I don’t even work for a non-profit and I’m struggling to get by.
Theres this idea in the mental health world (at least for people with social work background) that private practice is selling out. I used to have a friend who worked at a non profit who made jokes about how I should pick up the check when we went out because I was making “that private practice money”.
Right now I make around $2400/month in a large urban area with a high cost of living. I was making slightly more by overworking myself and having zero time boundaries, but I started burning out and having literal physical pain from the stress, so I had to scale it back.
I work for a “progressive” therapy practice that talks big game about social justice issues – all of their employees are struggling to get by. The practice takes a 60% cut of all of our earnings and has practically zero financial transparency. There is no room for pay negotiation whatsoever.
I will never get a raise partly because insurance companies haven’t raised their pay-out for for Psychotherapy more than $3 in the last 8 years or some shit like that. This career 100% does not keep pace with inflation and the only way people seem to make decent money is by exploiting other people (owning a group practice) or by not taking insurance at all and charging $200/hr.
I’m lucky I’m on my partners insurance because our employee health insurance is $450/month (they stopped contributing to employee health insurance a while back because the practice “wasn’t making enough money”).
The turnover rate at the practice is soooo high because no one can afford to stay – most people come in with their pre-license and leave as soon as they get their full licensure. Meanwhile, the practice encourages young therapists to be engaged by sharing our ideas and keeping the practice up to date on topics like racism, gay and trans issues, “body positivity” etc. They update the website with their employees contributions while the actual practice owner knows fuck all about any of it.
Recently, a coworker reminded me that the practice expects people to stay with the practice for 4-5 years. As if. Everyone I started with is planning to jump ship to do solo practice as soon as they can.
I chose this career because it’s important to me and tbh I’m a good therapist. I never thought I’d make a ton of money, but I didn’t think I’d be overdrafting my bank account every month and living paycheck to paycheck. My own mental health is slipping and I can’t be the best therapist I can while I’m constantly stressed about paying my bills. I’m !!! Exhausted !!!!