80: Common Money Mistakes in Therapists
We all make mistakes as therapists when it comes to our money. In this episode, I’m sharing the seven most common mistakes I see in private practice therapists, and tips on how to cope with them. I cover the benefits of financial wellness and specific advice for therapists new to the field or private practice.
Common Money Mistakes in Therapists
Undercharging. Whether a therapist is undercharging based on their hourly rate, staying on insurance panels that don’t reimburse them appropriately, or seeing too many sliding scale clients, undercharging is one of the most common money mistakes I see therapists make.
DIY-ing to save money. Therapists make a common money mistake by “saving” money by doing things themselves, even if it’s at the expense of their business, income, or energy. We are taught the importance of being scrappy and stretching a dollar, but in business, there are times when doing it all yourself can backfire.
Not having a separate business bank account. Too many therapists have their business and personal finances comingled. This comingling of bank accounts is a huge money mistake from a month-to-month accounting, annual tax filing, and a legal standpoint.
Letting boundaries slide. I see too many private practice therapists working nights, weekends, or times and days that aren’t best for them, essentially allowing clients to dictate when they work. Another boundary mistake therapists make is continuing to see a client when they have a large unpaid balance. Still, more therapists are out there not charging cancellation fees, or going over on session time all impact a therapist’s bottom line.
Money Mindset Cognitive Distortions. This is when therapists lie to themselves as say they are “bad at math” or “aren’t good with money” so they don’t engage with it. This set of beliefs about money can make therapists feel uncomfortable with money and create a pattern of financial avoidance.
Hiding themselves and not marketing. Not marketing a private practice is a money mistake because it’s rooted in the idea that “sales is bad.” This impacts a therapist’s bottom line if they are struggling to find and fill their practice with aligned clients. This can mean having cookie-cutter websites, about pages, or profiles on therapist directories, leading to a potential client being confused about what a particular therapist offers.
Not trusting themselves. This money mistake looks like therapists believing others more than they believe themselves, their intuition, what’s best for them, and spending money hoping others will tell them what to do. Many therapists fall into a trap of feeling like they have to put their wisdom and comfort aside and follow the loudest voice in the room (or more likely on the interweb) and do things they are uncomfortable with in order to have a full practice. This can lead to self-distrust and undermining their own unique personality, in addition to spending lots of money on coaching programs, courses, and swipe files that might not be in their best interest or their practice’s best interest.
New Therapist Tips
If you are new to the therapist world, you are bound to get a lot of what I call “dusty advice.” Advice that’s been passed down from therapist to therapist, that wasn’t necessarily good advice in the first place, but because it’s been around for so long, you may feel like you have to take it. Advice like “don’t worry about your income. This job is so rewarding that the money is secondary to the work you do.” Or “it’s not appropriate to charge more than other therapists. You have to put in your time to raise your rate.”
Instead, come back to why you went into this field, and think about how therapy is the embodiment of the Social Enterprise Model. The social enterprise model exists at the intersection of three things: what we do well, what values we stand for, and what we can be paid well to do. As therapists, I invite you to think about money exchange and the social enterprise model. Am I charging enough for what I do well and providing a service that is in alignment with my values? It’s impossible to be a good therapist if you are stressed out about making ends meet financially. Find others in your community--or online--who hold similar values and understand that underpaying people in helping fields is a symptom of the underbelly of capitalism.
Financial Wellness Benefits
Financial wellness is feeling good about your money because you have a handle on your money mindset and understand what money is coming in, going out, and what goals you are saving or investing toward. Often people struggle with their relationship with money. Because of how they think, feel, and believe about money, it makes it hard to wisely engage with their money. Reframing a person’s relationship with money can take time, and it looks different for everyone. I’ll say as a financial therapist, commonalities of a person who has a healthy money mindset are having a neutral view of money, and feeling comfortable and confident in their relationship with money.
Research shows that people who are stressed about money tend to carry more debt, are distracted at work and home because of their finances, and struggle to make wise financial choices that allow them to enjoy life. When a person practices financial self-care, they are able to reap the benefits of financial wellness. It’s fair to say that practicing financial self-care can help people improve their overall well-being.
Financial Self Care Tips for Therapists
Find Your Fee. Charge enough money to take care of all areas of financial wellness. Make sure your fee covers time off, pays all of your business and personal expenses, allows you to save for your future goals, invest in retirement, quarterly taxes, health insurance, and work an aligned schedule. Take a read here if you are interested in a more in-depth look at how to set your fees.
Outsource strategically. Pay for software, systems, or people to help. 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 website templates. Set-up is a breeze and now my website helps my practice call in aligned clients even when I'm sleeping.
Get your accounting in order. Get a business bank account by filing for an “EIN,” or “Employee Identification Number” if you are in the United States. Separate your business and personal finances, track your income and expenses, and makes sure you are paying your quarterly taxes and filing taxes annually. There are free accounting options like WAVE, and low-cost options like Quickbooks or Freshbooks. I personally use Heard who does bookkeeping, helps with payroll setup, annual tax filing and the ability to connect with an accountant at any time who can review any of your questions without charging you extra! All the support is included. You can check out Heard here.
Uphold your boundaries. Get comfortable having your boundaries in your paperwork, aka your office policies, as a way to set up boundaries with your clients from day one. This means having a policy and plan in place for when and how you’ll work, cancellation policies, when and how clients will be billed, and adhering to the start and end times of your appointments. I look at upholding these boundaries as setting up expectations for your clients and modeling for them the importance of having and adhering to healthy boundaries.
Increase your money confidence. Take your financial literacy and confidence step by step! There are three basic pillars of personal finance: spending plan (or a budget), short-term saving goals, and investing in your future. Decide where you want to focus on your finances first. I invite all therapists to read and listen to several different personal finance folks and find someone who speaks to them. We thankfully are in a world where there are more shame-free financial educators you can turn to for help.
Reframe your relationship with marketing. Marketing allows your ideal clients to find you and know that help is available. When you are visible, you allow people who need your services to find you. Marketing for therapists is important both from a business standpoint (to ensure your practice stays full and profitable) but also from a destigmatization perspective.
Hire Intentionally. Find help intentionally, ask yourself why you are getting help, and don’t be afraid to say to the person you work with “that’s not a fit for me.” Review your numbers to learn more about your income and expenses, and what marketing is or isn’t working in your practice before hiring help. I also have a podcast covering coaching red flags to further suss out types of coaches who are ethical and signs that a coach may be peddling snake oil. Take a listen here.
I hope this episode helped you to see that you aren’t alone in making money mistakes. As private practice therapists, we have to be more than clinicians: we also have to be business owners. Rather than feeling bad about what we don’t know about money, I invite you to take small, aligned steps to work on healing your money mistakes with compassion. If you are a therapist in private practice and are interested in diving into your relationship with money, sustainable pricing, upholding boundaries, niching down, and creating and launching a beautiful and hardworking website in a small group program, check out my program Grow a Profitable Practice From the Inside Out.
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On last week's podcast episode, I shared all the mistakes that I made in my business this year. Today, I want to talk about general money mistakes that I see therapists making in private practice. Now, I know I have a tendency to be a little bit heated about things and I want to be really, really clear that as I share these money, mistakes, where my anger and frustration is directed, because I see a practice or a habit of people who are helping other therapists with their relationship with money, engaging in a lot of shaming and blaming behavior. Right? A lot of people blaming therapists for undercharging and in my opinion that anger is mis directed. I want to be really clear with what I'm upset about, and who is and is not to blame before we get into this episode. So let me be really clear here. I am not mad at therapists for undercharging. I am mad at a system that set them up to feel like undercharging is the only way to exist and the only way to exist in private practice is to settle for scraps and breadcrumbs. I am not mad that my fellow therapists continue to similar imagery on their websites, you know, flowing rivers, stacks of rocks, you know, a couple frozen in anger toward one another. I'm not mad at therapists for using those images on their websites and hiding themselves. I'm mad that we were told we all have to be the exact same and hide ourselves in order to be good therapists. I am not mad that any of my fellow therapists accept insurance. I'm mad that the insurance companies don't reimburse at rates that are comparable to the amount of work effort, labor, and value that therapists provide. So let me be very clear, if I haven't been clear yet. I am not here to shame my fellow therapists for these money mistakes. I'm here to help them undo the messaging that they've internalized to shake it up and shake it off so they can have sustainable and profitable practices. You are not not working hard enough or being loud enough or manifesting enough or visible enough or niche enough. It's not you. Our systems have allowed you to feel small and have also reinforced the value in you shrinking and heighten. Okay? With that rambling out of the way. Let's get to today's episode.
So today's podcast, I'm going to cover the seven most common financial mistakes that I see therapists make and if you skipped over the intro, a lot of be really clear that this is not about me shaming you, or blaming you. I want to talk about these mistakes, normalize them, and also offer some tips on ways to course correct if you've been doing them or you see some of your fellow therapists doing them, you can send them this way to this podcast and have them learn some tips.
So mistake number one, no surprise, if you've been here for a minute, it's undercharging. Look, whether a therapist is undercharging based on their hourly rate, whether they are staying on insurance panels that don't reimburse them appropriately, undercharging is hands down one of the biggest money mistakes in private practice therapists and again, it's not their fault. Our system is really set up to reinforce this idea that therapy and therapists shouldn't be compensated. But unfortunately, we live in a society where if people aren't paying for services, therapists aren't getting paid. So it is so so important that therapists take into consideration all of the different things that their fee needs to account for and it is not done by looking around the room or the therapist directory in your county rather, and seeing what other people charge. You cannot base your fee based on what other people are charging, based on what insurance companies are reimbursing, or based on what you know, a supervisor told you you could or couldn't do if they had no idea about your unique financial needs and energetic capacity. So undercharging is hands down the biggest mistake and the most common mistake I see in therapists.
Mistake number two DIY-ving... that's not a word.. DIYing to save money. This is that bootstrap mentality that a lot of us therapists have soaked up, this idea that we have to do things ourselves and then it's important to be scrappy and to make things work with the least amount of resources possible. Again, this is reinforced in our field for any of us who have worked in County settings, agency settings, healthcare settings, we know how to stretch $1 and to stretch our resources. It's not that that's a bad skill, but when it comes to being in private practice, DIYing too much can actually cost you in the long run. It can cost you financially, in that maybe you're trying to do your own bookkeeping and it's not your strong set--strong set? Strong suits--and you end up owing more money to Uncle Sam at the end of the year than you would have had you just done it from the jump, or you end up wasting and losing time because you are trying to scrape together some sort of EHR instead of just paying for an electronic health record. So if you are DIYing under the guise of save money, stay tuned till the end, where I share some tips of places you can outsource to help save you not just money, but time.
The third common money mistake I see in therapists is not keeping their business and personal expenses separate. Because in most states in the US, when you have an LLC, it's called a pass through entity, you can essentially pass your money through your business account into your personal account. A lot of people kind of assume that, well, if that money is just getting passed through a business account into a personal account, I'll just skip that step and just, you know, make sure that my money is going straight into my personal account. But that is so problematic for so many reasons. One, just from like a bookkeeping, an organizational standpoint, it's really hard to separate out what's what when it comes to bookkeeping at the, you know, month to month, but especially at the end of the year, and in tax time. It also means you're probably missing out on appropriate expenses that you could potentially write off on your taxes, go back and listen to the episode I did with Andrew of Heard, he is an accountant and has a business specifically helping therapists with their bookkeeping and accounting and he talks all about why that is not good and the benefits of having your business and personal things separate. But also, it just makes it really messy if clients are writing you checks personally, if you're paying for things out of your personal account, and especially if you have a partner that you're sharing a bank account with who isn't in your business, it just makes it really messy. So please, please, please make sure to separate your business and personal finances and in order to get a business bank account in the United States, you need an EIN an employee identification number, which you can google EIN plus the name of your state, EIN + Iowa + Texas, for steps on how to do that.
Mistake number four is letting boundaries slide. I shared last week that this is me! I am sticking my hand up very high right now my boundaries definitely slid and it's definitely impacted my financial bottom line and that it just means that I don't have enough space and capacity to do the work that I need to do in the way that I need to do it. So if you're a therapist, and you are working non-ideal hours for you, so maybe you are a night owl in your scheduling first thing in the morning appointments because that's what people are telling you they want, but that's not aligned for you. That's not okay. Other boundaries that impact your financial bottom line that I see therapists making mistakes around, are allowing clients to continue to see them when they have a large outstanding balance, not charging cancellation fees, or going over on the the session time. If you have a 55 minute session, and then letting it just slide into a 75 minute session, that is not okay. And again, I'll get into how to cope with this and some potential tips. But definitely letting those boundaries slide impacts your financial bottom line. If you are seeing a client for 75 minutes, but billing for a 55 minute session, you're losing out on that time and then it probably creates this not so great domino effect in your day. Or then the next client you have you're seeing them later or they're feeling frustrated that you ran over and then to compensate you give them more time and it just creates this really uncomfortable space for both the clinician and the client if those boundaries aren't being adhered to. Same thing goes with cancellation fees. I know there are so many schools of thought on whether or not to charge cancellation fees I personally do I asked for 24-hours notice if they can't make it and I allow clients to be up to 15 minutes late, but if they're more than 15 minutes late, they will get charged for that full fee. And it's not about penalizing them or anything, it's just about protecting my time and really, it's a two-way street, right? I reserve for all of my clients, that 55 minutes that we have together, I have nothing else on my calendar during that time and in turn, I ask that they give me those 55 minutes as well. So it's just a mutual respect thing for me. And I know personally, having a little bit of financial skin in the game can make it more likely that your clients will not no-show I do. I know for me back in the olden days, when I would go work out in person, the place that I went, charged a $10, late cancel or no-show fee and it was just enough to make it such that I would keep that appointment on my calendar. And if I didn't, you know, I pay the fee and have it man, it's a bummer. But I totally get it right. It's just good business sense and good boundary sense to have something like that in place.
The fifth money mistake in therapists, is mindset stuff telling themselves, they're bad at math or they're not good with money. So therefore, they just kind of turn away from looking at their money, they only look at it when they really have to when tax time comes. Or you know when a big bill comes. And it makes it such that they have this repellent feeling. When it comes to engaging with their money, it just feels icky and gross and it becomes this self fulfilling prophecy or this negative feedback loop where they say, "Oh, I'm not good at money," they log into their accounts and feel that overwhelm and then they prescribe that overwhelmed to be improved, that they're bad at money. So not engaging with their money makes it so that they are further away from cultivating a healthy relationship with money.
The sixth mistake is hiding themselves and not marketing. This is absolutely a money mistake. Because it's rooted for most therapists in this idea that selling is bad, and we equate marketing with sales. Now we've all been sold to in an uncomfortable way, you know, the way that makes like, the hair on the back of your neck stand up, you know, I think back to being in a shopping mall and a person at a kiosk like coming at me really aggressively with like lotion, or perfume or a hair straightener or something like that, like that does not feel good, that's for sure. But what we are doing as therapists is, as I mentioned earlier, in the intro of like, you know, having the plain, redundant generic imagery, and being really flowery with our language or being too jargony with our language or hiding behind our credentials, instead of showing ourselves makes it really tricky for people to actually find you, which then absolutely impacts your financial bottom line if you're not consistently calling in aligned clients to your practice.
And the seventh and final most common money mistake that I see is believing other people more than they believe themselves. When we are starting out in private practice, or even if we've been in private practice for a minute, there are a lot of people out there who say, "Hey, I have the golden ticket, I have this magic secret, I have this unicorn magic hiding, and you have to pay me for it. And then I will give you all of the tricks of the trade." And again, this is not about a particular person, this is about a pattern and a practice that I see again and again. And I see so many therapists falling into this trap of feeling like they have to do things that are far outside of their comfort zone, of their wisdom, of their intuition, and kind of just following the loudest voice in the room and spending money on others telling them what to do in hopes that you know, it'll somehow solve their problems for them. I will of course address this when I talk about tips and coping. But this one, I want to put the asterisk there right away because it's really important. I do believe in paying for help and hiring other people, particularly those who have a knowledge base and a skill set that is not yours that you want to learn more about, but I don't think it's wise to hire somebody who is an expert in something outside of your realm of interest, right? Like if you have no interest in doing Pinterest boards and Pinterest graphics, then why the hell would you hire somebody to help you with Pinterest? And then the why behind that, again, this is not about shaming the therapist, this is about the industry. But it's this idea that, well, "You don't know enough about Pinterest marketing, and I could change your life with this Pinterest set of templates. And if you just did this, your practice would explode overnight." And that kind of shame and fear mongering marketing, which is what we're scared of becoming right, getting in the way of therapists trusting their own wisdom and their own intuition and it impacting their financial bottom line.
So before we get to the how tos, I want to share a couple of things, particularly for new therapists, and then also just the general perks of practicing financial wellness as a therapist. So new therapists, if you are new to the therapist world, you are bound to get what I call a lot of dusty advice. This is the advice that's been passed down from therapist to therapist that wasn't necessarily good advice in the first place. But because it's such old or you know, long standing advice, you might feel like you have to take it and this is the the noise or the advice that sounds like "Oh, don't worry about your income. This job is so rewarding, that the money is secondary to the work you do," or "It's not appropriate to charge more than other therapists you have to put in your time before you raise your rate." All of these old things I remember when I was starting out, I got some advice because I was starting to niche down and somebody who'd been in the therapist world for a while was like, "You know, the way that you wrote XYZ your service page or your about me page," I can't remember what it was, "But it sounds like you're kind of saying that you don't work with XYZ population." And I started to panic, because I was like, Well, I don't want to work with XYZ population. That's not the point of what I do. But I panicked, I went back and then added like, but I also work with bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla people, even though it was not what I wanted to do, I still felt like, well, this is a wise person who's been in the field for the long time to have a successful practice, I definitely need to just do what they told me to do. So the thing I will kind of give to you is a reframe around money. Because I know so many of us struggle with like the underbelly of capitalism, the not great things about existing in this system. And I think therapy and therapists actually are the embodiment of the social enterprise model. And the social enterprise model exists at the intersection of three things, what we do well, what values we stand for, and what we can be paid well to do. So think about the you being compensated for the values you stand for, and the work that you do well as an exchange in a betterment for the community and less of, "Oh my gosh, I am just in the belly of the beast of capitalism," and if you're struggling with this, definitely get support. Find other people in your community or in your online community who hold similar values, and understand that underpaying people and helping fields is a symptom of toxic capitalism. Right? Capitalism exists in the structure that it does, because it underpays and undervalues helping fields, teaching nursing, social work, therapy, stay at home parenting, it doesn't value those things, and it doesn't pay those things and so that is how capitalism is able to like really have this kind of hockey stick growth for people who believe that those types of fields shouldn't be paid. So I digress.
Moving into financial wellness benefits, like why does this even matter? Outside of the very real thing, that is if you don't have a sustainable business, you won't be able to help people, you have to be able to practice financial wellness, which in my mind is feeling good about your money, like feeling good about your relationship with money and your money mindset, and having a handle on what's coming in what's going out and what financial goals you are saving toward or investing in. Often people struggle with their relationship with money or their money mindset and that money mindset and that unhealthy relationship with money makes it really hard for them to engage with the financial knowledge piece, right? It makes it hard for them to understand their spending plan or their savings goals or how they're investing in their future. So I think it's important to work on both both your money mindset and both the the basics of financial literacy knowing that those two in tandem is what creates financial wellness. What I find as a financial therapist is that people who have a healthy money mindset tend to have a neutral view of money and they also tend to feel comfortable and confident in their relationship with money and the inverse of having financial wellness and practicing financial self care is that research shows that people who are stressed out about money tend to carry more debt are distracted at work and at home because they're, they're ruminating about money, obviously, that makes sense and they struggle to make wise financial choices that allow them to enjoy life. So practicing financial self care, I've said it before, and I'll say it again, practicing financial self care allows us to take care of ourselves emotionally, spiritually, and physically. So I want to encourage you to practice financial self care to help improve your overall well being.
Okay. Now on to what do we do? I've talked about those seven mistakes, what can we do what are some tips to cope with those mistakes, so the first one was under charging. So the first tip is to figure out a fee that works for you. I have several blog posts on this very topic and I go way more in depth on how to set your fee in alignment with your needs in my small group coaching program Grow a Profitable Practice From the Inside Out. At the time of this recording, I'm planning on reopening the fifth cohort in early 2022. So if you're interested in that, make sure to get on my waitlist at MindMoneyBalance.com/ProfitablePractice. If you're on that waitlist you'll get access to first dibs to that and a four letter word in my world, a discount. I'm just being transparent. Getting on the waitlist does not obligate you to join in any way shape, or form, but it just gives you first dibs at knowing when enrollment opens, and also gives you access to an extended payment plan and discount. So some goodies there anyway, so making sure to charge enough means that you have to make sure that your fee not only covers your business expenses, it also has to cover your personal expenses, because in private practice, our business is our paycheck and our paycheck has to cover those personal expenses. It also has to cover things like time off, professional development, the ability to save for future goals, investing in retirement, paying down debt, paying your quarterly taxes, covering health insurance, and the ability to work an aligned schedule. So making sure your fee covers all of those things is so so important.
To deal with the second mistake DIY to save money, I recommend paying for software systems or people to help in three kind of particular areas, but definitely, there are more areas than this, but I'll cover three. Billing and accounting; those are tasks that first her I think people can pay to outsource. I've shared this example in the past or my personal example in the past, but I'll share it again here. When I first started in private practice, I didn't want to pay the 30 or 40 dollars a month to do automated billing through my electronic health records. So I did it manually to "save money," but what I ended up doing was spending eight or 10 hours a month on client billing, instead of spending what I spend now which was like 20 or 30 minutes a month on my billing because I upgraded to pay for automated billing. I personally use Simple Practice, but it is such a game changer to have that billing automated and built into your electronic health record. So that is what I would recommend for billing. The other thing that I think can be helpful to outsource if you're struggling to stay on top of administrative tasks like returning client calls, responding to website enquiries, etc. It might be worth it to hire a virtual assistant or in-person assistant to help you out with administrative tasks. This can help save you personal energy, but your clients will also feel held and supported knowing that their calls and emails will be answered which further enhances their experience with you. And the third thing I think can be really helpful to pay for is a website. If you're like me and you DIY your website it can be fun and creative outlet but it also can be super super time consuming if you don't have a background in website design. I have hired Monica twice over. I first got one of her pre designed websites, I loved it and then I use the Andreea template and then after a year I actually paid an upgraded for one of her semi-custom websites which is where she takes one of her website templates gives you this in depth questionnaire and then she read does that website template and alignment with the service you provide your values, your energy, and your therapeutic style. I'm such a fan, setup is a breeze, it's built on Squarespace and my website really calls in aligned clients like literally when I'm sleeping. I know that's such a cliched thing to say but it is the truth.
Okay, third thing, not having separate business and personal accounts and not having accounting in order is problematic. So your tip here is to get your accounting in order. If I didn't hammer home the first time around, make sure to have a separate account for your business and personal finances so you can track your income and expenses. If you're struggling to track your income and expenses, there is a free accounting option called wave W-A-V-E and there are low cost options like QuickBooks or FreshBooks. I personally pay for Heard Accounting. I love working with them, I cannot recommend them enough. If you are a small group practice owner or a private practice owner in solo practice, and they have just been so helpful for me and having somebody else do the heavy lifting with bookkeeping and accounting, helping me to do the estimates for my quarterly taxes helping me file those things, the annual taxes at the end of the year and it also includes unlimited, like chat support and texts, or chat support, and quarterly, like zoom calls and check in. So I still feel like I'm very involved in what's happening, but I know that I have two or three or four other sets of eyes. And they can always say like, "Hey, Lindsay, like this doesn't make sense to us, or we have a question about how this is categorized," it's been super helpful for me, I cannot recommend them highly enough. Again, that's Heard Accounting, I've really been a fan of them. But if you want to DIY it, check out QuickBooks, check out Fresh Books, those are good starts.
And the fourth mistake was not upholding your boundary. So of course, the tip is going to be upholding your boundaries. And one way to do this, to be quite honest with you is get your boundaries in your paperwork. Meaning when you first see a new client, you have them signed paperwork about your office policies and practices, you know, you talk you also have them sign things about HIPAA and telehealth and the cost, the risks and benefits of therapy, but your boundaries can be right in there. You know, that is a way to say "Look, my office policies are XY and Z." Like I mentioned earlier, I have a 24 hour cancellation policy and I allow my clients to be up to 15 minutes late. Those are my office policies, those are in my paperwork. So I can always go back to them. Instead of being like, "Hey, you know, I'd prefer if you were on time, or I prefer if you told me, you know, if you were gonna miss your appointment," it's in those office policies. And that can be a great way to have those boundaries, reinforced through a policy, and then just getting comfortable saying no, I know it can feel so hard as a therapist, we want to help everybody but it is just simply not possible. And when we are tired when we are working hours that are not aligned with our energy, it is impossible to be fully resourced in a way to in a way that really supports your clients in a therapeutic relationship. So again, upholding your boundaries to me models to your clients, the importance of upholding boundaries, okay?
The fifth mistake is just not engaging with money. So I would say let's let's take these baby steps to increase your money, confidence, and you can start wherever feels best for you. And typically, I recommend getting started with your income and your expenses, AKA a savings plan. But if you're like, you know what I really want to focus on debt pay down first, then start engaging with podcasts or influencers who are talking about debt pay down, right? And and unfollow the people who don't have a message that feels good for you. There are so many different ways to get your information today, which can be good and bad, right? It can be a little bit overwhelming to know who to listen to, but it also is a gift in that if somebody feels really shameful or blamefull or punitive to you, you don't have to follow them. So increasing your money confidence slowly and steadily. I just shared with my email list that I purchased Amanda Holden, who is @Dumpster.Doggy over on Instagram, I'm obsessed with her. I paid for her Investing 101 and 102 course. I took a one hour workshop with her once; I really love her approach. I'm pretty comfortable with investing, but I always feel like it's important to kind of lean into that growth edge and figure out the areas where it's time to learn more, right? I'm really comfortable with my my short term savings goals, with my debt paid down plan for student loans, and with like the income and expenses and investing felt like the next best thing, I already have a will and trust, I already have life insurance in order, I already have a durable power of attorney on file. Those things are handled. So investing feels like a good next step for me to raise my money confidence.
Six was struggling with marketing. So I would encourage you to just reframe marketing. Marketing, when you're doing it in alignment with your values in with your energy, allows your ideal clients to know that help for people like them, people struggling with the problems that they are or the pain that they're going through, that help is available. When you are visible, you allow people who need your services to find you and that is a gift. That is the perk of being a therapist and doing the work that we do is letting people know that their pain is not isolated and that they are not alone. And so getting out in front of that marketing by saying, Look, when I show up, I allow people who need my services to find me can be a huge shift.
And then seven is not trusting yourself and hiring too many people who are telling you too many things, and it gets in the way of you sustainably building. So this goes back to my pre amble rant about the shame and blame in this online space and I want for you to really get intentional about the help that you need. Meaning, if you are struggling with your website, then find somebody who can help you with your website. If you're struggling with your website, do not hire somebody who's going to teach you how to grow your practice on Tik Tok because that was not the thing that you were struggling with, you dig? So figure out what you need help with and also don't be afraid to say, You know what, I don't think this is the course for me, or I don't think this is the coach for me. There's nothing wrong with that. And if you're working with somebody who's like, "Well, this is just how it is, that's how you have to do it. It's my way or the highway," that's a red flag and it's not uncommon for it to happen in this online world that we live in, but I really encourage you to remember that you have so much intuition, you have such a deep well of empathy and compassion as a therapist, and I want you to trust your own signals that your body is sending you about what you need. When you figure out what it is specifically that you need--you know, I mentioned a moment ago that I'm working on increasing my confidence around investing. So I specifically went, "Who do I want to work with? Who can help me in this particular area that I'm looking to grow in? And how can I find somebody who has the energy and style that I know will resonate with me?" Does that make sense? So it's not about saying, Oh, just DIY, do it all yourself. That goes against what I was saying in the in the mistake number two, but it's about saying, What do I actually need? Not who's the loudest in the room. What do I actually need and are they going to provide it to me in a way that works for me, meaning, if you're the type of person who's an extrovert and who really craves a lot of energy happening all the time, then a huge Facebook group might be the place for you. If you're a person who likes having a ton of different options, then a course with hundreds of modules might feel really good for you. Conversely, you might be like, You know what? I like doing things one on one, I don't really like airing my dirty laundry. I really want to be able to ask questions without feeling like I'm being judged. Maybe one on one coaching or one on one work is what you need. If you are the type of person who's like, I like a smaller container. I don't want to do it completely on my own but I don't want to be in a group of 50 or even 100 people. I want something small I also want something super structured, the idea of hundreds of videos or hundreds of modules really overwhelms me, then find someone who's offering that there are so many different ways to find people who can help you, but find help intentionally. You know how you learn best, just because somebody says, "Oh, this is the way of the world you have to do things this way now," doesn't mean it's true for you. Okay?
So if you are a therapist, and you're struggling with any of these common money, mistakes, you are not alone. And if I have not set it up today, it is not your fault. We live in a system that has reinforced that therapists and other helpers and healers shouldn't be compensated and that's just not true. When you practice financial self care, you're able to practice self care in so many other arenas, okay. And if you are a therapist in private practice, and you're looking for some support and guidance around your relationship with money, around fees setting, around niching, then I would encourage you to get on my waitlist for Grow a Profitable Practice From The Inside Out. Again, if you're on that waitlist, there's no obligation to join the program. It just gives you first access to apply when applications reopen. It will give you access to an extended payment plan and a discount. Again, I don't know exactly when that is going to be reopening. It'll be opening sometime in early 2022. But the timing is still TBD. And with that, I'll see you next week.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
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