Before You Become a Therapist, Watch This

Before You Become a Therapist, Watch This

I’m clinical psychologist dr. Ali Mattu and I’m gonna tell you the ten things I wish I knew before I became a therapist number one you will be constantly humbled by how much you don’t know the more I do this work the more I’ve begun to understand how complicated mental health is and how complicated families are and how much medical illnesses impact mental health and how there’s a world of medical illnesses that I don’t know about and never been exposed to so there’s a lot of uncertainty that you have to face in the world of therapy you have to be someone who when you’re treatment doesn’t work as expected that you can learn from that setback that you can see failures as opportunities to grow number two it is deeply meaningful work my job is to help people navigate overcome some of the most difficult experiences they will have in their lives what a privilege I get to be a part of their journey in finding growth and finding their own meaning and purpose I had to turn the AC off because otherwise you wouldn’t be able to hear me and there is a heatwave in New York City so this is getting pretty hot hopefully I don’t look too sweaty but number three being a therapist is tough on your body and it’s tough on your mind most of my day is spent sitting in my chair with my butt on the chair for at least an hour at a time and then I very briefly go to get my next patient write a quick email send a quick voicemail or maybe if I’m lucky run and pee or scarf down a snack that keeps me going for the next hour that’s not a healthy lifestyle and that’s caught up with me over time I have more back pain I’ve gained more weight I have to work harder and harder to get more physical activity and more time outdoors during the work week but what’s even more difficult is the impact doing therapy has on your mind I am with people as they’re going through very difficult experiences and the more you do that kind of work it starts to make you question things as well it’s something called vicarious trauma where you might start to actually question your beliefs about the world about about other people about the future based upon working with so many people who have gone through trauma themselves and there’s also something called passion fatigue it can be very draining to do a large volume of this work you have to get very good at understanding your own emotions learning how to manage your own emotions learning how to tolerate distress learning how to get help really being able to take care of yourself if you’re gonna be doing this work full-time number four is probably my favorite thing and that is having a lot of therapist friends is amazing it’s so nice because they’re all such good listeners they know how much to listen how much to validate how much to problem-solve how much push me how much to help me just sit and accept oh it’s when I’m going through tough stuff it’s the best to have therapists friends self care number five you’re gonna deal with stupid turf wars what kind of degree you have the training you’ve experienced the orientation you have the environment you work in all of these things become huge political fights and probably the biggest one is the discipline and degree whether you have a master’s degree a PhD a society a psychiatry MD or a do people who are trained in certain models or schools of thought or have certain degrees become very much invested in that approach in that philosophy I’ve been guilty of this myself we have a hard time as a field leading across these different differences we have and advocating for mental health and for our patients number six most therapists will never get rich doing therapy when you work as a therapist your income is directly related to how many people you see most people will reach a ceiling where you you’ve seen as many people as you can see in a week you can’t fit in more patients to generate more income so then maybe you can raise your fees if you’re someone who’s not participating in insurance your out-of-network provider but at some point you’re gonna reach the limits of that as well if you’re thinking about going into this field and you don’t want to be purely seeing patients on a one-on-one basis to generate all of your revenue you need to think of yourself as a business and have multiple streams of revenue not just have all your income based on one to one patient encounters but to have workshops that you do on the side workshops that you might do for schools at a very low or free rate but those generate other opportunities like doing workshops for businesses that might be able to pay more money or doing continuing education training for other therapists maybe you’re going to be developing media or training resources things like that you want to have or consulting is another way to earn some revenue on the side you want to have multiple streams of revenue so you aren’t dependent purely on just seeing patients one-to-one because you’re gonna very quickly hit your ceiling of how much you can do and how much you can charge and at that point that’s it that’s how much money you’ll make and that’s probably not gonna change that much over time or if anything it might go down based on how insurance reimbursements go nowadays speaking of money this is a good time to thank all of my patrons for supporting this channel and I want to thank my brand new patrons Emily Samar Lars and PIPA Qi thank you for becoming patrons of the psych show if you want to help me make more of this kind of content and get behind-the-scenes features in return consider becoming a patron of the psych show number seven is you are getting into the customer service business that means being super responsive to messages that you get returning emails and voicemails in a timely manner giving people receipts and forms that they need when they ask for it making your office very comfortable making it nice making it welcoming being able to offer people water or tea or coffee if you can number eight you will have a lot of Independence you are largely the only one in the room who gets to say what happens in that therapy session how you manage it how you approach it how you use therapeutic skills what type of treatment you use how you implemented your kind of your own boss in that situation number nine mental health is set to be massively disruptive the vast majority of everything therapists do it hasn’t changed much in the last hundred years most treatments are still based upon one person talking to another person in the same room maybe sometimes one person working with a group of people in the same room if you’ve seen my video on why it’s so hard to get good therapy you know that we’re never going to have enough therapists to meet the mental health demands of all the people who need support it’s not gonna work in this model this one to one or one to group model so the field of mental health is ripe for disruption for developing AI that is going to work throughout apps and help a vast majority of people who may never be able to access in-person treatment for more media based support like what I try to do on this channel for gamification of mental health for telehealth platforms where a person in one part of the country can work with a variety of people in other parts of the country if you are in grad school right now if you’re in this field and you’re early in your career get some training and exposure to different types of computer science at building and get trained in interventions that weave in technology virtual reality telehealth types of presents because this is really where the field is headed and I can’t wait I can’t wait to see that disruption because things need to move forward number 10 know the growing market therapy is a business just like every other business there are markets that are growing and the markets that are shrinking right now if you are going into this field make sure you have training and knowledge and experience in markets that are growing that includes addictions it includes issues related to mental health and aging it includes childhood related problems it includes the world of trauma and treating trauma makes in there’s a bunch of other growth areas in mental health make sure you have training in one of these things because that’s where there are more people presenting that need support that’s where you can get a lot of reimbursement if you’re in the insurance model whatever you’re doing make sure you have training and experience in something that people need help for what questions do you have about life as a therapist and if you’re a therapist right now what do you wish you knew before you got into this field let me know in the comments below if you liked this episode give it a thumbs up if you want more videos that celebrate mental health make psychology fun and easy to get the to understand to understand yes be sure to subscribe to the site show

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I’ve been doing psychotherapy for the last 15 years. Here are the top 10 things I wish I knew before I became a psychotherapist.

Special thanks to Elizabeth S., Tyler D., Anna H., Arnt J., Collin P., Evan A., Imran M., Sam D., Ryan L., Sophie Y., Ahmed Y, Israel P., Neuro Transmissions, Eric E., Eve P., Lauren K., BrainCraft, Aaron F., Samuel H., Marisa H.,Tae T., Steve M.,, Bryan T., Nicky C., Samuel A., Anton T., Jennifer C., Shanda W., Saleem H. P., Sri S., Alex N., Denise J., Emily W., Samar, Lars B., and Pipitchy for making this episode possible! Learn how you can help me make The Psych Show and get exclusive behind the scenes access in return at https://www.Patreon.com/ThePsychShow.

10 things I wish I knew before I became a psychotherapist:
1. You will be constantly humbled by how much you don’t know.
2. It is deeply meaningful work.
3. Being a therapist is tough on your body and mind.
4. Having a lot of therapist friends is amazing.
5. You are going to deal with stupid turf wars.
6. Most therapists won’t get rich doing therapy.
7. You’re entering a customer service business.
8. You will have a lot of independence.
9. Mental healthcare is going to be massively disrupted.
10. Understand growing markets.

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THE PSYCH SHOW! Creating mental health videos that educate, entertain, and empower! Produced, written, and edited by clinical psychologist Ali Mattu, Ph.D. All videos are provided for informational purposes only and do not constitute clinical advice.

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– call 9-1-1 in the United States or your country’s emergency number: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of…
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– go to your nearest hospital emergency room