About PPI

Mission & Founder
The Mission of the Professional Practice Institute is to help dedicated professionals create successful practices that are as good for the professional as it is for the clients served and the community. Your success applying your expertise is our mission! PPI grew out of Practices Made Perfect, L Lawless's training and consulting business as she discovered the great need for easy, online resources for professionals.

Comments
Human service professional’s very often are good at their specialty, i.e., mental health, medicine, law, education, yet do not have the business skills to create, market and maintain a healthy business. Since the profession is often also a lifestyle, they are trained to be role models and help other people, not how to live a balanced life and take care of themselves.

About the founder Linda L Lawless MA LMHC LMFT
Linda Lawless has studied and worked in the medical and mental health field for over 30 years. After leaving nursing and management work in the CA State Mental Hospital system, in the 80's, she opened a community based counseling center in Benicia CA. In her own words:" After creating and managing community based private practices in several geographical settings, I found I was good at translating general business and marketing strategies for other professionals who were not trained how to run a business and were constrained by legal and ethical mandates in how they grew their practices. Wiley & Sons approached me in the 90's after hearing about my work and I wrote two books, How to Build and Market a Mental Health Practice and How to Get Referrals, (Wiley & Sons) with the intent of sharing all that I had learned, often by making mistakes, in creating and managing community based practices. I use an inside out, developmental approach that can be applied successfully by professionals at any stage of their business development. My Authentic Marketing model helps the professional communicate the love they have for their work to the people to need their services using an educational model that is comfortable and honest.

My core message is that professionals can create, manage and maintain successful businesses without sacrificing their ethics or themselves. Burnout is high in the human service field and in many work settings clinicians are overworked and underpaid. Communities need healthy, skilled professionals who remain in practice long term. Using the tools, and applying the skills provided by the Professional Practice Institute, professionals can create businesses they flourish in, help people who need their services, and be a long-term resource to their profession and their communities. I challenge you to create the professional practice of your dreams and share your knowledge with others. I invite you to join PPI in its mission."