From Schools to Private Practice: An Inspiring Journey with Darla Gardner
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What motivates Darla Gardner to leave school‑based work and start a private practice?
Starting a private practice isn't what it used to be. Today's clinicians are starting private practices much quicker, easier, and cheaper than before. And they aren't guessing their way through it or getting stuck in analysis paralysis, they're following a tried and true roadmap in order to save time, money, and frustration. There is no reason to reinvent the wheel or struggle to figure out how to start a private practice on your own. We've helped thousands of SLPs and OTs through this process and now we want to help you too. For a limited time, I'm offering a free copy of our private practice roadmap, specifically for SLPs and OTs who are curious about private practice and want to see what the journey looks like.
To download your free copy, please visit startyourprivatepractice.com backslash roadmap to sign up. Now on to the episode. Darla Gardner is a speech language pathologist with a pediatric private practice outside of Dallas, Texas. After many years of working in the schools, Darla was told that she was gonna have to move to a different building. And so she did the unimaginable and she said no. Instead, she decided to join the Start Your Private Practice program to learn how to start her private practice step by step. She started wonderfully made therapies in order to pursue her long term dream of opening a private practice in order to address the unmet needs of children in her community specifically those needing speech therapy services that were unavailable through the schools.
And the best part of all, not only does she share her startup story, but she also shares how she got her private practice up and running with extremely low overhead costs. If you've been feeling stuck in the schools and have been thinking about seeing your own private clients, this is a must-listen episode, so stay tuned. I'm Jenna Castro-Kasbon, speech language pathologist, business coach, and creator of the Start Your Private Practice System. And I'm on a mission to turn stock SLPs into successful private practitioners. If you're tired of dealing with high productivity requirements, high caseload sizes, and low pay, it's time to take control of your professional, personal, and financial life and finally get the freedom, flexibility, and financial abundance that you deserve by working with private clients in your own practice.
Join me here each week as I share tips, best practices, and inspirational interviews on the Private Practice Success Stories podcast. If you're a private practitioner or one in the making, you're in the right place, so let's get started. Hey Darla, how's it going? I'm good. How are you? Oh, I'm fantastic. Happy Monday to you and to everybody. And what I would just love is to have you start by saying your name, your location, and the name of your private practice. My
name is Darla Gardner and I am located just south of Dallas, about 35 miles in Innis, Texas. The name of my clinic is Wonderfully Made Therapies.
So, Darlene, you and I have known each other from Instagram for a while now. And it was so cool to me when all of a sudden you started taking these steps toward getting your private practice kind of up and running. Can you tell our listeners a little bit about your early career? And then at what point did you start thinking about private practice?
Well, it kind of always been in the back of my mind, but never really thought it was achievable. So I've been a school SLP since two thousand two. I did leave for a couple of years here and there and go to work in a sniff and come back, but always back to the same school district in my town. So I just thought I would retire as a school based SLP. I loved it. I loved the schedule with my kids being little and Then all of a sudden, kind of after COVID, things started changing in the world of education. I started just not feeling as settled. I just felt like other people were trying to tell me how to do my job, honestly. Other people who I didn't even feel like were qualified to do that in some cases. I'd been doing this a long time and I felt very confident in my role.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What motivates Darla Gardner to leave school‑based work and start a private practice?
0:00–15:16
2
How did Darla’s early career and experiences in schools shape her vision for a private clinic?
15:16–22:32
3
What triggered the decision to launch Wonderfully Made Therapies and how did she prepare for it?
22:32–35:19
4
How did Darla keep overhead costs low when setting up her clinic space and equipment?
35:19–36:48
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Private Practice Success Stories
She Spent 5 Years Too Scared to Start - Now She Has a 4-Room Clinic with Tiffany Fairdosi
She Started With Two Clients on the Side - Now She Has Nine SLPs and a Clinic with Samantha Taylor
From 2 Clients on the Side to Ready to Hire — Then She Decided She Didn't Want To with Bianca Gizzi Fusco
She Told Her Dad She’d Never Start a Private Practice - Now She Has a Successful Clinic and Growing Team with Sarah Landry
She Started at 26 With One Referral - Now She Has a Downtown Office and a 3-Year School Contract with Becca Vilsaint
She Didn't Hate Her Job BUT She Left to Start a Private Practice Anyway with Heather Danielkiewicz