The Modern Therapist's Survival Guide with Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy

In it for the Money?

Listen Later

Curt and Katie talk about money. We look at the financial needs of therapists, the perspective of clients and the public that we charge too much OR that we should not want money; the common martyrdom expectation that can negatively impact therapists and the profession.       

It’s time to reimagine therapy and what it means to be a therapist. To support you as a whole person and a therapist, your hosts, Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy talk about how to approach the role of therapist in the modern age.

In this episode we talk about:

  • Controversy about therapists wanting money
  • What is expected of therapists - martyrdom and a vow of poverty?
  • Financial stability and needs of therapists
  • The consumer perspective – am I just a paycheck? Or do you really want to help me?
  • The importance of your WHY
  • The perspective of the profession based on how much money is charged by most professionals
  • Providing a social/relational service for money - Are we “emotional prostitutes?”
  • The difficulty in assigning monetary value on what we do
  • The goodness of our hearts and the sympathetic plea of our clients
  • The difficulty in demonstrating and describing the value of therapy
  • The challenge of fee setting in private practice
  • The dynamics of insurance or social service programs impacting the clinical relationship
  • The common questions – Am I just a paycheck? Am I important enough to help?
  • The danger of therapy becoming transactional, especially when you’re burned out and under compensated
  • Therapist perspective on making money, especially given the lower paid and unpaid work at the beginning of the career
  • How the profession’s current set up impacts therapists’ ability to make money
  • Comparison to other similar professions (like doctors) – both in their training and career trajectory, looking at why they end up making more
  • The sliding scale problem - Are we rescuing our clients?
  • The shame of having financial needs
  • Self-worth being conflated with fee-setting
  • Exercise of thinking/feeling into your fee vs practical fee setting based on financial needs
  • The need for therapists to figure this out, so they can become more comfortable with making sufficient money to sustain their careers!
    • ...more
    View all episodesView all episodes
    Download on the App Store
    The Modern Therapist's Survival Guide with Curt Widhalm and Katie VernoyBy Curt Widhalm, LMFT and Katie Vernoy, LMFT
    • 4.3
    • 4.3
    • 4.3
    • 4.3
    • 4.3

    4.3

    237 ratings

    More shows like The Modern Therapist's Survival Guide with Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy

    View all
    The One You Feed by Eric Zimmer

    The One You Feed

    2,554 Listeners

    The Trauma Therapist by Guy Crawford Macpherson

    The Trauma Therapist

    542 Listeners

    Psychology In Seattle Podcast by Kirk Honda

    Psychology In Seattle Podcast

    1,136 Listeners

    Therapy Chat by Laura Reagan, LCSW-C

    Therapy Chat

    674 Listeners

    Being Well with Forrest Hanson and Dr. Rick Hanson by Rick Hanson, Ph.D., Forrest Hanson

    Being Well with Forrest Hanson and Dr. Rick Hanson

    2,501 Listeners

    Therapist Uncensored Podcast by Sue Marriott LCSW, CGP & Ann Kelley PhD

    Therapist Uncensored Podcast

    1,386 Listeners

    The Couples Therapist Couch by Shane Birkel

    The Couples Therapist Couch

    276 Listeners

    Psychiatry & Psychotherapy Podcast by David Puder, M.D.

    Psychiatry & Psychotherapy Podcast

    1,347 Listeners

    Light Up The Couch by Clearly Clinical

    Light Up The Couch

    326 Listeners

    The One Inside: An Internal Family Systems (IFS) podcast by Tammy Sollenberger

    The One Inside: An Internal Family Systems (IFS) podcast

    286 Listeners

    Back from the Abyss: Psychiatry in Stories by Craig Heacock MD

    Back from the Abyss: Psychiatry in Stories

    472 Listeners

    IFS Talks by Aníbal Henriques, Tisha Shull & Alexia Rothman

    IFS Talks

    191 Listeners

    Therapy in a Nutshell by Therapy in a Nutshell -Emma McAdam

    Therapy in a Nutshell

    581 Listeners

    Dear Therapists with Lori Gottlieb and Guy Winch by iHeartPodcasts

    Dear Therapists with Lori Gottlieb and Guy Winch

    2,362 Listeners

    Trauma Rewired by Elisabeth Kristof & Jennifer Wallace

    Trauma Rewired

    345 Listeners