How to build a therapy practice innovation strategy

Summary

A practice innovation strategy is a commitment to continually grow your therapy practice—from future-focused therapy services to practice management and marketing—combined with an actionable plan to foster that growth and help you understand how to stay competitive as the industry evolves.
With therapist employment projected to grow 17% from 2024 to 2034, understanding what trends to watch and when to implement changes is critical for standing out, staying proactive instead of reactive, and reducing therapist burnout through improved systems.
Building an effective practice innovation strategy involves four key stages: idea generation and ideation (auditing your practice), idea evaluation and selection (choosing innovations that are doable, necessary, and mission-aligned), implementation and execution, and monitoring and evaluation (understanding how to measure success across operational, financial, clinical, and team metrics).

Like any industry, the therapy space is continually evolving—and if you want to provide your clients with the services, support, and experience that will keep them engaged with the therapy process and help you reach your practice goals.

For those curious about how to stay competitive, a solid practice innovation strategy can help you structure your practice with future-focused therapy services that continually attract clients and allow you to thrive, both professionally and financially.

But what is a practice innovation strategy? And how can you create an innovation strategy that helps you know what trends to watch, when to implement changes, and how to stay relevant, competitive, and successful—not just today, but for years to come?

What is a practice innovation strategy?

Before we dive too deep into the importance of having an innovation strategy for your therapy practice, let’s quickly define what, exactly, a practice innovation strategy is.

AI innovation consultancy BOI defines an innovation strategy as “a commitment to a common innovation mission and a structured set of activities designed to support the future growth of an organization.”

So, how does that definition apply to therapy practices? For therapists, a practice innovation strategy is two-fold: It’s the commitment to continue to grow all areas of your practice—including the development of future-focused therapy services—to better fit the needs of your clients.

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The benefits of a strong practice innovation strategy

Now that you understand what a practice innovation strategy is, let’s jump into why you need one for your practice.

“The mental health landscape is shifting quickly,” says Samantha Silverman, LCSW, CEO, and owner of Colorado-based group practice Silver Lining Mental Health. “AI, virtual care, insurance changes, tech tools, and rising client expectations mean what worked five years ago won’t always work today.”

Not only is the therapy industry changing, but it’s also growing—and that growth is expected to continue for years to come.

According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselors is projected to grow 17% from 2024 to 2034—significantly higher than the average projected growth for all occupations.

So, for those wondering how to stay competitive as the industry continues to grow and change,

incorporating a practice innovation strategy into your larger practice management business plan can help you stay ahead of the curve.

“As the number of licensed therapists and the number of online therapy marketplaces increase, practice innovation is becoming more necessary for practices that want to thrive in this competitive environment,” says clinical psychologist Jason Drwal, PhD, founder of Evergreen Therapy Center, a group practice in Iowa.

A practice innovation strategy can help therapists stay competitive in a variety of ways, including:

Helps your practice stand out

With so many therapists to choose from, if you want your practice to succeed, it needs to stand out to potential clients—and a practice innovation strategy with future-focused therapy services can help you do so. “Innovation helps your practice stand out,” says Silverman.

A practice innovation strategy will help you not only evolve your practice in a way that meets clients changing needs, but it can also frame your practice as one that’s on the cutting-edge of what’s new in the industry with future-focused therapy services, which can help you stand out and grab your ideal clients’ attention.

Helps you stay one step ahead

As mentioned, the therapy industry is changing rapidly—and if you’re trying to adjust and adapt to those changes as they happen, there’s a high likelihood that you’ll be behind the curve.

“A clear innovation strategy helps your practice stay proactive instead of reactive,” says Silverman. It enables you to identify emerging trends and integrate future-focused therapy services while they’re still new and relevant to your community.

Allows you to reap the benefits of innovation

A key element of any practice innovation strategy is to identify how to continually upgrade and improve how you manage your practice. And those upgrades and improvements can offer serious benefits to you, your clients, and your practice as a whole.

“When systems improve, therapist burnout decreases, workflows become smoother, and client outcomes and retention strengthen,” says Silverman.

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How to determine when it’s time to innovate

Clearly, an innovation strategy can be hugely helpful for your practice. But how do you know when to implement changes?

While there’s no universal formula for determining when you need to innovate, if any part of your practice is starting to feel stagnant, outdated, or less than functional, consider it a red flag that it may be time to get the ball rolling on an innovation strategy.

For example, according to Silverman, signs your practice needs to make moves to innovate include:

Frequent client complaints or concerns
Increasing requests for innovation (clients requesting new modalities, staff members requesting new tech platforms, etc.)
Therapist burnout or overwhelm
Ongoing time management issues
Stagnant or decreasing revenue
Stagnant or decreasing client attraction and/or retention
Administrative bottlenecks
Outdated technology
Outdated (or not properly functional) policies, procedures, or systems
Frequent questions, concerns, or complaints from direct reports

If you find these issues are coming up in your practice with any regularity, you should definitely consider building an innovation strategy and implementing changes to your practice.

Next, let’s cover what building and implementing a practice innovation strategy looks like.

The key stages of innovation strategy—and how to build an effective strategy for your practice

According to the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), there are four key stages in building an innovation strategy for your practice:

Stage 1: Idea generation and ideation

The first step of the practice innovation strategy building process is idea generation and ideation.

The first step to idea generation and ideation is doing an audit of your practice as it stands today; that way, you look into each area of your business to identify what’s working, what’s not working, and where innovation needs to happen—which will allow you to come up with ideas that will actually service your practice.

Some key practice areas you’ll want to audit include:

Technology infrastructure. “Your EHR, telehealth platform, billing systems, AI tools, and internal SOPs all shape daily operations,” says Silverman. If your tech is outdated or no longer a fit for your practice, stagnation is inevitable without putting an innovation strategy in place. Understanding how to evaluate new tech platforms against your current systems is essential during this audit phase.
Client experience. Few things will hold your practice back more than a negative client experience. “Intake, scheduling, communication, session flow, and follow-up now matter as much as clinical skill,” says Silverman—and so, if you’re looking for areas to improve and innovate, auditing your client experience is a must.
Services and clinical model. “Your specialties, modalities, group work, intensives, and integrative services shape your market position,” says Silverman. As you audit your services, consider what trends to watch in your specialty area and whether expanding into future-focused therapy services would better serve your clients. Before you get too far in the innovation ideation process, you’ll want to review your current services and clinical model—and how (and how well) they service your clients.
Systems, processes, and standard operating procedures (SOPs). Your systems, processes, and SOPs are the foundation of your practice—which is why, if you’re planning to innovate, you’ll want to review your current systems, processes, and SOPs to make sure they’re going to support the kind of growth you want to see in your practice.

Once you’ve audited your practice and identified the areas most in need of innovation, it’s time to start brainstorming ideas of changes you can make that would help you reach your practice goals.

For each area identified, come up with at least one idea or more detailing the types of innovations that would have the most impact on your practice.

For example, during your audit, let’s say you notice that your current tech stack—which includes a variety of outdated tech platforms that manage different parts of your business—is causing administrative bottlenecks. In that case, you’d want to come up with ideas to streamline your technology and make it more efficient—like upgrading to an all-in-one EHR solution.

Or, maybe you realize that, while your practice has been exclusively focused on talk therapy, an increasing number of clients are requesting more body-based therapy modalities—in which case you might want to brainstorm ways to bring those modalities to your practice (like signing up for a relevant certification program or hiring an additional therapist that specializes in breathwork, somatic experiencing, or another body-based therapy).

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Stage 2: Idea evaluation and selection

Once you have your list of ideas, the next step is to identify which ideas you’re going to move forward with.

In order for an innovation idea to have a real impact on your business—and, therefore, be worthy of including in your strategy—it needs to:

Be doable

You can have the best innovation idea ever. But if you don’t have the time, bandwidth, and/or resources to actually implement it, it’s not going to make any difference to your practice’s success. Before you officially choose an idea to incorporate into your innovation strategy, make sure to evaluate whether you can realistically pull it off in the current moment.

Remember, it’s easy to under-estimate the challenges, obstacles, and setbacks you will encounter as you implement a new project—so whatever time, effort, and money you think it will take, “add (at least) another 50% and you might have a more realistic estimate,” says Drwal.

Be necessary

The end goal of a practice innovation strategy is to actually improve your practice—and to do that, “innovation must solve a problem for your business or your clients,” says Drwal.

When evaluating ideas, make sure that every idea you decide to include in your practice innovation strategy directly addresses an issue that is currently holding your practice back.

For example, if your clients love your current scheduling process, investing in a new scheduling platform likely won’t have a huge impact. But if you’re getting near-daily client complaints about your scheduling platform, upgrading your technology is an innovation worth pursuing.

If you’re not sure if your innovative ideas solve a significant problem in your business—or you’re not sure which ideas address the most important problems—the best thing you can do is ask.

Talk to your clients and staff to find out what specific things in your practice they find challenging or outdated, as well as anything they feel is missing for them to have the best possible experience.

Then, use those insights to better evaluate your list of potential innovations and choose the ones that speak directly to the problems your clients and/or staff are experiencing.

Be aligned with your mission and purpose

There are a virtually endless number of ways to innovate your practice—but in order for innovation to be sustainable for the long-term, it needs to align with your practice’s mission, purpose, and values.

“My…tip for therapists wanting to innovate is to start by grounding every decision in the values and mission of your practice,” says Colorado Therapy Collective founder, Nancy Brittain, LCSW. “Mission alignment should always be the North Star.”

The better the potential innovations align with your mission and values, the more likely the idea will have the kind of impact you’re looking for.

“For example, if one of your core values is offering accessible care at very low price points, then building an AI-based tool that provides affordable, on-demand support may be a good fit,” says Brittain. “But if your mission centers on long-term, relational depth with clients, that same innovation might actually pull you further away from what makes your practice effective.”

Bonus tip: Avoid shiny object syndrome

One other important point to keep in mind as you’re honing in on innovations to include in your practice innovation strategy can be summarized as “avoid shiny object syndrome.”

New technology, trends, and therapy services are constantly emerging. But innovation simply for the sake of innovation—or, in other words, making changes to your practice just to capitalize on what’s new and trending in the therapy industry—rarely produces positive results. And, in fact, depending on the “shiny object,” could actually hold your practice back.

As you’re building your practice innovation strategy and navigating how to evaluate new tech, what trends to watch, and which future-focused therapy services are worth exploring in your practice, it’s important to consider everything through the lens of your specific practice—and if that tech, trend, or therapy service is actually going to help you move closer to your goals.

“Innovation isn’t necessarily about adopting the newest technology or trend; it’s about making changes that meaningfully advance your purpose,” says Brittain.

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Stage 3: Implementation and execution

Once you’ve narrowed down your ideas, the next step is to actually implement those changes in your practice.

But implementation can be tricky. For example, according to research outlined in the Harvard Business Review, about three-quarters of change efforts either fail to deliver the target benefits or are abandoned completely before they can make an impact.

So, if you want to see real results from your practice innovation strategy, how you roll out and implement that strategy is extremely important.

When actually implementing your innovation strategy, here are a few best practices to keep in mind:

Train your staff. For those with larger practices wondering what about staff training, if you have a staff that will be implementing your practice innovation strategy, it’s imperative that you thoroughly train them. From the get-go, you want to make sure your entire staff understands the innovations you’re moving forward with, what problems these changes are designed to solve, and the results you’re aiming for. You also want to make sure that each individual staff member understands their role in the practice innovation strategy—and how their current role, responsibilities, and expectations are changing. “The larger your team, the more time you’ll need to spend on training, communication, and change management,” says Brittain.
Start slow... When you have a proactive innovation strategy you’re excited about, it can be tempting to move forward at full-speed with all the innovation happening at once. But the more you try to do at the same time, the higher the risk of negative outcomes, like implementation mistakes or staff burnout. As such, it’s important to start slow. “Being intentional about how many initiatives you take on at once—and honest about your capacity—helps ensure that each innovation has the support it needs to succeed,” says Brittain.
…and start with what matters most. As mentioned above, when you implement your practice innovation strategy, it’s important to start slow. And because you’re only going to be moving forward with a few innovations to start (or even a single innovation!), which change you choose to implement is extremely important. Make sure to start with the innovations that stand to make the most impact; then, once those are successfully in place, you can move on to the next most impactful element of your strategy—and then continue until you’ve fully executed the strategy. This approach will ensure that you focus on what matters most and don’t spin your wheels on changes that aren’t going to make a major difference in your practice, especially at the beginning.

Stage 4: Monitoring and evaluation

Once you’ve implemented your practice innovation strategy, the next step to consider is how to measure success.

While the exact metrics you use to evaluate the impact of your innovation strategy will vary based on the specific changes you’re making in your practice, Silverman recommends tracking metrics across four key areas:

Operational metrics, like new client conversion rates, cancellations and/or no-shows, or administrative time saved
Financial metrics, like total revenue, profit margin, labor costs, revenue per clinician, profit margin, or client lifetime value
Clinical metrics, like symptom reduction, client satisfaction, or client retention
Team metrics, like employee turnover, onboarding speed, job satisfaction, technology adoption, or burnout indicators

Tracking and monitoring metrics across these four areas will give you a big-picture sense of how your innovation strategy is affecting your business. And once you have that intel, you can use it to evaluate the effectiveness of your strategy and adapt or make changes as necessary.

For example, let’s say your practice was struggling in the client experience department—and a major part of your strategy was to roll out a new scheduling and client communication platform.

After implementing your new platform, if the data shows a decrease in no-shows, along with other metrics like an increase in revenue and improved client satisfaction, those are green flags that the innovation is succeeding.

On the flip side, if you review your metrics and realize that no-shows are actually up since you launched the new platform, it could be an indicator that you need to adapt your strategy.

Prioritizing innovation is a fantastic way to ensure your practice continues to stay competitive, even as the therapy landscape changes.

In order to ensure your practice stays relevant and modern, make sure to revisit your practice innovation strategy often—and adjust and update as needed.

“Treat innovation like clinical work: reflective and ongoing,” says Silverman. “Stay curious, ask your team what isn’t working, make small consistent changes, invest in tech before it’s urgent, build a feedback-friendly culture, protect time to think, and update systems annually.”

Sources

Board of Innovation (BOI). What is innovation strategy? Discover best practices, definitions, tools, and examples.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Occupational Outlook Handbook: Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors. August 2025.
International Institute for Management Development (IMD). What is Innovation Strategy? Stages, types, and examples. August 2025.
International Institute for Management Development (IMD). Put purpose at the core of your strategy. August 2019.
Harvard Business Review. What Everyone Gets Wrong About Change Management. November-December 2017.

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