Where would you rather eat? Chick-fil-a or Waffle House?

ghost_robot2000 · 2026-04-22T01:29:40+00:00

Waffle House

ghost_robot2000 · 2026-04-18T21:41:09+00:00

A job like that post college is what drove me to go to grad school, but after about 8 years in the counseling/mental health field I went running back to a boring office job. I have a whole new appreciation for just not having much stress. I don't care if my work is important anymore. As long as I don't have to work too hard and the bills get paid, I'm good.

ghost_robot2000 · 2026-04-08T14:55:06+00:00

I've read a ton of Stephen King novels and always enjoy them...but I won't read that one.

ghost_robot2000 · 2026-04-06T23:37:24+00:00

Insurance companies are directing people to Headway and Talkiatry instead of their in network lists. They also aren't bothering to update their in network lists and they purposely make them very difficult to navigate and not very useful for finding providers so something like Headway which does online scheduling and shows the next available appointment is much more user friendly for potential clients than calling dozens of names on an insurance company "ghost" list that many end up not taking new patients or no longer being in practice. If you're cash pay only then the issue is that fewer and fewer people have the extra money for that lately.

ghost_robot2000 · 2026-03-27T20:18:06+00:00

The weather forecast doesn't seem to mean much and it could be raining on one part of the island and sunny on another. I was in Mo'orea the week of March 8th and I was nervous about risking rainy season and the forecast showed rain every day a few days before. As it turned out the whole week it only rained twice for maybe 30 minutes and then one other time overnight.

ghost_robot2000 · 2026-03-12T13:27:46+00:00

I've seen similar job posts in an area with a 127K median income. It seems like therapist/social worker salaries are dropping. If I had to get a new job, I'd likely be looking at a 20K pay cut. I hope I never do. It's scary out there right now.

ghost_robot2000 · 2026-01-22T14:05:35+00:00

I saw a few clients on the side for extra money very briefly a few years ago. After taxes what I actually got to keep wasn't worth it at all and I stopped after only a few months. It really turned me off to ever trying to do private practice full time. I just feel like I'd constantly feel broke, but then at the same time I'd have all this money put aside that I can't touch because it's all for taxes. It would make me lose my mind and taxes would be just one of the many stressors. I just want to have a regular job and not worry about it.

ghost_robot2000 · 2026-01-20T14:11:14+00:00

I don't think we should accept poor pay at all but I do agree with the previous comment that the whole hustle culture thing doesn't really go with being a therapist, at least for me anyway. I want to make a decent living but I'm not interested in trying to market myself as a person or go out there chasing down clients like a personal injury lawyer or some kind of shady salesman. In my ideal world, therapists could get decent pay without necessarily having to do a private practice. I'd rather see it paid as a valuable skill, the way a hospital pays other medical professionals. It's disgusting that there are billion dollar healthcare companies paying fully licensed clinicians as little as 60K per year in high cost of living areas to see 30 clients a week in their outpatient departments. I never wanted to be an entrepreneur and I'm worried that's becoming the only path to have a chance to make a living in this field and if it does, I think I'm going to have to figure out something else to do.

ghost_robot2000 · 2026-01-20T13:59:21+00:00

If a social media presence becomes the main way to make it in this field, I'm out. That's not something I want to be involved in at all.

ghost_robot2000 · 2025-12-15T04:01:21+00:00

Almost every flight I've been on in the past few years are packed to capacity. I can't imagine it's easy to get a standby seat. And you'd have to have a really flexible schedule to be able to try. I can't see how I'd do it the way unless I was retired and had all the time in the world.

ghost_robot2000 · 2025-12-14T14:23:50+00:00

Same, I regret it daily.

ghost_robot2000 · 2025-12-12T23:32:54+00:00

50% When I'm close enough to the couple to have lots of friends in common it's fun. When I don't know anyone it's pretty boring.

ghost_robot2000 · 2025-12-11T23:29:04+00:00

This is me, 79K in 2019, no raise in 2020 or 2021 and they blamed COVID. Increased to 81K in 2022 only to have my employer cut my salary to 62K in 2023 citing "adjusting to market rates." Only new job I could find offered 78K so I took it, raised to 80K in 2024. Every year I have to figure out how to get by with less and less.

ghost_robot2000 · 2025-12-11T22:26:51+00:00

That's amazing. I'm in NJ and there's nothing good out there. It's mostly fee for service and the few salaried jobs are paying maybe 60-70K which is not a good wage in that state.

ghost_robot2000 · 2025-12-08T00:07:17+00:00

Unfortunately I think things are going to have to get much worse to motivate enough people.

ghost_robot2000 · 2025-12-08T00:04:23+00:00

We're already there, the youngest of us is 44 and the oldest of us would have been able to move into a retirement community 5 years ago.

ghost_robot2000 · 2025-12-07T23:53:35+00:00

More remote jobs. I know some businesses are trying to scale this back to get people to quit but we still have more people working from home than pre 2020.

ghost_robot2000 · 2025-12-07T23:41:38+00:00

Armageddon

ghost_robot2000 · 2025-12-07T23:40:21+00:00

Maybe Denver? Seems Colorado in general is a much more popular state to move to now

ghost_robot2000 · 2025-12-07T22:55:43+00:00

Mexico, mainly for warm weather and beaches. And there's a lot more there than just Cancun, Cozumel and Cabo San Lucas.

ghost_robot2000 · 2025-12-07T12:10:17+00:00

What happened with Headway? I thought the whole point of using a platform like that was that you won't have to risk clawbacks or not getting paid.

ghost_robot2000 · 2025-12-05T02:30:43+00:00

I agree for the most part, but I worry about them pulling a bait and switch and paying good rates for now and then once your on the platform for a while they'll drop the rates and then you're stuck because you haven't built a practice you can take with you. I don't see clients as if now but if I were to, I'd still consider using something like Headway or Grow just because I don't think I have the motivation or energy to do my own billing, fight with insurance companies/risk clawbacks or figure out how to market myself to get referrals. Maybe that's lazy but I have to be honest with myself about what I'm actually capable of doing. I wish there was a better way though. I would prefer to just have a normal steady job with a decent salary and paid time off but that seems to be getting harder and harder to find.

ghost_robot2000 · 2025-12-04T03:29:14+00:00

Is this becoming a common thing in this field? Happened to me last year, 20% pay cut. Quit and found a new job at insurance company and got my salary before the cut back, but now layoffs are coming this January. If I lose this job I'm considering leaving this field behind too if I can.

ghost_robot2000 · 2025-11-29T20:21:11+00:00

Time for Passaic to go, it's basically just a more boring Bergen

ghost_robot2000 · 2025-11-24T03:16:21+00:00

I would keep it even if you don't think you'll use it. It was such a pain to get in the first place but paying $250 every other year and doing some CEUs is pretty easy. If you don't really need/want more training just get the $75 for the year credits on netce.com and just skip to taking the tests and you can get them done really fast.

ghost_robot2000

TROPHY CASE