The Therapy Dog Who Made All the Difference — & a Business Built to Be Passed On | Harper Psychology

In this episode of Scale HER Up, Brenda Hector is joined by Alison Harper — founder of Harper Psychology — and Sara Huibregtse Van Loon, psychological therapist and Alison's hoped-for successor. Alison started private practice around 2006. She didn't plan to. She went into it because her children were going to school, the holidays were 14 weeks long, and one of her kids was absolutely not going to a holiday camp. She thought she'd do it briefly. Twenty years later, here she is. In that time she's built a practice of six, navigated the challenges of staff retention in a field where changing therapist really matters, seen demand spike during COVID, and acquired two therapy dogs — one of whom, a one-eyed collie named Paddy, features in one of the most moving moments of this conversation. This is a warm, honest, and thoughtful episode about building something you're proud of, letting go of control, and why mental health is no different from dental health. *In this episode:* 00:00 — Introduction 01:00 — What Harper Psychology does 02:00 — Clinical psychologist vs CBT therapist — what's the difference? 04:00 — What to look for in a therapist (it's not the label) 05:30 — Harper Clinical Psychology to Harper Psychology — the rebrand and why 06:30 — Why Alison went into private practice: school holidays and a stubborn child 07:30 — Sara's route: traveling through Europe, winding up in Edinburgh, and meeting Alison 09:30 — Sara's role — and the plan to eventually hand over the practice 11:00 — The "passing the baton" succession model 12:30 — COVID and the growth from 2 to 6 15:00 — The challenges: staff moving on and what it did to client continuity 17:30 — The mindset shift: valuing CBT as a destination, not just a stepping stone 20:00 — The therapy dogs 21:30 — "Paddy made me better" — the most moving client story 24:00 — Was it scary to hire? 25:00 — The benefits of a team: not being on your own 27:00 — What comes next — succession and open conversations 29:00 — Was Alison always going to have a business? 30:30 — Flexibility and family as a driver into private practice 31:00 — Advice to their 18-year-old selves 33:00 — Advice to women starting or scaling a business 34:30 — The mental health stigma that still exists 36:30 — Do business owners have any common mental health patterns? 38:00 — What employers can do to genuinely support their teams Scale HER Up is the podcast for female-led businesses ready to grow to seven figures and beyond. Each episode features real stories, tools and tactics to help you build a business that supports the life you want. Only one in three UK entrepreneurs are female — and men are still five times more likely to scale beyond £1 million in turnover. When we change that, we add £250 billion to the UK economy. Ladies, you can do it. #ScaleHERUp #WomenInBusiness #FemaleEntrepreneur #MentalHealth #Psychology #WomenInHealthcare #TherapyDogs #WomenSupportingWomen #EdinburghBusiness #MentalHealthAwareness