Anti-Exploitative Group Therapist Business Coaching: Benefits & Discoveries

Aug 7

5 minute read

Why Anti-Exploitative Group Coaching for Therapists?

The choice to offering anti-exploitative coaching for therapists wanting to build thriving solo and cooperative practices was an easy one, once I was able to identify the strife that we are so easily susceptible to. Below, I break down the reasons why I feel this offering is important, and how we got here.

Leftist politics & values.

As a socialist, I believe that the very least a governing body can do is meet the basic needs of its people: housing, food, clothing, education, healthcare, public transportation, dignity, etc. I also believe strongly in collective ownership. I envision the best version of our world in one in which things are run by workers, the poor and the disabled. Under capitalism, the world is run by those who own the means of production. The wealthy minority get to decide the quality of life of the working class majority. Not because they know better, but because they have more power.

Our healthcare system is one of the main offenders of this, the mental health sector most of all. Group practices - no matter how “ethically” run - have the capability of becoming mills for therapists who are desperate for work. Hard truth time: you cannot run an ethical group practice, because your wealth is growing off of the labor of other therapists.

This is what I believe.

Horror stories I’ve heard from clients.

I’ve accumulated a list of stories from clients, loved ones and colleagues who have experienced exploitation in our field, from group practices to hospitals to community mental health facilities.

Our field has a depressing amount of capitalists posing as healers.

I absolutely believe workers should make money, it is a systemic issue that care workers are so underpaid. But growing your wealth off the labor of other workers is exploitation. Period.

My own personal experience.

The hardest part of being a therapist in 2020 (caring for people during a global pandemic and a massive increase in racist police terror) was being overworked to the point of mental/physical illness.

The solution? Instead of a raise, I was “offered” incentivized pay, and was encouraged to see 35 clients/week. This is not normal, but it is normalized.

Our field can do better. The history of psychoanalysis holds repressed chapters of anti-oppression, agitation and liberators, all leading up to the establishment of Liberation Psychology. These co-conspirators (Franz Fanon, Paulo Friere and Ignacio Martín-Baró to name a few) pushed against the status quo to develop a method of healing that was both internally and externally liberating.

I hold these comrades in my heart while I do this work.

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Benefits of Group Coaching

Let’s talk about the benefits of group business coaching. Grad school didn’t teach you how to run a business. For some, it barely taught us how to provide liberating care. How can group coaching help fill these gaps in knowledge and experience?

Community building with other healers.

In a group, you will have the opportunity to make connections with like minded clinicians from around the world. This will further facilitate cross-border class solidarity, and help shift your mindset from liberation of a few to liberation of all. After all, our struggles are all connected!

Relationships born in these meetings can and should continue if you ever decide to leave the group. The community of therapists and healers should be borderless.

Group coaching is inexpensive.

Like many care work jobs, therapists who own private practices are likely underpaid compared to peers in other professions. Private practice building requires a lot of unpaid labor, and in some cases, it will take months to get out of the red.

Before coming up with this idea, I had about a dozen calls with therapists who wanted to hire me but couldn’t afford to.

I’m now able to access therapists at all stages of their lives and careers, without the barrier of a high cost. It’s been a game changer for me and my clients.

The sharing of resources, not hoarding.

With sadness and anger, I still remember sitting in a treatment team meeting, listening to a debate on whether we should share resources with another local hospital as the DON at the time felt we shouldn’t “give them our ideas”.

As a therapist, you are a healer first and a business owner second. In fact, you are a person, friend, comrade, and community member before you are a business owner. At all times, we must resist thinking of other therapists as competition, as competition under capitalism demands.

Not only will group coaching provide you with a wealth of resources, but you’ll be in meetings with healers around the world sharing resources from other cultures across borders.

Fighting the alienation that therapists feel all too often.

Rather than fulfilling, labor under capitalism is hostile and isolating. Our field is no exception. In hospitals, we rarely see another therapist working in our unit. In group practices, we are confined behind office doors, and that’s only if we see clients in-person. Further, the life of a solo practice owner can be very lonely.

Solo practice owners must work constantly to meet their social needs. Building a network of healers that share the values of community building and healing through dismantling of the oppressive state offers fulfillment.

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Discoveries

To practice our belief on sharing resources, here is a list of the wonderful notions and ideas that have been shared so far in group. Much gratitude to group members for the emotional labor to put this list together.

The importance of sitting with difficult topics, in and outside of the healing space.

Unless you are choosing to look away, no one can deny that we are living in scary times. Relationships are ending over the belief that Palestinians don’t have a right to fight for freedom, state violence and repression are on the rise in every corner of the world, and we are struggling to care for ourselves and those around us.

Struggling to engage in difficult conversations? Try some of the tips our group came up with. Of course, take great care while in these conversations. Do not put yourself in harm's way, and always practice emotional, physical and psychological safety.

Using compassionate listening. Don’t just wait for your turn to speak, really listen. In the space you provide, you may find that behind ignorant takes, there is real material suffering.
Find common ground. Struggling to have a conversation with your family member before they are blaming disenfranchised groups for their suffering? Understood, but if you use compassionate listening, you will likely find that you have the same struggles. Maybe you’ve used critical thinking to diagnose the issues as systematic, but not everyone is able to get there on their own. We are a heavily propagandized people.
Draw a line when conversations are wearing on you/causing harm. You can say “I need a break” without stonewalling, and an argument can be ended without either of you having “won”.

Bringing abolition into the therapy space.

As a people, Americans are heavily propagandized, surveilled and policed.

In fact, we are so heavily policed on a psychological, emotional and institutional level, that it should come as no surprise that we turn around and punish ourselves ruthlessly over past mistakes.

As licensed clinicians, we are a part of the police state. At times, police are used to enforce safety in our therapeutic relationships. We must do our best to amend this by not criminalizing our clients, or behaving as oppressors towards them. As they say, “Resist the cop in your mind.”

Understanding why clients’ expectations may be high.

We are constantly consuming. Information outlets, entertainment, experiences, even relationships. Capitalism stokes instant gratification, and clients in a therapy space may expect results to happen quickly. They may feel that therapy should be consumed.

As healers, we can rightly identify this as a deep struggle to stay in the moment and the addictive nature currently surrounding learning new information. It causes great suffering for our clients, but working through these expectations can cause a ripple effect of ease in their lives.

Niching down in your values.

Being upfront about your radical values on your website can be scary. There is a level of risk we take on when sharing our values on our website, social media or directory profile.

Learn to trust that potential clients will be drawn in by your copy, not scared off. Try niching down in your values, instead of your ideal client. This puts you on the path towards becoming a trusting, safe, long term relationship in your client’s life.

Some express a valid fear of alienating potential clients and exposing ourselves to negative attention. These are legitimate fears, because again, we are surveilled and policed on many levels. But I encourage you to remember two truths:

You are one of many therapists that a client could work with. If your values are not a good fit, they have autonomy to choose another. There are plenty of potential clients who do share your values.
Your clients are capable of tolerating a challenge. It is ok to trust a client/potential client to make the right choice for them (remember, you are resisting the cop in your mind)

Copywriting tips for niching down in your values:

Identify your values, write copy for the client that aligns with them.

If your orientation is abolitionist, try “My clients understand that freedom and equality for all are mental health issues.”

You see the connection oppression of Palestinians and the racist police system in the US, try “My client feels pain over the connection of violence at home and abroad, even if the world pretends it doesn’t exist.”

You understand the seriousness of COVID-19 still, and don’t pathologize clients for masking in public, try “When we meet, your valid concerns for your health and the health of others will be met with solidarity.”

Use accessible language, a 5th grader should be able to read (not necessarily comprehend) your copy.

Avoid therapist jargon but do use jargon associated with your values: “abolition oriented”, “anti-capitalist”, etc.

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