Badass Therapists Building Practices That Thrive

173 Helping Is Not A Business Model

• Dr. Kate Walker Ph.D., LPC/LMFT Supervisor • Season 3 • Episode 172

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0:00 | 19:44

Most therapists and supervisors do not struggle because they care too much. They struggle because helping quietly becomes the business model. In this episode, Jennifer Marie Fairchild and I unpack why overfunctioning, loose boundaries, and undercharging slowly erode authority, ethics, and sustainability in both counseling practices and supervision.

We talk about what we see every day in supervision contracts and group practice growth, how good intentions create real risk when demand is not assessed, and why resentment is often a signal that the structure is broken, not the therapist. This conversation is about naming the gap between wanting to help and actually building something that can last.

In this episode, we cover:

  • Why helping is not a business model, and how overfunctioning shows up in supervision and practice ownership
  • What supervision contracts reveal about boundaries, liability, and readiness to grow
  • How expanding without demand harms associates, supervisors, and group practices
  • What ethical support actually requires when supervising associates or growing a business

If you feel resentful, stretched thin, or quietly overwhelmed, hear this clearly: it is not a personal failure. It is usually a structure problem. Sustainable practices require clarity, limits, and systems that match the mission.

 if this conversation brings up questions about fees, policies, or where your practice might be leaking money, we've got a free resource for you that you can download: Stop Working For Free: The Therapist Fee Reset.

And if this episode raised questions about supervision contracts, ethical growth, or how to build something sustainable without burning out, you do not have to sort that out on your own. Those are exactly the conversations we have inside the  Step It Up Membership, where we slow things down, get specific, and build practices that can actually support your life.

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.

SPEAKER_02:

It was a mistake on his part. And I was able to, you know, fire my supervisor and go get a wonderful one. And it all turned out just fine in the end. But that business model, and I'm sure his heart was in the right place. I want to help as many supervisees as I can. And so I'm going to bring them in. But he didn't think through entirely, you know, how this was going to work. And so that business model just, yeah, didn't didn't happen. Didn't work for us anyway.

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to Badass Therapists, building practices of the life. Well, it's all about working smarter, not harder. And here's your host, Dr. Kate Walker.

SPEAKER_02:

This episode might make you a little uncomfortable, and that's intentional. Jennifer and I are talking about how therapists confuse being helpful with being professional, and how that confusion quietly leads to resentment, burnout, and boundary problems. Helping is the mission, but it's not a business model. And if this conversation brings up questions about fees, policies, or where your practice might be leaking money, we've got a free resource for you. You can download Stop Working for Free, the therapist fee reset at KateWalker Training.com slash bonus. Now, let's get to work. Hey, I'm Dr. Kate Walker. Welcome to Badass Therapist Building Practices That Thrive. And today I am with Jennifer Marie Fairchild, who is an LPC associate in Texas and a provisional LPC in New Hampshire. And Jennifer will explain that credential more. And we're going to talk about how helping is not a business model. And you know, it's funny because I'm going to say it because we always do. We weren't taught how to be business people in grad school. But I mean, who hasn't heard that? I mean, come on, you guys listen to this podcast, or surely you're out there listening to other podcasts, but here we are still hearing sort of the same things, maybe a little bit of a different variation. So today we're going to take it from the perspective of not just what we hear on the interwebs, uh, but also what Jennifer reads in the contract proposals, because we do provide the training to become a supervisor, not only in Texas, but all over the country. And we get lots and lots and lots of draft contracts. And Jennifer reads them all, or most of them anyway. And so we see a lot of folks trying to build their supervision business, and helping is not a business model. So let's start with the contracts. Let's start with what you see there, and then I will take it to where what we see kind of in the world of just counseling practice. What do you see in Jennifer?

SPEAKER_00:

So a lot of what I see with contracts is not really going into it, understanding how many associates you want to take on. It's like the new therapist who wants to help all the clients all the time. Every client, I'm going to just load my caseload. And we see supervisors doing it too, because there is an incredible need and shortage for supervisors, and there's a shortage of good supervisors. And so it can be difficult to, you know, turn that next one down or really identify how many associates can I help realistically. So a lot of supervisors will, you know, put in their contract, you know, will have no more than five or no more than 10 or whatever, you know, their magic number is. But a lot of them don't even think about that. And I think that's a really important question to ask yourself. Like, how many associates could I feasibly supervise?

SPEAKER_02:

It's like the FOMO that we see with the new counselors. You know, I'm glad you brought that up, right? Because it's like, oh, somebody called me. I have to take them on. Oh, I know they want to see me on a Saturday morning, but I just I have to get them in, you know? And, you know, we start bending those boundaries and then we're left burnt out and resentful. And in the case of supervision, when the liability is doubled, now we put ourselves into a position of just, you know, compromising maybe our ethics or even bending the rules a little bit. Because, you know, we've heard horror stories of supervisors just offering group, right? Because they have 30 supervisees. And who can fit 30 individuals into a calendar along with clients? And so in Texas, you can't do that. Maybe some other states you're able to do more group hours or other licenses. But with Texas LPC and LMFT, you have to keep a ratio or a certain number of group hours. So for that supervisor who just wants to help everybody in town or in the state, it's just not gonna work. And they could end up in trouble. All right. So I'm gonna take it from the badass business problems that we see. Cause in our Facebook group, Texas counselors creating badass businesses, and it's not just for Texans. You know, sometimes we see or we hear about folks who are ready to grow and they don't want to add a side hustle. They want to add more people to their practice. So they want to go from being an individual practitioner to a group practice owner, and it's a great step. And we have some great webinars out there. Uh, this past fall, we featured Amanda Escobel, who did a webinar on growing an individual practice into a group practice and running it ethically. So it's there's a way to do it, and we want you to do that because you're amazing and you're gonna grow, and your community is gonna want more of you. Here's the problem you want to grow, you want to add people because you're lonely, you are tired of practicing by yourself. Or maybe your best bud has come up to you and said, you know what, we ought to start a practice together. And you're like, oh my gosh, that would be wonderful. I think being in business with my best friend is a wonderful idea. But what you're missing is the rest of the business world, all of the other entrepreneurs out there who grow and expand, they do it because of that thing we learned in 11th grade in our economics class, which is supply and demand. Right? If there's no demand, then the, and I'm I'm gonna say it wrong because I didn't really pay attention in my economics class, but that means you are going to have a deflated value, right? So there's no demand for your services, but now you've got three therapists sitting there twiddling their thumbs, and they're wondering what went wrong because you promised them clients, or you promised that you would teach them how to market, or you promised excellent SEO and all the things. And you feel really, really bad now because now you've got this practice and you think there's something wrong, maybe with you that you haven't marketed or haven't taught them to market, or you're mad at them because you don't think they're marketing enough. When really what you did is you expanded before there was any reason for you to expand. And so that idea, well, I'm helping my friends or I'm helping my community by growing before I'm ready. Yeah, no, that's that's a not a good business model, right? No business on the planet is going to expand, at least expand successfully, unless there is a demand for that. So keep that in mind, please. So that's my two cents. What do you think, Jennifer?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, to to piggyback off of that, you'll see a lot of group practices want to expand and take on associates. And the the common thing I see is, you know, associates saying, Hey, I got hired at this group practice and I have two clients, or I have three clients, or, you know, they told me they have this super long waiting list, but I don't have anybody on my caseload yet. And they're, you know, kind of under the wire. And so it's it's realistically, can you help this associate get ours? And can you deliver on what you said you could deliver on, which was filling their caseload? And if you can't, just you know, having a reasonable conversation with yourself before you, you know, try to go out there and help people because it's great that you want to help. It's not super helpful when you can't deliver.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, because I mean, I said, you know, you'd explain your credential earlier. I mean, you live in Texas, but you hold a license in New Hampshire and you get a ton of hours from the place where you're working. I mean, that's that's a gold mine. I mean, I say that in the sense of very, very valuable, not necessarily that you're making a billion dollars, but you might be. I don't know. My business, but it's still, you know, finding a site where you can get clients and it's not just this promise that never gets fulfilled. I mean, that's amazing. I mean, that's why you do that, right? I mean, that's why you're in New Hampshire. Well, just emotionally in New Hampshire.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Well, it unfortunately for New Hampshire, it it there is a shortest shortage of therapists. They it's a small state, there's a lot of rural areas. It's so funny because they talk about their most populous cities, and even their most populous cities aren't anywhere near, you know, our smaller metropolitan areas in Texas. So there was a huge need for those positions. And so I just kind of fulfilled a need up there. But yeah, I if I wasn't at a practice that could fill my caseload, then I would not be working there. You have to be able to have clients or it just it's not gonna work. It's not feasible.

SPEAKER_02:

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. And supervisees, if you're listening to this, we do have episodes on what makes a good contract. And we know that some of you out there are working in practices where maybe you did not sign a contract and your supervisor is also your boss. And so maybe there was this implied, you know, promise to get you clients. Or, you know, I don't know, maybe there was something in writing. And so breaking a contract, that is not the worst thing you're gonna do in your life. Okay. Telling your supervisor, hey, I thought this was gonna work out, but I'm just not getting enough clients. I think I'm gonna go here and try to get some clients and because I only have so many hours before I, you know, I can't do this, right? So, associates, I want to empower you. And if you are a resident in another state or an intern or whatever they call you, I want to empower you to really take a look at who's hiring you, especially if it's your supervisor, right? Because we want supervisors to hire associates. That is an amazing thing. We love it that you're doing that. But that's one of the reasons we have this podcast, so that you are also a good business person. I know my own experience, my very, very, very, very first supervisor had the business model. He was going to bring all of us in, all of us being all of the new graduates, and we were interns at the time, and we had these cool meetings in his office, and the office was really cool. And we're all sitting there thinking, oh man, we've made it. We're here we are in a private practice. And he didn't realize that our model, our business, our clients were dependent on him not taking on cash clients. So, in other words, we couldn't take insurance, and he was an insurance or insurance-based practice. Well, he didn't think that through when he brought us on. And so we were being charged for all the things from supervision to keeping the lights on, and yet there was no mechanism for his office to funnel clients to us because they were insurance-based. So, yeah, I mean, it was a mistake on his part. And I was able to, you know, fire my supervisor and go get a wonderful one. And it all turned out just fine in the end. But that business model, and I'm sure his heart was in the right place. I want to help as many supervisees as I can. And so I'm going to bring them in. But he didn't think through entirely, you know, how this was going to work. And so that business model just, yeah, didn't didn't happen. Didn't work for us anyway. So no. What else do you think, Jennifer? I mean, as far as the contracts and weird, wonky things that you see.

SPEAKER_00:

The other thing I see with, you know, LMFT associates have been able to own a private practice for, you know, however long. And now LPC associates have been for the last several years. And that's in Texas. Yes, in Texas. I get a lot of very random attempts at trying to support their associates owning a private practice. And it's it's wonderful. I think it's amazing when supervisors want to support that. I know there's a huge liability and it's not for everybody, and that's totally okay too. But they will think, I think I can take on an associate that's in private practice, and then they'll kind of just throw out this, but I'm gonna require them to hire a business coach, or I'm gonna require them to have a business model. And they don't really know what that looks like. So it they're wanting to help the associate pursue their goal of owning a private practice, but they don't really know what that's supposed to look like, and they don't really know how to define that in the contract. Comes back to that contract again, doesn't it? Yes, the contract is so important.

SPEAKER_02:

And who would go into, I mean, I guess marriage, we don't really sign a contract, but I mean, most important relationships where you're going to be with this person, this person, it's they're supporting you, you're supporting them for any amount of time. I mean, there's a contract. And so if your contract says absolutely no private practice, okay, associates, at least you're going in with your eyes open. Or if it says, yes, I'm I'm very open to you owning or being in private practice, and I will support you, but there's no definition of what that support is. And then you come to your supervisor and say, Okay, I'm ready. And they say, Okay, I need you to go drop a thousand bucks on a you know, business coach, and you're like, Oh wow, no, that's that's not support. It's not interesting.

SPEAKER_00:

Or ah, or you have it in your head, you want to do telehealth, and they're like, You nope, you need a brick and mortar, you need office space. And then it's like, oh my gosh, now I have to have all this overhead. So it's clearly defining how you're what that relationship looks like. That's helping somebody.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. And you know, again, kind of coming back to this podcast, and the supervisors that we train at Kate Walker Training, we want you, supervisors who are listening, to be very specific about what you can deliver and what you cannot deliver. So if you are pro owning your practice or being in private practice, but you don't know the first thing about how to operate a private practice, or you've been a solopreneur your whole life, but you still have a three-drawer file cabinet and you're not sure if you want to build one of those newfangled websites, that's probably not support, right? You're encouraging and you're you're you're supportive, maybe, but that's not support. And it's not going to help your associate build their business. And so that support in no way, shape, or form is a business model. So, you know, I mean, there are tons of resources, not just us. I mean, we, you know, of course, would love you to build your counseling practice by one of the things we teach you here at Badass Therapist Building Practices That Thrive and Kate Walker training supervisor courses. But my goodness, just go to your local small business development center. Most towns have a chamber of commerce. I live in a little tiny town, but I can go an hour into Austin, and there's a ton of free to nearly free business resources that will teach me how to do the thing, whatever my dream is. So if you're struggling and you're thinking, okay, I want to grow, I want to have a business. I I mean, you're what did I read? I put this into chat. Of course I put it into chat. And chat called it helping is the mission. Business is the delivery system. So you can keep your mission to help, but please ask questions. Just do the research before you just open the doors and say, okay, I'm in business. Or if you're a supervisor, you start advertising that you are going to support your associate in opening their own business. Because that isn't a business plan. All right. Well, thanks for joining us. And don't forget to check out those episodes about contracts. If you're listening to this and you're a supervisor or an associate, we talk about what's in a good contract and we also talk about what makes a bad one. So don't go into business or supervision without one. All right, thanks for joining us. See ya. Thank you. 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 Ridgely Walker for our original fun facts and podcast intro, and to Carl Guyanella for editing this episode and making us sound amazing. See you next week.