6 Money Beliefs That Lead to Therapist Burnout
GUEST POST BY Lindsay bryan-podvin, FROM mind money balance
As a financial therapist and private practice owner, I know how money mindset beliefs can hold therapists back. Not only can these insidious beliefs hold them back, they can also lead to burnout. Therapist burnout can look different in all of us. Most of the time, it feels like compassion fatigue or emotional exhaustion, difficulty being fully present for clients, or avoiding or skipping work. Ironically, many private practice therapists sought out this life because their hospital or agency work was burning them out!
For many private practice therapists, feeling the warning signs of burnout can also trigger thoughts of failure, things like, "maybe I'm just not meant to be a private practice therapist," or "I guess I'm just not cut out to work in this field."
In this piece, I'll share the most common money beliefs I hear from my audience, and how, when left unchallenged, they can lead to burnout.
1. You didn't go into this field to make money.
Every therapist under the sun and I have heard some iteration of this. This idea that therapists are supposed to be pious and martyrs while holding space for some of the most traumatized and marginalized folks makes me furious! To take it further, to be a therapist, you have to have at least a bachelor's degree, a Master's degree, several thousand supervised hours, sit for boards or an exam, and maintain education and licensure requirements. Therapists are the lowest paid mid-level healthcare providers, and we'll continue to be the lowest-paid if we don't advocate for our profession's financial justice.
2. Making money and advocating for social justice are in conflict.
This belief fuels the idea that you have to make low or no money to do good in the world. As a person raised Catholic, I got this message all the time. Priests and nuns had to take vows of poverty, which I internalized as "being spiritual means you have to be poor." This belief is counterintuitive because to advocate for social justice, you need to have time, energy, and the ability to do it sustainably. And earning low to no money isn't sustainable.
3. You have to [work nights and weekends, accept insurance, say yes to everyone] if you want to be full.
The idea that you have to do all the things to fill your practice puts therapists firmly on the road to burnout. For therapists like me who aren't morning people, believing this might look like saying yes to early morning appointments, doing therapy sessions while the cobwebs in their mind haven't quite cleared. For therapists who are parents, seeing clients on the weekends might mean missing out on beloved family time. Accepting insurance could mean taking as much as a 50% pay cut for sessions or spending extra time and energy with insurance companies to figure out billing and reimbursement.
4. If my practice doesn't hit six-figures, I'm not doing it right.
Excuse me while I drag my soapbox out. I'm so sick of coaches preaching to all of my therapist entrepreneurs that the gold standard of financial success is 6-figures. As therapists, we'd never use a blanket statement when helping our clients define what a successful life looks like; why are so many coaches yelling that this is the goalpost to strive for? For some therapists, working like mad to hit this income is be overkill: they may be able to make a perfectly comfortable and sustainable living on $60-75k a year. Not to mention on the other side of the coin, if you are in a high cost of living area, support other people in your family, or have student loans, you might need more than this amount.
5. It is important to DIY and build my practice as cheaply as possible.
A myth that many therapists get stuck on is "spending money is bad." Another version of this is, "if I spend money on my practice, I might not make it back." Pause for a second and consider how this mindset shows up in your thoughts. Not all expenses are created equally. Sometimes, spending money frees up your time and can make you more money. Sound sketchy? Think about it this way: you earn $150/session as a therapist. That isn't a task you can outsource to someone else. But you also spend 8 hours a month on client billing -OR- you lose 8 hours of client work or $1,200 billable dollars. Did that number make you gulp? Often we think we are "saving" money by DIYing something when in many instances, we'd make more money (or at least save time) by investing in help.
6. If I raise my rates, I'll lose clients.
We fear that charging a sustainable fee means people will be turned off by working with us. This means rather than raising our rates a marginal rate (seriously, I'm usually talking a $5 or $10 fee raise), we take on additional clients as a way to try and earn more money.
How to combat these thoughts
If you’ve thought or believed these money thoughts, you aren’t alone. The good news is there are ways to combat them, to help you feel supported and prevent you from hitting burnout.
1. Put protective measures in place.
Proven ways to protect burnout include taking time for yourself (and no, you can't cram a year's worth of self-care into a weekend), connecting with others, getting peer support, and checking in with your wisest self about your work and caseload. In your therapy practice, this may mean decreasing the number of clients you see, seeing fewer acute clients, or taking regularly scheduled time off.
2. Increase Money Confidence.
Learning more about the basics of financially running your practice is similar to client psychoeducation. Understanding these things helps you feel comfortable and confident with your money. While there are many things you can do to increase your money confidence as a private practice owner, I encourage you to start with three. One: know your monthly cash flow and have a system for managing it. Two: pay yourself regularly using a sustainable hourly fee. Three: pay your taxes in full and on time.
3. Get help when you need it.
No prizes are awarded to the therapist who works the most. Assess how you are spending your time, which tasks you procrastinate on, and areas you want to grow and invest accordingly.
Here are some examples of ways to get help in your private practice:
Billing. If you are spending 8-10 hours a month on client billing, upgrade your EMR to include automated billing. I spend less than 20 minutes a month on my billing since I have automated billing set up through Simple Practice. When I first started, I could spend anywhere from 2-4 hours a week on billing!
Administrative Tasks. If you are struggling to stay on top of administrative tasks like returning client calls or responding to website inquiries, it might be time to hire a virtual assistant. Not only can paying for help in this way save you personal energy, but your clients will also feel held and supported, knowing their calls and emails will be answered, enriching their experience with you.
Website. Is DIY-ing your website making your head spin? I use and love Monica's Squarespace templates for therapists. Set-up is a breeze and now my website helps my practice call in aligned clients even when I'm sleeping.
Raise your rates. In my work with therapists, I often say they need to stop making $20 decisions and start making $6,500 ones. What does this mean? If you see 25 clients/week and raise your rates by $5, you can bring in an additional $6,500 (25 clients x5 dollars x52 weeks in a year).
4. Challenge the status quo.
It's possible to be a good therapist, private practice owner, and social justice advocate who makes a good living. Small businesses, which you are as a private practice owner, keep money circulating in their local communities. Making a good living as a therapist means you are more likely to be sustained financially and give back to important causes. This might look like shopping hyper-locally, hiring people in your community, or volunteering at community organizations.
Therapists need support too
If you need help rewriting these limiting beliefs (plug time!) I help therapists do this through group coaching and power sessions. I love both of these offerings, but group coaching is incredibly enriching. Verbalizing and healing your money beliefs in a community of other therapists reduces shame, freeing you up to grow a profitable private practice from the inside out. My next group starts soon, and enrollment is open now! Learn more and apply at the button below:
About Lindsay
Lindsay Bryan-Podvin is a biracial financial therapist, speaker, and author of the book "The Financial Anxiety Solution." In her therapy practice, Mind Money Balance, she uses shame-free financial therapy to help people get their minds and money in balance. She's expanded her services to help private practice therapists with their money mindset, sustainable pricing, and authentic marketing so they can include financial self-care in their work. She lives with her partner and their dog on the traditional land of the Fox, Peoria, Potawatomi, and Anishinabewaki peoples also known as Michigan.
