As a fellow mental health counselor, I know how you feel.
As therapists, we have received the education we need to assess, diagnose, engage with our clients and write reports. This is the foundation and cornerstone of what we do and what allows us to bring our clients to a place of mental wellness. Unfortunately, many of those same educational programs neglected to teach us that in order to be a private practitioner, we also need to function as a business owner.
Most therapists choose not to go into private practice because they don’t believe they have the knowledge, skills, strategies, confidence and bandwidth to run a practice on their own. We believe that all therapists are unique and have a special talent to reach their ideal client. There are potential clients that only YOU can connect with but they cannot find you because you are stuck in an agency job, hiding behind your fears, and are still seeking guidance on how to make this dream come true.
Let's face it, it's extremely difficult to manage all of your responsibilities because you simply do not have enough time in your day to focus on your family. Taking work home and spending over 8-12 hours a day with work stuff makes it extremely difficult to socialize with friends and frankly have any me time.
The social service industry does not pay much as we all know. According to indeed.com as of May 25, 2021, the average salary for social workers was $59,954. While this is not a terrible salary, when it comes to saving for your children's college fees, saving for retirement, paying off student loan debit, $59,954 is just not enough. How can you live a fulfilled life where you are taking care of yourself and able to give to social campaigns, etc., if you are simply living from pay check to pay check?
You may be working for a social service agency but your specific job tasks and responsibilities only allow you to touch the surface of your client's issues. You believe you need more time with your client, or you believe a specific approach would help the client to breakthrough barriers but the scope of your agency doesn't support it.
Everyday you come home from work, you think to yourself, "It has to be more to this". Not only do you want to reach your clients in a deeper way, but there are other ventures, adventures and projects that you value to it's core.