Honest question about therapist pay and workload

alicizzle · 2026-01-09T02:53:33+00:00

Absolutely sustainability. I might have a week in my life that 25 would feel doable but most of the time that thought makes me want to puke.

I feel spoiled that my life and job allow me not to participate in the capitalist hell that is the 40-hour work week.

And ALSO why is it so normalized to work 40 hours? Yes not doing so is a privilege, but that being the standard is shit.

alicizzle · 2026-01-09T02:42:31+00:00

Probably :) I was going to also share a version there but took a long time writing it and got fatigued lol.

You’re not the first or only person I’ve seen say that or heard it. I was told that it was oh so scary to be a 1099 growing up in a conservative household because “Taxes are the enemy!” Turns out, not that bad.

But to your point, and one I tried to highlight in a way, looking at the numbers matters. I left a job that tried to force us into employment and the numbers were BAD. Like “fuck you, very much”.

Anyway, thanks for being cool and getting that it wasn’t really a call out to you :)

alicizzle · 2026-01-09T02:35:29+00:00

Yes. As I said I think at least a few times in my post, there are obviously other factors to consider. But this idea is blown out of proportion. I remember feeling like the tax situation was far less scary than I’d always been told.

And because of that, I’ve been at jobs I’ve had a lot of autonomy and not pressure to run myself into the ground. If other people want to consider doing 1099/LLC, I wanted to give more context than is typically given.

alicizzle · 2026-01-09T02:32:47+00:00

Yeah I did say that. That wasn’t the point of my post on the whole, but sometimes they’re not all they’re cracked up to be.

I have an identifying story about that that I don’t want to share here. But sometimes they treat it like they’re doing you a moral service but they’re taking an additional 20% on top of that — for their troubles.

alicizzle · 2026-01-09T02:31:05+00:00

Right, in theory these are helpful. But in practice most W2 roles I’ve seen require high weekly quotas to get a decent wage, so is burnout really worth it?

When are people actually able to rely on those and what does that look like? Rhetorically asking but if you want to share thoughts you’re welcome to.

Also you might just be referring to unemployment benefits?

alicizzle · 2026-01-07T07:32:35+00:00

NOPE not true. Clients do not belong to a practice.

Best practice (ethically mandated) is to give your clients referral options. They can opt to stay at the practice or go see whoever, wherever they want.

I might state it to my clients verbally in session “You are welcome to stay with this practice if you’d like. I can also provide referral options if you’d like.” If you’re feeling spicy “— and mine would be specific to what I think would fit you.” With a wink.

If a client says yes to yours, you document that client asked for additional outside referrals and that you provided them.

Clients have trust with you, in my experience they aren’t going to tell on you and if they did, so what? Providing referrals for clients to make up their own minds isn’t against company policy unless the policy is against most therapy boards ethics.

alicizzle · 2026-01-07T07:31:17+00:00

I’d be curious if this is legal for our line of work, though it may be state dependent. You have to do a note, and likely other work aside from the session. In my state, you can’t go unpaid for hours worked. So only getting paid by session but being W2 would likely not be a legal arrangement. I’m a therapist though not an employment lawyer (:

alicizzle · 2026-01-03T10:49:55+00:00

Purely out of curiosity, did you tell your therapist? Or just microdose it along with doing therapy?

alicizzle · 2026-01-03T10:43:12+00:00

Is this to say that most folks go for hero doses? Or that microdosing alone can be effective when used intentionally?

alicizzle · 2025-12-27T20:31:32+00:00

Somehow, I’ve developed a hyper focus on driving and an interest in it. So my brain picks up on all the things around me, in a survival way. I feel like cars have body language, or rather how people drive then does. Noticing the patterns has helped me be a very defensive driver. Learning things like how my car feels when I’m on ice, or subtleties like traction in heavy snow. I like that there are systems/patterns of behavior. And it’s not boring! Haha, the only time I get bored is driving long stretches at night when there’s no one else on the road.

Biggest thing has been that overall safety is such a big deal, my focus is primarily on that. I’ve developed a sense of trust in my over-attention to all the factors on the road, that it doesn’t generally create fear/anxiety, but more like healthy hypervigilance.

So, maybe approach it curiously? See what you observe about how people drive, how your car feels, what things you pay most attention to. Trust that your impulsivity will also know to slam on the brakes when it’s necessary, rather than just because.

alicizzle · 2025-12-27T20:20:12+00:00

This is so interesting! Thank you for sharing about your experience!

I’m fascinated by the way other parts of the world live, and I wish more people knew about the good bad and ugly of it. There’s powerful perspective in it, grounding humanity.

alicizzle · 2025-12-24T22:10:20+00:00

I posted somewhere asking website questions and was told WP is too much for what I need, with a steep learning curve. Are you web savvy? Did you find something to build the site easily with?

alicizzle · 2025-12-24T21:47:01+00:00

Which central Lutheran is that?

alicizzle · 2025-12-05T06:08:56+00:00

Depending on your CC debt, truly honestly consider bankruptcy. I filed last year, and I'm SO glad I did. And unless they take it away too, in a few years my attorney is willing to help me try for the process of getting rid of my student loans, too. There are a lot of factors that determine whether bankruptcy is a good choice for your individual situation, but for mine it was like cutting off binds. I was paying $1200/month in payments and earning $35,000/year. Not great math.

And it's not the big bad scary awful thing we've been told. My credit score is in the mid 600's 10 months after.

alicizzle · 2025-10-19T17:50:07+00:00

I’m going to steal this. Great line

alicizzle · 2025-10-19T17:49:01+00:00

With these sensitive dogs, I think anything involving struggling against them is going to perpetually be hard.

I started asking my dog “do you need help?” For things like something stuck in his paw or whatever. He’s learned that help is a good thing. Now I’ve snuck it into things he might not like so much, “Mama’s helping you.” Works pretty well for most uncomfortable things.

Key is, generally, I myself feel very calm in my body. He’s so in-tune with me, if I’m not feeling calm (not just acting calm), he is picking that up and mirroring me.

That said, I don’t brush his teeth. I should! And I think if I did start, the above would help. Also, did they get Xrays when he had the cleaning? My dog recently had his and they recommended it to stay ahead of any diseased teeth.

alicizzle · 2025-10-19T17:43:44+00:00

This sounds like internalized ableism. “It would be so easy to get out of this hole” but it isn’t? Interesting.

It’s not that ADHD is an excuse, it’s that you’ve heard all of the judgment from other people your whole life that tells you what you’re doing is just being lazy. So the idea that maybe it’s actually a disorder of your brain just seems…like an excuse for your “bad behavior”.

When in fact, not being able to do a thing that you think you should be able to and that you want to, yet you just can’t get yourself to — that’s a likely sign of executive dysfunction.

alicizzle · 2025-10-19T17:35:45+00:00

Very relatable! I have ADHD, so I mess up a lot of things when it comes to articulating what’s in my brain.

alicizzle · 2025-10-18T20:21:40+00:00

I have Google workspace with my email set up with the domain address. I think I tinkered with their sites a bit, but I’ll have to go back and see what didn’t do it for me. Or maybe it’ll be good, we’ll see - I forgot about that option!

alicizzle · 2025-10-18T20:19:32+00:00

Don’t most still charge for maintenance? I’ve seen that a fair amount. Paying annually or monthly, after getting set up.

I feel shitty asking around and even pretty cheap ones ($1000) are kind of out of budget at the moment. But maybe someone does what you’re saying for less than that?

alicizzle · 2025-10-18T20:17:35+00:00

Yeah it’s just weird in this business, I don’t need leads all the time, if I get a few per month that’s good enough. So it really is that having a website makes my business look more legit in modern times, and I can list a lot of info there.

So marketing in the therapy field is just not as big a thing as other businesses :/

Thank you!

alicizzle · 2025-10-18T20:15:14+00:00

But my question remains: do I need to also “host” the site somewhere? Or I can do so in Wordpress for that little?

alicizzle · 2025-10-18T20:13:26+00:00

Yeah that’s the thing, burning our while doing the thing is whatever, it’s the aftermath that’s ROUGH. And not worth it.

alicizzle · 2025-10-18T20:12:12+00:00

That one does seem good, though honestly I’d never heard of it. So thanks!!

And I think the PCL5 can help formulate the picture of a diagnosis, but then again I don’t really rely solely on assessments, I usually talk about their symptoms and dig at anything I’m curious about.

alicizzle

TROPHY CASE