businesses—even business that are not mental health related. Learn as much as you can from people who have made it in private practice. Lastly, be forewarned that running a practice is mostly comprised of non-therapy related tasks. If you want to be a therapist, you might be happier working for a practice and doing what you love—helping others Thrive.

Find Anthony Centore, PhD, on the web at thriveboston.com, thrivenation.com, and ecounseling.com.

• Bing Local Listings
• Google Local Business
• Intuit
• MentalHelp.net
• PsychSites.com (psychologists and psychiatrists only)
• ThriveNation.com
• Who’s Who in Mental Health
• Yahoo Directory
• YellowPages.com

UPDATE:  Longer lists–free and pay sites–are here.

http://wwmhw.com/

You can pay $ for extra features (picture, link to website), if you like.  There are more free sites out there–I’ll post them as I encounter them. Please write if you’ve found others that you like.

UPDATE: Here’s another free therapist listing site–mentalhelp.net. (Offers optional $5/month “featured” listing.)

REUPDATE:  A long list of free and pay online listing sites now lives here.

• Psychology Today
• Good Therapy
• Find-a-Therapist
• Network Therapy
• Wellness.com

More to come.