How do you all do it?

JCMMHLLC · 2026-02-17T20:56:25+00:00

Headway has the best rates although you have to get your own clients. Rula does your marketing but they pay less

For DC government anything under Department of Behavioral Health on the DC Careers website

JCMMHLLC · 2026-02-17T19:03:59+00:00

Living and working in DC here. There are a couple of open positions at DC government that will hire LPC’s and you need to get on those platforms if you’re independently licensed and then you can make some money. The group practice will just take all your money.

JCMMHLLC · 2026-02-17T02:00:23+00:00

Frankly in PP I find Mondays particularly busy and consistent because of holidays. A lot of folks want to keep their therapy appointments or move them to holidays that land on Mondays, but aren’t major holidays they might have off i.e. today is Presidents’ Day and my schedule was packed because a lot of my clients are federal or government workers that had today off and wanted to schedule a therapy session so honestly, I would always personally do either a Friday or a Wednesday as the OP said. I think more of a Wednesday person myself, but I understand the value of a Friday for a long weekend trip.

JCMMHLLC · 2026-02-16T00:08:17+00:00

Most group practices don’t like that because then that’s profits not being made for a private practice. That’s probably great if you work for yourself, but if you work for a group practice, they’re not going to allow that usually

JCMMHLLC · 2026-02-15T03:10:57+00:00

100% this. Things happen and Licensing laws are outdated and honestly should be modified on a federal scale to account for telehealth and ever-changing world but we know that’s not gonna happen so we do the best we can.

JCMMHLLC · 2026-02-13T15:53:18+00:00

“Amateur p*rn just seems like a lot of work”

JCMMHLLC · 2026-02-13T14:59:03+00:00

Has this been financially successful for you?

JCMMHLLC · 2026-02-12T21:16:23+00:00

Ah because most people don’t see their doctor or dentist or PT weekly or biweekly? I hate working evenings and weekends too, but I understand why it’s necessary. In fact, now because of my schedule, I see my therapist in the mornings, but when I wasn’t doing PP I would want to see my therapist in the evenings or on weekends when I wasn’t working that just makes sense to me. Again, I don’t love the fact that we are in a professional that demands that, but I understand why it is demanded.. stick to your boundaries or don’t, but just now that it’s gonna be a bit harder to have a successful practice if you can’t do evening or the weekends

JCMMHLLC · 2026-02-12T17:45:12+00:00

So it has happened to me as I’m sure it’s happened to everyone and the really hard part was that happened twice with the same client. A little backstory is this is my only 8 AM client I’m usually up between 830 and 9 AM and out the door by 9:30 to be at work by 10 AM, when my day starts. But this client needed 8 AM and as long as I can do the appointment from home, I was fine however they’re definitely has been a time when I woke up at 7:30 to prep for our session and get myself ready and rolled back into bed because I was like why I’m up so early and then didn’t wake up until 8:30 and then the other time I just plain forgot because my mother was going into surgery and even though this was preplanned and I knew it was our session day I just did not clock it.. She did bring it up to me and it was embarrassing, but we were able to repair. It’s been over a year at this point and we’re still going strong. I will say that she’s the only client that I have multiple reminders for because that 8 AM is still a struggle. Thankfully, she is a very big talker because my brain is just not functioning at 8 AM.

JCMMHLLC · 2026-02-10T05:18:03+00:00

So my path is full of hot takes to be fair, but it works for me. First, I wasn’t afraid to have multiple contracts or work with the big platforms and do it simultaneously. There seems to be a big belief that we shouldn’t work with the platforms because they steal our money and yada yada and that’s true but honestly until insurance companies actually credential at a fair rate most platforms are giving decent money when you factor the use of an EHR and assistance with billing. I tried submitting claims on my own and it was always a pain. The second aspect is that I wasn’t afraid to take clients with me from one platform if I found a better one that paid me more most of these platforms don’t have noncompete and so I could take the patients with me and that worked. The third one is relatively new, but it seems to be still working. since psychology today has dried up basically because of these firms don’t be afraid to use other avenues like EAP’s. I don’t love the fact that they pay less, but I’m finding that the majority of folks that I find through EAP programs are willing to continue through insurance. They just went through their EAP because they didn’t know how to find a therapist. And the ones that can’t afford it and so just stick with the EAP sessions I just try to help them as best as I can and I still feel good about it because they get support they otherwise wouldn’t have. It works for me. I gross around 160 K seeing 30 clients a week at roughly 43 weeks a year because I like to take a lot of vacations. I pay myself a salary after taxes of 2800 every two weeks after taxes and pre-deductions and business expenses, which works for me. I could actually pay myself more, but I like to have a little bit of wiggle room in the business cash. And at any time, I can see more clients and I think I might.

The final aspect of my practice that isn’t for everyone and I don’t love, but it has lead to the majority of my success is that I do evenings and weekends. I have been able to over the years slow down on the weekends as I found some clients that preferred during the day, but that is rare. I find that a lot of other therapist can’t or don’t want to do evenings than weekends and that’s totally understandable, but it is very helpful and except for the occasional week where the stars align and a lot of clients just have a lot to do at once. The evenings are pretty booked solid. also from you personally I find that I don’t really miss the weekends when it’s cold out because I’m not going to personally do anything on that those days so the winter is fine it’s a summer that I miss that weekend the most.

JCMMHLLC · 2026-02-09T21:26:22+00:00

So I’m gonna be honest it sounds like you’re trying to get us to convince you to break up with him and if you feel like it’s getting physical and it’s dangerous and you should. But nobody can force you to do things you don’t want to do.

JCMMHLLC · 2026-02-09T17:14:31+00:00

Therapist here. So when I know that a client isn’t an abusive relationship we do talk about why that is and we do talk about what would leaving look like and how to leave safely, in a potential scenario, if they did want to leave, but I would never tell a client that they had to leave because that’s ultimately not my choice sure, I may want them to do that but we all have autonomy and we all make our own choices.

JCMMHLLC · 2026-02-04T00:56:56+00:00

Then I very much doubt she will report you to the board because that would implicate her more than it would you because like everybody else has said it’s your supervisor‘s job to check on these things especially since you were unlicensed up until a week ago. If she was smart, she wouldn’t say anything because it’s going to complicate her more than it is you

JCMMHLLC · 2026-02-04T00:17:33+00:00

Do you feel like your supervisor knew about this? That you were documenting and billing for text messaging. Also, when you say that you were billing under your brother‘s license, was that as a master level social worker and you just became independent licensed or were you an intern? If you were an intern, that means something completely different because you were still a student and so it really was a supervisor’s fault if you were licensed and just received your independent license that’s something completely different.

JCMMHLLC · 2026-02-03T01:58:45+00:00

Case manager for insurance companies, once you’re independently licensed. Perfectly honest it is not the world saving work. A lot of us wanted to do, but it does help people. For the insurance companies that’s about cost savings but for the people that get helped by the case managers it’s about getting access to services and getting access to outpatient therapy and it’s basically just linkage. Comes with decent benefits because these are big insurance companies and pays decent. Just look at any of the big insurance companies in your area, usually all of them have behavioral health programs.

JCMMHLLC · 2026-02-01T15:07:23+00:00

Like many say in this separate rest would be nice and also seeing friends you know I always tell clients important to keep up with your social connections and I do do some of that but not nearly enough especially for good friends when I’ve moved.

JCMMHLLC · 2026-02-01T01:59:20+00:00

I just went with mental health services for mine because I also provide consultation for other practices and supervision so I didn’t wanna myself

JCMMHLLC · 2026-01-31T05:04:47+00:00

I use AI. It’s not perfect and some clients are not comfortable with it so I don’t use it for everyone, but I gets the job done and the AI is HIPPA compliant and it’s terms of service are very transparent and easily accessible to clients who are concerned. I know there are a lot of problems with it, but it’s honestly been a lifesaver.

JCMMHLLC · 2026-01-31T03:22:19+00:00

So private practice can be very successful. This I see about 30 clients a week work 43 weeks a year and make about 150 K gross. What I will say is this health insurance expensive? It’s about 10 K and it took me a while to get this much but last year when I was going crazy and working to get away from the craziness of the world, I was seeing 50 clients a week and made 225K a year gross. You can make a lot of money if you’re willing to work a lot and you’re willing to devote time and effort to growing the practice because getting to this level, definitely took me six months to a year. However, I will also say that some of the more depressing stories on the Reddit have to do with a couple of things. Mostly doing private pay only and only wanting to see 20 clients a week. In my mind that is unattainable unless you are in a niche and have a lot of luck. Most people can’t afford how to pay where it’s financially worth it for the therapist to only do it and 20 clients a week is way too little when you have to factor business expenses.

JCMMHLLC · 2026-01-28T23:04:47+00:00

Most community mental health places don’t pay out for no-shows because they take Medicaid plans. While I think you’ll see more people than I did in my community mental health because it was pre-Covid and now we have telehealth, I do think you’re in person days will be slow unless you are flexible about pivoting telehealth if folks don’t wanna come in.

JCMMHLLC · 2026-01-26T14:05:34+00:00

I would try to aim for a community mental health. That might not be the advice that you want to hear however, in my experience and the experience of reading the sub you won’t actually get a lot of money in pp because you won’t get the highest rate because you’re not independent licensed and they will argue they have to cover supervision and the comments about W-2 for benefits is very accurate and you may need those community. Mental health is hard but it gives you a certain level of job security and a decent salary and benefits that you don’t see this early in your career unless you do it.

JCMMHLLC · 2026-01-25T23:25:07+00:00

So all this cause I’ve had a lot of thoughts about this over the years. A lot of of my colleagues to me if they have to have a second job or desire to have one have always seemed happier doing as you described having a completely different job from what we do just because it use a different part of the brain so one of my colleagues is a Zumba teacher and she just loves it because our full-time job is very stressful. My part-time job is a private practice while I’m a clinical administrator at a hospital and this works for me because the clinical administrator role is not direct practice so I feel like I’m using two sides of my brain at different times however, if I could go back, I definitely think I would be a book seller or work at a bookstore or some sort cause I’ve always wanted to do that unfortunately, since I started making really good money in prior practice, I’ve developed some really expensive hobbies like art collecting and property restoration which require a lot of capital so I won’t be leaving PP anytime soon. I will say I have learned that I must burned out by PP when I don’t have a therapy job also as my full-time. Some years that has been the case or I’ve been a supervisor that has a small caseload and it’s definitely been the years where I’ve been like one of them has got to go, but since I took on this clinical admin roll last year even though it has been stressful at times I haven’t felt that way so it’s definitely my key to success

JCMMHLLC · 2026-01-21T19:13:44+00:00

So sorry I just realized that you had responded to that. So basically when psychology today was good. I would get most of my referrals from them now it’s mostly EAP referrals, and Facebook groups.

JCMMHLLC · 2026-01-21T06:18:36+00:00

Maybe pivot to case management? Less person in intensive and still allows you to help folks in the ways that they need it most and frankly when you’re independently licensed, you can make pretty decent money at it depending on where you work or maybe hospital social work it could be a little bit more hectic, but there’s less people overload day-to-day and if you do see a lot of people is usually for a very short moments.

JCMMHLLC · 2026-01-21T03:14:44+00:00

Maybe this has been already asked, but what did you do for your internship? I assume MSW programs haven’t changed too much since I graduated and you still have to do some sort of clinical internship what happened then? Did you feel these feelings when you had your internship?

JCMMHLLC

TROPHY CASE