Professional Development

Helping others is your big dream.

Like the Resplendent Quetzal, you have so much to offer the world. You’re doing it, and you’re ready for more. You’re ready to build the robust life and practice you want.

You’ve completed the schooling, all the hours, and share your unique brilliance with clients.

Every day and week, you show up – they show up – it’s beautiful.

Or is it? In theory, it is, but your lived experience tells a different story.

Reality feels more like…

…you sit with your clients, week after week, and wonder if you’re even helping or making an impact.

Sometimes, you reflect, “Am I helping them move their progress dial forward to meet their goals?”

Making sure you always know what to say and how to help your clients feels imperative.

Though they come back each week, you’re unsure if it’s ethical to keep seeing them if you’re not making a difference. Maybe you think they’d be better off with another (more knowledgeable) therapist. Unfortunately, the code of ethics doesn’t give you the direct answers you seek.

Self-doubt, at times, is crippling. A part of you knows you are doing great work, and another part knows you could be doing a better job.

More training is (not necessarily) the answer.

You take more training to hone your skills and learn new modalities to help your clients and to feel more capable.

Signing up for training after training – sometimes not completing the online ones because they’re pretty tedious to watch, and it’s hard to stay focused on the screen for that long. The live ones leave you unfulfilled, too.

Applying them in a real client context is challenging, and all that time you spent in workshops feels like a waste of time and money.

Questions loom: “How do I know which training suits my needs? What modalities are most effective for the clients I treat? When will I feel competent as a therapist?”

And, “What will set me apart from other therapists on Psychology Today?”

Many factors play into being a Therapist.

You want to perform excellent client work, so you set yourself up to be clinically effective. But the uncertainty weighs on you. Clients attend sessions today, but what if they decide to stop?

The worry about keeping a high enough caseload lingers in the back of your mind – sometimes, in the front of your mind. It all feels a bit panicky.

You consider raising your prices so you don’t need to see so many clients, but the fear thoughts loop back to the risk of losing clients or not having enough.

The vision you had of a sustainable private practice where you make your hours, quickly fill your caseload with ideal clients, and are paid well to live financially free seems out of reach.

Realize that you are an entrepreneur.

Doing the therapy work is one thing, but so much goes into running the practice.

Marketing yourself feels cringy and salesy. At times the vulnerability to position yourself as an authority is so overwhelming that you just want to hide. Actually, you just want to see clients, and that’s it!

Yet the truth is you’re a business owner, and a mindset shift is needed to provide superior clinical work and run a successful private practice.

When you think about it, being a Professional Therapist can feel exhausting. You’re questioning if you made the right career choice. They didn’t teach you this in Graduate School. No one even talks about it.

You begin to wonder if you’re the only one struggling.

The risk of professional burnout is real.

The therapist-client relationship is unique. It’s one you value very much. But, by design, it’s an imbalance. Your clients rely on you for support; your well-being isn’t their responsibility.

Healthy professional boundaries mean your mental health needs aren’t met in the therapy room. Yet yours are equally important.

Taking on the role of caregiver from an early age, long before you decided to become a therapist, you learned to put others’ needs first.

But here’s the thing: it may have worked to keep the peace in your family and relationships, but working day-in-and-day-out as a professional therapist – you’re realizing it is not sustainable.

Being a Therapist is isolating work.

And it doesn’t have to be. Whether you work virtually, hybrid, or in-person, most people you interact with daily are your clients.

All your admin stuff is yours to do solo. You can’t talk about your clients to your friends or your partner. You feel pretty alone some days and e-fatigue has become normal.

Asking for clinical support, airing out your emotional stress, and wanting business advice are all reasonable needs for any therapist. You deserve to be heard and talk through actionable steps to thrive professionally.

That’s why I’m here – I get it. I’ve been in your shoes and know how important it is to receive support that fosters your dream career.

The good news is that these services are a deductible business expense for therapists. Schedule a free call to discuss how I can help!