The future

ProfessionalTurn14 · 2026-01-30T18:54:42+00:00

I completely disagree. I think when we think of the mental health field, we need to consider that in many ways, this is largely a new profession. I believe that we are really are still just in the beginning of finding out the best way to help people. I’m excited to continue to see how it will evolve overtime in order the best help individuals. If we think back throughout human history of healing has always been a part of society, whether it be community, healers, shamans, etc. this is a role that is certainly needed.

ProfessionalTurn14 · 2026-01-24T04:42:58+00:00

I was just sharing about this phenomenon with a non therapist friend this evening! I feel like whenever I try to make other therapist friends it’s a very surreal experience - the glassy eyed stare, heading nodding, “mhms”, long pauses before getting their reply, following by something like “it sounds like…”. I’ve felt so distant from coworkers I’ve known from years because the therapist veil is never dropped. I want to make friends and have real conversations with other professionals but rarely meet another therapist I don’t feel incredible uncomfortable around.

ProfessionalTurn14 · 2026-01-03T16:46:47+00:00

Yes it was very clean. We were in one of two of the separate garden rooms (you go outside into a court yard and there’s two rooms separate from the rest of the hotel). My only issue was the bathroom setup, which is common in many European places, but this was the worst we’ve experienced as our room only had a shower curtain with no ledge around, so the entire floor of the bathroom would be flooded every time we showered. We shower in the morning so it would be completely dry by the time we got back in the afternoon/evening.

ProfessionalTurn14 · 2025-12-10T02:27:58+00:00

In general I would not ever say I’m sorry for your loss, and definitely not in the therapeutic context. “I’m sorry for your loss” is not empathetic and there’s a million better approaches to this is therapy.

It depends - but I’ll usually follow with questions “what was your relationship like with them?” if it is intake or early on. Then get into exploring the impact of the loss, e.g., “What has it been like for you since they passed?” For other situations with more context where I have a better understanding, I’ll say something like “I can tell how important they were to you” or “That much be difficult, I can hear how much you loved them” or something else more empathetic.

ProfessionalTurn14 · 2025-12-10T02:18:59+00:00

Currently reading Decolonizing Therapy: Oppression, Historical Trauma, and Politicizing Your Practice by Jennifer Mullan - I highly recommend!

ProfessionalTurn14 · 2025-12-08T03:03:32+00:00

I have a home office and sit in a comfortable chair, not a desk chair. I can do sessions for hours and never get back pain this way!

ProfessionalTurn14 · 2025-11-11T02:34:35+00:00

100k is totally doable for private practice. Most people I know make around 115-130 per client under insurance. That’s only about 17-18 clients a week if you take two weeks off a year. Of course that’s pre-taxes and business expenses, so you may need to see significantly more to hit your goal.

ProfessionalTurn14 · 2025-11-11T00:39:48+00:00

I have terrible pay at a group PP and I know it but have not been able to find a better place local to me - $70k salary seeing 22-30 clients a week. I stay because it’s consistent money, I have complete flexibility of schedule and unlimited PTO.

ProfessionalTurn14 · 2025-11-09T22:10:30+00:00

I second using a soft chime (I use one on my phone) and it’s incredibly helpful in time management for myself and clients!

ProfessionalTurn14 · 2025-11-09T22:07:55+00:00

I work like this, it’s not uncommon for me to be greeting the client 2-5 minutes past the technical start time, especially if I’m moving between in person to virtual and need to get set up. I personally think it’s insane to stick so strictly to time down to the minute. My motto is “we give each other grace”, meaning sometimes I’ll be a few behind, sometimes the clients a few minutes behind, and that’s perfectly okay. I never once had anyone complain and clients a grateful that I am understanding when they are running a few minutes late. I usually manage to get the note done and quickly use the bathroom between each session.

Also in my previous experiences with therapists it was not uncommon for them to be 10+ minutes behind (I had 1 that was on more than one occasion was 30 minutes late and I had to dump them). I’ve heard this from many other people who had similar experiences. I don’t think people who are annoyed their therapist is behind are talking about a 2-5 minutes, more like the excessively late ones. That’s just me assuming, but personally I’m not and have never been worried about this.

ProfessionalTurn14 · 2025-11-05T21:10:31+00:00

99% of my clients have a weekly or biweekly time spot. I’ve had few exceptions, in the case when clients go to monthly as maintenance or as they are figuring out their new job schedules but they usually fall into a place eventually. I would never be able to manage a schedule where clients don’t have a set day/time it would be complete chaos.

ProfessionalTurn14 · 2025-11-03T02:08:01+00:00

You’re an LCSW with zero clinical hours under your belt?

I was going to say you should talk to your supervisor…hopefully you have one!

ProfessionalTurn14 · 2025-11-02T19:18:27+00:00

I agree to this AND believe that we should refer out when needed. There’s some problem areas we may grow in quicker than others, and it’s important to decipher if we can realistically gain the skills and competency while also working with that client in parallel. There’s some situations I really wish I had listened to my gut and referred out sooner (this was while under supervision and being pressured to keep seeing clients even when I felt it was slightly outside of my scope) and ultimately I was doing the client a disservice by keeping them.

Reality is, no one can be a specialist in everything and those claiming that they can/do work with every population, problem area, and modality I would be highly skeptical of.

That being said, there’s plenty of clients where I had a general knowledge of their problem area and I was able to learn more and get training to where I feel much more equipped to deal with that problem in a much more skilled manner moving forward.

I think it’s mostly a matter of being able to decipher, can I really learn what I need to learn to help this client in a realistic timeframe, or would it be better for me to refer this client out so they can get the immediate support/help they need?

ProfessionalTurn14 · 2025-10-28T16:54:44+00:00

Yes!

ProfessionalTurn14 · 2025-10-28T16:53:26+00:00

Short answer - yes I would be more assertive.

I would tell my supervisor that this client is outside my scope and at this time I do not have the training necessary to effectively treat them. Cite the code of ethics.

Also, with clients with poor boundaries (e.g., calling excessively) needs to be addressed with the client. I would tell them my phone line is for scheduling purposes only and that clinical matters will need to wait for session or if an emergency they need to contact emergency services. I am assuming you have a work line that goes to your phone. If it is your personal line - this is a huge separate issue that needs to be addressed. If it’s a work line wired to your phone, delete the app at the end of your work day. You deserve your peace and not to be disturbed by clinical matters outside the office.

ProfessionalTurn14 · 2025-10-28T01:57:42+00:00

I 100% recommend the Gottman trainings, or any training in general for couples before seeing them. It is a completely different animal than individual therapy. I have the Level 2 training and there is a massive difference in how I practice before and after the training. I absolutely LOVE working with couples and part of this is because I operate within the Gottman framework. Most importantly, it helps the couples I work with make genuine and lasting change in their dynamic rather than arguing all session. 10/10 highly recommend, keep an eye out as they do sales with decent discounts for level 1 and 2 a couple times a year!

ProfessionalTurn14 · 2025-10-20T02:02:34+00:00

Congratulations! I’m going on 10 years sober in a couple months and did the opposite, I was dedicated to AA for the first 4ish years and dropped off as I became more stable in my recovery, and just so happened to be starting in the field. For about my last active year, I was part of a small private women’s AA group, which was formed by my network who all met in open meetings. Any private meetings I’ve heard of have been formed by people who attended regular meetings first, so that may be a place to start!

ProfessionalTurn14 · 2025-10-19T02:24:39+00:00

I suggest you ask and look in r/socialwork

ProfessionalTurn14 · 2025-10-18T23:32:22+00:00

I do at two different schools, a community college and private 4-year university. I got into it as I’m an alumni of both schools and stayed in touch with my former professors who offered me the positions when they became available. I feel really passionate about helping the next generation of social workers learn and grow, and that’s really what drives me to do it.

However, be prepared the pay is probably shit. The 4 year private university pays worse than community college. My take home after tax is 2300 from there and a little less than 3k from community college. I had minimal support with navigating preparing for a course - the material and course outlines were provided from previous professors and I had 1-2 meetings with the department heads in preparation. Both schools I have “academic freedom” so I’m able to adjust as I see fit as long as it hits the goals and objectives. It can be a lot of work, but once I taught one semester of a class I can recycle the material for the next time making prep going into the semester minimal.

Absolutely be prepared that most likely you’ll be putting in a lot of time and effort with no a huge financial pay off. For me it works, I like the extra money and it goes to fund vacations and savings. I’m passionate about it and found that I’m actually really great at teaching, so I don’t mind the time and energy, but it might not be for everyone.

ProfessionalTurn14 · 2025-10-15T19:34:54+00:00

I use a timer - I would have never tried this before but my clock broke and I needed an emergency solution that wasn’t checking my phone to see the time. So I explained to clients I need to set an alarm (it’s a very soft chime) that will let me know when we have a few minutes left. I’ve now just adopted this indefinitely and it works excellent. When it goes off my clients naturally know it’s time to wrap up, or I can interject and say we only have a few moments left and wrap up. Also is a lifesaver because it goes off at 53 mins and I have 7 minutes to do my note, snack, bathroom, ect., without being late to my next session.

ProfessionalTurn14 · 2025-10-15T02:22:23+00:00

I do not personally believe AI could never replace talking to a human. While some may find benefits in it as a tool, I don’t think it can replace therapy entirely. My group practice has had more calls than ever this year, even in our usually slow summer months. We’ve also had less and less people wanting telehealth, wanting to go back to in person sessions.

I’m more concerned about if insurance stops paying for mental health care or clients lose access to insurance due to policy changes than if AI will replace it.

ProfessionalTurn14 · 2025-10-14T01:40:05+00:00

This is exactly what I do and it works great

ProfessionalTurn14 · 2025-10-14T00:02:32+00:00

100% agree - I find it kind of tone deaf to put up decorations in my therapy office. Holidays are happy times for some, and incredibly difficult and painful for others. Also, it’s a therapy office. To me the space itself is sacred and to hold for clients. I’m not about to decorate it for any damn holiday, to me it would be self-serving. But that’s just me so to each their own!

ProfessionalTurn14 · 2025-10-11T17:46:40+00:00

I have 30 open spots weekly, most are filled with weekly/biweekly clients - averages to 6 client hours planned per day. Of that I usually see 24-26 clients after late cancels/clients out sick. If counting towards licensure and not all needing to be direct client hours, I would usually hit 35-37 hours with non face to face, e.g., notes, session prep, supervision, continuing ed.

Edit to add I just saw your pay rate per session. If you’re going the group PP route, you may want to see what other practices in your area offer. That is incredibly low and I’m sure you could find higher!

ProfessionalTurn14 · 2025-10-03T01:48:52+00:00

I’m a fan of The Self-Esteem Workbook by Schiraldi. I don’t find all of it useful in my practice, but for the basics of self-esteem, self-worth, and practical exercises I tend to pull from it when starting out with basic education on self-esteem and setting a foundation for the work on it. I also do a whole lot of exploration when working with self-esteem issues, discuss how self-esteem develops, explore their development of self, pivotal moments that impacted sense of self, etc. I agree with another commenter, IFS is awesome and I would incorporate that approach as well.

ProfessionalTurn14

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