172 Stop Working For Free: The Therapist Burnout Nobody Talks About

Most therapists don’t burn out because they’re “too sensitive” or need better self-care, they burn out because they’re doing high level emotional labor and business labor that is not being paid for in a sustainable way. In this episode, Dr. Ashley Stephens and I name the therapist burnout nobody talks about, the burnout that shows up when your practice looks successful on paper, but you feel exhausted, resentful, and stretched thin behind the scenes.

We talk about the invisible workload that hits once you’re full, the pressure to do everything yourself, and why this is not a mindset problem. It is a structure problem. It is a boundary problem. And yes, it is a money problem. We also get honest about supervision, how it can be a smarter revenue stream and a professional next step, and how it can absolutely eat your lunch if you get voluntold into it without systems, time, or compensation.

In this episode, I cover:

• Why “successful on paper” can still feel exhausting, and how unpaid labor quietly builds burnout
• The hidden roles therapists take on in practice ownership, admin, marketing, and compliance
• How supervision can either protect your energy or accelerate burnout, depending on structure and support
• What ethical, sustainable supervision actually requires, including time, boundaries, and compensation

If you’re feeling burned out but everything “looks fine,” I want you to hear this clearly: you are probably working for free in ways you have not named yet. The fix is not more hustle. The fix is clearer boundaries, cleaner systems, and a model that actually supports your life.

Grab this month’s free February bonus: Stop Working for Free, The Therapist Fee Reset. It will help you identify where your practice is quietly costing you money, and whether the fix is a boundary reset or a bigger model change.

And if this episode sparked questions about fees, boundaries, or supervision, you do not have to figure it out alone. That is exactly what we work through inside the Step It Up Membership, and for supervisors who need community and real time case support, the new Supervision Lab is built for this.

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. 

Transcript

The Hidden Jobs Of Private Practice

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I didn't realize that I was gonna be a tax professional, a marketing professional, a website designer, I'm a graphic designer, I'm a sales and marketing person, a secretary, I'm a clerk. You know, it's kind of all you.

Free Resource: Therapist Fee Reset

Meet The Hosts And Mission

Success On Paper, Exhausted In Life

SPEAKER_02 0:37

If you're feeling burned out but your practice looks successful on paper, this episode is for you. Today, Ashley and I are talking about the kind of burnout therapists don't always name, the kind that comes from doing high-level emotional labor without being paid in a way that's sustainable. This isn't about self-care or mindset. It's about structure, boundaries, and money. And if you're already thinking, okay, this sounds familiar, I want you to grab the free resource we created for this month. It's called Stop Working for Free, the Therapist Fee Reset. And you can get it right now at KateWalkertraining.com slash bonus. Now, let's get to work. Hey, I'm Dr. Kate Walker. Welcome to Badass Therapists Building Practices That Thrive. And uh I'm with my colleague, Dr. Ashley Stevens, today because we build the courses for those of you who want to become supervisors. And so between the two of us, we cover lots of different licenses. I track the counselors and Ashley tracks the social workers. And so we do the best job we possibly can of staying informed. And today's topic is the idea that stop working for free, the therapist burnout nobody talks about. Because I think, and Ashley and I were talking about this before, you know, being successful feels like, okay, that's where I've done it. I've done my job. I've I've got this practice, or I'm working at this agency, I've got a full client load, or my reviews are good, everything's working. Why am I so exhausted? And then what? So we're gonna kind of go back and forth on that. And we'll tie this into there's another episode out there about why supervision becomes a smarter revenue stream. But we're not just gonna focus on that. We really want to talk through this idea of, you know, we pound you guys. Hey, you've got to grow, you've got to do this. There's scalable this, scalable that. And then what? So hang in there and we will get to hopefully what you're dealing with or might deal with, especially if you're a grad student and you're thinking about private practice or you're thinking about, okay, what does success look like? And you know, you can get to us, you can contact us, you can find us on Facebook in Texas Counselors Creating Badass Businesses Facebook page, not just for Texans. So we want to hear from you. We all you got to do is tag us and we'd love to hear what you think of the episode. Or if there's something that we're not thinking of or we're not covering, you let us know. Ashley, what do you think? Where do you want to start?

Scaling Systems Without Burning Out

SPEAKER_00 3:32

Yeah, I think one of the things that I think Kate and I have talked about it. I talk about it in every business, I talk about it in every training I do. And it's that I don't think we I know that we don't get trained how to run businesses. But one of the things that was so incredibly shocking to me when I hit this, whatever the word success to me, like what in my mind I thought that was. What I didn't realize that I was going to be a tax professional, a marketing professional, a website designer, a graphic designer, a sales and marketing person, a uh secretary, a clerk. You know, it's kind of all you. And that to me, I don't think we talk about like when you hit that level, likely you're doing it on your own, relying on your own self, because also we're clinicians and we have that heart of like, I need to do this. I'm the one who could do this. Why can't I do this? And I think that creates a ton of burnout for people.

Supervision As A Revenue Stream

SPEAKER_02 4:30

Absolutely. And it's, you know, that bell that we ring all the time of we weren't trained to do this, we weren't trained to do this. You know, I don't think other professionals have that issue as as badly. So I think about I had a friend of mine who went to dental school and they included business courses in his training. And it's like, oh, well, that makes sense. Like you're going to obvious obviously run an office or be part of an office. Why not learn how to run it? And you know, not burn out. But I also know I know me personally, I'm a little bit of a control freak. And so when it when I think about bookkeeping, well, I had to try it first myself. Or when I think about marketing, it's like, well, I have to figure it out first myself. And all of the justifications, right? It's like, well, I can't hire this out, or you know what, I'm just by myself. And that's legit. I want to validate that. I mean, if you're still a solopreneur with one or two clients, or let's say up to 10 clients, yeah, of course. You know, you want to keep costs down and you want to deliver excellent services. So what we're talking about is scaling up. Right. And scaling up not because you want to, but scaling up because you're amazing and you're gonna do good work. And your community is going to beat a path to your door because you do good work. Right. And so scalable may be something that you put a push pin in and you think, yeah, yeah, Kate, I'll I'll deal with that later. But but if you could just challenge yourself, especially here we are in 2026, new year, new you, to start thinking about ways you can scale the systems you have and continue to scale if you want to. If you don't want to, that's fine. You can turn people away and have a we don't have a system for that today. But then, you know, that that's great. But please open your mind a little bit and be willing to create scalable systems. And this podcast has tons of episodes on creating HIPAA-compliant scalable systems, SOPs, hiring virtual assistants, all of the things so that you can do that. But we want to, I do want to kind of circle around a supervision because I think a lot of times uh professionals reach a point in their career and whether it's five years or six years or seven years or whenever, and they're like, okay, I got this. I'm seeing clients, I I kind of understand it. I don't have to really call my supervisor anymore and say, hey, remember me, I gotta talk through this case. And they're like, What's next? Oh, supervision. Well, I don't have time for that. Or that's that's just gonna be too much work. So let's let's talk about how supervision can be a way to you know incorporate it into your life, but not get exploited or not face burnout. So what do you think about that?

SPEAKER_00 7:39

Yeah. So the thing that I really struggle with the most is hearing when people say, My boss, my manager, my organization, my agency told me to start supervising. And maybe they paid for you to go to our supervision training. Maybe they they told you to do it on your own, whatever the case is. But that is one of the things that hurts me the most because often when people are voluntole to do this work, they may like it okay, but there's that extra pressure of like, they're telling me to do it. And in my experience, what I've heard the most is they are not compensating you for that extra workload. And maybe they don't even realize it is an extra workload to manage interns, to manage supervisees, associates, whatever you're managing. So it's just a kind of collateral duty or like an add-on, which is not fun for anyone. And it creates that resentment of like, I'm not getting paid. And maybe worse, I'm not getting the time I need to do this job well. Because in my experience, especially in the state of Texas, they can do groups. So they're like, oh, it's just one hour of your work, like that we have to kind of set aside for this without realizing the paperwork, the liability, the crisis calls that you get, especially when people are in their early stage, it can really ratchet up burnout. And I don't think our agencies understand that when it's that internal process.

Liability, Time, And Fair Pay In Supervision

SPEAKER_02 9:07

Yeah. And I can imagine if you are, you know, five years in, you you're ready for that new challenge. And it feels like an honor, right? And that's why I don't think anybody talks about it like, oh, they picked me. They picked me to for my supervisor training. Because let's face it, what do agencies pay for? I mean, uh, you know, our trainings range anywhere from, you know, a couple hundred dollars to several thousand dollars. And to say, oh my goodness, my agency is paying for this training and oh, I can't wait. And then you get in there and you realize, wait a second, I'm not getting support I need. And so with social work, what I'm hearing is they can do lots of group supervision, right? Yes.

SPEAKER_00 9:46

Yeah. So each individual group can't have any more than six people, but there is no limit on how many groups you can have. The way that the board phrases it is something to the tune of like as many as you can ethically handle. So obviously that is different for different people, but what sometimes agencies see is kind of that unlimited potential to see as many people as you can, as long as you can shove them either in a group or there is no limit on individual supervision. So, you know, some people, if your five is your limit because you're doing other jobs or whatever, maybe that number is is twenty for someone who's just doing the majority supervision with just a little bit of therapy. So it can really range.

Boundaries You Can’t Use Inside Agencies

SPEAKER_02 10:30

And I think LPC and LMFT in Texas have this kind of similar verbiage. Like your groups can be as big as you want, and you know, if if you can handle it, you know, and I'm like, hold my beer, challenge accepted, you know. Right. Right. I'm like, oh, not a problem. Here I go. But we talked about before in other episodes, you know, supervisors have to develop too. And if you're a brand new supervisor, bigger is not always better. You don't understand all of the and it's not just paperwork, you know. Uh, at least in Texas, you can't get reimbursed by your supervisee if supervising is a part of your job. And so, okay, you have your first supervisee who no-shows you, right? Or they just show up late all the time. Well, if this was your practice, you know, Ashley and I would be telling you, hey, charge them, charge them for that no-show fee, you know, you got to meet with them on a Saturday, charge them, you know, double, you know, and whatever you, you know, you deserve to be compensated for your time if you're going out of your way, not outside of your contract, whatever you have in your contract you stick to to help your supervisee. But in an agency, it's a totally different ball game because it is now part of your job description. Right. And what do you think about the ability to exercise your right to say no? Right. Because what we teach in our training is hey, it's your S. You can tell anybody no that you want to. But when you work for an agency, what do you think? And that people It's so much harder. Yeah. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

And and I think like that is where I advocate and I have had this fight with as I and I'm primarily what I call an external supervisor. I don't work in any of the agencies that my supervisees work in, but I have had that fight with many an agency, often to no avail. But I say, here's the reason why you need to compensate me for more of my time, because crisis is key. And if you want them to call your cell phone or your pager or your whatever, whenever they're seeing their people, you let me know that they're calling me. And that, you know, if you're signing off notes on people, if they're submitting under your supervisor license to insurance, there is so much at stake here. The liability is increased, the risk to your license is increased, and all of that is a package deal that I think some of these agencies don't understand. So just like we tell our supervisees to advocate for themselves and our clients to advocate for themselves, we need to be advocating for what is the true picture of what supervision looks like. And if you're brand new and you don't know, feel free to give us a call and we will tell you from our experience. Here's all the reasons why we advocate for more time, more compensation, and more of that. Like, you need to know as my agency what you're asking me to do. It's not just simple, it's not easy. And it is emotionally, there's a piece of that is so like I now have to care for so many more clients. Like it's like a puddle that just keep the ripples keep going. I have my caseload of, let's say 20, but each of my 12 supervisees has 20. That's a lot of people under my domain. That isn't also just like fluff. It's not nothing.

Money Without Losing Your Peace

SPEAKER_02 14:04

If this episode is hitting close to home, I want to point you to a free resource we created specifically for this month. It's called Stop Working for Free, the Therapist Fee Reset. It helps you identify where your practice might be quietly costing you money and whether the fix is a simple boundary reset or a sign that your model needs to change. You can download it right now at KateWalkerTraining.com slash bonus. It's quick, practical, and designed to give you clarity, not more homework. Yeah, and you know, if you're listening to this and you're not in Texas, and I hope you are, uh, you know, check your check your rules, check your state rules. I know in Texas there is phrasing like shared liability or full liability. And so it we're specifically talking about folks who have an S, you know, given by the state. So if you're a site supervisor and you don't have that official state designation, well, we're not saying you don't feel the same level of burnout at all, right? That's the same issue. You need to be compensated for your time. But when you have that state designation and you're sharing liability and your agency is just upping and upping the number of folks that you're supposed to see, I mean, that is you're you're going crisis by crisis. I mean, are you able to actually consult on every single person on that caseload, right? When you know in the back of your mind, maybe the front of your mind, that you're sharing liability for each and every one of those folks. And we're not trying to scare you away. We want you to supervise. We want you to become a supervisor. But that's one of the things we do at K Walker Training. We teach you systems to do it successfully because we want you to stay supervising. We don't want you to be the one and done. Or, yeah, I'm gonna keep my S just in case I ever want to supervise. Or, you know, worst case, I had this terrible, you know, supervisee once and I'm never gonna do it again. You know, we want you back. We want you back supervising. And so, you know, supervisors just don't talk about burnout the way we do as counselors, you know. I mean, I don't think. I mean, do you hear supervisors? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:27

I mean, and we It's one of the things that I I talk about supervision as a method to prevent burnout because if I can shift the emotional work of individual active therapy to this kind of third level, like they're not my clients, but I'm over them. It takes it's a different thing. And I talk about that a lot, but it also doesn't mean that it's not there. Like burnout exists anytime you're doing any work, even if the work is a little more fun than what maybe you're experiencing in therapy, if you're a trauma therapist or doing this really intense work. So it's kind of both. But I think we talk about all of the pros of supervision and all the ways in which it can improve your life, and it really can. But we don't, we also need to show the shadow side of that and say, like, it's not for everyone. And if you're not prepared and you're just going into this thinking, oh, this will be a walk, you're gonna, you're gonna be hit upside the head with this in a real way. And we want to prepare you for all of the things that may happen so that you have those systems in place. You have that like free warning flag flags, you know what's coming so that you're not caught, you know, kind of with your pants around your knees.

Supervisor Burnout No One Names

SPEAKER_02 17:42

Yes. And we want, so this is the other thing too. I told you I was gonna tie this to another episode. We want you to make money, okay? Money's wonderful. I love money. When I, you know, if I get a flat tire, money helps me get another tire. You know, I mean, it buys my groceries, but we are never going to teach you money at the expense of your peace, right? So if you do couple counseling or family counseling or any kind of counseling, you know it's money, time, and you know, unfair distribution of labor, right? Those are like the number one reasons, you know, couples may come in and say, oh, it's a communication issue, right? But you know, you read John Gottman or anyone else, and we know if there's an unfair distribution of labor, I'm doing all the work or, you know, I'm doing this work, I'm not getting paid for it, or I'm out of time. I don't have any time. Where's my time? Right. All of those things are key to burning out. And so we are going to teach you how to make money with your S, but we're also going to help you sustain your life and sustain your S and be in this business for as long as you possibly can because it is fun. I mean, I loved when I was supervising, I loved it. And I remember when it got a little dicey and it was in Texas a few years ago. We had some backlogs. I mean, we were having six months, it was taking a long, long time for our associates, back then it was interns, to get their upgrade. So they were done with their license, but they were just kind of hanging out there and they had to still continue to have supervision because that's our rule, you know. So, you know, was I charging them? And, you know, no, I did not because they had finished their hours, but I had to keep meeting with them. So I watched my personal supervisee caseload grow instead of decrease, right? Because that that was my business model. I may have two or three at a time, then I'll get another two or three when they upgrade, and then I'll get another two or three. Well, I looked and I had like eight supervisees. And in Texas, where LPC and LMFT, I've got a dual license. I couldn't just do group every week. I had to alternate group, individual. And I could possibly do some triadic here and there, and it has to, you know, you have to keep a certain ratio. I mean, it turns into math for a very non-math brain. So it's definitely something that can slip through your fingers really, really quickly. And you don't see it in the threads, at least I don't. And you know, I'm on Facebook too much. So if I'm looking through, you know, mental health professionals of you know, Fort Worth, I don't see a lot of threads about supervisors complaining about burnout. And I'm not sure why that is. I mean, I don't know why people don't talk about this.

Advocate, Consult, And Know Your Rules

SPEAKER_00 20:47

Well, I think, you know, to me, the way that it feels is that supervisors that I've seen, it's a very solitary journey. So a lot of people, especially if you're doing it outside of an agency, you're kind of just on your own. And I don't think, like, I think the Texas Supervisor Coalition and things like that, we are trying to make an effort to get people engaged and to come together as supervisors. But you also maybe, even in an agency, the only one who's been tasked with being a supervisor. And I think people try the like that kind of what you're saying before, like, this is an honor. So I should they think that I can handle it. Why can't I handle it? And kind of doing that like imposter syndrome or internal, like this says something about me. We all struggle with this. This is always something that we have to continue to check in about. And it's just like therapy is like, if you're not doing the reflection, you're probably already in trouble. So start, you know, if you're struggling, reach out, reach out to us, reach out to your counterparts, reach out to your mentors. I have this really difficult supervising case, or I don't know what to do in this situation. Feel free because, you know, that's something that Kate and I specialize in is We're in the board meetings. We're in like supervision is kind of our lives. So we're the ones who are like in all of the jams. So we know. And when changes happen, it's a lot to keep track of. When, like we said, this is just a collateral or an additional duty. What are the state laws? Are you in it? We're in it. I can tell you exactly which thing to look at. And if I don't know it offhand, which is rare, I'll find it for you. But a lot of people don't have that time and energy. And we just don't talk about it enough.

SPEAKER_02 22:29

Yeah. And one of the things we just started offering is the supervision lab. And that's really exciting. I mean, we had this, we have a monthly consultation group, but it's really focused on Texas. But this lab is going to be so cool. And it is, it's brand new for 2026. And it's, I mean, we've got this course in so many states now. I mean, imagine being able to just come to a lab and I mean, you just hit record and start talking and case consulting. We talk about whatever you want to talk about.

The Supervision Lab Invitation

SPEAKER_00 23:01

Yeah. It's so helpful. And you know, feel free. We need more. I would love to see more and more people watch this thing take off because I do think it's just like group supervision is learning in a group environment and saying, oh, I haven't run into that. But that may be something that I'll run into in my state, or that is that's the opposite in my state. Y'all have it in your state law that this and this, ours is this and this and this. Isn't that crazy? There's so much. So we welcome as many people who want to join the supervision lab. Absolutely. It's such a good place to talk this stuff out.

Closing Thoughts And Next Steps

Free Bonus And Membership CTA

SPEAKER_02 23:35

In fact, if your S in your state requires you to have supervision of supervision, this counts. We are both supervisors. And so, you know, unless your state has some weird caveat, you know, that we're not aware of, and we're happy to look that up because we love the rules. Please come to the Supervision Lab so we can be your supervision of supervision. Um, and so I'll be sure to drop a link to that in our show notes. But that's kind of it. Can you think of anything else you want to add? I don't think so. I think that's good. All right. So we will and uh and look at our next episodes. We we will continue to tell you how to make money doing this. We will continue to tell you how to enrich your life and your career with this, but we are never gonna shy away from the idea that without the proper systems in place, this, like any other thing with a career or counseling or whatever, can eat your lunch. And so we don't want that to happen for you. So keep tuning in. Thank you so much for being here, and we will see you next time. Thanks for listening. Before you go, don't forget to grab the free February bonus. Stop working for free, the therapist fee reset. You'll find it at KateWalkerTraining.com/slash bonus. And if this episode sparked questions about fees, boundaries, or supervision, you don't have to figure that out alone. That's exactly the kind of conversation we continue inside the Step It Up membership. Thanks for listening, and I'll see you next time. If you love today's episode, be sure to leave a five-star review. It helps other badass therapists find the show and build practices that thrive. Big thanks to Ridgley Walker for our original fun facts and podcast intro, and to Carl Dianella for editing this episode and making us sound amazing. See you next week.