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Episode 13 - Listener Q&A with Cori!
77 Plays1 year ago
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From Intern to Entrepreneur is the podcast for counseling graduate students (and other grad students in mental health fields) to start planning their journey to private practice while they're still in graduate school! Host, Cori White, started planning her journey while she was still in her graduate program and it paid off BIG to start planning EARLY.
In this episide, Cori asnwers these questions:
1. Where do YOU get support when you feel unsure as a counselor? How do you build those support networks?
2. Can you make a livable wage in the counseling profession?
3. Can I start a private practice while I'm still pre-licensed?
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Transcript
Introduction & Purpose
00:00:00
Speaker
This is from intern to entrepreneur, the podcast for counseling and therapy graduate students who want to start planning their journey to private practice while they're still in grad school. I'm your host Corey White. And within three years of graduating from my master's program, I had a six figure thriving private practice in large part because I started planning my path while I was still in grad school.
00:00:21
Speaker
This podcast is full of stories and information meant to give you ideas about how you can carve your own path to the therapy career that you
State Licensure & Time Reflection
00:00:29
Speaker
want. Please note that when you're listening to this podcast, licensure laws and requirements vary from state to state. So check with your state board about what you can and can't do on your journey. And without further ado, enjoy this episode of From Intern to Entrepreneur.
00:00:46
Speaker
Oh, hey there, grad students. This is episode 13 from intern to entrepreneur. And if you're listening to this in real time or around the time that I release it, it is November 1st of 2023, which means there's only two months left until 2024, two months left in the end of the year. I don't know about you, but I feel like this year went so fast.
00:01:10
Speaker
and really i feel like every year since the pandemic has gone pretty fast and i don't know if that's because i'm getting older and that's what they say is that the older you get the faster the years go or if it's pandemic related but i'm gonna go with pandemic related so i don't have to confront getting older
00:01:25
Speaker
Anyway, regardless.
2024 Goals & Resources for Grad Students
00:01:27
Speaker
This means that it's the time of the year for me where I start thinking about 2024. And while I can't make 2024 exactly what I want it to be, I can't predict the things that are going to happen, I can't have total control over it, I do like to start thinking about what vibe I want for my year. So every year,
00:01:48
Speaker
I do all kinds of workbooks to help me prepare for the mindset that I want to try to go into the new year with and last year I actually created my own goal workbook for therapists and I did a retreat around it. So I thought it would be really cool if this year I did one that was specifically for grad students
00:02:11
Speaker
so that you have your own workbook for 2024 and you can sit down in January and you can think about what you want it to look like. And so I'm just putting it together now, but if you're interested, you can head to my website, www.frominterntoentrepreneur.com and there will be a link on the homepage that you can sign up, put your email address in and then get updated on information when the final product is finished. So if you want help planning your 2024,
00:02:40
Speaker
Hit me up through the website.
Listener Q&A Introduction
00:02:42
Speaker
Today's going to be a little bit different kind of an episode. It's going to be a Q&A episode with just me. This is the first solo episode that I've done. It's kind of cool doing this podcast because since we're just in the beginning of it, it's just like constant first. It's like, oh, I've never done this. I've never done this. And I've never done a solo episode. But I think it's time because I'm getting a lot of questions, especially from people who are joining my group on Facebook.
00:03:05
Speaker
You have to answer membership questions when you join. And one of the questions is like, what questions do you have for me? And the questions that have been coming in are just so good that I thought it would be really cool if I took some time to answer them on this podcast. So that's what we're going to do today. We're going to answer three questions. It's going to be a short episode, but hopefully you get a lot of information and hopefully these questions are in alignment with what other grad students are wondering about. So let's jump in.
Building a Support Network in Practice
00:03:31
Speaker
So the first question is, who do you receive support from when needing help or questioning yourself as a counselor? And how do you build that network to give you that support? This is a really cool question, especially for anybody who wants to be in private practice to here, because private practice can be lonely. And so if you're not intentional about building a support network around yourself,
00:03:57
Speaker
of people that you can rely on when you're questioning yourself because you will as a counselor. It's a rite of passage in being a counselor or being a therapist that you're going to question some of the shit that you do and you're going to question yourself as a therapist from time to time and that's normal and that's healthy and you want people around you that are going to help you challenge that negative self-talk or those fears or explore where that's coming from with you.
00:04:26
Speaker
I personally go to all kinds of different people when I'm needing support or when I'm questioning myself. Some of the people I go to are literally from my graduate program that I met back when I was in that program and they're some of my closest confidants and they're some of the people that I rely on the most for sound advice because guess what? They know me the best. You're never going to get to a point in your career
00:04:51
Speaker
where you have more contact, more one-on-one contact than you do with the people that are in your graduate program. Because once you get out into the field, you're going to be doing a lot of client one-to-one work. So yeah, you might be in a spot or in a position where you do have access to working closely with other counselors. But for the most part, most of your job will be seeing clients. Most of your job is going to be spent with clients, not with
00:05:15
Speaker
your peers. So use your time in grad school with your peers to build those relationships. They're going to be the people that know you the best and can give you the most sound advice or whatever it is that you need from them. I also still reach out to past
00:05:32
Speaker
supervisors of mine, my LPC supervisor, Ryan Bowers, who the episode two, episode 11, that was with, I reach out to him when I have questions. I reach out to the people around me at my practice when I'm questioning something that I'm doing. They also work really closely with me and they know how I work and
00:05:50
Speaker
and they can see things that I can't see. So they're really great and really valuable people to keep around and to ask questions to. That's for a lot of the clinical stuff. For the business stuff, I have a community of people that I've become a part of where I can go to if I have business questions.
00:06:08
Speaker
I also run things by my husband sometimes, not clinical things. I don't break confidentiality. I'm not talking about clients with my husband. But if I have a question about making a business decision and I'm just not sure about it, he does not own a business. And so sometimes an outsider's perspective can be really important in seeing things from a different way. So I go to him.
00:06:32
Speaker
I think that probably what you're getting from this is that there's not really a clear answer because I try to create communities for myself. I try to include myself in communities. I try to find communities where I have access to a lot of people. So when I'm struggling with something, I know the person that I need the support from. The second question is, will the counseling profession allow me to make a livable wage?
Financial Challenges & Wage Discussion
00:06:58
Speaker
Love this question too. And I wish that I could answer this by saying, hell yes, you will be able to thrive as a therapist, as a counselor, and make a livable wage, and go on vacations. But the reality of that is it's not true for everyone. And the way that the systems are set up, there's a million things I can get into with this between agencies, between insurances, between bad business practices.
00:07:26
Speaker
it can be difficult to find a way to make a living wage. And so I encourage people to be thinking about that on their journey and start thinking about money and asking questions about money. And when you get a job opportunity,
00:07:43
Speaker
asking questions about money, not just of the job and what the benefits are, but then going to your peers and saying, hey, I got this job opportunity. Is this a good wage rather than just taking a job opportunity because they're giving you the opportunity without wondering whether or not it's a financially good decision?
00:08:00
Speaker
You know, one of the beliefs about the mental health community, about the therapist community, about counselors is that we don't make any money or we don't care about money or we're in it just to help people. It's not about the money. And I think that all of that is really bullshit.
00:08:17
Speaker
Of course we care about the money. People in our society need a job. We can hold two things to be true at one time. We can want to help people and also care about making enough money to live good lives and provide for our families and take care of ourselves and go on vacation.
00:08:32
Speaker
And so I think that the more we talk about money in our profession and the more that we ask questions about money in our profession, we are doing a service to all therapists everywhere because if it's not a secret, then
00:08:48
Speaker
people aren't going to be afraid to talk about if there's a low wage. I know that when I took my first job, it was a really low wage and I did not know that because I was too scared to ask questions in my grad program about if it was a low wage or not. And I look back and I got the job offer while I was doing my internship. I wish I would have gone into my internship class.
00:09:10
Speaker
And I wish I would have said, hey, um, this is the job offer I got. Like, what do you guys think? And I, I'm sure that people be like, I got offered more than that. That's low. I hope that my professors would have told me that that was low and.
00:09:25
Speaker
While I valued the experience that I got at that site and I don't think I'd go back and change it because it's really put me on the path of where I am now, I also wish that for counselors everywhere, we just knew what to expect. Now, part of that is where you live and if you live somewhere where the cost of living is higher and wages are generally more, that's why I say like go and ask the people around you because they're going to be the best judge about whether or not you're getting a fair wage.
00:09:51
Speaker
But if you're getting to the question of like, can you make a livable wage? If it's not a livable wage, keep searching until you find something that works for you. We are in demand as counselors. Places need employees.
00:10:07
Speaker
private practices need employees, agencies need employees, residential places need employees. And so look for something until you find something that matches your needs and create a plan. If it's, if it starts too low, if in your area, pre-licensed clinicians get paid X and that's not enough for you, start thinking about what your plan is to make more over the course of the next year or two so that
00:10:35
Speaker
You at least have a plan if you're disappointed by what it is you're hearing about the numbers. And so go right now, everybody that's listening to this, I dare you in your grad programs, go
00:10:49
Speaker
into your internship class or any of the classes and say, hey, can we talk about money for a little bit? I have some questions about what we can get paid being a therapist in this area or being a counselor in this area. So I absolutely think that you can make a livable wage. I make a livable wage. I know a lot of people that make livable wages. I make better than a livable wage. And I know a lot of people that are making better than livable wages.
00:11:14
Speaker
But for me, I know it's because I've been really intentional about creating that. So go talk to people around you, see what's possible, and then start making your path rather than just hoping, you know, the first job that comes across your desk is one that's going to provide for you financially. Though I hope that is the case for everybody.
00:11:37
Speaker
And the last question is, can I start a private practice while I'm still pre-licensed?
Pre-Licensed Practice Possibilities
00:11:42
Speaker
And the answer is maybe. So some things to know about this. Once you graduate from your master's program, you will be considered a pre-licensed clinician. Depending on the state you're in, they might call it something different, but you have to gain hours toward being licensed.
00:12:00
Speaker
And the thing is, in some states, you are allowed to have a private practice while you're still pre-licensed, which means you could graduate from your master's program and start a private practice. Now, in most states, like in the state of Pennsylvania, you can have a private practice while you're pre-licensed, but you must be under supervision. So there are usually some caveats, but there are some states in which you cannot have a private practice until you are licensed. So a few years post-masters.
00:12:29
Speaker
The best way to get information about this is to ask the people that you know and trust in your community and ask more than one person.
00:12:38
Speaker
Now I could say the best way to get this answer is to go to your state board website and read what they have to say. But to me, reading the state board website is a lot like reading my insurance policy and I need an interpreter or I need to read it eight times. So yeah, I recommend poking around there and seeing where it says things related to you.
00:13:00
Speaker
But ask the mentors around you about whether or not in your state you can start your private practice while you're still pre-licensed. And if you are, ask those mentors what it is you need to be aware of and what you need to do to make sure that you're in compliance with whatever the regulations are.
00:13:18
Speaker
while you are starting that program. I wish there was a place and maybe in the future I'll create something like this, but it's too much for right now. Just being transparent. I wish there was a place that you could go where it would say, hi, here's the state. Yes, you can or cannot have a private practice or things were just laid out a lot more clearly, but at present there's not. You're going to have to rely on
00:13:42
Speaker
the state board information and the counselors that are in your area that know better than you. So really the theme of this episode is make connections, become friends with the people around you that are in your counseling sphere so that you can ask them questions and diversify the people that you are having in your counseling sphere so that you can get different questions answered by people who know different things.
Feedback & Engagement
00:14:13
Speaker
I hope this Q&A episode was helpful. If it was, please let me know by messaging me on Facebook through the Facebook group or going to my website and contacting me through there. I would love to hear if you guys want more of this stuff and also if you have questions that I can add to the next Q&A if I decide to do one based on the feedback.
00:14:37
Speaker
I would love to answer direct questions from people about all things counseling, entrepreneurship, private practice, or whatever it is that you need to know on your journey to becoming the wonderful clinician that you are and or will be one day. Wherever you are in your week or your year,
00:14:58
Speaker
Whether you're listening to this in the last two months of 2023, or if you're catching this, I don't know, 10 years down the road, I hope that you have a wonderful day and take care of yourself.
00:15:11
Speaker
I hope that you loved this episode of From Intern to Entrepreneur. And if you want to learn more about what we talked about, check out the show notes. If you love this podcast and you want to support me and continuing to create content for entrepreneurs, then please share this with a friend, a grad student who you think might want their own private practice one day, and also like, subscribe, and review this podcast wherever you're listening to it.