The Truth of What a Clinician Does in a Week
What does a therapist actually do during the week?
So glad you’re here! Whether you’re thinking about going into the profession, or you’re just curious about what your clinician actually does, I hope you find this helpful and insightful.
First and foremost, people are most familiar with private practice clinicians, so we will stick with that group. What you need to know right off the bat is that most of the work a clinician does is usually NOT client hours. I repeat, it is NOT client hours. Most clinicians see between 15-25 clients per week. Even in a regular 40 hour work week, that leaves 15-25 hours! A 30 client case load is RARE and clinicians are often unable to sustain it due to the mental health strain it puts on them. Sounds like a dream job right? Work 15-25 hours and pack it in!
WRONG! Now, the tricky part here is deciding whether or not the individual is an employee or a business owner like myself. We’ll break down each.
Employee - Most of the time, following your 15-25 clients, the remainder of your time is for treatment planning, case notes, proper documentation, and then you’re done. That’s it. You may be looking at 20-30 hours a week… But here is the kicker… for those of you thinking that’s the dream job, think again. Your pay will likely be between 40,000 and 50,000.
Business Owner - Here is the interesting part. If you want to make the $ you have NO CHOICE but to become a business owner. Well, basically no choice. The median salary of a clinician when averaging for Masters and Doctoral level status is arguably around 60,000. This changes on state, experience, population, blah blah. You get the point. If you want to reach that though, and most definitely if you want to surpass it, you’re looking at becoming a business owner. Congrats, you’re now no longer allowed to be just a clinician, you have to be an entrepreneur! Yay you! You likely received zero educational training in this department and are going to struggle for a while because you were not adequately prepared by your university program - but that’s a topic for another blog. With that being said, here is a list of things that will take place outside of your regular 15-25 hour case load:
Case notes, treatment plans, research, CEU’s
Business meetings, zoom meetings, lunch and learns, networking events
Developing a specialty, further education in that space, etc
Documentation, legal documents, private practice policy, telehealth documents, adult intakes, child intakes, release of information forms, potentially insurance forms, agreement to treatment forms, credit card forms, etc.
Direct marketing and digital marketing, podcasts, - YouTube videos, flyers, business cards, etc.
POS systems, overhead, paper, materials, coffee, ink, cleaning supplies, etc.
Software management, learning documentation online, client portal services, scheduling and rescheduling clients, etc.
Obviously much more is included in being the owner of the business. However, I firmly believe these are the same people that tend to be the best clinicians. They are the most flexible and they are proven leaders. They are likely people that take on challenges in the same ways that they encourage their clientele to. Either way, one thing is very clear, there is a LOT more to being a clinician if you’re also a business owner/are in private practice. I personally work 60 hours a week, every week. You have to in order to grow as a business owner. You have to if you want to make the impact you have idealized in your mind. If that’s not something you’re comfortable with and you’re thinking about this profession, abandon ship. If you’re a client that’s just looking for insight, PLEASE GIVE YOUR CLINICIAN A HIGH FIVE AND A THANK YOU! There is so much more than meets the eye.
