Overcoming Vicarious Trauma: How Diversifying My Income Saved My Practice and My Sanity
We Are All Empathic Sponges
As trauma therapists, we do profound work with our clients. I mean, come on - we get to bear witness to the ways humans are able to overcome the most painful experiences life throws at them!
On one hand, this is inspiring and even refueling in many ways; lately I’ve been talking to a lot of colleagues and members of The BRAVE Trauma Therapist Collective about how our clinical work can be a reprieve from the stressors in our own lives.
For me, one of the best things about being a trauma therapist is knowing I can do a damn good job in each and every 50-minute session.
The reason our work can be both a healthy outlet and a source of stress is because we naturally act as empathic sponges in our line of work. Sometimes we’re soaking up all the amazing resilience our clients demonstrate, other times we’re soaking up their pain and suffering.
If we don’t wring out our metaphorical vicarious trauma sponge, it will eventually reach capacity, at which point it can turn into compassion fatigue, secondary traumatic stress, or lead to full on burnout.
Let me tell you, I’ve been to burnout…
The best way I can describe what it was like for me to hit the point of burnout was feeling like I was going down with the Titanic and needing to jump ship to save myself.
It truly felt like the only way I could stop the anxiety and emotional pain that had built up in my work as a trauma therapist was to turn my back on everything I loved most in my professional life!
Spoiler alert - I did NOT jump ship, but I DID make a major pivot, and then another, and I’m sure there are many more to come!
How Diversifying My Income Saved My Practice
The first pivot I made was moving into private practice. I had always worked for large academic institutions and, while I have continued in that role, starting my small, part-time private practice was my first foray into diversifying my income and entrepreneurship.
On the surface, it probably doesn’t seem like starting a private practice is the same thing as diversifying my income as a trauma therapist to help combat vicarious trauma and burnout. The thing you have to remember though is that I was coming from academia, so private practice was a HUGE change for me!
Yes, I got to use my same clinical skills and all that, but I was actually in charge for once! I got to make all the decisions, and I felt so free and empowered (and still do) on my PP days.
Then along came COVID…my husband is a gigging jazz musician and right when COVID started, I was 3 months pregnant. Almost all of his income disappeared overnight, so I had to figure out how to increase my income as the primary earner in our home.
In addition to these financial needs, COVID was, well, COVID. My dad died in April 2020 (you can read more about that here) and being pregnant, I was especially on edge. All this while continuing to work and support my clients through a crisis that was also unraveling in my own life!
Let’s just say I was back on the deck of the Titanic, but for different reasons this time.
Picking Up the Pieces…Again
Certainly the early months of COVID was a time where I experienced escape through my work - even though I felt like my own life was falling apart, it was good to know I could help my clients.
But I was also really really stressed…and it wasn’t coming out in very nice ways. I was SO irritable, constantly on edge, totally isolated. You know the COVID drill! And I was super worried about our finances, searching for a way to mix up the things I was doing each day in lockdown (and beyond).
Then, along came the inspiration for pivot #2 - we were meeting with our financial advisor, who is also a dear friend, and sharing with him our worries etc. He said to me, “Jenny, why don’t you *just* start a membership?” Admittedly, he said lots more than just that, but those are the words my brain held onto.
I of course had LOTS of reasons why I couldn’t - how would I protect my license? Where was I going to find the time to start a second business on top of my PP and academic appointment? How would this ACTUALLY help us?
Me being, well, me, I dove down the rabbit hole to learn about memberships. Then I tried to figure out how I could do something like that as a psychologist, and eventually I stumbled upon the exact support I needed to learn how to make this fantasy a reality.
Fast forward to today - I now run The BRAVE Trauma Therapist Collective and it truly has been a game changer for my emotional and psychological health.
We are still in the early days of The BRAVE Collective, which makes this such a special time in building our community, but also means I still have a ways to go to meet the financial goals I have in mind. That said, running BRAVE has been one of the most healing experiences of my professional career, and I’m so grateful for it each and every day.
Certainly, my story of how diversifying my income decreased the negative impact of vicarious trauma is quite unique - I took the problem of VT and turned it into part of my solution! BUT…I work alongside incredible trauma therapists inside The BRAVE Collective who have diversified their income in lots of different ways and also notice the positive ripple effects of using their skills in different ways.
But Where Do I Even Start?
There are lots of ways you can diversify your income as a trauma therapist, and I don’t necessarily recommend the path I took as it was definitely on the more complex end of the spectrum.
That’s why in this blog post, I am going to focus on alternate income streams that you may be ready to implement right away, no second business required!
Workshops and Trainings
One of the best ways to diversify your income as a trauma therapist is to offer workshops or trainings, whether to other therapists or the general public. You are a trauma specialist, which means you know way more about PTSD than most. Speaking from personal experience, I also know how easy it is to forget that but your brain is chock full of info people want and NEED.
Online Courses
I know, I know - everyone and their mother is a course creator. The thing about online courses though is they are the digital product that can keep on giving! Pro-tip for ya - after hosting a virtual recorded workshop, you can chop it up into a course and sell it any time! Courses help you to reach a wider audience, and can be a great way to share your expertise with people who may not have access to your services otherwise.
Teach CEUs
For many therapists, this can feel daunting - where do I even start when applying to be a CEU provider?? The good news is that after you’ve done the process once, it’s so much easier. And, if you work smarter not harder, you can again repurpose that workshop or online course into a CEU event for therapists that will make a huge impact on their clinical work while diversifying the ways you make a living!
Coaching or Consulting
Being a “coach” has definitely gotten a bad rap, but there are lots of different kinds of coaches, and many ways to do it without any clinical overlap. One of the best ways to be a coach or consultant is to teach other therapists how you have become successful in your career! Maybe this is helping them start a private practice or to refine their clinical skills - you are the expert on your process and others want to learn it!
Next Steps
If this is speaking to you but getting started feels like jumping into the deep end with your hands tied, then I’ve got you covered! My dear friend and colleague, Michelle Risser, LCSW, is bringing her expertise as a therapist coach and consultant to all our members in The BRAVE Trauma Therapist Collective.
If you don’t already know Michelle, she is a therapist in private practice, writer, speaker, coach and course creator. She believes that diversified income streams are the key to more money, more impact, and less burnout for mental health professionals. Michelle is the creator of the Diversify Your Income with CEUs course and the Therapist Educators Mastermind.
Now, if you’re reading this before April 28, 2023 at 12pm CST, you have time to sign up and attend Michelle’s training live! You can head straight to checkout here where I have pre-applied a coupon code that gives you your first month FREE in The BRAVE Collective. This means you’ll not only get to attend Michelle’s training for free but you also get to test drive our amazing community!
If you’re reading this after April 28, 2023, don’t fret! We record all of our guest expert trainings so you can use the same checkout process and find the training in our education library.
Aaaaannnddd….without spoiling any surprises, Michelle and I are working on a very special collaboration to support trauma therapists learn how to diversify their income in realistic and sustainable ways but it will ONLY be available to members of The BRAVE Collective!
Come join us in The BRAVE Collective this month - it may be the invitation you’ve been looking for to diversify your income and enhance your love of trauma work alongside incredible trauma therapists who know that we deserve to be cared for too!
