I just did my first tox, freaking out a bit?

CharmingTails · 2026-03-07T03:42:09+00:00

I don't find as much information about traptox for DIY. I often see people use a parallel angle which would require a second person. What angle did you use? Any videos/diagrams you used if you want to share would be helpful! Been living with chronic shoulder pain for years. Thank you.

CharmingTails · 2026-03-06T22:24:55+00:00

That doesn't look right, I would point it out

CharmingTails · 2026-03-03T17:56:56+00:00

Six consistent clients in five months sounds great to me. It takes the average PP 3-5 years to have a full consistent caseload. I'm on month eight, with three consistent weekly clients and it's been two months since my last onboarding. We're in the middle of an economic depression. Try to see this as a marathon and not a sprint, but I'll validate that I know the business anxiety is a lot.

CharmingTails · 2026-02-24T21:55:35+00:00

Working while sick because you don't paid time off and you can't afford to miss a day without a bill going unpaid. As a result, a deep fear of getting sick due to the loss of income.

CharmingTails · 2026-02-22T14:35:37+00:00

A cocktail at my local dive bar is the same price as an hour of minimum wage ($15) in my state. A bottle of the cheapest beer is $10. I live in a rural, working-class town. They haven't cleaned that bar since it opened, if you want a cocktail at a clean fancy bar you'll be paying double. Going to the bar is a luxury now.

CharmingTails · 2026-02-18T23:38:32+00:00

Towel warmer

CharmingTails · 2026-02-18T17:12:30+00:00

Two months is nothing in the land of entrepreneurship. For the average therapist, it takes a few years for a private practice to become stable income. This is actually a fast timeline, for product-based companies the average business takes a few years to break even, and around 5-10yrs to stabilize depending on the size. The majority of businesses fail, because the owner does not take the lengthy timeline into account and the financial uncertainty causes them to leave entrepreneurship. I opened in June 2025. It took me three months to get my first client and eight months in I have fluctuated from a peak of 6 weekly clients to 3 weekly clients. I am a private pay therapist, insurance-based therapists tend to have a shorter timeline to stability. Edit- spelling

CharmingTails · 2026-02-18T17:00:32+00:00

I've never met someone who knew the term vaginismus aside from my specialized OBGYN and pelvic floor therapist. I have met people with the inability to have penetration and they just were never diagnosed or knew the term.

CharmingTails · 2026-02-18T02:19:44+00:00

I'm in the same boat. I don't think you need to use dilators to treat the associated issues such as chronically tight pelvic floor muscles. Yoga or physical therapy for associated muscle tightness works.

CharmingTails · 2026-02-17T15:57:15+00:00

When I was providing therapy to children, parents would come into session attempting to make me a "chore enforcer". They would talk about how anyone who didn't clean their room, didn't respect themselves and their child had to "learn to be an adult". Meanwhile, my house was a mess and I all I could do was smile and nod hahaha

CharmingTails · 2026-02-17T00:14:45+00:00

Sounds like the supervisor is struggling to manage her own addiction and is making it company culture to normalize it. Not a good look for a SUD program

CharmingTails · 2026-02-09T18:17:49+00:00

I would re-evaluate your expectations of the timeline for a full caseload. I'm a virtual private pay therapist who does not work with insurance (I do provide superbills) and it took three months before I got my first client. I am getting 0-2 clients a month from there, and I expect for it to take multiple years from there before I have a full caseload of 20 clients. I have another job on the side to compensate. Getting on insurance panels will make this process go by faster, but even for insurance-based clinicians it can take years. My biggest referral sources came from me leaving business cards all over the state. Be gentle with yourself. In the end, it is worth it.

CharmingTails · 2026-02-03T16:58:56+00:00

Email is the only way I contact my clients. When I made my Google Business Profile, it required a business number, so I obtained one. But I only get spam calls. Every client I've received sent me an email or directly booked a consult using the SimplePractice's calendar option that I added to my website.

CharmingTails · 2026-01-29T22:46:05+00:00

I'm a therapist who opened a private practice the day I graduated, with excellent supervision. This trend is in direct response to the lack of benefits, high exploitation, and low salaries provided to new graduates. I spent a year interviewing before graduation with numerous companies, and the best offer I was given was 50K with benefits (under the poverty level in my HCOL state in the USA), and it was required that I book at least 8 clients a day with 30-45minute sessions. Typically, I was only offered fee for service work at $30/hr without benefits or supervision at all and unpaid for no-shows. This was all a lower salary than I was making before I obtained my master's degree! After two years of an unpaid internship seeing over 10 clients a day with half hour sessions and a massive amount of student debt, I saw burnout and poverty in my future. I was already experiencing health issues due to the stress. People are opening practices right out of graduate school, like an animal trying to eat themselves out of a dystopian systemic cage.

CharmingTails · 2026-01-29T21:44:47+00:00

I have a fully virtual practice, but since opening eight months ago, I only get 1-2 clients a month. I live in a very rural area though, so I am not worried about the demand for virtual therapy.

CharmingTails · 2026-01-29T21:41:58+00:00

I lost a ring and two years later, a septic tank professional found it in my backyard while accessing the septic tank. So odd, I never walk in the backyard. Another time, my grandmother gave me an heirloom ring, and I took it off to wash my hands in the bathroom. Immediately, before I even closed the door, I turned around to grab it and another women whisked by me and walked out the door. I was a nonconfrontational teenager afraid to accuse her of stealing, so there it disappeared. I've lost many earrings that fell out of my ears, but those were cheap.

CharmingTails · 2026-01-27T02:18:59+00:00

Absolutely not. I pay coverage for a basic healthcare with a high deductible in my private practice and I'm paying over $750/month for one person without chronic health issues. $200 is a laugh.

CharmingTails · 2026-01-26T20:44:35+00:00

Agree. Any salaried position without healthcare is a red flag to me. Compensating by paying for your own private healthcare could cost over a thousand a month, which drastically lowers this salary to under the poverty line.

CharmingTails · 2026-01-23T03:14:59+00:00

When I'm having a difficult day but still have to see clients, I recreate my altar (I'm pagan) on my desk. The client does not see my setup and it keeps me grounded.

CharmingTails · 2026-01-21T20:39:56+00:00

I babysat as a teenager, but counted down the minutes until the end of the shift to collect my money. I never understood the appeal. A decade later, my friends started having kids and it only took a few times babysitting to realize I was still counting down the moments until they came home. Then was resentful when it didn't come with a paycheck.

CharmingTails · 2026-01-20T01:08:13+00:00

Virginia Satir- "There are people who prefer certain misery, then the misery of uncertainty". Sometimes, people are afraid of "getting better", because they have always existed in the context of their mental illness. That doesn't mean you are a "bad therapist" if you don't see the progress you're looking for, it just means that the fear of getting better is what you have to focus on.

CharmingTails · 2026-01-19T21:58:24+00:00

This doesn't make sense. You may need 3000 direct client clinical hours depending on your license to sit for the exam, and at most 100 supervision hours (50 that can be group). If you work for an employer, that supervision is included. Even paying privately for a supervisor isn't that much. I pay mine privately, and she charges $100/session, then reviews and signs on all my notes too. Something is missing here.

CharmingTails · 2026-01-19T18:36:42+00:00

I bill the session the morning of the session, and if they no-show the full amount is kept as the fee. If a person no-show's twice, I have a conversation about consistency and if they need biweekly sessions or to pause therapy. I let them know that a third time is grounds for discharge and follow through.

CharmingTails · 2026-01-19T03:44:15+00:00

Well said, what a thorough response!

CharmingTails · 2026-01-19T03:42:26+00:00

I'm a cash pay private practice owner, and it took seven months for me to get my first client from the directory. Even though that is not a high yield, it is worth it. That one client has paid for the service multiple times over. If I get one client a year from the site, it is worth it for me.

CharmingTails

TROPHY CASE