77. You're Not Called to Be a Therapist-Martyr: Balancing Passion and Profit

In this episode, we are discussing the balance between passion and financial stability in the mental health profession. We're delving into the misconceptions and challenges therapists face regarding financial struggles and martyrdom, and emphasize the importance of self-care, professional development, and valuing one’s own services.

Amity shares her unique journey combining therapy with business, coining the term 'theraprenuer,' and highlights the need for therapists to adopt a mindset shift, leverage business skills, and embrace new technologies to thrive in their careers.

00:00 Introduction and Guest Introduction

02:02 Empowerment and Financial Stability in Therapy

04:04 Challenges in the Therapy Profession

12:11 Professional Development and Self-Care

19:00 Financial Conversations and Value Perception

26:20 Industry Challenges and Technological Disruption

35:47 Conclusion and Resources

LINKS:

Sign up for Do This First Bootcamp from Amity

"Trauma Stewardship" Book

Financial Conversations Episode

GUEST:

Amity Cooper is a seasoned entrepreneur, trained mental health professional, and entrepreneurial coach.

For over 20 years, Amity has run a variety of businesses, from designing handbags to making and manufacturing gourmet chocolates, which has given her the knowledge and experience to help others start and run their own businesses. Now, as a trained therapist, equine-assisted psychotherapist, and Lifebook facilitator, she is focused on empowering other mental and behavioral health professionals to serve their clients without burning themselves out by becoming what she calls “therapreneurs.”

She does this through her professional development company Clinical Career Collective (C3) and her Do This First 7-Day Bootcamp by not only teaching therapreneurs how to run their own businesses, but also how to embrace new, emerging technology in this post-pandemic world so they can better help the people they serve.

A lover of travel, Amity splits her time between Denver, Colorado and San Diego, California with her husband, two kids, two horses, and their English Shepherd, Beau.

The Therapist Thrival Guide is a podcast by Ellie Mental Health. We want to move therapists beyond surviving and into the realm of THRIVING by covering all the things that graduate school didn't teach you! This mental health podcast is hosted by Miranda Barker, MSW, LICSW and a rotating cast of seasoned therapists. Each episode features a therapist speaking to their areas of expertise, clinical interests, and personal experiences of being a therapist. This podcast will be covering topics like burn-out, self of therapist, cultural considerations, client retention, session structure, advancing clinical skills, innovations in therapy, and balancing professional relationships with our personal lives. Every now and then, we'll even cover the happenings of how therapists are portrayed in pop culture.

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Miranda Barker⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, MSW, LICSW, has been practicing as a therapist for over three years. She previously worked as a child protection investigator, adoption social worker, and case manager. She's new to the therapy game and loves soaking up all of the knowledge from the expert therapists in her life. She's currently the Director of Content and Production at Ellie Mental Health's in-house creative agency and believes that creativity is an important aspect of mental health care.

The Therapist Thrival Guide is one of many creative productions from ⁠Ellie Mental Health⁠. Ellie is a national mental health brand organized around community-based outpatient mental health clinics. It all began with a single office in St. Paul, Minnesota back in 2015, and since then has expanded to over 24 clinics in Minnesota and an explosive number of locations nationwide after franchising our model in 2021. Ellie will be opening over 500 locations in communities nationwide with new clinics opening each week. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠#therapy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠#mentalhealth