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5 Hard Truths Every Therapist Needs to Hear

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Over the years, I’ve seen therapists for all kinds of reasons. Without taking you through all the fun details, here’s a sampling of what led me to therapy each time over the last 5 years:

  • In 2016, I was dealing with some MAJOR postpartum fuckery following the (traumatic) birth of my daughter. Postpartum anxiety, OCD, and the worst insomnia you can imagine. All at once. I was a joy to be around, just a delightful shell of a human.
  • In 2017, my 38 year-old brother died suddenly and unexpectedly. We had a rocky history, my bro and I. So yeah, that brought up some complicated grief that I needed to talk through with someone.
  • In 2018, I decided to get some EMDR to help get my insomnia under control because I was still sleeping like 3-5 hours a night and barely functioning most days.
  • In 2019, I sought help as I grappled with a major life decision, and I wanted a therapist to serve as a container for all of the messy shit that was going through my head surrounding...
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[Feature Story] How These 50+ Badass Therapists Made 2020 Their Bitch (Even During a Global Pandemic)

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Let’s all just get on the same page really quick:

2020 SUCKED.

Like, really really sucked. In so many ways.

Global pandemic. Kids at home. Telehealth. Civil unrest. Riots. Political bullshit. Hurricanes. Wildfires. And killer hornets? WTF 2020…

I think every single one of us has had a period where we were scrambling and just trying to stay afloat (I still feel like I’m there sometimes). The collective trauma hit all of us, and we responded by binge-watching Tiger King, downloading TikTok, and zoning out while inhaling copious amounts of Oreos and wine.

No? That was just me? Oh, ok. Cool.

And yet, despite all of this, there were therapists who managed to crush it.

Their practices flourished. They discovered a love of telehealth, transformed their business models, launched entirely new businesses, took care of newborns and toddlers, and had their highest-earning months ever.

This post is to celebrate those therapists.

You see, 2020 has just been filled...

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Burnout: The thing we’re not supposed to talk about

Today I want to talk to you about something that seems to be a four-letter-word among mental health professionals...

Burnout.

I'm sure you've felt it before. Maybe recently. Maybe you feel it right now.

I feel like burnout is this thing we're not supposed to talk about because we're supposed to be the centered, healed, differentiated, and balanced version of our clients: Like perfect role models.

We spend our days advocating for boundaries and work-life balance only to come home and crash in front of Netflix while we try to convince ourselves to finish our notes.

We talk about the importance of self-care and then work ourselves into the ground as wehustle to build our practices. We tell ourselves, "I'll take a day off once I get just a few more clients," or we make excuses for allowing ourselves to put ourselves last on our list.

We work and work and stretch ourselves thin only to crash and then...

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Summertime Sadness Part 2

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 Last week I shared with you how you can deal with your dwindling summer caseload by chunking your clients. I loved reading the responses I got:

"Thank you for this - I absolutely needed to read this email today as I sit here freaking out about not having as many clients per week as I'd like, and not feeling productive in the rest of my life." -Jessica C.

"I love this! I actually just did this and am so happy. I'm not working on Fridays, and Tuesdays I'm not working in the evening. " -Norine V.

"You've read my mind. I was freaking out since June 1st. The phone had completely stopped ringing!" -Melyssa E.

"I was JUST saying yesterday how I need to chunk some clients, and how I think it would be a gamechanger. I was like 'I have like 1.5 hours between so i just go and waste time of Facebook.'" -Lindsey B.

You see, when you're super full during the year, you're too busy to keep up with everything and then you get behind.

But when your caseload takes a hit in the...

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Anxiety is an Asshole

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Today is an exciting day.

I get to introduce a very special friend who's been brewing some amazing shit for therapists. 

Tribe, meet Lynn Dutrow, aka The Compassionate Ass Kicker. 

I've asked Lynn to write a guest blog for me so that you all can get to know this amazing woman, coach, and dear friend.

She may be the new kid on the block, but Lynn is a wealth of knowledge, and my inner YBTP tribe lovingly refers to her as "The Duchess" (I'm Queen Badass, of course). 

Lynn's superpower is talking anxious, Type-A therapists off the proverbial ledge and helping them begin to talk back to their Anxiety. 

Take it away, Duchess!


Hey there, YBTP tribe! 

 
For those of you who don’t already know me, my “real" name is Lynn Dutrow and I am a woman with many monikers: Auntie Anxiety, The Duchess, and The Compassionate Ass Kicker are just a few.
 
I am Queen Badass’s first star pupil from way back...
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How to Network Like a Badass

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The other night I was going through survey responses I've received from my readers (in my first email, I invite all of my new readers to complete a super short survey to help me tailor my emails and blog posts to focus on topics they're most interested in. You can check it out here). 

In the survey, I ask therapists about the biggest challenges they have when it comes to building their practices. I figured I'd see everything from billing and figuring out insurance, to marketing and trying to learn the best ways for therapists to get their names out there...

But one topic keeps coming up over and over again.

Networking.

Really? Networking?

I had to dig in a little to investigate what was going on behind this curtain.

What I learned is that the reason you struggle with networking is because you equate it to...

sounding salesy and sleasy,

talking constantly about yourself,

and having to force your otherwise introverted self to initiate contact with...

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Interested in Starting an Email List? Read This First.

A lot of therapists have been jumping on the email marketing bandwagon lately.

I guess when you listen to every podcast, read every blog, and are a member of every single Facebook group for therapists in private practice, you start to notice all of the things that people say you "have to do" to build a successful practice. 

I'll be the first to admit that there's an allure to email marketing.

My email list is one of the most important parts of my online business, maybe even more so than my website. 

But email lists aren't for everyone. 

They're not absolutely necessary for you to have a successful private practice (unless you plan on selling shit online, in which case it becomes a non-negotiable in my book). 

And it can be really easy to do it the wrong way. 

So before you take the next stop to Marketing Tactical Hell, I wanted to share with you 5 Rules of Badass Email Marketing.

1. Get clear on the purpose of your list

Who do you want on...

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Are Professional Headshots Worth It?

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When you're growing your private practice, it's not long before you realize that your start-up expenses are beginning to pile up.

You've got your larger expenses, like filing your LLC/S-Corps, purchasing professional liability insurance, and furnishing your office, but you're able to shrug those off as non-negotiable items that just come with the the territory. Plus, they're not regular expenses, so once you pay them out you can forget about them for a while. 

But then come all of your regular monthly expenses, like rent +utilities, directory profile listings, and your EHR system. Put it all together and it's no wonder why the idea of shelling out even more money for something like professional headshots seems ridiculous.

It's easy to put off getting professional pictures taken and just go with something that can serve as a "placeholder" until you start actually making money.

After all, professional headshots are expensive and...

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How to Write a BadAss Psychology Today Profile

Writing your Psychology Today profile can be a truly miserable experience. You find yourself tweaking the thing almost daily, and you still don't know what the hell to to write.

Friends, I'm here to help.

Not only do I have a FREE, 5-day video e-course, "Take your Psychology Today Profile From Bad to BADASS," but I also recently did a drawing on my Facebook page for a free PT Teardown. Rachel Kalina was the lucky winner, and this week I've posted the video from our chat. Enjoy!

 

A FEW KEY MOMENTS:

  • (3:00) Notice how I steered the conversation towards the parents and how they think & talk about their teens - why did I do that?
  • The Creepy Coffee Shop Exercise (6:07) - you can use this to tweak your PT copy so that you're actually using words/phrases that your ideal client uses (no more therapy jargon or psychobabble!).
  • (7:18) Just because you have a ton of experience in something doesn't necessarily mean that should be...
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How to Deal with Failure in Private Practice

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Last night I was chatting with one of my students via Facebook Messenger about a side hustle she's been trying to get off the ground.

Turns out, after all the market research she's been doing, her original business idea might not work out. She shared that she was feeling defeated, overwhelmed, and like a total failure.

The dreaded F-word.

I know there are times in your private practice when you feel like a failure too...

like that time you went outside of your comfort zone to schedule a networking meeting with another therapist, and you were so nervous that you ended up being awkward and weird.

...or how about the time you committed the cardinal sin of private practice by double-booking two clients, and then you had to run around like a fucking squirrel to figure something out without both clients knowing (and they both still found out anyway)?

...then there was...

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