How Can Therapists Increase Their Income?

Therapists are given some truly groundbreaking financial advice:

Want to make more money? See more clients.

Wow.

Incredible.

Why didn't I fucking think of that?

😂

And yes, technically, seeing more clients will usually increase your income.

But there is a pretty obvious problem with building your entire financial strategy around adding more therapy sessions:

Eventually you run out of you.

There are only so many hours in a week.

There are only so many clients you can see while still providing good therapy.

And there are only so many times you can listen deeply, think clinically, regulate, document, and repeat before your brain starts requesting workers' compensation.

So if you're asking how therapists can increase their income, I think we need a much bigger answer than:

Add another client.

Why Is Therapist Income So Hard to Scale?

Most traditional therapy income is directly connected to your time.

You provide a session.

You get paid.

You provide another session.

You get paid again.

Don't provide a session?

Generally, you don't generate that session revenue.

That means there is a built-in ceiling.

Let's say you average $125 in collected revenue per session.

If you want another $1,000 per month using only therapy income, you need approximately eight additional sessions that month.

Want another $5,000?

That's approximately 40 additional sessions.

At some point:

Where the fuck are we putting these people?

😂

And even if you technically have the hours available, that doesn't mean you have the clinical capacity.

So I think therapists need to look at income growth in multiple ways.

Option #1: Increase What You Earn From the Clinical Work You're Already Doing

Before adding anything new, look at your existing revenue.

Because if you can make your current clinical work more financially efficient, you may be able to increase your income without increasing your workload.

Depending on your situation, that could mean looking at things like:

Your rates.

Your payer mix.

Insurance reimbursement.

Collections.

Cancellation and no-show policies.

Overhead.

Practice expenses.

Administrative efficiency.

Unpaid work.

The amount you actually collect per clinical hour matters.

If two therapists each see 20 clients per week but one collects substantially more per session, those therapists have completely different income ceilings at the exact same caseload.

So yes.

Optimize the shit you're already doing first.

Option #2: Increase Your Caseload

I mean...

It is an option. 😂

If you're currently seeing 10 clients per week, genuinely want to see 15, and have the capacity?

Great.

Five additional clients might be the easiest way to increase your income.

I am not anti-therapy.

I fucking love therapy.

The problem is when adding clients becomes the only strategy available every time you want to make more money.

Because eventually you reach your ideal caseload.

Then what?

Option #3: Increase Your Income Without Increasing Your Caseload

THIS is where things get interesting.

Instead of asking:

How can I fit more therapy sessions into my week?

Start asking:

How can my expertise generate revenue outside of individual therapy sessions?

That question opens up a completely different set of possibilities.

Because therapists know a lot of shit.

And therapy is only one way to monetize that expertise.

What Other Income Streams Can Therapists Have?

Depending on your expertise, credentials, interests, scope, professional requirements, and goals, therapists might explore things like:

Consulting.

Supervision.

Speaking.

Training.

Workshops.

Teaching.

Writing.

Educational resources.

Digital products.

Recorded trainings.

Professional tools.

Other nonclinical professional services.

Maybe you build something related to mental health.

Maybe you use your skills in another industry.

Maybe you build something completely fucking unrelated.

There is no universally correct additional income stream for therapists.

And this is where I think a lot of online advice gets this conversation wrong.

Please Don't Google "Therapist Side Hustles" and Pick One at Random

You find an article.

It says:

Start a blog!

Write an ebook!

Create a course!

Start a podcast!

And now you have 14 new ideas and no fucking clue what to do with any of them.

😂

The question isn't:

What can therapists theoretically make money doing?

The question is:

What makes sense for YOU to make money doing?

Those are very different questions.

Start With What You Already Know

You do not need to become an expert in something new before you can increase your income.

Start looking at the expertise you already have.

What do colleagues ask you about?

What are you weirdly fucking good at?

What do you explain constantly?

What have you developed systems around?

What problems have you solved repeatedly?

What knowledge feels obvious to you but apparently isn't obvious to everyone else?

What professional topic could you talk about for an hour with approximately zero preparation?

That's where I'd start looking.

Because sometimes your next income stream is hiding inside expertise you've stopped recognizing as valuable.

But Expertise Doesn't Automatically Mean Demand

Here comes the part where I ruin everyone's fun.

😂

Let's say you've identified something you're incredible at.

Fantastic.

That still doesn't mean you should immediately turn it into a product.

You need to know:

Does anybody actually fucking want this?

This is one of the biggest mistakes therapists make when trying to diversify their income.

They start with what they want to create.

I want you to start with what people are demonstrating they need.

Use Data to Decide What People Want

This is a huge part of my VIB framework.

I want patterns.

What questions do people repeatedly ask you?

What problems keep coming up?

What content gets saved?

What gets shared?

What topics consistently get attention?

What do people ask you to explain further?

What do colleagues ask for help with?

What are people already spending time trying to figure out?

One comment saying:

"You should make a course about this!"

is lovely.

It is not a fucking business plan.

Look for repeated signals.

Those patterns help you figure out where your expertise overlaps with actual demand.

Visibility Makes Income Diversification Easier

This is why Visibility comes first in VIB.

Before you can collect much audience data, you need an audience to collect data from.

And before people can buy from you, hire you, invite you to speak, book you for consulting, or pay you to teach them something...

They need to know you exist.

That does NOT mean you need to become internet famous.

The goal isn't virality.

The goal is community.

You need the right people consistently encountering:

Who you are.

What you know.

What you talk about.

What problems you can help solve.

Visibility gives your expertise somewhere to go.

You Do Not Need 100,000 Followers to Make Money

This is one of the beliefs that stops therapists before they even start.

"I only have 2,000 followers."

Okay?

😂

The size of your audience matters substantially less than people think if the audience is highly relevant to what you're eventually offering.

I'd rather have a smaller audience filled with people who genuinely care about the problem I solve than a gigantic audience of people who watched one random viral video and never think about me again.

Views are useful data.

Followers are useful.

But community and relevance matter.

You aren't trying to reach everyone.

You're trying to reach the right people.

Then Choose an Idea Based on Data

This is the second part of VIB:

Idea.

And this is where I become incredibly annoying.

Because you may have a brilliant idea.

And I still might tell you:

You don't get to create that yet.

😂

I want your idea sitting at the intersection of:

Your expertise.

What people actually need.

What your data supports.

What you actually enjoy.

If something has enormous demand but you would fucking hate delivering it?

Probably not our thing.

If you love an idea but there is absolutely no evidence anyone wants it?

Also a problem.

We want both.

Start With a Minimum Viable Offer

Once you have an idea supported by data, you do NOT need to create the largest possible version.

Therapists love doing this.

We decide to make a course and suddenly we're planning:

Twelve modules.

Forty-seven videos.

A 200-page workbook.

Three bonuses.

A private community.

A certificate.

A live graduation ceremony.

I am begging you.

STOP.

😂

What's the smallest useful version of your idea that someone could actually buy?

Maybe it's one training.

One workshop.

One template.

One consulting session.

One small digital resource.

Test the concept.

Let actual purchasing behavior give you more data.

Then decide whether the idea deserves more of your time.

And Then You Need an Actual Business Plan

You have visibility.

You validated an idea.

You created the thing.

Congratulations!

We are still not fucking done. 😂

Because products do not sell themselves.

Services do not sell themselves.

Trainings do not sell themselves.

People need to move from:

I don't know you exist.

to:

Oh, I like this person.

to:

They clearly know what they're talking about.

to:

Holy shit, they understand my problem.

to:

Wait, they have something that helps me solve it?

to:

Take my money.

THAT is the customer journey.

And your marketing strategy needs to intentionally move people through it.

This Is Why Posting Random Shit Isn't a Business Plan

You can post every single day.

You can get views.

You can gain followers.

You can have incredible engagement.

And still make almost no money.

Because attention and revenue are not the same thing.

Your content needs to do different jobs.

Some content attracts new people.

Some builds trust and connection.

Some demonstrates expertise.

Some helps people understand their problem.

Some introduces your solution.

Some actually asks them to buy.

If you're only creating content designed to get views, you may build a very visible account that generates approximately:

$0.

Not ideal. 😂

Increasing Your Income Doesn't Have to Mean Passive Income

This is another important distinction.

I fucking love passive income.

But diversified income and passive income are not synonymous.

Maybe you add consulting.

That's still active income.

Maybe you supervise.

Active.

Maybe you speak.

Active.

Maybe you teach live trainings.

Active.

But now your week contains different kinds of work.

And maybe consulting pays substantially more per hour than therapy.

Maybe speaking allows you to teach 200 people at once.

Maybe a digital resource eventually sells repeatedly without you being present.

Different revenue streams have different economics.

Your goal is to build the combination that makes sense for your life.

You Don't Need Seven Income Streams

Please don't turn diversification into another productivity competition.

😂

You do not need:

Therapy.

Consulting.

Speaking.

A podcast.

Three digital products.

Affiliate revenue.

A membership.

A book.

A Substack.

A fucking Etsy shop.

One additional reliable income stream can dramatically change your financial picture.

Start there.

You can always build more later.

You Can Increase Your Income Without Reducing Your Caseload

This is important too.

A lot of my work focuses on helping therapists build income that isn't dependent on client hours because that can create the option to see fewer clients.

But you don't have to see fewer clients.

Maybe you love your caseload.

You make $10,000 per month clinically.

Then you build another $5,000 per month.

You can simply make:

$15,000.

😂

Fucking congratulations.

Diversified income isn't only for burned-out therapists.

It's also for therapists who want:

More money.

More flexibility.

More savings.

More investments.

More travel.

More security.

More choices.

You are allowed to want those things without needing to justify them with burnout.

The Goal Is to Separate Income From Clinical Capacity

This is the bigger picture.

If every increase in income requires an increase in clinical work, eventually your income becomes constrained by your capacity.

I want therapists to start separating those things.

Your clinical capacity can be:

20 clients.

And your income can continue growing.

Your clinical capacity can eventually decrease.

And your income can stay the same.

Or increase.

That's what becomes possible when your expertise generates revenue in multiple ways.

So, How Can Therapists Increase Their Income?

There are really three broad levers:

Increase the amount you earn from the clinical work you're already doing.

Increase the amount of clinical work you provide, if you genuinely want to.

Create revenue outside of individual therapy sessions.

And if you're interested in that third option, don't immediately start making shit.

Build visibility.

Pay attention to data.

Identify the problems people actually need solved.

Choose an idea that combines demand with your expertise and enjoyment.

Start small.

Then build an actual strategy for turning that idea into revenue.

Because your master's degree gave you a hell of a lot more financial potential than:

"Add another client at 3:00."

And I think therapists should start using it.

Ready to Diversify Your Income as a Therapist?

I help therapists build income beyond the therapy chair through visibility, idea development, marketing strategy, passive income education, and more.

I've created resources for therapists at different stages of the process, whether you're figuring out what the hell else you could do with your expertise or you're trying to turn something you've already created into actual income.

Check out all of my resources for therapists who want to diversify their income here!