Meet Leah Leynor, MA, LMFT, LMBT

As a private practice consultant, I help health providers achieve their personal and professional goals. I also assist both new and established entrepreneurs with navigating the obstacles associated with private practice management, including issues related to service rates, billing, credentialing, corporate workshops, and more.

My diverse background has allowed me to develop skills in several areas that are key to private practice profitability:

Financial Planning And Customer Service

My business management experience includes prior roles in sales, marketing, account management, operations, and customer service. I spent many years in the financial services industry, helping businesses and individuals to realize their economic potential. The years that I spent working for alternative investments and banking management companies, as well as other financial services organizations, taught me that financial security is the foundation of any sustainable business. I also learned the value of exceptional service, consistent client contact, and seeing projects and goals through to completion.

Holistic Problem-Solving

Gradually, I realized that the long hours and pressure-cooker environment of the financial world was not a good fit for me, especially in the context of trying to raise a family. One event in particular really made me reconsider what I wanted to do with my life: the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center, where I had worked until just weeks prior to the attack. What felt like a new lease on life was also an invitation to explore the possibility of a more meaningful career.

Led by a desire to help others, I became a licensed massage therapist and opened my own practice. As I learned about the incredible interconnectedness of the body, I became a believer in holistic healing. I realized that there is value in understanding the interactions between the parts of a system, whether that system is the human body, or the red tape involved in starting a business.

Private Practice Management

While I enjoyed helping my clients heal physically, I wished to assist them on their life’s journey on an even deeper, more psychological level, which led me to pursue a career as a mental health therapist. I became a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, then went about the difficult task of teaching myself how to open a counseling private practice.

The graduate program that I had attended taught me all about therapeutic diagnosis, treatment, and ethics, however the program failed to include much about small business ownership. While I had picked up many useful business management skills from my previous endeavors, I had never opened a mental health private practice before.

Prior to opening my private practice, I contracted with a community mental health agency as an Outpatient Therapist. I recall being asked for my CAQH (Counsel for Affordable Quality Healthcare) profile number in order to credential for insurance panels contracted with the agency, without even knowing what that was. This experience was the beginning of my learning curve in showing me what I did not know.

Although I had learned some things regarding insurance and billing working with the agency, as I initiated the credentialing process upon opening my private practice, I was shocked by its complexity and time-consuming nature. When building and running my practice, as I attempted to spend more time with my clients by outsourcing my billing tasks, I was continually frustrated by the errors, lack of transparency, and non-existent follow-through exhibited by my billing vendor.

Sharing My Success

Through extensive research and persistent determination, and with the help of a kind and knowledgeable mentor, I eventually worked out the kinks in my counseling practice. As my business continued to grow, friends and colleagues approached me with questions: How did I manage to keep such a full schedule? How did I get onto that supposedly closed insurance panel? And, why did I seem to have fewer billing headaches than they did? Given how much I had learned about private practice management over the years, I realized that I was in a position to help.

Reliant Practice was founded to assist fellow private practice owners through the painful learning stages of healthcare business management. As private practice consultants, we collaborate with healthcare providers to establish and manage profitable businesses and achieve their professional goals.   

Reliant Practice works with healthcare providers on everything from how to open a private practice to providing complete in-house business management services for established entrepreneurs. Learn about Reliant Practice’s billing, credentialing, corporate workshops, and consulting services [A1] .

Leah Leynor earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Rider University prior to obtaining a Master of Arts degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Pfeiffer University. Leah is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. She is also a Certified Clinical Trauma Professional, Certified Hypnotherapist, and is a Licensed Massage and Bodywork Therapist with a diploma from the American and European Massage Clinic.