Dr. Jen Blanchette: Welcome to the Therapist burnout podcast, episode 55. Hey, therapist, today I’m talking to you about the first steps to closure practice. So I get this question often on console calls and people will write into me and just tell me like, when, like, what’s the timeline?
What should I even do? So I wanted to do this episode to give you a little bit of guidance on that.
From the research I’ve done, from the work that I’ve done with my one to one clients who are therapists. I want to say one on one therapy clients, but they are one on one clients that are therapists.
Sounds very psychologist of me to say it that way, but it’s really not. We’re good.
But first I just want to like check in about LinkedIn. I’ve been on a lot of podcasts lately, so I was on the Selling the Couch podcast with Melvin Vergase.
Did I talk about that last week on the podcast? I don’t know, but it’s worth talking about again. So if you didn’t check that episode that I talked with him about Burnout, I usually always talk about Burnout because that’s the name of my podcast.
So check that out. I just was really struck, like his presence and our just ability to hold space for each other on the podcast. It felt very much like a conversation between old friends.
So I, I hope that I will continue like having a friendship with Melvin. It was just wonderful. Check that podcast out. I was on there and I was just also this past week on.
So it was last Monday on the Practice of Therapy podcast where I also talked about Burnout. But I also, I. This was the question I got. Okay, I’m gonna bring up this post that I did.
I posted today, like this morning. And I, I put this post on like a scheduled post, like I wrote it last night. And then I was like, oh, I didn’t get anything out about the podcast episode I was on on the past Monday.
And I like to promote it. Like if I, if I’m on somebody else’s podcast, it’s like, you know, they’re giving you a gift of having you on their podcast. So you want to share it.
I wrote this, this post based on that interview that I did with Gordon Brewer on the Practice of Therapy podcast. And my hook liked my hook. Y’all stop pretending Burnout is just about self care.
What if the real issue in is the system we work in?
So I’m huge on Burnout is not a therapist failing. It’s a systems problem.
And I had paused. So Gordon and this is an innocent question. Like, it was a great conversation with Gordon, but he asked me, like, what can therapists do for self care?
And I just have a weird relationship with the word self care because I think that therapists in their training. So I just can remember myself at 26, sitting in a training in grad school where burnout was a liken to self care.
So if you want to avoid burnout, you need to make sure you do all your self care. So make sure you’re doing your exercise, your nutrition, all the things that help us to care for ourselves.
And it is stress management. Those things are stress management.
They’re burnout prevention.
I know. I feel like I say this all the time, but I just, I have to say it louder for the people in the back. Listen up, y’all.
Here’s the thing. This was my, my post.
While self care can help, it won’t fix a system that underpays and overworks mental health professionals.
What is the real problem, y’all? It’s low reimbursement rates compared to others in the healthcare fields, the belief that therapists can’t be well paid for their essential work, and systems that pile on expectations without support.
And I hear that. I mean, people Write me on LinkedIn. People send me emails all the time.
You know, the telehealth companies.
I’ve gotten some.
I gotten some mail and LinkedIn from across the pond. I don’t have an English accent. That’s awful. That’s a horrible English accent. I’m sorry, I just murdered that, y’all.
Just about what they’re facing over there, like in the nhs. Am I saying that right? Their national healthcare system. So they have a national healthcare system and a lot of them will go to private practice as like the escape hatch to get out of burnout from that.
And they’re like, can people really burn out of a private practice? Yes, they can. Yes, they 100% can.
So anyway, then today someone posted on my. On my LinkedIn, it’s for the world to see. So I don’t know why people come on my page in these LinkedIn streets like this.
So someone posted something like, I won’t say their name on my podcast. Okay?
Being a psychotherapist isn’t just a job. If practitioners are in this field simply to as a good earner, it’s time. Time to leave.
The magic of client work is the magic. What does that even mean? Good, clean human connection is what we do.
And in that connection, we can also support our clients to meet themselves. In all their glory.
I love the work I do and I always know the money is not my motivator as it will lead to resentment and dissatisfaction.
Thank you for your comment was my first responds to that. I said I know therapists are drawn to this work to heal it is what we want to see as therapists.
However, the system does not adequately support our health financially, socially and spiritually.
It is possible to create these systems for ourselves.
It should definitely be better. Without a doubt. It is unfortunate when people blame therapists for needing money to survive.
We all need to be well supported in order to do this work. I’m glad money’s not your motivator. It’s not mine either, but we still need it to live. Mic drop and so why I’m having that long sigh is because this is the message we get from other therapists.
We are. We are wrong. We are shameful for wanting more, for needing more. It’s not about wanting. So like in my case, I was making like, I think it was 45k y’all netting from my private practice and that was seeing 20 clients a week.
It wasn’t enough.
It’s just not enough in 2025 to make 45k with a doctoral degree with loans, with all the things that I have to pay with having two children, it’s just not enough.
So it’s crazy making that other therapist will kind of talk about this openly and get on the shame train for other therapists to say like, well, why did you get into this because you knew wasn’t going to pay money?
I will continue to advocate and say the positive, the positive opposite for therapists. Like, we, we need more, we deserve more, and it doesn’t work. So that’s why we’re leading the field.
So I got you in these LinkedIn streets.
Oh, okay. I’m gonna stop being reading Ridiculous Jen today, but I like it.
So the focus of today’s episode is really giving you that timeline for if you’re leaving, you know you’re leaving. You just don’t know. Like, how do I even do this?
When do I tell clients? What do I even do? That’s often the first part of this conversation. So I have put together a little guide for you. I’m hopeful to get it out by the time of this recording when it airs on Monday.
We shall see. That is my goal. So it might be in your podcast player or it may not. But let’s go with it’s going to be in there. We’re going to go with that.
So the first step is really to plan your timeline. All right, so how long do you really want to take to close your practice? This can also apply, like if you’re, if you’ve been in a long term agency job or you’ve been in a long term group practice, this could apply to your timeline.
So what I know from the work that I’ve done with therapists and scouring ethical code is that there’s no hard and fast numbers on how long we should take to close our practice.
Okay. We do have ethical impairment imperatives. However, we need to offer predetermination counseling within a reasonable time limit. There’s no specific time limits to current clients.
Inform former clients of closure and provide necessary referrals. So we know that there’s no specific timelines.
My recommendation, if you don’t have a timeline through insurance and things of that nature, is to give yourself at least 90 days. If you don’t have that amount of time.
I’ve seen, I’ve helped people close their practice in two weeks because they needed to go. So I’m not saying it’s out of the realm of possibility for yourself. So you can do this in a way that really supports you.
I’d recommend 90 days.
So step one, review. I’ll let you back up before I get into the steps. So also you have access to your liability insurance. So I was able to consult, like I, you know, technically I’m still in the process of closure.
Like closed almost two years ago. But anyway, I called them just because I was like, so I’m closing my practice again. And just ask them that question, like, what’s the general timeline?
And they don’t know. They’re like, there’s no guidance in ethical code or in the law for how long we have to do. So I said I was going to do 90 days.
How does that sound? And they said, yeah, I think that sounds pretty good. So there’s, there’s really no guidance on that.
I did look up the social worker.
Gosh, I’m a psychologist, y’all. So, so the social work board. No, social work organization. You guys know if you’re a social worker, what your organization is? Okay, I’m just going to go forward.
They, on their website, it says they give a recomm recommendation of 60 days. So gives a little guidance there. I’m going forward with my steps now. So step one, review any contracts and insurance payer agreements.
So if you’re in a contract with a group practice, for example, or contractually employed, then consider any of those contracts you’re in. Consider your payers with paneled insurances.
These contracts usually have 30 to 90 days requirements.
However, I talked to one person who was in a Medicaid agreement for six months.
Call them up, write to them.
Sometimes it’s hard to find these things. So it might take you a little bit of time if you are on insurance panels to figure that out. And I think that’s different.
If you are in a group practice like you don’t. You’re not held to those requirements. You’re just held to whatever your contract states like you need to give, put in your notice or whatever.
So if it’s 30 days or 60 days per your contractual agreement with the group practice or whatever place you’re working for, step two would be to set your date. You’re no longer accepting new clients.
So you would notify the new clients that you will be closing and provide your effective date for that.
So you can put that on your website. So you can just put that up on your website or put a notice out that your practice is closing or you are retiring or taking a new job.
So all this applies for people who are retiring as well.
So, so if you, if you still want to take on new clients, like maybe this could be for someone who is retiring. Right. They are giving their clients a longer Runway.
They’re telling clients maybe six months.
So you can let new clients know I am retiring, I’m closing my practice. And give them the effective date of when you’re closing. There we go.
Step three would be to contact your liability insurance carrier and your state board.
I might move that to step two.
Yeah, I think I’m going to move that to step two. See this? I’m reviewing stuff in process with you guys here. This is great. So you want to really look at your state board sometimes.
They might give you some guidance about how long they would recommend. I haven’t heard of that. I haven’t heard of a state board giving guidance on that. But they might depending on your state.
If you’re in the U.S. and if you’re not in the U.S. i don’t know what happens. But you might want to contact whatever licensing board or people that you are under.
I’m interested to hear if any other liability insurance carrier has any templates or things like that. I have some templates that I give my coaching clients on, letters to clients and things of that nature.
So interesting to know. All right, so I’d really have you. That might be a process. So all those steps might take a few weeks, might take A month. Right. Because you need to call insurance companies, you need to call your board, you need to call your liability insurance carrier.
So it might take you some time to do that.
And I again, I recommend no less than a 90 day closure for a full practice if you have very few clients. You might be able to do this if you know your clients have been with you for a long time and you feel like otherwise they’re doing pretty good.
I still like the 90 days because it really allows you to pace yourself emotionally because what is coming next is multiple terminations, which will be my next episode. So that is a whole ball of wax in itself.
Like this part is easy, all determinations. And emotionally how you have to get through that is a whole nother ball of wax. So take your time, figure this piece out, kind of logistical kind of pieces because you need to know that date anyway before you tell clients.
So this is step one, that it has multiple steps and then you lock in your closure date. All right, so lock that in. Once you’ve reviewed those first pieces of information, determine your tentative date for closure.
And then on my form you have a little blank there you can fill in.
And I also provided a little worksheet so to review your payer and your contracts. For example, like if Anthem, an insurance carrier in the US says you need to inform clients 90 days prior to closure, you can enter that date in right in that little worksheet and do that for all the people you need to inform.
So that’s what I had for you guys today. So we’re just talking about the first steps involved. To leave a long term group practice, to close your private practice or if you’re retiring, these are the steps you need to think about to shut it down.
Next week we’re going to talk about informing your clients and that’s going to take longer. Like this is easy and like easy from the step perspective because it’s really requires, I think just to get your ducks in a row and figure that out.
There’s a whole nother emotional process to this. So let’s just dive in a little bit to this right? If you’ve gotten to the point where you’re here, I know you haven’t come to this point lightly.
You if you’re at this point, when I’m at this point with other therapists, they know it, they know it. They’re not, it’s not a waffling situation.
They’re like, I cannot do this anymore.
So they work with me to help them shut it down. And so I help them with, you know, just the date piece. That is the easy part. But also thinking through, who am I now?
Am I going to hurt my clients?
How do I do this in a way that’s ethical, that’s caring.
And I think what’s important that I just want to get across to you, therapist, is I know that you want to do the right thing. I just know you do.
You want to end well.
And that’s the part I help therapists with, helping them end well so they can feel like they can close this chapter.
I think, just to encourage you a little bit, that, yes, it’s a process, but you can do it well, you can end well. And sometimes you need support without. So whether that’s your personal therapy, whether that’s working with me, I don’t know thing either that.
So I’m also working on. Gonna start working on a course to kind of put all of the. All of my thoughts together about this and into kind of, like, ethical practice, closure training for you guys.
I think it would be good just to have it organized and laid out so people can pop into, like, yeah, I just need a little logistical piece now. Or I actually need to think about, like, what this means for me.
And I have some ways that I think through that for clients.
I need to heal from my burnout as part of it. That’s often part of the discussion that I have with other therapists.
With that, I will talk with you guys next week. Have a good one. Bye.
