Speaker A: Welcome back to the Therapist Burnout podcast. You have episode 32 today, which is your hot take. So this week I am kind of mulling about a couple of things. I had a wonderful guest on this past week, Arya Prasad, and we talked a little bit about all things therapy in India. We also talked about imposter syndrome, and I was going to do this little shorty episode on Imposter syndrome, but it’s a really big issue for therapist. So I really thought, let me dedicate some more time to that and I’ll come back to it. But the hot take today is going to be on the post that I posted in LinkedIn. If you’re not there, I am Jennifer Blanchette PsyD licensed psychologist on LinkedIn. The post is this is the hook. It’s no wonder more and more therapists don’t take insurance in the pandemic, I didn’t get paid by an insurance company for five months. I remember calling insert four letter acronym insurance company for my payment. They told me their system changed at the beginning of 2021. So we’re not really sure when you’ll get paid. And in this post, I asked this question. Can you imagine working for someone and being told they have no idea when you’ll get your check? No, we would quit. We would 100% leave that job, especially if you’re working agency or wherever you are working. Really anywhere. I can’t imagine anyone working for that long. So it made me think of this podcast that I binge listened to, the wedding scammer. For some reason. I have always enjoyed catfish schemes and just kind of the psychology of how we can be duped by a person. And it talked about it’s a true story. So it talked about this individual who had a lot of aliases, a lot of failed businesses started by this individual claiming that he was going to plan a wedding, taking all the money and then leaving town. The podcast is really the story of them finding this individual. It made me think of the wedding scammer because insurance companies are promising us our money. Essentially, they’re scamming us in many, many ways. But it’s legal. There’s something that we can do about it, but it often feels that way, that we’re being scammed, that we’re being duped. And I know a lot of us, when I started in private practice, I wanted to use insurance. I thought, honestly, I didn’t even think about a private pay practice at that time. Back in 2013, when I was starting my private practice, I didn’t even think at all about a private pay practice. I didn’t know anyone who was doing it around me. And so it just seemed like, okay, this is what we do. We get on penals, and then they pay us. Right? That’s supposed to happen. I might have heard some people, you know, some therapists that would say, gotta watch out for clawbacks because you never know when they’re gonna get you. But I wasn’t super risk adverse, so I was like, well, if that happens, I’ll deal with it then. And just kind of went along my merry way in my insurance based practice. I talk a little bit about the dumpster fire of 2020 in this post, but that’s when in 2021. It was like, after that year of working as a therapist in the pandemic, this panel did not pay me anymore. And after two years of trying to figure out my practice, really, I spent some time figuring, okay, like, I had the hot tear in my own therapy session moment with my therapist, where I’m like, I just don’t think I want to be a therapist. And really, I think that was a lot of overwhelm, not knowing, like, what else I could do and just being done with whatever was happening then that I was just like, can’t. I think the big feeling that I sat with in this is personal failure and loss, that I couldn’t figure it out. The thing I think that resonated with people and why this post, I think now has, you know, nearly 300 likes and 52 comments, eight reposts is because it’s not you who failed. I didn’t fail. This is not. I’m not the only one going through this. Other people are going through this. And furthermore, companies are still playing these games. I see posts all the time of therapists struggling to get paid. I’m calling b’s on the industry. CEO’s making tens of millions in salaries and billion dollar profit margins. Just look at how much they’re making. But we are often vilified for leaving panels, agency, agency work, or feeling that we can no longer stay in our roles. I got a little salty this week. I had a few troll comments on there, and I don’t engage, I just block and delete. You’re not gonna, as I said before, you’re not gonna **** on my lawn. Not even doing any of that. But one of the comments that’s no longer there because I deleted it was, you know, like, something about, like, no wonder I’m glad you’re no longer a therapist or something like that. And I think I, you know, as much as we try to be ethical people. I think that’s one of our worst fears, that someone’s going to kind of read us in that way that you can quote unquote hack it. That. And in the earlier post, I think I had put that, like, literally I was in tears calling an insurance company. I think I wrote in the post that I yelled, but I don’t remember actually yelling. I think I was in tears and probably I should have put it that way. Thing about social I’m like, I just felt the need to kind of like, protect myself a little bit more because, yeah, I think it’s hard for us to be visible. It’s been hard for me to be more visible and to put this kind of content out, which is a lot of my own life. So I edited the post. I kind of have, you know, thought a little bit about it. But at the end of the day, all of the other comments of therapists who are like, yes, I resonate so much with what you’re saying, we need to keep talking about this. So that’s what keeps me going. But of course our brains want to find the thing that isn’t working. Wants to find the thing and the evidence of our biggest fear, right? Of being called a fraud, being called someone that shouldn’t be doing the work that we’re doing. I know that’s a big fear of therapists, and I’m gonna have an episode on imposter syndrome. I think I will have it come out next week. So also wanted to dive into some of the comments because I really found what other therapists tell me so illuminating. So many people are saying, I agree. There are so many, many reasons that I’m not paneled with insurance companies. It’s not the client’s best interest, nor mine to engage in losing game with insurance companies. And the only ones benefiting are the CEO’s of insurance companies. Yes, it’s not sustainable to depend on insurance in this industry. I loved this comment. And this is by Erin Davis, who also has an OCD podcast. So shout out to her podcast. I should grab the name, but then I’ll move away from this post. And she said, I’ve noticed that many clients have misplaced judgments on therapists. Kind of like displaced anger. They think we should take insurance or lower our rates or fill in the blank. What they don’t realize is the lack of control therapists have in getting fair compensation from insurance to support our families, our business, our wellness. I doubt anyone would willingly sign up for a situation where you’re agreeing to get paid lower, have claims be denied, wait to get paid four months, threatened with clawbacks, or spend hours of time on following up on unpaid claims. And many of you probably have done all of the above. So I luckily, actually, I did get a call back. I might. I think I talked about it on an earlier episode, but I can’t remember. The time is running. It’s like, what did I talk about a year ago? I think I talked about it a year ago that I got a claw back from a client who passed away. And unfortunately, people seem to have the delusion that any business, anywhere in any sector has the best interest at heart. The medicalized therapy world is just one of them. Companies are there to turn a profit and benefit their shareholders and the board. That includes so called charities, board expenses, and social enterprises. I think it’s time for therapists to stop fantasizing that any medicalized therapy insurer is about the client, or perhaps even more delusionally about the therapist. It’s time they taught this stuff in therapy 101. And so a little salty about that one too. I commented that interesting thought. You know, I’m just imagining therapy 101, which is typically listening skills have a dramatic turn where we show the underbelly of the therapy industry. We may not have too many therapists after that talk. Yeah, how would we get that information? You know, how would we expect our instructors to give us that information that taking insurance may not benefit us or our clients? I think they kind of talk about it a little bit in a circle, but really you don’t get that education or that understanding until you live. It is from my personal experience of owning a business and taking insurance myself, and I think if you’re working for a company who bills out for you, then you’re not interfacing with insurance, so you don’t feel it as someone who is running the private practice or running the business. So I agree in part that we would be aware somewhat of what we’re in for, but I think the lived experience piece of this may not deter us enough to know that it really is problematic. I think out of this, there’s many reasons why therapists are not taking insurance anymore are unpinneling with insurance. I think it would be really hard for me to want to recommend to a therapist to start out with an insurance based practice, although I know there are ways that therapists can take insurance now to start a practice because you can get clients more quickly if you are going to do the private practice thing, taking insurance. So I know there’s people like Alma that are in the space and headway that are supposedly guaranteeing payment from the insurance company if they. So if a client has the insurance and they verify their benefits, then they are guaranteeing payment, which is interesting. I kind of want to have someone on who is using AlmA and if there’s any problems with that, if they get paid every two weeks as they advertise. I have heard good things about it, but I’m just curious about other people’s perspective on how they could potentially, if they want to take insurance, to either be accessible or to start their practice in a way that is a little easier than doing a private pay start to a private practice, which isn’t impossible, but it, I think, from my perspective, is a little bit more difficult. The whole thing is having me think of systems and how therapists can try to find more supportive systems. They are out there. I think it just takes our due diligence to find them or to create them ourselves. So I think one of the biggest problems I see in private practice, if we just take insurance out of that, is like the isolation part. So how do you create a community for yourself where you’re able to get your needs met socially and clinically, to have clients, to kind of bounce ideas off other therapists and things of that nature? I think the biggest thing that I take away from all of this is that if you have been thinking about a change for a long time, or if you’ve been in a dysfunctional system, whether that be agency or just dealing with insurance or whatever, speed up your decision making process, because I tortured myself for years trying to leave my practice and figure out the next step in whatever I would do for my career. And on the other side of all of that burnout, all of the struggle that I dealt with is now a lot of joy. Honestly, it wasn’t easy going through all of that messiness, but I think some things were illuminated to me that I could not have seen in the process, which are great. And so I really want that for you. I don’t want you to, you know, struggle for years of trying to think of what you want to do because you feel like you have to do therapy or you have to stay in your job, because there could be another job, there could be another way of making money where you don’t have so much struggle. So if that’s possible, then do it. And I think I always ask this question of the people I work with, the therapists that I work with and myself. What would my 80 year old self tell me about now? What I should focus on now. And that question always is illuminating. What would be my priorities at the end of my life? Would it be my therapy practice? Would it be my therapy clients? Maybe. Maybe it would be. Would it be supporting my family and making sure that I could do that? Well, that for me, was at the top of my list, and for me, that was in conflict with being a therapist in the way that I was doing it. So I just have you think through that question. Would your 80 year old self tell you about this time, about making a change now? If you think you need support in quitting, if that’s what you’ve been thinking about for a long time, and you either need permission to take the first step, let’s talk about it. So I do offer a free consult call to my listeners, so certainly take me up on that. And it’s really no pressure. You know, we talk about what you want to focus on, and kind of. I treat it as kind of like a. It’s not therapy, obviously, but like a therapy consult. Like, if it’s not a right fit, I don’t want you to work with me, obviously. So. And I’ll think if it’s therapy that you need or if it’s, you know, consultation that you need, then I point you in that direction. But I think what I don’t want you to do is stay stuck. I don’t want you to stay stuck for another year in your practice, wherever you’re constantly questioning everything. All right, well, I hope you have found this helpful, and I will see you guys next week. All right.
Speaker B: Thank you for listening to the joy after Burnout podcast. Be the first to hear new episodes by following the podcast in your podcast player. This is an informational podcast only. Any information expressed by the host or guest is not a substitute for legal, medical, or financial advice.
