How to Make a Sustainable Living as a Therapist

A one-day CPD workshop for practicing counsellors and psychotherapists

As counsellors and therapists we all know that – unless we charge extraordinary fees – we will not get rich in this profession, but we may achieve a comfortable degree of income and security. But in fact many counsellors and therapists struggle to do just that.

This may be partly to do with us lacking the practical business skills needed to run a self-employed practice, or to do with our attitude towards money generally – there are many workshops available to help you with these issues. This workshop will focus instead on the vastly underestimated inherent contradictions of therapy as the ‘impossible profession’ and the emotional stress of dealing with these contradictions on an everyday basis.

What is the emotional cost of the therapeutic position?
How do relational dilemmas inherent in the work affect the therapist’s well-being?
How does the intricacy of each client-therapist relationship hook into the therapist’s ‘habitual position’ and become exhausting?

Especially amongst recently qualified therapists who are slowly building up their practice, many find certain thresholds of client numbers which they seem to get stuck at. This is to do with your own self-regulation within the – inherently conflicted – therapeutic position.

Most of our trainings do not sufficiently prepare us for the day-to-day reality of the difficulties of our work, the psychological ‘load’ that derives from this, and how to process the emotional aftermath of a day’s work.

Over the years, Michael has helped many supervisees increase the client ‘load’ they are able to carry, and thus make a sustainable living from being a therapist. In this workshop he will help you explore what he has concluded are the main factors and obstacles which hold the key to making the business of therapy viable, comfortable and satisfying.

Relevant Questions & Learning Objectives

• how do you answer the question whether the client’s investment into therapy will be useful and worth it?
• how to do work out the level of fees you charge, and how do you present that?
• how do you deal with clients’ requests for reductions in fees?
• how do you respond to a client who challenges your sincerity by saying that you only care about them because of the money they pay you?
• when clients are thinking about terminating, to what extent do you think about their process or about the income you stand to lose?
• how do you negotiate arrangements and contracts with clients that are safe, consistent and reliable as well as doing justice to the client’s individual needs, requirements and situation?
• how do you get beyond simplistic frameworks and business models borrowed from other professions, and find a practice and arrangements that suit you and the work of therapy?
• how do you understand and respond to breaks in the working alliance, thresholds in the process, which manifest as an attitude of ambivalence in the client and their commitment to therapy?
• how do you handle clients ‘getting worse’ as a necessary part of the process, and how do you communicate that to them, and negotiate the fall-out?
• how do you respond to a client who accuses you of ‘emotional prostitution’, or who protests against their dependency on a professional ‘selling love’?
• when a client is complaining and protesting, how can we understand deeply what perception and experience the client has of therapy, and what unconscious constructions may be involved?
• how do you process the subliminal bodymind impact of the therapeutic relationship on yourself, including vicarious traumatisation?
• how do you inhabit your own wounds when they get touched upon by the client’s process?
• how can an understanding of the paradoxical nature of enactments create more space within the therapeutic position?