Badass Therapists Building Practices That Thrive
Welcome to Badass Therapists Building Practices That Thrive, the ultimate resource for mental health professionals ready to step into their power, grow their practices, and create a career they love. I'm Dr. Kate Walker, a Texas LPC/LMFT Supervisor, author, and business strategist who's here to show you the path to success.
Formerly Texas Counselors Creating Badass Businesses, we’ve rebranded because, well, we’re way too big for Texas now! This community of badass therapists is growing nationwide, and we’re here to help you create a career and practice you love, no matter where you are.
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Badass Therapists Building Practices That Thrive
148 The Survival Guide ChatGPT Didn't Get Quite Right for Therapists
Get your step by step guide to private practice. Because you are too important to lose to not knowing the rules, going broke, burning out, and giving up. #counselorsdontquit.
All right.
Speaker 2:Oh, I guess I don't have any lipstick. It's fine, all right. Am I in focus? I can't tell.
Speaker 1:I can see you.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, okay. So I asked ChatGPT what is the number one habit therapists need to do? They need to improve, I guess, and some of them I agree with, some of them I don't. So, chatgpt, if you're listening, I'm just respect, but you know I've got opinions and Jennifer, I know you do too. You know I've got opinions and, jennifer, I know you do too. But one of the things that I did agree with is this idea of being proactive, proactive, proactive. I mean this is such a weird business. I mean we're getting to do what we're good at right, what we're called to do, and at the same time, we're inserting ourselves into a business model and the medical model, and we have all these rules and laws and things that we have to abide by while we're doing this thing we love. So, yeah, being proactive and not reactive and you had a great example just even starting in grad school.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I think as grad students you get so overwhelmed and you get this tunnel vision and it's got to get to graduation, got to get to graduation. Everything is hyper fixated on this idea of getting this diploma, like your beautiful ones, behind you on the wall that we forget. Oh, what comes next? And then it's oh God, how do I get licensed, and where do I get fingerprints, and what's the jurisprudence exam and how do I find supervision, and I and everybody gets very overwhelmed. But if you're proactive in grad school, you can set the stage for success after graduation. I mean, that's part of the reason why you started doing the bridge, the gap series, and, you know, making sure grad students had that opportunity afforded to them. Oh my gosh, yes.
Speaker 2:And shameless plug. I'm going to talk about when those are happening. I don't know when this episode is going to go live, but it's given by Dr Tara Fox and we're doing one Monday, october the 6th. We're doing one Tuesday, september 30th, wednesday September 24th and Thursday, october 16th. So we wanted to have one every single night of the week, except Friday, because it is so important.
Speaker 2:Professors, if you're listening to this, please sign your students up. Students, if you're listening to this, please sign up for these. These are free. These are just webinars so that you're not caught off guard, I mean, especially those of you.
Speaker 2:Okay, funny story when my son moved to Colorado one of the things that we just talked about this yesterday he's like you know when I first moved here, I thought, okay, I'm in a national park, surely they'll post when things are dangerous or there will be people patrolling and tell us hey, don't go there. No, that's not how that works, right? So just because you're sitting in a classroom, you can't assume that your professor is giving you the latest, greatest, up to date information about current rules and laws and the licensing exam. I mean, hopefully they are, but if you assume that that's really going to put you at a disadvantage, and it's just like Jennifer said. I mean you can't, you can't assume.
Speaker 2:You have to be proactive and not be taken by surprise. I mean, how many times have we heard or seen in the social media threads wait, I have to get a supervisor. Wait, how much is supervision? Wait, I got to pay. You know, in those types of surprises that's not good for the family budget, that's not good for you know, telling your significant other, hey, I just finished three years of school and oh, by the way, I have to keep paying someone for the next 18 months to two years, to five years. Sorry, right, this, this you need to know, right? Um, what else? Legal and ethical stuff. So paperwork talk a little bit about paperwork that people need to update.
Speaker 1:So it and it starts back at that associate level, right, because associates, like you, always say they now can hang a shingle and there's this belief that, oh, I can own a private practice and that means that I can go see clients and I get to make money and I'll do my notes and I'll do my treatment plans and I'll build them, you know, and they'll pay me cash and it'll be great and I'll have this thriving private practice.
Speaker 1:And people don't ever take into account having a business continuity plan and what that looks like in the event you become incapacitated or in the event something become incapacitated, or in the event something terrible happens.
Speaker 1:I mean, god forbid there's a natural disaster where you live and you are no longer unable to see those clients and fulfill those services that you've agreed to fulfill through therapy, because your house just got blown away in a tornado and you don't even have internet and you're suffering through, you know, through the same trauma that they are what you can't just say sorry, I don't know what to tell you. I can't be your therapist right now. You've got to have. So you've got to have provisions in place to not just protect this business, you know, not just your shingle hanging on the outside of the wall but your clients and your paperwork and all of those nuances that go into being a really great therapist that you were called to do, because there's more to that. That's why I always laugh when people say my hairdresser is my therapist. I'm like maybe I should have done that. That's way less paperwork.
Speaker 2:I love my hair, my hairstylist.
Speaker 1:Mine is wonderful.
Speaker 2:We need to give them shout outs. Maybe we can, they can sponsor us or something. Oh, ideas, business ideas.
Speaker 1:I can't be your therapist, but I know a great one.
Speaker 2:We did an episode on a great ROI, which is you know, that's part of the paperwork you have to have, and every year. Another good habit is to just go through all of your paperwork, just make sure it's up to date, and it needs to include, like Jennifer saying it's not just a nice to have, like we're not just sitting here saying, hey, you really need to have these things. You're saying, hey, you really need to have these things. It's in Texas rules and I'm sure it's in other state rules that you have to have some kind of a plan in the event that something happens to you. So creating that continuity plan.
Speaker 2:Well then, you know, I want you to listen to the episode about HIPAA and I want you to listen to the episodes about how to get your paperwork in shape. Hipaa and I want you to listen to the episodes about how to get your paperwork in shape. That's a habit you need to implement every single year and every time there's a rule change. This is being recorded in July of 2025 in Texas, and I just got an email last week about new rules. So I know Jennifer and I are going to be sitting down here in the next week or so going over every single thing so that we can do webinars and make sure that the information gets out in all the social medias.
Speaker 2:And, of course, we would love it if you came to one of our free webinars so that you could get a CE if you need that so that you can learn what's going on and even just a habit of listening and paying attention and getting a CE in these rule changes. You have to do that, gosh. I think I'm over the number that ChatGPT gave me. What else did we say? We said paperwork. We said a business continuity plan.
Speaker 1:What else? Just because you're fully licensed doesn't mean you don't need supervision.
Speaker 2:Ah, yes, yes.
Speaker 1:Do you want me to? Okay, I was like, just, you know we kind of get into this rat race like, oh, I've been a therapist for 10 years, I've been a therapist for 15 years or 20 years or whatever it is, but it's never not good to not seek consultation and supervision and to go ask your peers and to go talk to them and not get you know closed in this box of I know everything. You always want to learn and you always want to. You know, ask other people and get feedback. You know that's like your consultation group.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we did the. We've got the consultation group, we have the episode about why therapists need their own therapists and we also had the episode about, you know, information that we can't share. So I always like to say this in case we have clients or potential clients listening, you know, when Jennifer saying we need to get our own supervision and consultation, we're still not spilling the tea, like we're not sitting there giving our supervisor or our our colleagues identifiable, pifiable, protective health information. I'll just say the whole word right, we still. Our job is to guard that information, but it is an absolutely essential habit to have to do consultation or therapy or supervision way beyond well, forever, while you are a professional right, not just when you're in that associate phase or graduate student phase, when you're trying to or having to get formal supervision. Yes, keep that habit up. It's not just done when you upgrade to your full license. So, yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1:Well, and it builds a good peer community so that, let's say, you do run into something that is like, oh my gosh, I need help with this. You're not scrambling, trying to ask so-and-so if they know of anybody. You already have those connections built. You can just pick up the phone and call somebody because you've done that lead work by being so proactive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Right, make it the normal Right. And we have that special consultation group for supervisors and it's a closed group, like we want to know that you're an actual supervisor. But it's wonderful because we do. We bring in experts to talk about things that are important to supervisors. You know, like the new it's well, new to me anyway the ability for an associate to bill under their supervisor with certain insurances.
Speaker 2:We're going to have a session on that. We're going to have a or I shouldn't call it a session a workshop. We're going to have workshops on paperwork. We're going to have workshops on all the things we're talking about today, but in a lot more depth. So, if you aren't in mind, get in one, get in a consultation group someplace where you can process things. Make that your habit for this year. And the other things we talked about. Make sure you what did we say, jennifer? All the things going over paperwork. We're talking about business continuity. I mean, be proactive, all of it, and join the bridge, the gap, because we're going to do it. As far as I can see, we're going to keep doing it every semester for all of you counseling and mental health grad students. Well, mainly for counseling grad students, so that you understand and you can be proactive about what comes next. Can you think of anything else, jennifer? All right, see ya. Of anything else, jennifer?
Speaker 1:Nope.
Speaker 2:All right, see ya. Oh, I don't want to end the meeting, I'm just doing the recording there. No-transcript.