When I graduated with my Masters degree in counseling and began to launch my practice, I noted that there was a very common belief that you cannot make money as a counselor. It seemed pretty pervasive. They backed it up with facts - I'm sure you know the ones, about insurance, sliding scales, competition, saturation, the hourly wage at agencies, the statistics.
I tried hard to not buy this rhetoric. This group consciousness, a scarcity consciousness, was something that I think does have an impact - unless you work to screen it out.
Instead I tried hard to surround myself with people who had an abundance consciousness - who were pro-business, and believed they could make a living as a therapist, in fact many of them *had* to. This was a good help, but I will always remember the day I was at my marriage counselor. My wife was a couple of minutes late, and he knew well I was starting out in practice so he'd give me little tips (turned me on to Office Ally - thanks Ed!). One day I asked him - can I make good money? Can I make $100,000 a year? He looked me square in the eye and said "of course you can". I cannot tell you how much this helped me.
So let me tell you - YOU can make $100,000 a year as a therapist. You CAN. It might not be your first year, or your second. But let's do some math for a second:
Assumptions:
- $100/session
- 25 sessions/week
- work 50 weeks/year
- $100*25*50=$125,000!
Now I know, this is revenue, it's pre-expense, and pre-tax. But there it is in front of you. Play with some of those numbers. Move your fee down to $80 and you're at $100,000 revenue. Keep the fee at $100 and move the sessions down to 20/week and you're still at $100,000 revenue.
It can be done. And there is a quote from a movie that feels applicable to close this post - "What one man can do, another can do."
'Til next time, Your Grateful Guy
1 comment:
Right on, Peter!
I remember when I was doing agency work and we were always told about how hard it was to make it in private practice. I think many people in our field hamstring themselves through restrictive belief systems they've adopted based on what 'elders' in the field have said. I also think there are a lot of folks in our field who struggle with self-esteem and valuing themselves, which is too bad.
I'm sure it's possible to go well beyond $100k/year, too. All it takes is a willingness to add other services (seminars, consulting, etc.) and products to your 'brand'.
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