5 Reasons a Therapist Needs a Business Coach
6 minute read.
What is a business coach?
The concept of “life coach“ or coach (no to be confused with a mentor/teacher in a sport) has been around since the 1980’s when financial planner Thomas Leonard wanted to find the sweet spot between offering financial advice and therapy.
The first coaching program was developed in the 1990’s. Since then, coaching has arisen in all sorts of spaces. From addiction recovery coach, to dating coach, to divorce coach and spiritual coach, anyone can find a coach who works in their area of need.
More specifically, a business coach will guide their clients towards the vision of their business, helping them to meet their goals. A business coach can help their clients achieve these goals while staying aligned with their values and beliefs.
Why business coaching for therapists?
Therapists are not entrepreneurs by nature. Our grad school curriculums do not typically offer coursework that teaches business fundamentals.
Because of this, many therapists feel ill equipped to both start and run their own private practice. There is also the long standing internalized belief that mental health work comes with a life of financial insecurity. To add to that, many therapy programs continue to be inherently white supremacist and capitalist, teaching budding therapists that they need to work, look and act a certain way to be successful and of value.
A business coach can help you unlearn these harmful, engrained ideas about how a therapist should practice, allowing you to realize your dreams while helping the population you serve. A therapist business coach would also guide you using best practices, sharing valuable resources and found knowledge.
Why business coaching by Teletherapy with Sarah is different.
If you are a radical therapist who fights social injustice both in the therapy space and in the streets, you’ve come to the right place.
My business coaching clients are abolition oriented and anti-capitalist in their lives and in their work. I help individuals who are tired of the many systems keeping us and our clients down, who take a liberation approach to mental healthcare.
Ready to build your dream private practice? One that aligns with your values, your radical nature and your belief system?
Why does a therapist need a business coach?
1. You have worked for an exploitative employer.
You may be coming from an exploitative group practice that took half your income to pay for google ads and rental space. Maybe you worked at a hospital that had you run multiple groups and individual sessions per day, while completing dozens of progress notes/assessments and treatment plans and were still asked to work overtime without pay to “catch up“. All while paying you $15-25/hr to put towards your student loan debt (which therapists average at about $80,000 each).
It is likely that while working in these exploitative systems, you have come to expect low pay. This is not your fault. Despite how our culture views victims and the oppressed, remember that exploitation is never your fault.
You can make the decision today to decide what your worth is.
2. Therapists do not have business degrees.
There are a lot of important concepts that clinical counseling/social work grad school programs do not teach. (They barely teach about the intersection of class, race, gender, sexuality and ability in diagnostics.)
These programs do not prepare students for owning their own businesses. You did not learn marketing or time management skills. You weren’t taught how to find your niche, what type of tax professional to work with or how to set your rate.
A business coach can help guide you through the murky waters of entrepreneurship.
3. Therapists can have financial security.
Studies tell us that despite a continued decrease over the last 40 years, the gender pay gap still exists. There are several theories behind this, including that while women are gradually more represented in managerial and executive positions formerly held by men, female dominated jobs are generally paid less.
Jobs traditionally held by women and AFAB (assigned female at birth) individuals are often considered more emotionally laborious than physically. As of 2008, the top jobs held by women and AFAB individuals were secretaries/administrative assistants, nurses, teachers, retail workers, cashiers, home help aides, retail managers and bookkeeping/accounting.
As of 2022, 70.4% of therapists were women, 24.7% were men, with the remaining percentage identifying as nonbinary or unknown gender. (These numbers do not account for bodies assigned female or male at birth.)
What does all of this mean? Since middle class white women have entered the workforce, a low salary has been normalized. (This does not take into account the experiences of poor/working class white women, black and brown women, and other individuals who have needed to work much earlier out of economic necessity.)
It is normal for teachers, therapists and nurses to joke about the amount of work they do matched with their high level of education and student loans they live with. These will usually be women.
I am here to tell you, you do not need to live in financial insecurity. You do not need to “pay your dues”. You do not have to wonder how you’ll pay your student loans this month or if you can ever take needed time off.
You can have a steady income, save money and plan for your future.
4. You’ve been working under capitalism.
As a therapist and coach who is anti-capitalist, it is my duty to inform my clients about the barriers they are up against, both visible and invisible.
Capitalism is an invisible barrier because the ways in which it limits us are heavily normalized. Financial insecurity is normal. Housing insecurity is normal. Another person owning your home is normal. Police brutality is normal. Unregulated, humanized corporations dictating our needs, a lack of social programs, demonization of those in need and no free childcare is normal.
With business coaching, therapists are able to unlearn and heal from internalized capitalism and better equip themselves to navigate the bumpy terrain that is making a living as a clinician.
My coaching clients learn that their value is not based on their productivity or the size of their paycheck, but the values and beliefs they bring to the table. And they are able to make money.
5. We all need a reason to reach for our goals.
Therapists decide to go into private practice for many reasons. Some desire independence and freedom, others want to cater to specific needs that they see the system neglecting. Some want all of the above. Why do you want to go into private practice?
A business coach can help you identify exactly what your goals are and why they are your goals. Having this information can be helpful on the days when you feel discouraged, or feel like you’re in over your head.
For me, I knew I wanted to serve a population that was misunderstood and experiencing hardship at a high rate: working class millennials. I knew that the experience and knowledge as a working class/professional millennial would help me reach those in need.
On the hard days, I am reminded of the lack of moral support my generation receives by our country and by its systems. That is what keeps me going.
Business coaching for therapists.
I offer business coaching to therapists, social workers and psychologists who want to build their dream practices. My work is liberation and abolition oriented. I love helping healers break the shackles of our colonizing, oppressive healthcare system.
My coaching clients come to me with wounds from exploitative, white supremacists spaces. They wish to heal every part of their therapy clients, not simply treat a diagnosis from the DSM-V-TR (a book whose content is influenced by big pharma and insurance companies).
Are you a healer that has been labeled as “radical” as if it’s a bad thing? Do you consider the class, race, gender, sexuality and ability of the clients under your care? Do you believe in revolution for yourself, your clients and the world? Let’s chat.
Thank you for reading!
Email contact@teletherapywithsarah.com with questions/comments/love.
Anxiety therapy, depression therapy, trauma therapy for professional millennials. Business coaching for therapists who have been exploited by managers, bosses and supervisors. I help therapists build their dream private practices.
Online therapy in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Erie, and Lancaster. Teletherapy to all Pennsylvanians.
International business coaching.
Ready to get started? Schedule a free 20 minute consultation here.
I do not work through insurance, but I provide superbills for EMDR therapy sessions and regular therapy sessions. Learn about getting reimbursement from your insurance provider here.
Very Best,
—Sarah (she/her)
*Disclaimer - This piece was written by a cis/het, non-disabled, white woman. Intersectionality (coined by lawyer, civil rights advocate, scholar and philosopher Kimberlé Crenshaw) tells us that race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, gender, etc. that differ from the above identifiers encounter hardship and oppression at a much higher rate.*
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