Have you ever walked out of a session wondering if you talked about yourself a little too much?

Therapist self-disclosure can be powerful when it’s brief, intentional, and clearly in service of the client. A thoughtful share can normalize an experience or strengthen rapport. But oversharing in therapy is different. When your stories start taking up too much space, when clients feel responsible for your emotions, or when the focus subtly shifts away from their process, therapy boundaries begin to blur.

In this episode of Love, Happiness, and Success for Therapists, I’m revisiting an honest conversation about oversharing in therapy and how it can quietly impact client retention, trust, and even your professional reputation. Therapist self-disclosure is not inherently problematic, but it must always serve the client’s growth — not the therapist’s unmet needs. When boundary drift goes unnoticed, therapy client dropout, strained alliances, and ethical concerns can follow.

We’ll walk through real-world examples of how this shows up in practice, from grief disclosures that unintentionally overshadow a client’s pain to subtle validation-seeking that shifts emotional labor onto the client. We’ll explore the difference between empathy and self-centering, and talk about why therapist burnout, isolation, or emotional depletion can sometimes leak into the room without us fully realizing it.

Most importantly, we’ll focus on how to protect client-centered care. That means staying grounded in your code of ethics, seeking consultation, monitoring patterns in your practice, and building feedback-informed systems so you know how clients are actually experiencing you. Oversharing in therapy often happens gradually, which is why reflection and structured support matter.

As you listen, consider this: Are your disclosures enhancing the work, or competing with it?

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 The fine line between self-disclosure and oversharing

04:30 When personal stories overshadow clients

10:15 Subtle boundary drift and validation-seeking

15:40 Client retention and ethical considerations

19:10 Burnout, unmet needs, and emotional leakage

22:00 Best practices for protecting therapy boundaries

If this conversation has you reflecting on your own practice, especially around self-disclosure, boundaries, or the subtle impact of burnout, you don’t have to navigate that growth alone. One of the primary ways I support therapists beyond this podcast is through The Growth Collective for Therapists, a professional home for clinicians who want thoughtful consultation, meaningful mentorship, and support building a practice that feels sustainable, ethical, and aligned over the long term.

xoxo,

Dr. Lisa Marie Bobby

Growing Self

Private practice can feel like the ultimate goal — until it becomes financially and ethically overwhelming.⁠

So many therapists dream of starting a private therapy practice for freedom, flexibility, and a higher private practice therapist salary. But what happens when the reality of private practice therapy doesn’t match the expectation? In this episode, I’m breaking down the private practice business fundamentals most therapists were never taught — and why misunderstanding them can quietly turn the dream of starting a private therapy practice into a nightmare.

Using a simple “airplane model” framework, I explain what actually keeps a therapy business in the air — and what causes it to crash.

If you’ve been wondering how to start a private therapy practice without burning out, under-earning, or compromising your ethics, this conversation is for you.

After 20 years as a private practice therapist and founder of Growing Self Counseling & Coaching, I’ve learned (sometimes the hard way) that doing great clinical work is only a small fraction of what it takes to run a sustainable private therapy practice. Cash flow, operations, marketing for therapists, sales conversations, and understanding what it truly costs to earn revenue all determine whether you build something stable, or something fragile.

And if you’re considering starting a private therapy practice, this episode will help you slow down and think clearly before you leap — so you can build something aligned, informed, and sustainable.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 The Airplane Rule: If You Run Out of Gas, the Business Crashes

03:10 Why Private Practice Feels Like the “Holy Grail” for Therapists

07:40 The Fuel Tank: Cash Flow and Private Practice Therapist Salary Realities

15:25 The Fuselage: Operations, Overhead, and What It Costs to Earn Revenue

23:40 Marketing for Therapists vs. Sales (And Why They’re Not the Same)

34:10 Ethical Risks When Your Practice Isn’t Financially Stable

42:15 Insurance-Based Models vs. Full Fee Private Practice Therapy

52:00 Employment, Supported Group Practice, or Starting a Private Therapy Practice — Choosing Your Path

If you’d like more support as you build a sustainable career as a private practice therapist, I’d love to invite you to ⁠The Growth Collective for Therapists ⁠— a professional home where you can receive consultation, community, and guidance around marketing for therapists, business fundamentals, and ethical growth. You don’t have to figure this out alone.

xoxo,

Dr. Lisa Marie Bobby

⁠Growing Self⁠

Shopify — The all-in-one platform for building and growing your online business. Visit⁠ shopify.com/lhs⁠ to explore their tools and access exclusive listener discounts.

Private practice can feel like the ultimate goal — until it becomes financially and ethically overwhelming.

So many therapists dream of starting a private therapy practice for freedom, flexibility, and a higher private practice therapist salary. But what happens when the reality of private practice therapy doesn’t match the expectation? In this episode, I’m breaking down the private practice business fundamentals most therapists were never taught — and why misunderstanding them can quietly turn the dream of starting a private therapy practice into a nightmare.

Using a simple “airplane model” framework, I explain what actually keeps a therapy business in the air — and what causes it to crash.

If you’ve been wondering how to start a private therapy practice without burning out, under-earning, or compromising your ethics, this conversation is for you.

After 20 years as a private practice therapist and founder of Growing Self Counseling & Coaching, I’ve learned (sometimes the hard way) that doing great clinical work is only a small fraction of what it takes to run a sustainable private therapy practice. Cash flow, operations, marketing for therapists, sales conversations, and understanding what it truly costs to earn revenue all determine whether you build something stable, or something fragile.

And if you’re considering starting a private therapy practice, this episode will help you slow down and think clearly before you leap — so you can build something aligned, informed, and sustainable.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 The Airplane Rule: If You Run Out of Gas, the Business Crashes

03:10 Why Private Practice Feels Like the “Holy Grail” for Therapists

07:40 The Fuel Tank: Cash Flow and Private Practice Therapist Salary Realities

15:25 The Fuselage: Operations, Overhead, and What It Costs to Earn Revenue

23:40 Marketing for Therapists vs. Sales (And Why They’re Not the Same)

34:10 Ethical Risks When Your Practice Isn’t Financially Stable

42:15 Insurance-Based Models vs. Full Fee Private Practice Therapy

52:00 Employment, Supported Group Practice, or Starting a Private Therapy Practice — Choosing Your Path

If you’d like more support as you build a sustainable career as a private practice therapist, I’d love to invite you to The Growth Collective for Therapists — a professional home where you can receive consultation, community, and guidance around marketing for therapists, business fundamentals, and ethical growth. You don’t have to figure this out alone.

xoxo,

Dr. Lisa Marie Bobby

Growing Self

Shopify — The all-in-one platform for building and growing your online business. Visit shopify.com/lhs to explore their tools and access exclusive listener discounts.

Therapist burnout isn’t a personal failure, it’s often a therapist career planning problem. Let’s fix it. If part of you has been thinking, “Something about this isn’t sustainable,” I want to talk about that.

Most of us were trained to be competent clinicians. Very few of us were trained in therapist career planning. We weren’t taught how to build a sustainable therapy career that supports our nervous system, finances, relationships, and long-term wellbeing. And 10 or 15 years in, many therapists quietly start wondering whether this path still fits.

In this episode of Love, Happiness, and Success for Therapists, we explore what sustainable therapist career planning actually looks like. We talk about therapist burnout and career change—not as a dramatic exit from the profession, but as an invitation to redesign it. You’ll learn how to think about your career in seasons, how to choose a therapy niche without trapping yourself, and why clarity often comes from experimentation rather than overthinking.

We’ll also have an honest conversation about private practice vs agency therapist roles. The “obvious” answer isn’t always the sustainable one. A sustainable therapy career is about more than hourly rate—it’s about structure, lifestyle, emotional bandwidth, and long-term viability.

For therapists considering expansion, we’ll discuss coaching certification for therapists, supervision, education, and other multidimensional paths that can make your work feel energizing again—when they’re aligned with who you are.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 Therapist Burnout and Therapist Career Planning

10:13 Therapist Career Planning Beyond Traditional Therapy

19:49 How to Choose a Therapy Niche and Align With Your Values

29:49 Private Practice vs Agency Therapist: Identity and Expansion

39:51 Building a Sustainable Therapy Career and Moving Forward

If part of you felt seen in this conversation, especially around therapist burnout or wondering what’s next, you don’t have to hold that alone. One of the primary ways I support therapists beyond this podcast is through The Growth Collective for Therapists, a professional home I created for clinicians who want real consultation, meaningful connection, and support building a sustainable therapy career that feels life-giving, not depleting.

The Growth Collective brings together licensed therapists who are ready to receive the same level of care they give every day. Inside, you’ll find monthly consultation, clinical supervision, CEU trainings, and practical guidance for building a stable, fulfilling private practice or navigating therapist career planning with clarity and confidence. If you’ve been missing community, feeling isolated in your work, or quietly edging toward therapist burnout, this space was built with you in mind.

And if this episode resonated, share it with a colleague who may be quietly asking the same questions. We are all in this together.

xoxo,

Dr. Lisa Marie Bobby

Growing Self

Dating coaching for therapists is becoming a common clinical need, yet most of us were never trained to offer step-by-step support when clients want help with dating. Dr. Lisa Marie Bobby is joined by evidence-based dating coach Tim Molnar to talk about practical, ethical tools therapists can use when helping clients build healthy relationships.

Many therapists feel confident helping clients unpack attachment patterns, anxiety, trauma histories, and relational dynamics. But when a client says, “I feel ready to date. Now what do I actually do?” insight alone often isn’t enough. This is where therapists helping clients with dating can start to feel uncertain about scope, competence, and next steps.

In this episode of Love, Happiness, and Success for Therapists, Tim brings a behavioral science lens to dating and shares coaching-informed frameworks that help therapists recognize when a client is facing a skills gap rather than a clinical barrier. We talk about how dating clients in therapy can benefit from practical structure, values-aligned action, and clear next steps — without therapy drifting into coaching or crossing ethical lines.

We also explore coaching vs therapy, how to thoughtfully build therapist coaching skills, and how to know when referral to evidence-based dating coaching is the most supportive and ethical option. This conversation is especially relevant for therapists navigating questions of therapist scope of practice when dating becomes a primary focus of the work.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 Why dating coaching for therapists has become a common clinical challenge

03:03 When insight isn’t enough and clients want practical dating support

08:53 Skills gaps vs clinical issues when dating stalls

16:22 Turning dating goals into specific, actionable steps

19:01 Reducing rejection anxiety with evidence-based tools

29:43 Online dating burnout and the case for real-world strategies

38:59 Coaching vs therapy, scope of practice, and ethical referrals

This episode touches a place many therapists recognize, even if we don’t always say it out loud. We’re often expected to hold complexity, offer clarity, and navigate ethical gray areas without much guidance ourselves.

If you want more connection, consultation, and support around these kinds of questions, you can learn more at growingself.com/therapists. And if you’re curious about expanding your skill set with clear ethical boundaries, you can also learn more about coaching certification for therapists here.

As always, I invite you to notice where you feel confident offering direction, and where you may be defaulting to insight when a client is actually asking for guidance. Getting clearer about that distinction can make a meaningful difference, for your clients and for you.

xoxo,

Dr. Lisa Marie Bobby

Growing Self

What if your client’s self-esteem struggles aren’t about deficits — but about being in the wrong role?

Many therapists work with clients who feel chronically discouraged, stuck in career dissatisfaction, or locked into exhausting power struggles with their partners. Often, these clients come in believing something is “wrong” with them — when in reality, they’re operating far outside their natural strengths.

In this feed-drop episode, I’m sharing a conversation with Patrick Lencioni, creator of the Working Genius assessment, about a framework that helps clients quickly identify where they shine — and where things will always feel harder, no matter how much effort they apply.

This is one of my favorite tools right now for:

Supporting clients with low self-esteem

Helping couples understand recurring conflict patterns

Normalizing frustration without diagnosing it

Creating forward momentum in career and life decisions

You’ll hear how Working Genius brings clarity to:

Why capable people feel incompetent in certain environments

How different “genius types” clash in relationships and work

How therapists can use this tool to depersonalize conflict and shame

If you’re a therapist or counselor looking for a fast, accessible assessment that clients actually get, this episode will give you a new lens you can start using immediately.

🎧 Try it yourself. Patrick was so kind to create a special discount offer exclusively for my listeners.  Visit workinggenius.com and use code LHS for a reduced cost. Feel free to share that access code with your clients too so they don't have to pay full price for this assessment if you want to try it out.

Tune in to get all the details about how to use this assessment, the kind of change it creates, and the different types of genius that are often undervalued in our culture. If this sparks ideas for your work, come find me on LinkedIn. I’d love to hear how you’re using it.

Xo, 

Dr. Lisa Marie Bobby

There's a mismatch of expectations between therapists and their clients. A lot of therapy clients—especially the high-functioning ones—walk into therapy thinking, “Great. I’m hiring someone who can help me make meaningful changes in my real life.” They’re looking for clarity, strategy, momentum, and better outcomes.

But many therapists (often without realizing it) meet them through a clinical-treatment lens: we start assessing, conceptualizing, and listening for pathology, assuming the “real work” is deeper healing, insight, or excavation of old pain. And for these clients, that can feel like we’re missing the point. They didn’t come in to be analyzed—they came in to get unstuck. When the process doesn’t match their goals, therapy can quickly start to feel slow, irrelevant, or not worth the investment.

The fix isn’t “do therapy better.” It’s recognizing that different clients need different kinds of help—and being willing to broaden how you work. When we expand our toolkit with more directive, skills-based, and coaching-informed interventions (while staying inside ethical boundaries), we can meet these clients where they actually are—and help them create the change they came for.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

Why clients may disengage when therapy doesn’t work for their stated goals

Common mismatches between therapist training and client expectations in therapy

How scope of competence impacts therapy outcomes and ethical decision-making

The limitations of insight-oriented therapy for non-clinical or highly functional clients

Thanks for tuning in to this episode and sharing it with other clinicians in your professional circle who you think might need to hear it. I'll be so interested to hear what you think about this episode.

Connect with me on LinkedIn and let's continue the conversation!

Dr. Lisa Marie Bobby

More free resources to support your Love, Happiness, and Success as a therapist at GrowingSelf.com!

If you don’t have a clear answer to the question, “What kind of therapist am I?”, your work may feel harder than it needs to be. Discovering your niche as a therapist isn’t about branding or boxing yourself in. It’s about professional clarity, clinical confidence, and building a practice that feels focused rather than scattered.

Many therapists default to being generalists, especially early in their careers, without realizing how much that diffusion can erode satisfaction, effectiveness, and long-term sustainability. If you’ve ever felt unsure how to describe your work, or noticed that doing a little bit of everything leaves you drained or unfocused, this conversation is for you.

In this episode of Love, Happiness, and Success for Therapists, I’m revisiting an essential conversation about why therapy specialization is a core part of ethical professional development, not a marketing trend. I walk through a realistic, thoughtful process for clarifying your niche over time, including self-assessment, gaining experience, pursuing training, and communicating your expertise with intention and integrity.

We also talk about how personal values, lived experience, and natural strengths shape professional identity, why niche clarity often evolves across a career, and how coaching psychology can complement therapy for clinicians who are drawn to growth-oriented work. This episode is an invitation to move out of diffusion and into alignment, in a way that supports both you and the clients who rely on your expertise.

Episode Breakdown:

If you’re in the middle of figuring out who you are as a therapist and where your work is headed, I want you to know this process takes time, and you don’t have to rush it. One of the primary ways I support therapists beyond this podcast is through The Growth Collective for Therapists, a professional home for clinicians who want thoughtful consultation, meaningful mentorship, and support building a practice that feels sustainable and aligned over the long term.

xoxo,

Perinatal mental health is one of the most important clinical issues therapists encounter and one of the most frequently overlooked. When a client is pregnant or newly postpartum, distress is often minimized as “just part of the transition,” even when something more serious is happening beneath the surface. If you’ve ever wondered whether you’re asking the right questions, or worried you might be missing something with a pregnant or postpartum client, this episode is for you.

In this episode of Love, Happiness, and Success for Therapists, I’m joined by my colleague Catherine Fredrickson, LMFT, a perinatal mental health–certified therapist at Growing Self. Catherine brings both clinical expertise and lived experience to a grounded, practical conversation about how perinatal mental health concerns actually show up in the therapy room. We talk about how to assess for perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, how to differentiate between expected hormonal shifts and clinically significant symptoms, and the subtle language cues that can signal deeper distress, including disconnection, self-blame, and feelings of unworthiness as a parent.

This conversation is a reminder that perinatal mental health is not a niche specialty but a core clinical competency for therapists working with adults, couples, and families.

Episode Breakdown:

34:35 Perinatal mental health in military families and solo parenting

If you’ve been feeling isolated in your work, or quietly wondering how long you can keep doing this on your own, I want you to know you’re not alone. One of the primary ways I support therapists beyond this podcast is through The Growth Collective for Therapists, a professional home I created for clinicians who want real consultation, meaningful connection, and support building a practice that feels sustainable and life-giving, not depleting.

The Growth Collective brings together licensed therapists who are ready to receive the same level of care they give every day through monthly consultation, clinical supervision, CEU trainings, and practical guidance for building a stable, fulfilling private practice. If you’ve been missing community, feeling isolated in your work, or edging toward burnout, this space was built with you in mind.

xoxo,

If you’re a therapist who uses acceptance commitment therapy with clients but quietly struggles to apply those same principles to your own life or practice, this conversation is for you. Acceptance commitment therapy offers powerful tools for values-based living, psychological flexibility, and sustainable change, yet many therapists find it surprisingly hard to turn that wisdom inward.

In this episode of Love, Happiness, and Success for Therapists, I’m joined by clinical psychologist Dr. Diana Hill, a world-recognized expert in acceptance commitment therapy, to talk about why therapists so often mismanage their energy, undervalue their own genius, and stay stuck in versions of their work that no longer fit. We explore how ACT principles can help therapists evolve without burning out, abandoning the profession, or losing what makes this work meaningful.

Diana shares how stories about who we’re “supposed” to be as therapists can quietly limit growth, why flexibility with identity matters just as much as flexibility with thoughts, and how the future of therapy will increasingly reward depth, attunement, and humanity over rigid protocols. We also talk candidly about career evolution, second chapters, and what it looks like to build a practice that supports your life rather than consumes it.

Episode Breakdown:

If you’re feeling pulled toward a second chapter in your work as a therapist, or simply craving more support, clarity, and room to breathe, I want you to know you don’t have to figure this out alone. One of the primary ways I support therapists who want to stay engaged, energized, and genuinely fulfilled in this profession is through The Growth Collective for Therapists.

It’s a professional home I created for therapists who want real consultation, thoughtful mentorship, and community with people who truly understand the weight and responsibility of this work. It offers the support of a high-quality group practice without giving up your independence, values, or financial autonomy, so you can build a career that feels sustainable and alive over the long haul.

And if you’d like to stay connected, come find me on LinkedIn. I truly enjoy hearing what this work brings up for you and where you’re feeling ready to grow next.

xoxo,