Alicia: Today's episode is brought to you by Pow Box. Here's a question that I have for you. How many extra steps does your current email setup add for the people that you're emailing? If the answer involves a portal, a separate password, or a click here to view your secure message link, there is a simpler way. Powbox encrypts everything automatically on the back end. So what lands in someone's inbox looks just like an email. Normal, easy, still fully HIPAA compliant. I made the switch in my own practice and the difference wasn't in what I had to learn. It was in what I had to stop dealing with. If you want the deal that I have exclusively for our listeners to start with Pow Box, be sure to check the show notes. Welcome back to the Therapist HQ Podcast, your weekly private practice pep talk. I'm Alicia Murray, and this week I am so fortunate to be joined by Aubrey Richardson she is a licensed professional counselor in Texas with a deep commitment to caring for those who care for everyone else. She holds a degree in clinical mental health counseling from John Hopkins University and has worked across the full spectrum of psychiatric care. After witnessing the long-term effects of burnout and vicarious trauma on fellow clinicians and caregivers, Aubrey opened her private practice, Sage Holistic Counseling, where she now specializes in working with therapists, helpers, and caregivers who are navigating soul deep exhaustion and burnout. Her work focuses on dismantling hustle culture as well as bringing a trauma-informed systemic approach to burnout recovery for those in care-based professions. Outside of her practice, Aubrey is deeply invested in her community, serving on the Alliance board for Genesis Women's Shelter and as an active member of a junior league of Dallas. When she's not giving back, you'll find her lost in a horror novel, sweating through a hot yoga class, or spending quality time with her two rescue dogs. Aubrey, my gosh, welcome to the show.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Hi, I'm so excited to be here.
Alicia: So excited to have you. And before we started recording, I had mentioned that I was just peeping through your website and I was truly inspired because the way
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Ha ha.
Alicia: that you're able to speak to helping professionals and high-functioning folks is truly incredible. And so I just know going into this that there are going to be so many nuggets that you're able to share with us just about. What does self-care and how do we really overcome burnout? Like are these two really big buzzwords, I think, in our profession and what we can really practically do about them. So I'm very excited to get into all of this.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Me too. I am ready to yap it up.
Alicia: That's what I like to hear. So starting from the beginning, you opened up your practice, stage holistic counseling, after watching the burnout and vicarious trauma taking its toll on the conditions around you. Was there ever a specific moment or a story that made you say, like, this is enough and I have to build something or do something different?
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Absolutely. So I was actually working in a hospital in Texas when COVID hit. So at the time I was working as the director of an IOP as an associate, level clinician. And as an associate does, you just are trying to get as many hours as you can. So I was also working partial hospitalization, inpatient, like anywhere they would let me work. I would be there. And so I saw firsthand how folks were affected by COVID. And again, as an associate hustling for hours, I also had a a second job at a private practice, And all of these medical professionals started coming into therapy. This practice was right down the street from the hospital. And the intake coordinator was like, Do you know who really understands what these folks are going through right now? Aubrey, because she's on the inpatient psych unit, like with these folks right now. and so I really started to be with the helpers and the healers and saw just how crispy burnt folks really were. and I fell into this niche and I loved it and I kept working for this private practice and I got really burnt out myself. I started Sage Holistic Counseling after I had this conversation with my supervisor where I was like, I'm trying to have these conversations with people about taking care of themselves and I can't do it anymore, like because I am unwell. I was seeing up to 38 clients a week. I know, I know, the face you just made is crazy.
Alicia: Wow. Wow.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: I was in the middle of a separation. I was working from home in my bedroom in like one corner. in a chair and I said, I can't do this. I'm unwell. I need to see less clients. I need help and my supervisor looked at me and she said, Everyone else can do it, why can't you? And I said, heard, understood, no one is gonna take care of me in the way that I'm going to, in the way that I need. and so within three months I had filed for divorce, quit my job, started my practice, and moved into a house by myself for the first time. So I am no stranger to burnout in like what it means to
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: really have to practice what it is that you talk about all day long.
Alicia: I love all the context behind that and just painting a full picture of you're so deep inside of stuff sometimes. It's hard to pick your head up and look around and be like, wait a minute, this is actually a horrible situation. And you know, I'm crumbling.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Yeah, actually this is a disaster and
Alicia: Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: I can't keep talking to folks about taking care of themselves when like I'm not doing it.
Alicia: Yeah, for sure. Do you feel like your work with folks has changed since you got yourself into this different situation? Which it sounds like you're in a lovely situation now with your work and your time outside of work. Do you feel like your work with clients has changed throughout that process?
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Absolutely. I am pretty transparent with my clients when we start to talk about this that you cannot heal in the environments that are hurting you. And that's really difficult to have this I love that word that you used, reckoning, of either having to change the environment or leave it.
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: And I know what that's like. I know how hard it is to feel like you have to set your life on fire sometimes to make this big dramatic change. But I also know what it's like to just do these little changes over time that make a huge impact too. You know, I learn as much from my clients as you know, I hope that I can give them as well.
Alicia: Think we all have that hope.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: That's just keeping my fingers crossed.
Alicia: Yes, yes, every day. Yeah. And you know, I both love and hate that you have called it a soul deep or soul crushing exhaustion. How do you feel like that is maybe different or just even like a way to explain the burnout that is specific to therapists, right? Because I think a therapist's burnout is different than in other fields or professions or Things that people are involved in because we are so people oriented and people centered. How do you feel like that's different?
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: I think because we are so other oriented,
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: therapists are so, in my experience, bad at recognizing burnout in the early stages. That we don't even call it burnout until we are at this level of exhaustion and fatigue. It is permeating every part of our life. It has affected every relationship. It is coloring how we see everything. And that's when we're like, I think I'm burned out. And to
Alicia: Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: me, that is because burnout is a systemic level of emotional neglect. And most therapists are so used to that emotional neglect that we don't even recognize that it's a problem until we are so deep into it.
Alicia: I totally agree. I think we're really good at putting a face on about it and just kind of carrying through and pushing through because I think we know what we should be doing and should be feeling and should be, helping ourselves with. But it's like you said, that practicality of it, of implementing those things is easy to forego.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: What I love about working with therapists is that we share the same knowledge base. Like I don't have
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: some sort of magical knowledge that another therapist doesn't have. And so
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: it's really about like what is getting in the way. So what is it about, you know, this pattern of how you've learned to walk around in the world? that this systemic neglect you're experiencing within a system you're in feels so familiar maybe to the emotional neglect you felt in other parts of your life. that you are so used to being like that your needs are not important, that you're dismissed and ignored and that you have to be the one that is doing all the things and solving all of the problems. Like that's probably not just happening at work. Like where else are you doing that and where did you learn that? and it tends to be from, you know, early childhood experiences, family of origin stuff.
Alicia: Do you find that people maybe have a hard time like betting on themselves to go into private practice or feel like they'll be successful in private practice when they have these patterns behind them of staying in these situations and sort of being the catch-all person for everything? Like that feels very community mental health typical based, like in my mind, and I think paired
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Ha ha
Alicia: with my experiences that I've had.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: you know, in my experience, it doesn't necessarily stop folks from getting into a private practice situation, but what happens is that you just rebuild the same practice that you were trying to get away from.
Alicia: So true.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: I know that when I started my practice initially, I filled up my schedule just like I did at this old practice because that's how I was trained, right? Like that's how I taught. fill up your practice, you know, account for cancellations, push yourself to get this full schedule. And all of a sudden I was like, my God, this is what would wasn't working in the first place. Like, why would I do this again? And you don't even realize the patterns that you're recreating until someone else kind of lovingly and gently says, like, hey, this feels familiar
Alicia: And not everybody I think has those loving people. And I think like you're saying it takes us so long sometimes to come to the other side and be like, hey, we're actually in like the same sort of shitstorm that we were in before, but this one is actually within our control and we can fix it. Like we created it, but we can also undo it and back it up a little and fix it, which is great.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Yes, one of my favorite things to tell folks who have their own practice is that you are both the problem and the solution.
Alicia: So true.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Like you created this problem and you will also create the solution.
Alicia: Yes, yes.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Mm-hmm.
Alicia: Great responsibility to have.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Ye i I love it. It's incredible. I wouldn't have it any other way, but frequently I'm like, I did this to myself like
Alicia: Where is the person to blame? It is me. It's very unfortunate.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Sometimes I'm like, wow, my boss is the worst. And I'm like, yep, it's me. It's me.
Alicia: So true though. And I think that like leaning into that control of like if you've gotten yourself into a situation in your practice, like you can undo it and it's uncomfortable. And it's probably difficult conversations and difficult boundaries to put up, but we can walk it back and restructure things.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Absolutely. Absolutely. Nothing is so permanent that you can't shift it, redo it, make a different choice.
Alicia: Yeah, totally. Okay. So I'm dying to hear what are your thoughts on these sort of surface level self-care tips for therapists of have better boundaries, have more time for self-care, organize yourself better. what are your takes on that? And where do we find what actually prevents the burnout?
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: I'm just gonna like roll my eyes so hard. everything is this like very buzzy, like self-care, self-care, self-care. And I am so sick of it. talking about self-care as if it was like the end all be all the definitive solution. Burnout is not an individual problem.
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: So if we are trying to approach it with an individual solution, it's never gonna get better. Burnout is what happens when the system is demanding too much of you and you are not getting enough in. You're not getting enough back. Burnout, it's truly like an epidemic. It is a public health issue. It is a polite way of saying like worker exploitation. When we really call it what it is, like a bubble bath is not gonna fix worker exploitation. and so often this self-care that we see is literally being sold to us. And it's like this treat yourself. buy the bubble bath, buy the massage, like go on vacation. And while those things can be really lovely and supportive and do have a place, it the best self-care cannot be bought. And frequently what is being sold to us as self-care, the people who are selling it are also the ones who are benefiting from us burning out in the first place.
Alicia: It's actually so crazy to think about the consumerism that is built in and baked into these higher level systemic issues of exploiting the employees, like you're saying, and like having people in these situations where they are overworking and overproducing and overdoing it in every aspect and leading to burnout. And then if that's not enough, then we're also going to monetize the, perceived
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Yes.
Alicia: solution of it.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: And if it's an individual problem and you are not fixing your own burnout, like I guess you're just not doing your self care very well either. Like you need to work better on that. And it just absolves all of the true culprits, like, of any responsibility.
Alicia: What would you say to therapists who maybe feel like they might be in this position, but aren't sure exactly how to identify it? And I think this goes into too where you said it takes therapists until we're in like the final stages to recognize it, right?
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Hmm.
Alicia: Like, how can we as therapists back ourselves up a little bit and try to recognize these things a little sooner?
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: when therapists ask me this question when I talk about it with clients, it's always this moment of like, I wish you had a different answer, Aubrey, and like, sorry, I don't like you're
Alicia: Okay.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: you're not gonna like my answer and like it's fine. we have to start practicing noticing things early.
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: and the word that I use for that is mindfulness. we have to start noticing what we are feeling as we're feeling it and noticing what we're thinking as we're thinking it. We have to start recognizing the signals that our body is telling us sooner rather than later. have to get really honest about like what is the problem, because if we don't know what the scope of the problem is, what is really going on, we can't fix that. And so we have to start collecting some really good data about what is actually happening. How does your body respond when a client asks you to schedule outside of you know your usual hours? What happens internally when you look at your calendar? how does your body respond when you you look at your calendar and you see white space?
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Right. Like these are the questions we have to start really asking ourselves. because frequent in my experience the answer is rarely like we need to be doing something more. We truly need to be doing less. Like we don't need to learn another skill. We need to start practicing the things that we already know to be true.
Alicia: I think it's so hard for therapists to specifically to back up in that way and to back off of things because I'm sure you see it throughout social media and Facebook groups. therapists are like, what more can I be doing? And what more can I be adding and doing And I think that they're just on like a freeway to burning out with all of these additions that they're trying to make. And like you said, not really looking at well, what is working, what isn't working, and what can I let go of in the process of, potentially adding different things in.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Yeah, we only have so much time, energy, and capacity. And that's a really hard conversation to have with folks. Like who want to do it all and who want to be all the things and who want to help all the people and like you are only one person and you cannot be the human glue that is fixing all of these problems and like putting all of these pieces together. And that's that's
Alicia: Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: a hard conversation because we want to do so much and you know, we're only human.
Alicia: And going back to what you said about listening to our body about how we feel when we're looking at our calendar or looking at all these different parts, especially in private practice of how our practice is set up and running day to day, you would not believe, or you probably could believe actually, the work that I
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Brother.
Alicia: do with therapists on creating their schedule. And I'm like, you're gonna fill in your personal things first. Like you're gonna fill in your mealtimes, you're gonna fill in pickup in drop offs from school. And do you have a day that you can have lunch with your partner, and they're like, well, no, I have to work from nine to three. but we don't. We don't have to do that. We don't have to follow that schedule. And every time, I don't know, it surprises me every time, even though it's shutting, because I'm just like, we get to choose now, you know, but Like you said, we so naturally go back to like, I see kids, so I have to work from four to nine PM or I see adults, I have to work from eight to four or nine to three or whatever the case may be. And that's the black and white answer. And it's like, well, let's throw in your favorite workout class. Like let's go to the one PM class so it's not so full. Like what a treat, you know.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: my gosh. one of the first questions that I actually ask folks is like what does your life look like outside of work?
Alicia: Mm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Like you are a therapist, but you are actually so much more. Like you're actually a full person. And work
Alicia: Yeah. Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: is probably the least interesting thing about you.
Alicia: Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: So what does your life look like when you're not working? Who, you know, what are you doing for joy and for movement and nourishment and connection and We rarely pause to even explore like what role does work play in our life? Because
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: so many therapists that I work with will do all like the the things, right? Like they'll follow the to-do list to
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: like set up their schedule. And then again, we see this free space, and we actually have a moment to like. Feel things, think about things, and we're like, no, I hate that. Like, I don't want to feel, I
Alicia: Hate.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: don't want to think. Yeah. Hate, hate, hate, hate, hate. and then we're like, you know what, will help me not think about things, focusing on other people's problems. Absolutely, I'll put somebody right in that schedule, right in that spot. If we are so busy with other people, we don't have to think about ourselves. We don't have to think about our own life.
Alicia: convenient. And in private practice, we have the ability to do so. So like you said, we're in control and then we're also in control of the consequences of our behaviors.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: n we are the problem and we are the solution. And
Alicia: Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: for a lot of My clients, when we look at their schedules and we're like, my God, can you please just like have a lunch break for the love? Like just put in a lunch
Alicia: my gosh.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: break. I will tell folks, don't just write lunch break. Because when you look at your schedule, you can move that so easily. Like, boop, gone. But if you actually
Alicia: Yeah. Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: get really specific about like why is this important to you? What if you write like I want to be nourished? Or like I don't wanna bite, you know, my partner's head off at four PM because I haven't had, you know, any snacks or any water. It like that becomes so much more true and real and harder to ignore than lunch break.
Alicia: the purpose behind what you're blocking.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Yeah, like if you're gonna block off yoga at 1 p.m., you're like, well there's a 6 30 class that I can go to. No, 1 p.m. I like the instructor more, and I can always get my favorite spot. and there's no traffic. this is the what we put on our calendar to remind
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: ourselves, like, this is why I'm doing it. don't have to just sort of like rely on that willpower all the time of I put it on there and I hope I remember to keep it
Alicia: Hope it stays.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: there.
Alicia: I imagine that you probably do a lot of inventory taking, I do with folks in different capacities, obviously, because I'm not working with them in the therapeutic lens, but more so in the business coaching lens. But I imagine therapeutically it also still serves value of taking stock of their values and taking stock of their goals. And based on this kind of caricature of therapists that are prone to this burnout, it's not something that they're often doing or practicing. And I think it gets a little uncomfortable looking at well, what is important to me? Like what even is that? And how do I even begin to identify what are these pieces of my day and my week that actually bring value to me.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Well and what what do I say is important to me versus what am I actually doing? These are two different things. I can say my family is really important to me, but if I look at your calendar, am I gonna see that reflected?
Alicia: Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: And that's a very different conversation. and you know, I think therapy part of part of my job and like part of what I'm really good at is to be like, yeah, we have to have some uncomfortable conversations.
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: and you have to have some uncomfortable conversations with yourself because you've been working really hard to not have those. And that's our job
Alicia: Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: in therapy, right? Is to is to pause and be like, what are we doing? Where is this coming from? Is this even still serving you? This overfunctioning and doing too much. You know, that's not like a cute personality trait. that's a learned trauma response of like my life is in chaos and I have to manage it. and it's really hard to live from that place for a really long time. and really grieving that you've had to do that and that you've been so busy and like what did you have to miss and what did you have to sacrifice? You know, working I was seeing thirty eight clients a week. I missed a lot.
Alicia: Yeah, I imagine. And that's only the client facing work. That's not even the rest that goes along with it.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Absolutely.
Alicia: Do you ever find that you come across therapists or professionals in general who almost have this sort of like innate comfort in the chaos because it's all they've ever known?
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Absolutely. We thrive. Like we thrive
Alicia: Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: in this chaos. We have been practicing since we were tiny little humans what it means to walk into a room and be hyper attuned to everyone's emotions. And to
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: be hyper attuned to like small shifts in people's face and mannerisms to anticipate, you know, emotional responses, to anticipate threats and neutralize them before they even happen. And all of those traits keep us really safe from whether like emotional chaos, physical chaos. and they also translate really well into being a therapist. those are skills that we have been honing for a very long time.
Alicia: And it's a skill that we unfortunately are using in a bit of a counterproductive way when it comes to ourselves. Because I think that some therapists can think that they can sustain what's going on because they see the end goal of like, well, I have to provide for myself. I have to provide for my family. I have to keep my practice afloat or maintain my job at this agency. But then I think when it comes down to it, it's like, well, is this truly sustainable? Like what does that look like at the end? And what are you? Willing to risk in order to sustain.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: I want therapists to have as long of a career as they want. And right now, if we look at the state of therapists, we are not staying in this career for very long. There's some really interesting data actually from the herd financial state of the therapist private practice. I can't remember the title, it's all of those words, probably in a different order.
Alicia: Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: But you know, there's a very large majority of therapists that are within the first ten years of their career. And then if you look to fifteen and twenty years, it just drops right off. Like therapists are not hanging around. And that
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: is so sad. Like this is such a disservice. Our communities need us so much. Th people need healing and a space to just be. And we are burning and churning through some of the most talented therapists.
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: And there aren't even enough therapists in the first place. And the ones that are here that have made it through that are good, trained clinicians, like we need them around as long as they want to be here. And they deserve to have the most, you know, beautiful, joy filled, authentic lives that they can have inside of work and outside of work.
Alicia: Do you feel like if a therapist maybe is listening and is thinking, well, I don't really feel like this is me, or I don't really feel like I'm, you know, on this express way to burnout, is there maybe a couple check-ins that they can do with themselves or even questions that they can take to their own therapist to maybe check in with themselves about like, am I truly marked safe from this right now, or am I doing things to
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: I
Alicia: help to sustain myself right now?
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Even if we're not on that path today, our life is always changing. We may be in a different season of our life, you know, very soon, and continuing to check in with ourselves about how am I feeling? How am I doing? How is my body responding to this work? What's going really well? Where am
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: I getting enough support? Where am I not getting enough support? is it truly the work? you know, that may be burning me out or that I'm having a problem with? Or is it that I don't feel like I have enough community? Am I doing too much because I'm afraid that like somebody else won't be able to handle it? maybe I can do all these things when it's just me, but if I start dating and have a partner and I want to be somewhere else at like 6 30 PM, maybe I have to reevaluate these things, or maybe if I start having a kiddo, or I start adopting a ton of dot, right? Like whatever your situation is, as your life changes, coming back to this question of like how am I listening to my body? What is my nervous system trying to tell me about this work that I'm doing? And I think that just takes a lot of flexing that muscle of listening to the whispers that your body gives you versus waiting for it to scream at you. like you said, it's so much easier to make these shifts and changes in your life earlier rather than later. And not that like if we get far down the road, absolutely we can change it. It might be a little bit harder. we want to give ourselves as many, you know, choices and options as possible and the goal is never to just tolerate life or to tolerate burnout but just to live and live beautifully and authentically and you know, be a whole person outside of work.
Alicia: Well, and I think you bring up a good point too, kind of what you were alluding to of like the practice that you start with in the season of life that you start with does not have to be the practice that you end with. I mean, I know even in my almost seven years, the practice that I started with, I was pregnant and I had no children. And now I have two young children, and my practice is very different than what I started with. And it was able to grow and meld and change with me as I went through those seasons of life because I needed it to. it really wasn't negotiable. it could not remain the same. it had to move and shift with me. And I think that some folks are afraid of doing that because you know, are they gonna churn through clients? probably you might lose a few
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Yeah.
Alicia: clients if you change your schedule, but you're gonna fill those slots again. Are they going to, you know, feel the wrath of changing their niche or their specialty because they're just not feeling that's their niche or specialty anymore? sure, you might, but then the other side of it is you're gonna be fulfilled and you're gonna have this longevity and you're gonna have this sustainability. But again, in the eye of the storm, it's hard to pick our head up and be like, yeah, there is this really positive change at the end of all of this.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: That to me this is again why Community is so important in practicing that community care, talking to other people about what you're feeling and asking them questions like how did you handle this problem? How did you solve, you know, this issue? What do you know that you think I don't know yet? You know, and like
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: you don't have to recreate the wheel every time there's a problem. Like so many therapists have done this before you, so many therapists will do it after you. Sharing resources, right? Like sharing this is the best person to ask for this. This is the best book, you know, in the community, this is the best person to refer to. Like having that support, yeah, things are gonna be hard. Life is hard. We've already
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: been through really hard things, but
Alicia: Mm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: having that support makes it more tolerable. Right? Makes sure that we don't have to
Alicia: Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: sit through that s eye of the storm by ourselves.
Alicia: Yeah. And I think even that support can sometimes provide that validation of yeah, this is not a good situation that you're in right now, you know, because we're so good at convincing ourselves, like, it's fine, it's fine, it's fine, it's gonna be fine. And I think to have somebody who's also in our field, and especially, you know, if we're both in agency worker, we're both in private practice, to be like, no, this actually isn't fine at all. Like we need to make a change.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Again, this is an epidemic. It's a system wide problem
Alicia: Hm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: that is this is not a a problem that Aubrey owns and that Aubrey just needs to work harder to solve. That's
Alicia: Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: not true.
Alicia: How do you help to alleviate that responsibility off of therapists? Cause I think that we've kind of talked about as therapists, we're so other focused and we just want to help. And I think it's hard for us to take stock in that and believe in that piece. what would you say to people about that?
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: I would still say go and build your community. I want that community to be filled with therapists who get it that you don't have to explain it to. And I also want there to be folks who know absolutely nothing about therapy who can give you that really honest feedback of like, Why? Why are you doing that? Right, like if you have a friend who works in finance or works at a law firm, they would they would never be like, Yeah, waive that late cancellation fee, right? They'd be like, What are you doing? Charge it now. Right?
Alicia: Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: so having that perspective from both sides I think is so wonderful in being able to navigate the gray space and all those really tough moments.
Alicia: Where do you recommend that therapists start to find that community? I know a lot of therapists are very steered away from like the online communities. so
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: I would never. I would never.
Alicia: I'm trying to be so graceful about it, but people are scared and I don't blame them.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Yeah, I actually don't with my own friends and clients, I'm like, look, if it is a free and open page, the answer is no. Like, don't do it.
Alicia: Mm-hmm. That's great advice.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Like there has to be some sort of thing bringing you together. There has to be some
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: sort of like shared value, shared purpose, shared goal and DFW, you know, or Greater Atlanta, whatever that's not a shared goal or a mutual anything. So I would really say that network in your community. And when you find someone that you know and you like, I want you to ask them, who do you know that you think I should also know?
Alicia: Love that question.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: is there someone that you can introduce me to, you know, that you think I would get along with? And again finding community in fun things too, right? Like
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: not just work things, like again, you're a whole person. finding consultation groups, finding supervision groups, business groups, right? Like people who are also small business owners and entrepreneurs, who maybe are also therapists and maybe even not therapists. I think those are really beautiful places to start. I think you can also find great community and volunteering. I think you can find it in your neighborhoods. I think you can find
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: it sometimes online.
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: I will be totally honest with you, I think online you're gonna find it behind a paywall. Like I think those are the best communities
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: is the people that are invested enough in that
Alicia: Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: shared purpose. there are some fantastic like paid communities out there. and I think that's honestly the difference.
Alicia: I completely agree. And that's why I had always said from day one that I will never have a Facebook community. Mine has always been behind a very small nominal paywall because the difference in how people show up in those spaces is night and day. I mean it could be as small as a five or ten dollar paywall, but people are not gonna pay that to go in and be mean and to be degrading and It just it is such a highly supportive and like shared goal and just really productive place to be. So I totally agree with that sentiment, hands down. And then the other thing that you mentioned with the reaching out to different therapists and therapist groups and even the small business ones, I love to tell people that are going into those that are like, I have social anxiety, I'm introverted, I'm scared, like be professional, but be a friend. Like it's okay to go into those. Like remain professional. You are representing your brand and your practice, but people just want to have friendly conversation and they just want a friend out of these relationships, just like we do going into them. we want this professional connection, but at the root of the connection is friendship and being friendly. And so I think when we break down this you have to connect and have this professional connection. Like, no, you need to go and just be friendly with this person and talk about your shared interests and talk about, you know, the shared Modalities that you're using, your specialties that you have. And it will kind of grow from there if it's a right relationship for you.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: And I think that you know, therapists, we are so good at building relationships. Like when we sit in
Alicia: So good.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: a therapy room, like that's what we're doing. We're building trust and rapport. but for some reason if we like leave our office, therapists are like, Ooh, I don't know. Like I don't I don't know how to make a friend anymore and you're like, Yes, you do. You are actually so good at this. go into these spaces and Build rapport. Like you have incredible listening skills. you know how
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: to ask really interesting questions. Like again, you're probably a really cool person, like if you're in this field. So
Alicia: Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: like go go out and do that. And I think there's something to be said about finding the right environments too. Like I have just not really been into going to these networking events where you go into a coffee shop and like sit across from one another, like an eyeball to eyeball for an hour and have to like have small talk. Like that's not fun or interesting to me anymore. I really like
Alicia: Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: these events that are more like, let's get together and talk about a book, that it
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Is therapy related or not therapy related. or I'm going to one on Friday that's like a shop and talk. And I'm like, heck yeah, I want to shop and talk. Like these are two of my
Alicia: Amazing.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: favorite things. it like I think those are more fun too, because there's something else to talk about besides just Hi, my name's Aubrey. And like this is what I do.
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: and again, just like you would ha talk to your own clients about like if you're if you're going to like a family dinner that's gonna be weird, you don't just sit there. You have something to do. You assign people roles, right? Like you bring this dish, you help clean up, you do this, and then we'll play a game afterwards, right? And those are I think way more fun on authentic and That's when your best self comes out, right? When you're doing things that you like
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: to do. So, you know, I'm probably gonna find really interesting people that I connect with at a shop and talk because I'm the kind of person that would go to
Alicia: Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: a shop and talk. Whereas like one of my dear friends who's a therapist, she would never. Like, that's just not her personality.
Alicia: Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: but she finds different therapists than I find and then we can kinda go back and forth of like, I vouch for these folks and like she vouches for these, you know, more introverted types and like that's what it's about. You're not supposed
Alicia: Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: to meet every person and you're not supposed to be the therapist for every person either.
Alicia: Yeah, totally. And also, you know, obviously depending where you are, in your capacity and burnout, but if you're not finding the event that speaks to you, create it. Like I have a therapist who went through my program. As soon as she finished, she created a walk and talk with therapists at like a state park. And it started with just one of her friends who's a therapist. And then they invited somebody. And then she met somebody and invited them. And now it's like a huge blossoming group. And it's like, It only needs to start with one person. And then that person is going to say, this was actually really fun. I actually have somebody in mind who would also love this. And then before you know it, you have this group, like you're saying, of like-minded people who love being in nature, love walking, love talking in like a low-stakes way about their career and their practice and what goes along with their specialty and the population they're serving. And like that is your way to create that. community for yourself in such a low lift way. Like you're just going for a walk with a friend, you know?
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Absolutely. I love it. I think people are so interesting and creative
Alicia: Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: and if given enough time and space we'll come up with some of the coolest things and I'm like sign me up
Alicia: Yeah, truly. Take my money, put a paywall behind it. Take my money, it's fine.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Look.
Alicia: Please. I respect the time it takes to organize these things. Charge me.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Please. Look, please, I am happy to pay you for your time and expertise because I know it went into that and I'm glad you did it because I don't want to. So here. Run that card.
Alicia: Yeah. Yeah. exactly. glad to be here. Yes. Yes. my gosh. So let's see. If a therapist is maybe in the other end of the spectrum, so they are deep in the burnout and you know, don't have the capacity to create this community and really are just feeling like they really are lacking like time and resources to do anything. What is something that you would recommend as a starting point for them?
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: I someone who is like crispy burned, I'm a crisp you know, a marshmallow that's been left in the fire for too long, burned out. I want you to pick
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: one thing to do. I what is one thing that is gonna make your life one percent easier?
Alicia: Mm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: And maybe that is simply like capping the number of sessions you do a day. And that doesn't I'm not saying you know, and then reschedule everyone. I'm just saying like cool, we're gonna
Alicia: Right.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: decide the limit is six, right? Or the limit is eight. Instead of being like, the limit does not exist. let's just pick one or putting those blocks on your calendar.
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: My favorite one is whatever you're doing, double the time that it's gonna take.
Alicia: Mm, love that.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: So if you say, like it's only gonna take me 10 minutes to do my notes, no, it's not. Put it down for 20 and then just be thankful for the gift of time if you do get it done in 10. percent better is all we're looking for. and if we have a little bit of extra capacity, I would say reach out to someone and tell them how you're really feeling and what's going on. Right, like reach out and try to get some sort of community, even if it's just one
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: person, if that's your partner, if it's your best friend, so that you are not trying to figure this out all by yourself.
Alicia: And it doesn't mean you're failing as a therapist because you're going through a time where you're struggling. I think that prevents a lot of people from being vulnerable because we feel like we have to have it all figured out. But like you said, it's completely different parts of ourselves. Like we can still be the toasted marshmallow in the fire and completely burn to our capacity and also still be a really great therapist, but we shouldn't have to do both at the expense of ourselves.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: We were never supposed to figure this life out by ourselves. Right?
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: As therapists, we know we heal in relationships, right? And we were never supposed to be like, wow, I'm burned out and I have to fix it by myself. Like, no, you were always supposed to have people to support you.
Alicia: Yeah, absolutely. Well, I've heard that you have some freebies for people. Where can they find them?
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: I do. you can find them on my website, www.sage holistic counseling, sage like the herb, s a-g E, holistic counseling.com slash freebie. and you don't even have to give me your email address if you don't want to. You just click on the link and I have a checklist to see if you are the one who is doing the most. I have a fun little checklist for burnout. Then I also have a community care map with a list of my favorite ways to get some community care and make life a little bit easier.
Alicia: I love that. I hope that people take you up on those because very well needed.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Me too. I think they're really pretty and really great. So I would love if other people had that thought too.
Alicia: Yeah. my gosh, Aubrey, I love it. Thank you so much for chatting with me today. I feel like we could have chatted all day,
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Thank you so much for having me and for responding to my cold email.
Alicia: Of course, of course. I love that you sent it. I'm so glad. This was such a beautiful conversation and I know that it's definitely gonna help the folks that are listening.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Thank you.
Alicia: All right, before we close out today, I want to make sure that you know about the two ways that I can support you beyond this podcast. If you're in that early stage thinking about launching or just getting started, the complete launch kit was built for exactly where you are. It's a step-by-step course with 65 lessons that walks you through everything: forming your LLC, setting your rates, getting your systems in place, building your marketing foundation, and seeing your first client without piecing it together from Google and Reddit Threads. And I added two things this year that make it even more of a no-brainer. It now comes with a Squarespace website template, which is a $750 value. So you're not starting from a blank page. And the sidekick is built right in. So you can ask questions or brainstorm as you go instead of getting stuck and losing momentum. Everything you need in the right order with your website and your own assistant already handed to you. And if you're already in practice, but your marketing feels inconsistent or honestly non existent, that is what the HQ community is for. It's a done for you marketing system designed specifically for private practice therapists. Every week you get a marketing drop, five social media posts, two blog post titles and templates, and a community outreach idea with its own template, all strategically built so your time goes towards the tasks that actually bring in new clients, not just busy work. There's also a library of Hours of expert trainings, and I'll personally review your website and directory profiles and send you feedback anytime you want. You also get your very own sidekick, an AI tool built specifically for private practice marketing that can turn a prompt into a polished caption, blog post, or newsletter in minutes, all of that for $37 a month. And as always, if this was helpful for you, I would love it if you could leave a comment, subscribe, and share this with a therapist who also needs a weekly private practice pep talk. It is one of the best ways to get this in the hands of therapists who need it most. That's all for this week, and I will see you in the next one.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Hi, I'm so excited to be here.
Alicia: So excited to have you. And before we started recording, I had mentioned that I was just peeping through your website and I was truly inspired because the way
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Ha ha.
Alicia: that you're able to speak to helping professionals and high-functioning folks is truly incredible. And so I just know going into this that there are going to be so many nuggets that you're able to share with us just about. What does self-care and how do we really overcome burnout? Like are these two really big buzzwords, I think, in our profession and what we can really practically do about them. So I'm very excited to get into all of this.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Me too. I am ready to yap it up.
Alicia: That's what I like to hear. So starting from the beginning, you opened up your practice, stage holistic counseling, after watching the burnout and vicarious trauma taking its toll on the conditions around you. Was there ever a specific moment or a story that made you say, like, this is enough and I have to build something or do something different?
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Absolutely. So I was actually working in a hospital in Texas when COVID hit. So at the time I was working as the director of an IOP as an associate, level clinician. And as an associate does, you just are trying to get as many hours as you can. So I was also working partial hospitalization, inpatient, like anywhere they would let me work. I would be there. And so I saw firsthand how folks were affected by COVID. And again, as an associate hustling for hours, I also had a a second job at a private practice, And all of these medical professionals started coming into therapy. This practice was right down the street from the hospital. And the intake coordinator was like, Do you know who really understands what these folks are going through right now? Aubrey, because she's on the inpatient psych unit, like with these folks right now. and so I really started to be with the helpers and the healers and saw just how crispy burnt folks really were. and I fell into this niche and I loved it and I kept working for this private practice and I got really burnt out myself. I started Sage Holistic Counseling after I had this conversation with my supervisor where I was like, I'm trying to have these conversations with people about taking care of themselves and I can't do it anymore, like because I am unwell. I was seeing up to 38 clients a week. I know, I know, the face you just made is crazy.
Alicia: Wow. Wow.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: I was in the middle of a separation. I was working from home in my bedroom in like one corner. in a chair and I said, I can't do this. I'm unwell. I need to see less clients. I need help and my supervisor looked at me and she said, Everyone else can do it, why can't you? And I said, heard, understood, no one is gonna take care of me in the way that I'm going to, in the way that I need. and so within three months I had filed for divorce, quit my job, started my practice, and moved into a house by myself for the first time. So I am no stranger to burnout in like what it means to
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: really have to practice what it is that you talk about all day long.
Alicia: I love all the context behind that and just painting a full picture of you're so deep inside of stuff sometimes. It's hard to pick your head up and look around and be like, wait a minute, this is actually a horrible situation. And you know, I'm crumbling.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Yeah, actually this is a disaster and
Alicia: Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: I can't keep talking to folks about taking care of themselves when like I'm not doing it.
Alicia: Yeah, for sure. Do you feel like your work with folks has changed since you got yourself into this different situation? Which it sounds like you're in a lovely situation now with your work and your time outside of work. Do you feel like your work with clients has changed throughout that process?
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Absolutely. I am pretty transparent with my clients when we start to talk about this that you cannot heal in the environments that are hurting you. And that's really difficult to have this I love that word that you used, reckoning, of either having to change the environment or leave it.
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: And I know what that's like. I know how hard it is to feel like you have to set your life on fire sometimes to make this big dramatic change. But I also know what it's like to just do these little changes over time that make a huge impact too. You know, I learn as much from my clients as you know, I hope that I can give them as well.
Alicia: Think we all have that hope.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: That's just keeping my fingers crossed.
Alicia: Yes, yes, every day. Yeah. And you know, I both love and hate that you have called it a soul deep or soul crushing exhaustion. How do you feel like that is maybe different or just even like a way to explain the burnout that is specific to therapists, right? Because I think a therapist's burnout is different than in other fields or professions or Things that people are involved in because we are so people oriented and people centered. How do you feel like that's different?
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: I think because we are so other oriented,
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: therapists are so, in my experience, bad at recognizing burnout in the early stages. That we don't even call it burnout until we are at this level of exhaustion and fatigue. It is permeating every part of our life. It has affected every relationship. It is coloring how we see everything. And that's when we're like, I think I'm burned out. And to
Alicia: Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: me, that is because burnout is a systemic level of emotional neglect. And most therapists are so used to that emotional neglect that we don't even recognize that it's a problem until we are so deep into it.
Alicia: I totally agree. I think we're really good at putting a face on about it and just kind of carrying through and pushing through because I think we know what we should be doing and should be feeling and should be, helping ourselves with. But it's like you said, that practicality of it, of implementing those things is easy to forego.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: What I love about working with therapists is that we share the same knowledge base. Like I don't have
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: some sort of magical knowledge that another therapist doesn't have. And so
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: it's really about like what is getting in the way. So what is it about, you know, this pattern of how you've learned to walk around in the world? that this systemic neglect you're experiencing within a system you're in feels so familiar maybe to the emotional neglect you felt in other parts of your life. that you are so used to being like that your needs are not important, that you're dismissed and ignored and that you have to be the one that is doing all the things and solving all of the problems. Like that's probably not just happening at work. Like where else are you doing that and where did you learn that? and it tends to be from, you know, early childhood experiences, family of origin stuff.
Alicia: Do you find that people maybe have a hard time like betting on themselves to go into private practice or feel like they'll be successful in private practice when they have these patterns behind them of staying in these situations and sort of being the catch-all person for everything? Like that feels very community mental health typical based, like in my mind, and I think paired
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Ha ha
Alicia: with my experiences that I've had.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: you know, in my experience, it doesn't necessarily stop folks from getting into a private practice situation, but what happens is that you just rebuild the same practice that you were trying to get away from.
Alicia: So true.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: I know that when I started my practice initially, I filled up my schedule just like I did at this old practice because that's how I was trained, right? Like that's how I taught. fill up your practice, you know, account for cancellations, push yourself to get this full schedule. And all of a sudden I was like, my God, this is what would wasn't working in the first place. Like, why would I do this again? And you don't even realize the patterns that you're recreating until someone else kind of lovingly and gently says, like, hey, this feels familiar
Alicia: And not everybody I think has those loving people. And I think like you're saying it takes us so long sometimes to come to the other side and be like, hey, we're actually in like the same sort of shitstorm that we were in before, but this one is actually within our control and we can fix it. Like we created it, but we can also undo it and back it up a little and fix it, which is great.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Yes, one of my favorite things to tell folks who have their own practice is that you are both the problem and the solution.
Alicia: So true.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Like you created this problem and you will also create the solution.
Alicia: Yes, yes.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Mm-hmm.
Alicia: Great responsibility to have.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Ye i I love it. It's incredible. I wouldn't have it any other way, but frequently I'm like, I did this to myself like
Alicia: Where is the person to blame? It is me. It's very unfortunate.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Sometimes I'm like, wow, my boss is the worst. And I'm like, yep, it's me. It's me.
Alicia: So true though. And I think that like leaning into that control of like if you've gotten yourself into a situation in your practice, like you can undo it and it's uncomfortable. And it's probably difficult conversations and difficult boundaries to put up, but we can walk it back and restructure things.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Absolutely. Absolutely. Nothing is so permanent that you can't shift it, redo it, make a different choice.
Alicia: Yeah, totally. Okay. So I'm dying to hear what are your thoughts on these sort of surface level self-care tips for therapists of have better boundaries, have more time for self-care, organize yourself better. what are your takes on that? And where do we find what actually prevents the burnout?
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: I'm just gonna like roll my eyes so hard. everything is this like very buzzy, like self-care, self-care, self-care. And I am so sick of it. talking about self-care as if it was like the end all be all the definitive solution. Burnout is not an individual problem.
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: So if we are trying to approach it with an individual solution, it's never gonna get better. Burnout is what happens when the system is demanding too much of you and you are not getting enough in. You're not getting enough back. Burnout, it's truly like an epidemic. It is a public health issue. It is a polite way of saying like worker exploitation. When we really call it what it is, like a bubble bath is not gonna fix worker exploitation. and so often this self-care that we see is literally being sold to us. And it's like this treat yourself. buy the bubble bath, buy the massage, like go on vacation. And while those things can be really lovely and supportive and do have a place, it the best self-care cannot be bought. And frequently what is being sold to us as self-care, the people who are selling it are also the ones who are benefiting from us burning out in the first place.
Alicia: It's actually so crazy to think about the consumerism that is built in and baked into these higher level systemic issues of exploiting the employees, like you're saying, and like having people in these situations where they are overworking and overproducing and overdoing it in every aspect and leading to burnout. And then if that's not enough, then we're also going to monetize the, perceived
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Yes.
Alicia: solution of it.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: And if it's an individual problem and you are not fixing your own burnout, like I guess you're just not doing your self care very well either. Like you need to work better on that. And it just absolves all of the true culprits, like, of any responsibility.
Alicia: What would you say to therapists who maybe feel like they might be in this position, but aren't sure exactly how to identify it? And I think this goes into too where you said it takes therapists until we're in like the final stages to recognize it, right?
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Hmm.
Alicia: Like, how can we as therapists back ourselves up a little bit and try to recognize these things a little sooner?
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: when therapists ask me this question when I talk about it with clients, it's always this moment of like, I wish you had a different answer, Aubrey, and like, sorry, I don't like you're
Alicia: Okay.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: you're not gonna like my answer and like it's fine. we have to start practicing noticing things early.
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: and the word that I use for that is mindfulness. we have to start noticing what we are feeling as we're feeling it and noticing what we're thinking as we're thinking it. We have to start recognizing the signals that our body is telling us sooner rather than later. have to get really honest about like what is the problem, because if we don't know what the scope of the problem is, what is really going on, we can't fix that. And so we have to start collecting some really good data about what is actually happening. How does your body respond when a client asks you to schedule outside of you know your usual hours? What happens internally when you look at your calendar? how does your body respond when you you look at your calendar and you see white space?
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Right. Like these are the questions we have to start really asking ourselves. because frequent in my experience the answer is rarely like we need to be doing something more. We truly need to be doing less. Like we don't need to learn another skill. We need to start practicing the things that we already know to be true.
Alicia: I think it's so hard for therapists to specifically to back up in that way and to back off of things because I'm sure you see it throughout social media and Facebook groups. therapists are like, what more can I be doing? And what more can I be adding and doing And I think that they're just on like a freeway to burning out with all of these additions that they're trying to make. And like you said, not really looking at well, what is working, what isn't working, and what can I let go of in the process of, potentially adding different things in.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Yeah, we only have so much time, energy, and capacity. And that's a really hard conversation to have with folks. Like who want to do it all and who want to be all the things and who want to help all the people and like you are only one person and you cannot be the human glue that is fixing all of these problems and like putting all of these pieces together. And that's that's
Alicia: Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: a hard conversation because we want to do so much and you know, we're only human.
Alicia: And going back to what you said about listening to our body about how we feel when we're looking at our calendar or looking at all these different parts, especially in private practice of how our practice is set up and running day to day, you would not believe, or you probably could believe actually, the work that I
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Brother.
Alicia: do with therapists on creating their schedule. And I'm like, you're gonna fill in your personal things first. Like you're gonna fill in your mealtimes, you're gonna fill in pickup in drop offs from school. And do you have a day that you can have lunch with your partner, and they're like, well, no, I have to work from nine to three. but we don't. We don't have to do that. We don't have to follow that schedule. And every time, I don't know, it surprises me every time, even though it's shutting, because I'm just like, we get to choose now, you know, but Like you said, we so naturally go back to like, I see kids, so I have to work from four to nine PM or I see adults, I have to work from eight to four or nine to three or whatever the case may be. And that's the black and white answer. And it's like, well, let's throw in your favorite workout class. Like let's go to the one PM class so it's not so full. Like what a treat, you know.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: my gosh. one of the first questions that I actually ask folks is like what does your life look like outside of work?
Alicia: Mm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Like you are a therapist, but you are actually so much more. Like you're actually a full person. And work
Alicia: Yeah. Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: is probably the least interesting thing about you.
Alicia: Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: So what does your life look like when you're not working? Who, you know, what are you doing for joy and for movement and nourishment and connection and We rarely pause to even explore like what role does work play in our life? Because
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: so many therapists that I work with will do all like the the things, right? Like they'll follow the to-do list to
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: like set up their schedule. And then again, we see this free space, and we actually have a moment to like. Feel things, think about things, and we're like, no, I hate that. Like, I don't want to feel, I
Alicia: Hate.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: don't want to think. Yeah. Hate, hate, hate, hate, hate. and then we're like, you know what, will help me not think about things, focusing on other people's problems. Absolutely, I'll put somebody right in that schedule, right in that spot. If we are so busy with other people, we don't have to think about ourselves. We don't have to think about our own life.
Alicia: convenient. And in private practice, we have the ability to do so. So like you said, we're in control and then we're also in control of the consequences of our behaviors.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: n we are the problem and we are the solution. And
Alicia: Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: for a lot of My clients, when we look at their schedules and we're like, my God, can you please just like have a lunch break for the love? Like just put in a lunch
Alicia: my gosh.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: break. I will tell folks, don't just write lunch break. Because when you look at your schedule, you can move that so easily. Like, boop, gone. But if you actually
Alicia: Yeah. Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: get really specific about like why is this important to you? What if you write like I want to be nourished? Or like I don't wanna bite, you know, my partner's head off at four PM because I haven't had, you know, any snacks or any water. It like that becomes so much more true and real and harder to ignore than lunch break.
Alicia: the purpose behind what you're blocking.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Yeah, like if you're gonna block off yoga at 1 p.m., you're like, well there's a 6 30 class that I can go to. No, 1 p.m. I like the instructor more, and I can always get my favorite spot. and there's no traffic. this is the what we put on our calendar to remind
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: ourselves, like, this is why I'm doing it. don't have to just sort of like rely on that willpower all the time of I put it on there and I hope I remember to keep it
Alicia: Hope it stays.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: there.
Alicia: I imagine that you probably do a lot of inventory taking, I do with folks in different capacities, obviously, because I'm not working with them in the therapeutic lens, but more so in the business coaching lens. But I imagine therapeutically it also still serves value of taking stock of their values and taking stock of their goals. And based on this kind of caricature of therapists that are prone to this burnout, it's not something that they're often doing or practicing. And I think it gets a little uncomfortable looking at well, what is important to me? Like what even is that? And how do I even begin to identify what are these pieces of my day and my week that actually bring value to me.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Well and what what do I say is important to me versus what am I actually doing? These are two different things. I can say my family is really important to me, but if I look at your calendar, am I gonna see that reflected?
Alicia: Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: And that's a very different conversation. and you know, I think therapy part of part of my job and like part of what I'm really good at is to be like, yeah, we have to have some uncomfortable conversations.
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: and you have to have some uncomfortable conversations with yourself because you've been working really hard to not have those. And that's our job
Alicia: Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: in therapy, right? Is to is to pause and be like, what are we doing? Where is this coming from? Is this even still serving you? This overfunctioning and doing too much. You know, that's not like a cute personality trait. that's a learned trauma response of like my life is in chaos and I have to manage it. and it's really hard to live from that place for a really long time. and really grieving that you've had to do that and that you've been so busy and like what did you have to miss and what did you have to sacrifice? You know, working I was seeing thirty eight clients a week. I missed a lot.
Alicia: Yeah, I imagine. And that's only the client facing work. That's not even the rest that goes along with it.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Absolutely.
Alicia: Do you ever find that you come across therapists or professionals in general who almost have this sort of like innate comfort in the chaos because it's all they've ever known?
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Absolutely. We thrive. Like we thrive
Alicia: Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: in this chaos. We have been practicing since we were tiny little humans what it means to walk into a room and be hyper attuned to everyone's emotions. And to
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: be hyper attuned to like small shifts in people's face and mannerisms to anticipate, you know, emotional responses, to anticipate threats and neutralize them before they even happen. And all of those traits keep us really safe from whether like emotional chaos, physical chaos. and they also translate really well into being a therapist. those are skills that we have been honing for a very long time.
Alicia: And it's a skill that we unfortunately are using in a bit of a counterproductive way when it comes to ourselves. Because I think that some therapists can think that they can sustain what's going on because they see the end goal of like, well, I have to provide for myself. I have to provide for my family. I have to keep my practice afloat or maintain my job at this agency. But then I think when it comes down to it, it's like, well, is this truly sustainable? Like what does that look like at the end? And what are you? Willing to risk in order to sustain.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: I want therapists to have as long of a career as they want. And right now, if we look at the state of therapists, we are not staying in this career for very long. There's some really interesting data actually from the herd financial state of the therapist private practice. I can't remember the title, it's all of those words, probably in a different order.
Alicia: Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: But you know, there's a very large majority of therapists that are within the first ten years of their career. And then if you look to fifteen and twenty years, it just drops right off. Like therapists are not hanging around. And that
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: is so sad. Like this is such a disservice. Our communities need us so much. Th people need healing and a space to just be. And we are burning and churning through some of the most talented therapists.
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: And there aren't even enough therapists in the first place. And the ones that are here that have made it through that are good, trained clinicians, like we need them around as long as they want to be here. And they deserve to have the most, you know, beautiful, joy filled, authentic lives that they can have inside of work and outside of work.
Alicia: Do you feel like if a therapist maybe is listening and is thinking, well, I don't really feel like this is me, or I don't really feel like I'm, you know, on this express way to burnout, is there maybe a couple check-ins that they can do with themselves or even questions that they can take to their own therapist to maybe check in with themselves about like, am I truly marked safe from this right now, or am I doing things to
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: I
Alicia: help to sustain myself right now?
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Even if we're not on that path today, our life is always changing. We may be in a different season of our life, you know, very soon, and continuing to check in with ourselves about how am I feeling? How am I doing? How is my body responding to this work? What's going really well? Where am
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: I getting enough support? Where am I not getting enough support? is it truly the work? you know, that may be burning me out or that I'm having a problem with? Or is it that I don't feel like I have enough community? Am I doing too much because I'm afraid that like somebody else won't be able to handle it? maybe I can do all these things when it's just me, but if I start dating and have a partner and I want to be somewhere else at like 6 30 PM, maybe I have to reevaluate these things, or maybe if I start having a kiddo, or I start adopting a ton of dot, right? Like whatever your situation is, as your life changes, coming back to this question of like how am I listening to my body? What is my nervous system trying to tell me about this work that I'm doing? And I think that just takes a lot of flexing that muscle of listening to the whispers that your body gives you versus waiting for it to scream at you. like you said, it's so much easier to make these shifts and changes in your life earlier rather than later. And not that like if we get far down the road, absolutely we can change it. It might be a little bit harder. we want to give ourselves as many, you know, choices and options as possible and the goal is never to just tolerate life or to tolerate burnout but just to live and live beautifully and authentically and you know, be a whole person outside of work.
Alicia: Well, and I think you bring up a good point too, kind of what you were alluding to of like the practice that you start with in the season of life that you start with does not have to be the practice that you end with. I mean, I know even in my almost seven years, the practice that I started with, I was pregnant and I had no children. And now I have two young children, and my practice is very different than what I started with. And it was able to grow and meld and change with me as I went through those seasons of life because I needed it to. it really wasn't negotiable. it could not remain the same. it had to move and shift with me. And I think that some folks are afraid of doing that because you know, are they gonna churn through clients? probably you might lose a few
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Yeah.
Alicia: clients if you change your schedule, but you're gonna fill those slots again. Are they going to, you know, feel the wrath of changing their niche or their specialty because they're just not feeling that's their niche or specialty anymore? sure, you might, but then the other side of it is you're gonna be fulfilled and you're gonna have this longevity and you're gonna have this sustainability. But again, in the eye of the storm, it's hard to pick our head up and be like, yeah, there is this really positive change at the end of all of this.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: That to me this is again why Community is so important in practicing that community care, talking to other people about what you're feeling and asking them questions like how did you handle this problem? How did you solve, you know, this issue? What do you know that you think I don't know yet? You know, and like
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: you don't have to recreate the wheel every time there's a problem. Like so many therapists have done this before you, so many therapists will do it after you. Sharing resources, right? Like sharing this is the best person to ask for this. This is the best book, you know, in the community, this is the best person to refer to. Like having that support, yeah, things are gonna be hard. Life is hard. We've already
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: been through really hard things, but
Alicia: Mm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: having that support makes it more tolerable. Right? Makes sure that we don't have to
Alicia: Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: sit through that s eye of the storm by ourselves.
Alicia: Yeah. And I think even that support can sometimes provide that validation of yeah, this is not a good situation that you're in right now, you know, because we're so good at convincing ourselves, like, it's fine, it's fine, it's fine, it's gonna be fine. And I think to have somebody who's also in our field, and especially, you know, if we're both in agency worker, we're both in private practice, to be like, no, this actually isn't fine at all. Like we need to make a change.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Again, this is an epidemic. It's a system wide problem
Alicia: Hm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: that is this is not a a problem that Aubrey owns and that Aubrey just needs to work harder to solve. That's
Alicia: Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: not true.
Alicia: How do you help to alleviate that responsibility off of therapists? Cause I think that we've kind of talked about as therapists, we're so other focused and we just want to help. And I think it's hard for us to take stock in that and believe in that piece. what would you say to people about that?
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: I would still say go and build your community. I want that community to be filled with therapists who get it that you don't have to explain it to. And I also want there to be folks who know absolutely nothing about therapy who can give you that really honest feedback of like, Why? Why are you doing that? Right, like if you have a friend who works in finance or works at a law firm, they would they would never be like, Yeah, waive that late cancellation fee, right? They'd be like, What are you doing? Charge it now. Right?
Alicia: Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: so having that perspective from both sides I think is so wonderful in being able to navigate the gray space and all those really tough moments.
Alicia: Where do you recommend that therapists start to find that community? I know a lot of therapists are very steered away from like the online communities. so
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: I would never. I would never.
Alicia: I'm trying to be so graceful about it, but people are scared and I don't blame them.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Yeah, I actually don't with my own friends and clients, I'm like, look, if it is a free and open page, the answer is no. Like, don't do it.
Alicia: Mm-hmm. That's great advice.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Like there has to be some sort of thing bringing you together. There has to be some
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: sort of like shared value, shared purpose, shared goal and DFW, you know, or Greater Atlanta, whatever that's not a shared goal or a mutual anything. So I would really say that network in your community. And when you find someone that you know and you like, I want you to ask them, who do you know that you think I should also know?
Alicia: Love that question.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: is there someone that you can introduce me to, you know, that you think I would get along with? And again finding community in fun things too, right? Like
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: not just work things, like again, you're a whole person. finding consultation groups, finding supervision groups, business groups, right? Like people who are also small business owners and entrepreneurs, who maybe are also therapists and maybe even not therapists. I think those are really beautiful places to start. I think you can also find great community and volunteering. I think you can find it in your neighborhoods. I think you can find
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: it sometimes online.
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: I will be totally honest with you, I think online you're gonna find it behind a paywall. Like I think those are the best communities
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: is the people that are invested enough in that
Alicia: Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: shared purpose. there are some fantastic like paid communities out there. and I think that's honestly the difference.
Alicia: I completely agree. And that's why I had always said from day one that I will never have a Facebook community. Mine has always been behind a very small nominal paywall because the difference in how people show up in those spaces is night and day. I mean it could be as small as a five or ten dollar paywall, but people are not gonna pay that to go in and be mean and to be degrading and It just it is such a highly supportive and like shared goal and just really productive place to be. So I totally agree with that sentiment, hands down. And then the other thing that you mentioned with the reaching out to different therapists and therapist groups and even the small business ones, I love to tell people that are going into those that are like, I have social anxiety, I'm introverted, I'm scared, like be professional, but be a friend. Like it's okay to go into those. Like remain professional. You are representing your brand and your practice, but people just want to have friendly conversation and they just want a friend out of these relationships, just like we do going into them. we want this professional connection, but at the root of the connection is friendship and being friendly. And so I think when we break down this you have to connect and have this professional connection. Like, no, you need to go and just be friendly with this person and talk about your shared interests and talk about, you know, the shared Modalities that you're using, your specialties that you have. And it will kind of grow from there if it's a right relationship for you.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: And I think that you know, therapists, we are so good at building relationships. Like when we sit in
Alicia: So good.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: a therapy room, like that's what we're doing. We're building trust and rapport. but for some reason if we like leave our office, therapists are like, Ooh, I don't know. Like I don't I don't know how to make a friend anymore and you're like, Yes, you do. You are actually so good at this. go into these spaces and Build rapport. Like you have incredible listening skills. you know how
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: to ask really interesting questions. Like again, you're probably a really cool person, like if you're in this field. So
Alicia: Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: like go go out and do that. And I think there's something to be said about finding the right environments too. Like I have just not really been into going to these networking events where you go into a coffee shop and like sit across from one another, like an eyeball to eyeball for an hour and have to like have small talk. Like that's not fun or interesting to me anymore. I really like
Alicia: Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: these events that are more like, let's get together and talk about a book, that it
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Is therapy related or not therapy related. or I'm going to one on Friday that's like a shop and talk. And I'm like, heck yeah, I want to shop and talk. Like these are two of my
Alicia: Amazing.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: favorite things. it like I think those are more fun too, because there's something else to talk about besides just Hi, my name's Aubrey. And like this is what I do.
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: and again, just like you would ha talk to your own clients about like if you're if you're going to like a family dinner that's gonna be weird, you don't just sit there. You have something to do. You assign people roles, right? Like you bring this dish, you help clean up, you do this, and then we'll play a game afterwards, right? And those are I think way more fun on authentic and That's when your best self comes out, right? When you're doing things that you like
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: to do. So, you know, I'm probably gonna find really interesting people that I connect with at a shop and talk because I'm the kind of person that would go to
Alicia: Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: a shop and talk. Whereas like one of my dear friends who's a therapist, she would never. Like, that's just not her personality.
Alicia: Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: but she finds different therapists than I find and then we can kinda go back and forth of like, I vouch for these folks and like she vouches for these, you know, more introverted types and like that's what it's about. You're not supposed
Alicia: Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: to meet every person and you're not supposed to be the therapist for every person either.
Alicia: Yeah, totally. And also, you know, obviously depending where you are, in your capacity and burnout, but if you're not finding the event that speaks to you, create it. Like I have a therapist who went through my program. As soon as she finished, she created a walk and talk with therapists at like a state park. And it started with just one of her friends who's a therapist. And then they invited somebody. And then she met somebody and invited them. And now it's like a huge blossoming group. And it's like, It only needs to start with one person. And then that person is going to say, this was actually really fun. I actually have somebody in mind who would also love this. And then before you know it, you have this group, like you're saying, of like-minded people who love being in nature, love walking, love talking in like a low-stakes way about their career and their practice and what goes along with their specialty and the population they're serving. And like that is your way to create that. community for yourself in such a low lift way. Like you're just going for a walk with a friend, you know?
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Absolutely. I love it. I think people are so interesting and creative
Alicia: Yeah.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: and if given enough time and space we'll come up with some of the coolest things and I'm like sign me up
Alicia: Yeah, truly. Take my money, put a paywall behind it. Take my money, it's fine.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Look.
Alicia: Please. I respect the time it takes to organize these things. Charge me.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Please. Look, please, I am happy to pay you for your time and expertise because I know it went into that and I'm glad you did it because I don't want to. So here. Run that card.
Alicia: Yeah. Yeah. exactly. glad to be here. Yes. Yes. my gosh. So let's see. If a therapist is maybe in the other end of the spectrum, so they are deep in the burnout and you know, don't have the capacity to create this community and really are just feeling like they really are lacking like time and resources to do anything. What is something that you would recommend as a starting point for them?
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: I someone who is like crispy burned, I'm a crisp you know, a marshmallow that's been left in the fire for too long, burned out. I want you to pick
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: one thing to do. I what is one thing that is gonna make your life one percent easier?
Alicia: Mm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: And maybe that is simply like capping the number of sessions you do a day. And that doesn't I'm not saying you know, and then reschedule everyone. I'm just saying like cool, we're gonna
Alicia: Right.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: decide the limit is six, right? Or the limit is eight. Instead of being like, the limit does not exist. let's just pick one or putting those blocks on your calendar.
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: My favorite one is whatever you're doing, double the time that it's gonna take.
Alicia: Mm, love that.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: So if you say, like it's only gonna take me 10 minutes to do my notes, no, it's not. Put it down for 20 and then just be thankful for the gift of time if you do get it done in 10. percent better is all we're looking for. and if we have a little bit of extra capacity, I would say reach out to someone and tell them how you're really feeling and what's going on. Right, like reach out and try to get some sort of community, even if it's just one
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: person, if that's your partner, if it's your best friend, so that you are not trying to figure this out all by yourself.
Alicia: And it doesn't mean you're failing as a therapist because you're going through a time where you're struggling. I think that prevents a lot of people from being vulnerable because we feel like we have to have it all figured out. But like you said, it's completely different parts of ourselves. Like we can still be the toasted marshmallow in the fire and completely burn to our capacity and also still be a really great therapist, but we shouldn't have to do both at the expense of ourselves.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: We were never supposed to figure this life out by ourselves. Right?
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: As therapists, we know we heal in relationships, right? And we were never supposed to be like, wow, I'm burned out and I have to fix it by myself. Like, no, you were always supposed to have people to support you.
Alicia: Yeah, absolutely. Well, I've heard that you have some freebies for people. Where can they find them?
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: I do. you can find them on my website, www.sage holistic counseling, sage like the herb, s a-g E, holistic counseling.com slash freebie. and you don't even have to give me your email address if you don't want to. You just click on the link and I have a checklist to see if you are the one who is doing the most. I have a fun little checklist for burnout. Then I also have a community care map with a list of my favorite ways to get some community care and make life a little bit easier.
Alicia: I love that. I hope that people take you up on those because very well needed.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Me too. I think they're really pretty and really great. So I would love if other people had that thought too.
Alicia: Yeah. my gosh, Aubrey, I love it. Thank you so much for chatting with me today. I feel like we could have chatted all day,
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Thank you so much for having me and for responding to my cold email.
Alicia: Of course, of course. I love that you sent it. I'm so glad. This was such a beautiful conversation and I know that it's definitely gonna help the folks that are listening.
Aubrey Richardson MS LPC: Thank you.
Alicia: All right, before we close out today, I want to make sure that you know about the two ways that I can support you beyond this podcast. If you're in that early stage thinking about launching or just getting started, the complete launch kit was built for exactly where you are. It's a step-by-step course with 65 lessons that walks you through everything: forming your LLC, setting your rates, getting your systems in place, building your marketing foundation, and seeing your first client without piecing it together from Google and Reddit Threads. And I added two things this year that make it even more of a no-brainer. It now comes with a Squarespace website template, which is a $750 value. So you're not starting from a blank page. And the sidekick is built right in. So you can ask questions or brainstorm as you go instead of getting stuck and losing momentum. Everything you need in the right order with your website and your own assistant already handed to you. And if you're already in practice, but your marketing feels inconsistent or honestly non existent, that is what the HQ community is for. It's a done for you marketing system designed specifically for private practice therapists. Every week you get a marketing drop, five social media posts, two blog post titles and templates, and a community outreach idea with its own template, all strategically built so your time goes towards the tasks that actually bring in new clients, not just busy work. There's also a library of Hours of expert trainings, and I'll personally review your website and directory profiles and send you feedback anytime you want. You also get your very own sidekick, an AI tool built specifically for private practice marketing that can turn a prompt into a polished caption, blog post, or newsletter in minutes, all of that for $37 a month. And as always, if this was helpful for you, I would love it if you could leave a comment, subscribe, and share this with a therapist who also needs a weekly private practice pep talk. It is one of the best ways to get this in the hands of therapists who need it most. That's all for this week, and I will see you in the next one.
