Millennial Thera-preneurs ‒The Balancing Act Between Being A Therapist & Business Owner

Written by: Nicole Lobo, Executive Contributor

Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.

"How do I balance being a helper and supporting myself financially as I pursue my goal as a private practice clinician?” This is a familiar problem that many new and experienced therapists face as they embrace their entrepreneurial passions in providing quality and accessible mental health care.

The need for mental health access and support has never been higher. The Covid-19 pandemic has emphasized the need for therapists, social workers, and other mental health professionals more than ever before. If you have decided to invest your career in building a private practice; discovering the key to balancing your therapist hat and business hat is imperative in maintaining a work-life balance that doesn’t take over your life.

As therapists, our education centered on topics of the biopsychosocial approaches to mental health care, ethics and legalities to mental health work, and various models and modalities to therapy delivery and psychotherapeutic intervention. What our graduate-level training overlooks is the business end of mental health delivery. As such, many new therapists struggle to leap into entrepreneurship due to a general lack of clarity regarding the landscapes of starting and growing a thriving mental health clinic.

Thera-preneurs, a.k.a. therapist entrepreneurs, are showing up all around social media (myself included!) They are strongly advocating for mental health, destigmatization of mental illness, and modernization to care and delivery. Millennial entrepreneurs, such as myself, are curious

about ways to enhance, modernize, and innovate the therapy experience to better serve our clients and our communities. These revolutions are coming forward in the form of virtual therapy, online workshops, self-help books, and group therapy options.

Despite our mental health system slowly but surely improving across North America, problems remain linked to accessibility and affordability. Therapists struggle to offer cost-effective and accessible care to communities due to the cost of running their businesses. Soon enough, many millennial therapists end their dreams of entrepreneurship due to the rising costs of running and sustaining their practice, the high cost of burnout, and a lack of support in navigating business ownership as a clinician.

Below, I'll be discussing the 3 ways in which millennial thera-preneurs can embrace business ownership, develop their skills as clinicians, and provide quality care to their clients to address the issues around accessibility and affordability. Whether you are a new clinician in the field of mental health or you have been a long-term care provider looking to spark new life into your practice; these tips and tools can help you and your practice blossom into this new season ahead.

1. TIME MANAGEMENT & EFFICIENCY

As a private practice clinician in the early years of your business, you will likely wear multiple hats to build your practice. Not only will you be the therapist for your clients, but you may also

take on the roles of accountant, marketing manager, social media influencer, administrative staff, IT personnel, and self-care coach. Not to mention, you also live a life outside of your practice, which requires your time and energy as well.

When I mentor new therapists and students looking to jump into the wild world of thera-preneurship, I often advocate for skill-building around time management. This is a skill that needs to be developed early on to prevent issues around burnout, overwhelm, and the dreaded Imposter Syndrome. To begin, I often recommend you start your journey with a map of what you’d like your practice to look like. Here are some things I recommend mapping out when you consider how you will manage your time and efficiency as a business owner:

The ideal schedule for seeing clients each week (i.e., Monday’s 9-4, Wednesday’s 12-6, etc.)
The ideal schedule for administrative and managerial tasks (ie. Monday mornings) • Your set days off from your business
Personal time and holidays
Vacation time

Once you have identified your ideal routine as a thera-preneur, be sure to stick to this plan as often as possible. It’s understandable that as therapists, we try our best to accommodate our clients’ needs for appointment availability. I, too have fallen into the risky habit of overextending my availability to fit in a client during what was already a hectic week. Before we know it, our time is overwhelmed, and we are close to the burnout line. Sticking to your schedule is a great way to set and assert your boundaries from the beginning, which can lead to long-term time management success.

Lastly, efficiency comes when you realize your schedule isn’t working for you anymore, and you need to look at ways of making the most out of your time. As your clinic takes on more clients and your schedule fills, you will likely find yourself struggling to use your time as effectively as you once did. Many thera-preneurs calls on the support of virtual assistants, administrative staff, independent contractors, social media managers, and business coaches to support them at the growth stage of their journey.

2. BOUNDARIES THAT WORK FOR YOU

One of the hardest lessons that a new therapist has to learn is the idea of healthy boundaries. While a lot of our sessions advocate for boundaries within relationships, therapists tend to struggle with the anxiety around setting boundaries with clients right from the start. I can look back now on my three years of private practice and recognize when my boundaries were not as strong as they should’ve been. I was overextending my time, working later than I should have, answering emails and phone calls on my designated off time, and allowing sessions to run overtime. This would often leave me feeling burnt out, experiencing compassion fatigue, and not loving my role as a therapist as much as I thought I should. Many millennial therapists struggle with understanding and maintaining healthy boundaries for fear that this will limit their caseload, make them seem "difficult to work with," or appear too rigid for their clients. The opposite is the truth.

Boundaries can, in fact, work for you. What does that look like? Well, healthy boundaries teach people how to treat us. As clinicians, it is our job to mirror what healthy boundaries look like for our clients so that they two are empowered to use these tools in their own lives. If a client indicated that their boss kept calling them after hours and asking them to fulfill aspects of their job outside of their workday, they might express feeling drained, not having enough personal time, and resenting the work itself. This would lead them to consider different jobs and make them question themselves as a result. Now, if you spent sessions advocating for healthy boundaries and, most importantly, being assertive with them, it would be hypocritical to then answer that client's email at 9 pm on a Friday or address a client's quarter-life crisis call on a Sunday afternoon while heading out to dinner with your family.

Healthy boundaries are all about the specifics. Specifically, tell you’re your clients when it is okay to reach you, when they can expect a reply, and what your hours for appointments look like. Here are some examples of boundary-setting in my consent conversation with a new client:

Confidentiality & it’s limitations
Availability for appointments (i.e., your ideal schedule)
Payment expectations (i.e., when a client is to pay you for their session, how payment is received and accepted)
Cancellation & no-show policies
When clients can communicate with you, when they can expect a response, and how they can reach you
What happens if they disrespect your boundaries (i.e., termination of the therapeutic agreement).

By being specific about our boundaries, our clients are more equipped to experience a healthy, collaborative, and respected therapeutic alliance. After all, the therapeutic alliance is the number 1 determinant of client success in psychotherapy!

3. INNOVATION & CURIOSITY

Being a thera-preneur requires innovation and curiosity to deliver quality care that is not like every other therapist out there! To be fair, the market is flooded with therapists, social workers, counselors, coaches, and other mental health care providers. This often makes being seen as a therapist one of the most challenging hurdles for millennial therapists in building their caseload and a thriving business.

As a therapist, I value delivering a high-quality experience to my clients while also moving my business forward and increasing my revenue to actively invest in my business and myself. Innovation is the key to entrepreneurship, and it takes curiosity to give your business and your industry a hard look and consider where the challenges and barriers lie for clients to enhance the services you can offer. Your role as a thera-preneur will be more successful when you become comfortable stepping out of your zone of fear and approaching problems with an active mindset rather than possibly letting your business run you. By considering the barriers to care, you’re putting yourself in the headspace of your future client. When considering how to innovate your practice, here are some things that might help you identify what approach is most authentic and appropriate for your practice and goals as a business owner:

What is my ideal yearly income?
How many clients do I want to see per week?
How many clients will I accept in my practice at one time?
Who is my ideal client (i.e., presenting concerns, age group, etc.)?
How will clients contact you to schedule consultations or appointments (i.e., online booking, text, social media, email, call)?
What types of appointments will you offer your clients (i.e., in-office, virtual, a blend of both!).

I hope these perspectives have helped you to consider private practice ownership and see thera preneurship in a new way. Being a millennial business owner doesn’t have to be scary or risky.

There is support out there to help you embrace your goals and develop your ideal career. Contact me today to schedule a complimentary 15-minute consultation call to discuss your thera-preneur goals and how I can help! I offer one-on-one student mentoring and therapist coaching support online!

Are you interested in accessing more thera-preneur tips and business coaching support? Check out my , where I post weekly mental health tips and private practice skills three times weekly.

Nicole Lobo, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine

Nicole Lobo, is a millennial psychotherapist, business coach, and mentor for current and future therapists. Following her own struggles with accessing mental health care as a teen, Nicole seeks to create a modern, comfortable, and safe environment for millennials and modern couples to access quality and reliable mental health care. She also supports therapists starting and growing their own private practices to support those wishing to embrace business ownership. She is the CEO of Be Well Therapy Studio, a boutique mental health clinic offering psychotherapy, mentorship, and business consulting to individuals in North America. Her goal is to modernize, destigmatize, and normalize the mental health experience.