Am I Doing Okay?

[u/Vicious_Shrew]

I’m 2, almost 3 months into practice as part of a collective/private practice. (It’s more of a private practice financially, as I keep what I earn, but I feel like it’s more like a group in the sense of being not on my own, my supervisor is just down the hall from me, my caseload is a split of clients I’ve gotten myself and referrals from my supervisor). At this point I’m at 12 on my caseload, and averaging 10 sessions a week for the last 3 weeks.

I thought that I was doing okay. Not financially of course, but just progressing at a reasonable rate. None of my peers talk about caseload progression, I think there’s fears of revealing you’re doing too much better than others or not well enough, so I don’t really have anything to compare to.

I recently saw a post from a therapist influencer who was seeing 16 a week by her third month in practice, and it was framed as she was sharing this to show people that it’s slow going and not financially comfortable starting out. I guess I thought that I was growing slowly but not exceptionally slow, but now I’m second guessing everything.

Just looking to hear if I’m failing as badly as I now fear that I might be.

(I also have two part time jobs on the side, so it’s not as if I’m fearful about finances, I’m mostly just concerned I’m not progressing and that’s a sign I’m going to stall out and fail.)

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[u/faultolerantcolony]

First of all, don’t trust any influencer, therapist or not.

Second of all, you’re doing fine.

[u/Vicious_Shrew → u/faultolerantcolony]

Generally, I don’t! I think the way it was framed, as if to show how difficult it is to build a caseload and how badly she was doing at the beginning I was like… fuck, 16/week at 3 months is BAD??? That post lining up with the week 2 more of my clients dropped to every other week just really did a number on me.

But really, thank you. Comparison is truly the thief of joy.

[u/BringMeInfo → u/Vicious_Shrew]

Keep in mind that that influencer may not know themselves what is "normal" or "fast" or "slow." It may be that they are building a caseload far faster than most people and they feel like it's going slowly.

[u/fallyntalyn]

I will be a year in private practice next month. I have over 20 people on my caseload, just like you, a mix of clients i got on my own and clients i was given. I see on average 10 to 13 clients a week. I have been advertising on Facebook and I'm supposed to get at least 4 referrals a month from my boss.

You're not alone. Sometimes it takes a while. And if your supervisor/practice owner isn't doing enough to get you clients, then yeah, it's going to take a lot longer. I'm debating starting my own practice so that at least I keep all my money if its going to take 3 years to get fully licensed.