186 Side Hustles For Therapists: Which Ones Actually Work and Which Are Just More Burnout

If you have ever thought about adding a side hustle to your therapy practice, this episode is for you.

Not every extra income stream creates freedom. Some create stability and long-term growth. Others quietly drain your time, energy, and confidence. The difference usually has less to do with the opportunity itself and more to do with whether the business model actually fits you.

In this episode, I walk through five of the most common side hustles therapists ask me about, including supervision, group practice, courses and trainings, certifications, and coaching. We look at the real pros and cons of each, along with the ethical and operational realities that often get overlooked.

This discussion is not about chasing more money. It is about building something sustainable that supports the kind of professional life you actually want.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why supervision can create recurring, stable income when structured well
• The hidden leadership and bookkeeping demands behind group practice ownership
• What therapists misunderstand about creating courses and trainings
• Why coaching requires separate systems, marketing, and ethical boundaries

If you are considering adding another income stream, do not start with potential profit. Start with fit. The best side hustle is the one that aligns with your strengths, your tolerance for leadership, and the way you actually want to spend your time.

When your business model fits your personality and values, growth feels sustainable instead of exhausting.

Want to learn more? Check out this month's free resource from Kate Walker Training.

Want deeper support? Inside the Step It Up Membership, we discuss supervision structure, marketing systems, documentation, and ethical business growth designed specifically for therapists and supervisors building sustainable practices.

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

Leadership Reality Check

SPEAKER_00 0:00

If you don't like that leadership role, because somebody has to make the decision, somebody has to hire and fire, somebody has to make sure that the taxes are paid and the LLC and the DBA and all the things are up to date, and the decision about whether to remain an LLC or become an S-corp. It's not a democracy in most cases. In most cases, it's you. At some point in most mental health professionals' careers, there's a moment where seeing clients full-time stops feeling like enough. Not because something's wrong, but because you've grown and you're ready to do more. The question is, what? Supervision, speaking, consulting, teaching, there are a lot of maybes on the table. Today we're talking about how to think through that decision clearly without chasing every shiny option or talking yourself out of everything before you start. Let's get to work. Hey, I'm Dr. Kate Walker. Welcome to your Tuesday coaching. I'm so glad you're here. This is a topic that I get asked about a lot. I actually get asked to repeat this one quite a bit, and it's about side hustles. And the thing about side hustles is they're either going to add to your life and, you know, your love for being in this business, or it's absolutely going to burn you out. And one story that I like to share is, you know, when I first started doing uh content, so creating content so that people could use again and again and again. And they were DVDs. Okay. Sorry, don't judge. So they were DVDs about how to be successful in private practice. And I remember thinking, oh my gosh, this is such a great idea. Whenever I go to conferences, I get asked this all the time. So of course I want to make this content so people can take the thing and use it later. And it was so hard. I mean, I remember setting up a green screen in my kitchen and then recording against a background that I made into a brick wall. You know, it was, it was very, I don't know. It was, I mean, I'm going to be kind to myself. I think at the time it was really good and I learned a whole bunch, but it had that rocks off the Grand Canyon kind of feel. I felt like I was literally just throwing this out into the abyss. And I didn't sell a ton. I mean, I took them to the TCA conference, I had a booth, I sold a few there, and it just, you know, I mean, it didn't take off. So I really beat myself up. If I knew then what I know now about marketing and long tail marketing, the idea that, you know, it takes a while to create an audience, and then that audience warms up, they learn to like, know, and trust you, then they will buy your stuff. If I knew that then, I would have done a whole lot more work ahead of time. But I gotta be honest with you, I think if someone had told me then that I had to become a marketer before I became a content creator, I probably wouldn't have become a content creator because that's where my love was flowing, if you will. I was really, really in love with this idea of sharing content. I was not in love with the idea of being a marketer or a salesperson. So I'm going to take you through some uh topics today, some ideas for side hustles, and I'm gonna frame it as okay, here are the pros and cons. Here, this is some money that you can make. And then I want to make sure I frame it with, is it for you? And you know, it's sort of like knowing yourself, because if you have been listening to me for any amount of time, if you've been watching the YouTube channel, listening to the podcast, been a member of Step It Up, you know it's it comes down to, okay, what do we know about marketing now? And I want to save you time and heartache. I do not want you out there creating things, and then you turn around later and go, oh my gosh, that that's heartbreaking. I haven't made any sales. What's wrong with me? There's nothing wrong with you, okay? So let's walk through this kind of step by step. So, number one side hustle, and uh I this is one I actually get asked about a lot. Yes, I create the course to become a supervisor in Texas and across the country, but I do get asked about this. So, supervision as a side hustle. Let's talk about that. Pros. It develops your leadership chops, your leadership skills. It is a building block for you. I'm reading notes here. It is definitely not therapy. So if you feel like you're in a rut from seeing clients all the time, it makes your brain do a shift and you're doing something different. There are business models that can make it quite profitable or at least as profitable as seeing clients. We have some trainings on that, some courses on that, some podcast episodes on that. Also, one thing uh that a lot of people don't think about is with supervision, it's a recurring appointment for longer than a client. I mean, most supervision laws that I look at in Texas and across the country, you've got to be in supervision for a certain amount of time or a certain number of hours. And that's required by the state. So, you know, that's a recurring appointment. And once another positive is once you build that pipeline of supervisees, whether that's word of mouth and others, and you know, grad students are telling their comrades about you, or you have formed a relationship with an amazing university, that pipeline is really hard to break. I mean, when I was doing supervision through my nonprofit called Anne's Place, you know, I made sure to make these relationships and I still get emails from students because I know that I'm still on the list at certain universities. I haven't done supervising in probably four or five years. But those pipelines, I mean, once you become an established, trusted supervisor, they will keep sending people to you. Cons of supervision. You don't always get paid for it. And if you're working at an agency, you can get really abused for it. I mean, you can get overworked, you are kind of forced to take on supervisees that you might not otherwise, or you may be paid less. I know if you aren't sure about business models or you pick one that isn't the greatest, you actually make about half of your client rate. So that's, you know, you really have to think about how much do you love mentoring, growing these folks into your colleague if you're not making your client money. So the requirements, you guys know in Texas, it's basically if you're an LPC, you have to be licensed, fully licensed for five years. But good news is if you are a PhD graduate and you had the course back in your PhD, that course doesn't expire. So that law went into effect last year. So you don't ever have to take the course if you have already had the course somewhere else. Um, this is not for you if you love client-facing role only. If you know you love seeing clients and you don't want to add anything to that, then don't do it. Uh, if you don't like the idea of being in a leadership role. Now, I'm not gonna say liability, because that's what kind of that's the the shtick. We tell you with supervision, it's more liability. Well, you know, liability is liability. If I'm cooking a pot of stew or if I'm cooking an entire buffet on every burner of my stove, the liability is I might burn myself, right? So it's a different kind of liability, and we frame that as a leadership role. If being a leader is not something that you personally aspire to, then don't, you know, supervision may not be for you because you do have to do more in order to stay ahead of all the things. So, but if you're ready for that leadership role and a stable income, you know, it doesn't have the ups and downs and ups and downs of clients, right? Because of what I mentioned earlier, that pipeline that tends to funnel in all the time. And you can fill as much or as little of your schedule as you like with supervisees, and they have to stay in supervision, hopefully with you, for the entire 18 months to two years to however long your state that you're in requires these folks to be in supervision. Okay, so that's supervision. Another side hustle. Group practice. And and what group practice, it's changed in the last five years. What group practice used to be was, you know, you're basically kind of a landlord. It's it was very brick and mortar. Nowadays, not so much. So what group practice is, is you're charging people a flat rate to use your stuff. I don't like fee splitting, so I don't talk in terms of a 10% or a 15% or a 20%. That can get super dicey ethically. And if you uh look at our ACA code of ethics, you'll see, especially the new version that's coming out. And by the way, a little shameless plug, we have a free webinar on that coming up with Dr. Brett Brett Hendrickson Hendrickson. That's going to be April the 16th, where he'll talk about all of the new changes. But they mentioned fee splitting specifically. So just a little side note there. So group practice is you charge people a flat rate to use your stuff. So you have to have stuff. You have to have systems that are desirable. You have to have maybe a name in your community that is desirable. You have to have maybe a marketing team that is already pretty successful and they're good at, you know, bringing in those clients. I think the biggest complaint I hear from people who are either in charge of group practices or work in group practices is where are my clients? Where are the clients? Right? It's like you hire them thinking they'll bring in clients, or you allow yourself to be hired and then you're like, wait, what? I have to do my own marketing. So if you are the group practice owner, here's an example of flat rate. If your people, let's say Joe over here, your clinician is going to see from one to 10 clients per week, you can charge Joe$500 a month. If Joe then ups that to 20 clients a week, you might charge Joe$1,000 a month. If Joe has 20 clients to 30 clients, you may up that to$2,000 a month. So, you know, Joe can charge whatever he wants, but you have a flat rate based on the quantity of sessions. So that's just an example of how a group practice owner might make money from a clinician. This is not for you if you don't like bookkeeping. I can tell you right now, it's it's not easy and it does increase your liability. Ask me how I know. And it's when you look at your bottom line, and you guys have heard me talk enough about what profit is, what break-even is. And if you look at your bottom line and you think, oh my gosh, I only make$5,000 this month. Well, that's what I would have made if I didn't have any of these people and I was just seeing clients by myself. So if you're a group practice owner wannabe, or if that's what you're aspiring to as your side hustle, don't do it because you just have friends out there and you're like, oh, it'd be so neat if we all went into business together. Don't do it if you don't like bookkeeping. Don't do it if you don't like, and here it is that I'm gonna say it again, if you don't like that leadership role, because somebody has to make the decision, somebody has to hire and fire, somebody has to make sure that the taxes are paid and the LLC and the DBA and all the things are up to date, and the decision about whether to remain an LLC or become an S-corp. It's not a democracy in most cases. In most cases, it's you. So it is for you if you are like, oh my gosh, I'm seeing so many clients, I don't know what to do with them. I hate turning them away. I wish I need more people. Or perhaps you've got somebody that comes to you and says, hey, I have this caseload of like 40 clients a week and I'm really tired of doing my own bookkeeping and having my own EHR. Can I come on board with you? And then I, you know, I'll give up my practice name. I just I'll fall under you. I mean, if you've got somebody asking who already knows how to do marketing and recognizes the value of your name, your brand, your systems, that might be something to consider. Hey, quick pause. This month's free bonus is called Stop Working for Free, the Therapist Fee Reset. And it's updated for the clinician who's been adding value to the profession without making sure their practice actually supports their life. It'll help you see the full picture of what adding supervision, adding teaching, adding consulting really adds to your practice. Not just the hourly rate, but the professional case for making the move. Grab it free at KateWalkertraining.com slash bonus. Now back to the episode. All right, moving on. And uh put a pin in what I said a second ago about clients on a waiting list because that's gonna be our next one, sort of. So number three is courses and trainings. Now, this is where I see actually a lot of kind of, I'm just gonna say it, a lot of heartbreak. Um, so what are courses and trainings? That could be, I'm gonna go ahead and even throw under there, write a book. So it's just producing content that others will consume either in real time, like our live webinars, or you package it as a replay. And that's what we do for you guys in the Step It Up membership. We repackage those replays so that people consume it later at their leisure. So if it's not for you if you don't like market research, it's not for you if you don't like email lists, and it's not for you if you don't recognize and enjoy this idea of long tail marketing, which is okay, I'm gonna meet this person, I'm gonna get to know them virtually, whatever, and I'm gonna nurture them over time, recognizing they may not buy from me for years, and especially if you're gonna produce a training that costs a lot of money. The rule of thumb is the more expensive your course training book, the longer that relationship has to be. And so we call that building an audience. If you build your audience first, then when you do produce the course, if you do produce the training, if you do produce, you know, the write the book, they're gonna be so excited to get that from you. So this is for you if you have that creativeness inside of you and you've been wanting to do this for so long, and you have an audience. And so I want to give you an example of my waiting list from you know a few minutes ago. You guys are the perfect content creators because if you have a waiting list, there's your audience. They already like, know, and trust you. They've already chosen you because they reached out to you, they clicked the button, they filled out the form, they did the thing, and you actually had to say to them, I'm so sorry I'm not available. Give me three weeks, give me a month. I think we've had a few people trained. I mean, you're turning people away. So if you had a way to capture these folks' information, by the way, you do. It's in your trainings, it's in the courses, how to build an email list, how to create an opt-in. And you don't even have to do that, right? You already have them perhaps in your scheduling software. Then you can give them a newsletter once a month. You can let them know, hey, in three months, I'm coming out with a course about dot dot your niche. So while you're waiting for an appointment, you can see three ways to help your child deal with grief over the loss of a pet. You can see ways to make sure your kiddo with ADHD gets up on time and you guys have a stress-free morning every day before school. Right? If I'm talking to you, if you hear me right now and you're thinking, I could do that, I could do that in 10 seconds. I can make this video. That's your in. That means this is for you. Now, if you're asking me, do I charge for that? How much do I charge for that? Well, that's where the market research comes in. I know if it's a, so I'm gonna shift gears. If you want to produce a course or a training that's required for a thing, so for example, anger management, and you have a local, you have a relationship with a local judge and they like your trainings, and you want to charge$500 for this training, you know, the judge might just say, Well, yeah, that's what you charge, and he's gonna require or she's gonna require folks in their court to take your training. It's a wonderful stream of income. That's an amazing pipeline that's hard to break. So with clients, potential clients, clients on a waiting list, it might be a little bit different. You might look at the course more as marketing, as a way for them to get to know and like, know, and trust you, right? Because what do we want to do with folks who aren't our clients? We want to turn them into raving fans. Imagine these folks on your waiting list being able to take the resource and show it to the president of the PTO or show it to a colleague at work and say, hey, I know you've got the same kind of kiddo I do. This resource is amazing. You're gonna love this person. So the idea that course courses and trainings are moneymakers, you kind of have to shift uh the paradigm just a little bit. Yes, they can be, but they can also be marketing tools. And you really need to focus on the audience building, if that's the way you want to go. So this is for you. If everything I'm saying just makes you super excited and you're like, yes, I can do this, yes, I want to do this. This is not for you if you don't like market research and you don't like email lists and you don't like the idea of forming relationships and nurturing that over time. But as far as the qualifications, I mean, if you have a master's degree, you're in this group and you are seeing clients, you are a you're an expert. You may not be the expert, but you're an expert. All right, I've got two more, um, but they're not long. I'm gonna look at my notes over here. So one is certifications. I kind of have a little bit of a you know bone to pick with certifications. I think some of us can get certification itis, right? We think, you know, if I have one more letter behind my name, then I can do the thing. So, you know, getting certified, uh it's expensive, um, but perhaps you can raise your session rate. Perhaps you could even raise your supervision rate. So if you have a special certification that allows you to give your associate that certification as well, yeah, charge more for it. You know, I don't know what that would mean as far as session rates, but cumulatively over time, even if you raised your rate for those sessions uh by 10, 20,$30, that's pretty significant. Or perhaps you would even be able to charge uh for intensives if you wanted to do a weekend Gottman training, or you wanted to do a weekend intensive uh couple counseling uh using uh Imago or something like that. The idea of a training kind of makes you go, yeah, it's not for you. The other thing, it's not for you. If you already have 15 letters behind your name and you are sort of a certificate collector, I might challenge. You gently and lovingly to really take a hard look and say, maybe you have enough certifications. And how about if you just work with the one you have? If there's a market demand for your specialty, a lot of times our audience, they don't know. And when I say audience, I mean potential clients. They don't know what the letters are. I mean, I know right now I've had people, neighbors, say, hey, have you ever heard of that, you know, elementop counseling? And I'm like, EMDR? Yeah, that's the one. So I mean, and sometimes it's not. I say EMDR, they're like, no, I don't think that's it. So just understand you are still going to have to market and explain what it is that you do. The last one is coaching. Do I have a problem with coaching? No, I have a business coach. You guys know this. Jenny Melrose is my business coach. Love her. I picked her because she was never a therapist. I picked her because she was already successful in a business that I had never been in. So if you want to be that and you want to coach others, I'm going to take you back to the certificate conversation. And you already know how to coach. I mean, coaching, long and short, is the miracle question. Long and short, and I know there are coaches listening to me. Please, I'm not trying to simplify your profession. Asking someone who comes to see you for coaching, what would better look like? And then let's design a plan to execute that. I mean, does that sound like counseling? Yeah, absolutely it does. So if you are hesitating to coach because it would require additional training, this may not be for you. But coaching does require additional business structure. So doing it within your therapy practice, I mean, yes, that's possible. But if you're thinking I'll take off my therapy hat, put on my coaching hat, all will be well. I'll use the same paperwork, the same systems. Yeah, that does, it doesn't work like that. The boards have stated clearly that if you want to do coaching, totally fine. Um, but read the rules. If you're an MFT in Texas, they mention coaching in their rules. If you are LPC, they don't quite do that. But what the best practice is, you're gonna need to create another business structure. And remember what we've talked about. LLC protects one business from another business. And so that this is the time when you might want to take your business structure a little bit more seriously than a DBA. Nothing wrong with a DBA. But if you're gonna have a coaching business and a therapy business, having an LLC for each, marketing differently. And if you're listening to this on a podcast, I'm using my hands right now. I'd say, okay, you've got a right-hand business, you've got a left-hand business. Make sure that the paperwork is different and be very, very, very careful about referring clients to your coaching because really that's when the board gets involved, is when the public is confused in any way about the services we are providing. There was a really, really public case about 18 months ago where someone lost their license and decided to put on a coaching hat and continue seeing the same people as a coach. Bad, bad, bad, bad. Did not turn out well at all. And it was the client who raised the alert and said, this person shouldn't be seeing clients, right? I saw that they had their license taken away. This is still counseling. What the words are coming out of his mouth are still counseling. So if you're listening to this and you're thinking, oh, I don't want to get into all that, the business stuff, it just that's not for me. I want to keep it simple, then coaching may not be for you. But if you're listening to me and you already have seen the trainings, you've you've listened to the podcasts, and you know it's really not that hard to set up a second LLC. It's not really that hard to get the new paperwork. It's really not that hard to market differently, then do it. It good, it's great. It's a it's a great way to earn extra money, additional money. My only warning to you is it's gonna feel a lot like counseling. So, you know, I'd love to do more on that. I know we've got a training out there about best practices for coaching, so do a search for that and that would come up. All right, so to recap, what did we talk about today? Supervision. We talked about group practice, we talked about offering courses and trainings, we talked about certifications, and we talked about coaching, the pros and cons. I hope you did a gut check, gut check while I was talking. So it you know what kind of feels good and doesn't feel good. If this episode got you thinking seriously about maybe adding private practice, supervision, consulting, a new certification, something to your practice that could enhance your life and the bottom line, your next step is simple. Grab the bonus at Katewalkertraining.com slash bonus. It's going to walk you through exactly what you need in place before you add that extra thing this month. And if you're ready to make it official with starting supervision, it's easy to do. Just go to KateWalkerTraining.com slash supervisor training. 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.