The Practice CEO Circle
™
The room where Canadian therapy practice owners build profitable, sustainable practices — on their own terms, with their own values, and completely free from the hustle culture that's been selling them a version of success that was never designed for them.
This is not a course. It is not a program. It is not a community of therapists figuring out the basics.
It is a carefully curated mastermind of established Canadian therapy and wellness practice owners who are done being the most advanced person in every room they've walked into — and are ready to do the most significant work of their professional lives alongside people who actually understand the territory.
Cohort 2 applications are now open.
Cohort 2 begins in July 2026. Space is intentionally limited.
THE CEO CIRCLE™
Is This Your Room?
You've built something real. A practice with revenue, a reputation, and a standard of care that sets you apart.
You're not a beginner and you haven't been for a long time.
But somewhere in the growth — somewhere between the full caseload and the associates you're not sure how to lead and the decisions that keep running through you — you started to feel it. The isolation of being the one who holds everything. The particular exhaustion of leading a clinical team when nobody taught you how to lead.
The tension of sitting in the CEO seat while still seeing clients, still managing admin, still being the bottleneck in a practice that was supposed to give you freedom.
The general business spaces don't get it — they've never navigated a regulated clinical environment or wrestled with the ethics of scaling a therapy practice.
The therapy spaces don't get it either — they're focused on clinical excellence, not strategic leadership.
You exist in the gap between two worlds and most available support lands on the wrong side of it.
Most business advice available to practice owners was built on a foundation that doesn't fit. It assumes that growth requires sacrifice. That leadership means hierarchy. That profit and values exist in tension rather than alignment. The CEO Circle™ is built on a different premise entirely — that feminist, anti-oppressive, collaborative leadership isn't a compromise on effective business strategy. It’s an effective business strategy.
What you haven't found yet is a room where everyone is navigating the exact same territory. If that distinction resonates, you're in the right place.
That room exists.
It's called the CEO Circle™.
A PEER MASTERMIND FOR CANADIAN THERAPY PRACTICE OWNERS
This room is for you if...
You are a licensed Canadian therapy or wellness practice owner generating $150K+ in practice revenue
You have associates or are actively building toward a team
You are navigating the transition from practitioner to CEO and you feel the weight of doing it without the right strategic community around you
You are done with generic business advice and ready for a room that operates at your level
You understand that the investment in the right room pays for itself many times over — and you're prepared to show up and do the work
This is not your room if...
You are still building your foundational solo practice
You are looking for clinical supervision or therapeutic support
You want information without implementation
You are not yet financially or emotionally ready to invest in serious strategic growth
Not quite there yet?
The coaching container may be the right place to start. Explore other options →
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
What the CEO Circle™ Actually Is
A six-month mastermind for established Canadian therapy practice owners — built on the Sustainable Practice Framework™ and facilitated by Cecilia Mannella, RCC, RSW, who built a seven-figure Canadian group practice and has spent 17+ years navigating every stage of the journey you're on.
Every cohort is intentionally small and deliberately curated. The calibre of the room is not accidental — it is the result of a rigorous application process designed to ensure that every person who enters is operating at the level required to make the collective intelligence of the group genuinely valuable.
Cecilia has street cred... She coaches from social work values, so the Circle feels like an extension of her clinical practice, not a business program bolted on top of it."
— Laura Boyko, MSW, RSW, MEd, Founder & Psychotherapist, BeWell Therapy
INSIDE THE CIRCLE
What Actually Happens Inside the CEO Circle™
The call notes don't lie. Here is the real work that happens inside this room — in the words and experiences of the members who have done it.
They claim the CEO identity — fully and unapologetically.
1
The shift from "a therapist who happens to run a business" to "a CEO who happens to do therapy" changes how members make decisions, lead their teams, and define their own success. They discover their clinical training was preparing them for CEO-level thinking all along.
They build teams with intention — not desperation.
3
Hiring timing, cadence, and fit assessment. How to coach associates without crossing the line from leader to therapist. How to delegate — really delegate. Members describe learning to delegate like a CEO rather than supervise like a clinician, and discovering their team was more capable than anxiety had allowed them to see.
They navigate the hardest parts of entrepreneurship together.
5
The ebbs and flows. The experiments that don't work. The weight of decisions that affect other people's livelihoods. Members describe the CEO Circle™ as the first space where they felt safe to take risks — because the room held them accountable without judgment and celebrated the learning as much as the winning.
They do the money work — the real money work.
2
Not just pricing strategy. The deep work on money stories that keep practice owners undercharging and overgiving. Members develop concrete strategies to recognise scarcity mindset, challenge it, and make financial decisions from abundance. They learn their numbers. They start paying themselves for leadership time that has been running on goodwill.
They build culture — and then protect it.
4
Culture is not a values statement on a website. It is the lived experience of everyone who works in and with your practice. Members do deep work on building culture through growth, maintaining it as the team expands, and holding the heartbeat of the practice steady — at the intersection of clinical wisdom and strategic leadership.
They reject the business models that were never built for them.
6
Every cohort arrives at the recognition — sometimes relief, sometimes anger, often both — that conventional business advice has never fit because it's structural, not personal. The CEO Circle™ dismantles masculine, hustle-driven frameworks and replaces them with something built for practitioners who lead from values, collaboration, and sustainability.
THE FRAMEWORK
Every element of the CEO Circle™ is built on the Sustainable Practice Framework™ — developed through 17+ years of building, scaling, and leading a seven-figure group practice in Canada.
Two integrated components. Both are designed to reject hustle culture in favour of an approach that honours strategic rigour and human sustainability in equal measure.
The Strategic Foundation
Purpose
Align your growth with your values and your authentic vision of success. Because a practice that grows in directions that don't reflect who you are will hollow you out, regardless of the revenue.
Profit
Build financial sustainability that fuels your mission and supports your life. Ethical pricing, revenue optimization, Canadian context, and the money mindset work that most business coaching never touches.
People
Build and lead a values-aligned team that enhances your impact rather than multiplying your stress. Hiring systems, delegation, culture — the full architecture of leading other practitioners with integrity.
Process
Create systems and structures that support growth while protecting your time and energy. The infrastructure that allows your practice to run without you being the last line of defence on every decision.
INSIDE THE CIRCLE
What’s included: Inside the CEO Circle
2 Strategy Calls
An onboarding strategy call where we map out your goals as you start the CEO Circle™ - this is a deep dive. The second call is at mid-point to celebrate your growth and re-think your goals and progress.
Weekly Live Mastermind Calls
Ninety minutes each, weekly, across six months. Every call combines teaching, hot seat coaching, and peer strategy — structured enough to be productive, flexible enough to meet the room where it is. Members consistently describe these calls as the favourite part of their week.
Direct Access to Cecilia
Between calls, inside the community space, Monday to Friday. Real-time support for the decisions that can't wait for the next call — the hiring dilemma that landed in your inbox on a Wednesday, the pricing question you've been circling for a month, the leadership challenge that showed up this morning.
An Active Private Community
Not a graveyard of good intentions. An active, high-touch peer space where members share wins, troubleshoot challenges, and become each other's thinking partners. The community becomes a resource in its own right — a group of practitioners who understand your context because they are living it alongside you.
Guest Expert Sessions
Carefully selected experts in areas directly relevant to Canadian therapy practice owners — wealth building, legacy financial planning, retention strategies, legal, financial, HR, marketing, and other domains where external expertise accelerates your results.
Access to Recordings
Every call, every session, available to you permanently. So the work you do in this cohort continues to pay dividends long after it ends.
What Happens When Practice Owners Enter This Room
Laura Boyko
MSW, RSW, MEd, Founder & Psychotherapist, BeWell Therapy
"I had just opened my own brick-and-mortar practice after five years as a solopreneur, and I felt like I was swimming upstream without a paddle. Then I found Cecilia.
What set her apart from the other coaches I'd looked at was the street cred. Eighteen years as a practice owner — that's someone who's weathered the good times and the bad and had to pivot more than once. And because she coaches from social work values, the Circle feels like an extension of her clinical practice, not a business program bolted on top of it. That was what I'd been looking for.
Inside the Circle, I've gotten the solid, legitimate Canadian information no one tells you about — pricing, hiring, contracts, the legalities. And a reminder that it was time to put my leadership pants back on after a seven-year hiatus.
If you're trying to build or scale a practice, she gives you guidance, hard truths, and honest facts. She helped me steer my business in the right direction before I ran it off the rails."
Orli Paling
RCC, Group Practice Owner, BC
"Before I joined the CEO Circle, I knew I needed to grow my leadership skills but I was lacking confidence in which direction to go. I was carrying the responsibility of filling my associates' caseloads without considering that they also had a responsibility to market themselves, build their own visibility, and recruit their own referrals. I could see the work my associates needed to do, but I struggled to approach it with assertiveness — I'd position opportunities for growth as suggestions rather than expectations.
The biggest shift has been our upcoming move into offering in-person sessions. Reframing this as an additional revenue stream rather than a competing offering was a game changer. I've gained so much in my ability to lead with assertiveness and confidence, and I'm seeing tangible results in client retention. I approach administrative tasks with confidence now, which has led me to create a schedule that supports both my admin and clinical load as a group practice owner. I'm much more clear on the culture I want to create in my business, which has allowed me to see more clearly which associates are the right fit.
Cecilia is exceptional in her ability to inspire change and motivate into action. The Circle has energized me as a business owner in a way I didn't know was possible."
Haley M
RSW, Group Practice Owner, ON
"Before I joined the CEO Circle, I was making decisions in isolation and crossing my fingers they'd work out. I was relying on late-night Google searches and AI conversations to learn what I didn't know — which was a lot — about running a group practice. I had an amazing team, and I felt like I was failing them. I knew I was a good therapist. I really didn't feel like a good boss, a good leader, or a good business operator.
I'm a researcher by nature, and I looked into a lot of programs before I found the Circle. Most of them included content I'd already built on my own, or were based in the States and wouldn't translate to the Canadian market. When I met Cecilia, I knew I could feel safe being truly vulnerable with my shortcomings — with her and with any group of women she curated.
March was our practice's best month yet. But more than the business outcomes, I notice a change in my leadership. I've started to trust my intuition, think longer term, and step into the CEO seat rather than leading from the therapist seat. I feel connected and supported by a group of women heading in the same direction as me — and I no longer feel like I'm making decisions in the dark by myself.
Some of the most grounding moments in the Circle are actually silent. The questioning looks when you're not valuing yourself enough. The reassuring smiles when you're feeling vulnerable. The pride when you've shown up in a way that aligns with your values. These moments will stay with me forever."
THE INVESTMENT
The Practice CEO Circle™ — Cohort 2
A NOTE ON PRICING
The CEO Circle™ is in its second cohort. This investment reflects where we are in the evolution of this room — intentionally accessible for early members. If you've been considering this and Cohort 2 is the right moment, the investment will not be lower than this going forward.
INVESTMENT
$6,000 CAD paid in full or 6monthly payments of $1,050 CAD
JOIN THE COHORT
How to Apply
The CEO Circle™ is not open enrollment. Every cohort is curated through a deliberate application process — because the calibre of the room depends on the calibre of the people in it.
1.
Submit Your Application
Complete the CEO Circle™ application — approximately ten minutes. Helps Cecilia understand where your practice is, what you're working toward, and whether this is the right room for you right now.
2.
Application Review
Reviewed personally by Cecilia within 48 business hours. If your application indicates a strong fit, you'll receive an invitation to book a complimentary 45-minute Discovery Conversation.
3.
Discovery Conversation
A genuine strategic conversation — not a sales call. A chance for both of you to assess fit, ask real questions, and determine whether Cohort 2 is the right room at the right time.
4.
Cohort Confirmation
If it's a mutual yes, you'll receive your agreement and payment details within 24 hours.
Cohort 2 begins July 2026.
A PERSONAL COMMITMENT
What I Can Promise You
If you show up — to the calls, to the community, to the work — you will leave this mastermind with something that no course or program can replicate: the lived experience of doing the hardest parts of practice leadership alongside people who understand exactly what it costs and exactly what it's worth.
6 MONTHS OF FOCUSED MOMENTUM
All four pillars in better balance
Than when you entered — across Purpose, Profit, People, and Process.
At least one significant strategic move
You'd been circling before you joined — made, not postponed.
Leadership with more confidence and less guilt
The self-doubt that clinical training accidentally installs in practice owners who dare to think like CEOs — named, examined, and left behind.
A room that stays with you
Strategic partners, thinking partners, and in many cases genuine peers for the long haul — long after the six months end.
Built on the belief that the most effective business strategy is also the most humane one. That profit and values are not in tension. That collaborative, feminist, anti-oppressive leadership doesn't just feel better — it builds better practices, better teams, and better outcomes for every person the practice touches.
Cecilia Mannella, RSW · RCC-ACS-C