Starting a private practice
How to start a private counselling practice in Australia
The practical building blocks — business setup, insurance, rooms, bookings and records — in plain language, with the legal and tax bits clearly flagged as general information, not advice.
Written by Steve Daniel, founder of Zenvia — GAICD · MBA · Master of IT · Author, Cybersecurity for Australian Not-for-Profits.
Business setup
ABN, insurance and GST
Most sole-trader private practitioners register an Australian Business Number (ABN), free via the Australian Business Register, before invoicing clients or funders directly.
Professional indemnity and public liability insurance are standard for private practice — confirm your policy (or your association's) actually covers independent practice, not just employed or supervised work.
You must register for GST once your turnover reaches $75,000 in any rolling 12-month period (the ATO checks both what you've already earned and what you're projected to earn) — you can register earlier voluntarily. Confirm the current threshold on ato.gov.au, since it can change.
Keep your professional association or registration body's private-practice requirements in mind — supervision hours, CPD and any notification obligations when you move to independent practice.
This is general information, not tax or legal advice. Confirm your specific position with an accountant and your professional association before you start billing.
Where you'll see clients
Rooms vs telehealth
Telehealth needs no fixed room cost — just a private, reliable space and a stable connection. In-person work usually means hiring a room by the session or the hour (roughly $25–60 a session in most cities) rather than committing to a lease, at least until your caseload is steady enough to justify one. Most practices that grow start telehealth-first and add room hire as demand builds.
Getting booked
Bookings, reminders and billing
Clients need a way to find your availability and book without a back-and-forth of emails, and a way to be reminded so they show up. Billing means invoicing private-paying clients and, if you take them, third-party funders like NDIS or an EAP — each with its own paperwork if you handle it manually.
This is exactly the admin a group practice normally takes 30–40% for. Zenvia does it for a flat 10%, plus card processing at cost, with no split and nothing to pay for your first 90 days.
Clinical records
Records obligations
Independent practitioners are responsible for their own client records — consent, retention periods and secure storage typically need to meet the Privacy Act's Australian Privacy Principles as well as any additional requirements from your registration body or insurer. Get your specific obligations confirmed rather than relying on general guidance like this.
What it actually costs
A realistic first-year cost breakdown
Starting lean — telehealth-first, no fixed room — most practitioners can open for somewhere between $2,000 and $5,500 in one-off setup costs, plus ongoing monthly running costs from there. Roughly:
The single biggest lever isn't any of the line items above — it's whether you commit to a fixed room from day one. A leased consulting room easily adds $500–2,000+ a month before you've seen a single client; hourly room hire or telehealth-only lets your costs scale with your actual caseload instead. Most practices that grow start telehealth-first and add room hire once referrals are steady enough to justify it, not before.
Put together, a lean telehealth-first launch — ABN, insurance, a basic web presence and a free-to-start practice platform — commonly lands somewhere around $2,500–4,000 in the first year, before any room hire or supervision costs, which are better thought of as ongoing running costs than one-off setup. That's a starting estimate, not a budget to hit exactly — your actual number depends on your registration body, your state, and how much of the above you already have in place.
What the first few months look like
A realistic timeline from decision to first client
- Week 1–2: register your ABN, confirm your professional indemnity and public liability cover extends to independent practice, and check your registration body's private-practice notification requirements.
- Week 2–3: set up booking, invoicing and records — whether that's a practice-management platform, or a combination of a calendar tool and a spreadsheet (not recommended once you have real client records to protect).
- Week 3–4: decide on rooms (telehealth-only, hourly hire, or both), and get a simple web presence up — even a single page with your registration, specialisations and a way to book is enough to start.
- Week 4 onward: start building referral relationships (GPs, other allied health practitioners, your professional association's directory, a public directory listing) — referrals are typically the slowest-building part of the whole process, so starting this early matters more than perfecting your website.
- Ongoing: most solo practitioners describe the first three to six months as the slow build — a caseload that fills faster after that initial stretch as word of mouth and repeat referrals compound.
This is a general, indicative timeline, not a guarantee — your registration body's specific requirements, your location, and your existing referral network all shift this.
See what it costs to run
Compare doing it yourself, a group practice and Zenvia on your own numbers.
Already at a group practice? See leaving a group practice.