private practice with only one group of people?

[Deons]

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Is it possible to do private practice limited to only one particular group of people? Like only the elderly, or women, or people of particular religion, etc? This is not a matter of bigotry but competence. I think I am particularly good when working with one group of people but just average or somewhat below average with the rest. Ah, I might as well just say it, I am the only boy in my family, having grown up with sisters, spending most my time with girls. I am surprisingly good when working with women but have difficulty establishing relationship with men. I have really tried but again, I understand men's views in theory but intuitively, I can only connect with women. It's too early and I haven't gone to grad school yet, and this is just based on some research projects I've done here and there, and of course, informal relationships. I figured if I go to school, and do private practice, I will do very well with female clients but will have a hell of a time holding on to the male clients. I wasn't sure if it's legal to do this, hence the question. I do know people specialize, like in working with kids or older people, or certain therapists prefer to work with people who are similar to them (religion, SES, etc) but I don't think they can specialize in the second scenario.

 

[ClinicalABA]

While not necessarily illegal, it's a bit impractical. From a business standpoint, you'd be cutting your potential client base in half. Any decent bricks and mortar grad program is going to give you training and experience working with a variety of clients, including clinical situations you don't yet know exist. You may find that with some experience and supervision, you'll do just fine with males.

If you do apply to grad school, you might want to be careful about saying that you don't feel comfortable working with males, as it could be seen as a negative and limit you chances of being accepted.

 

[Deons]

Okay, thank you. Yes, I was certainly not going to mention that I don't feel comfortable working with men in my application or interview. Well, in fact it's not even that I don't feel comfortable, it's just that I can't create a connection where I really feel I understand them. This may all change of course, and as you say I will get training working with different kinds of clients. Incidentally, I was generalizing and of course it's not that I understand and connect with all women and just the opposite for men, but that this is true in the majority of cases. Thanks for your input.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

Is it possible to do private practice limited to only one particular group of people? Like only the elderly, or women, or people of particular religion, etc? This is not a matter of bigotry but competence. I think I am particularly good when working with one group of people but just average or somewhat below average with the rest. Ah, I might as well just say it, I am the only boy in my family, having grown up with sisters, spending most my time with girls. I am surprisingly good when working with women but have difficulty establishing relationship with men. I have really tried but again, I understand men's views in theory but intuitively, I can only connect with women. It's too early and I haven't gone to grad school yet, ....etc.

Don't put the cart before the horse.

I have seen people specialize, though it tends to be with a patient population like Substance Abuse or Eating Disorders. I have heard of some people advertise that they are woman-owned and they focus on women's issues, though typically people don't want to alienate an entire gender.

 

[Deons]

sure, that sounds good.