Are you a mental health therapist looking for additional streams of income? Seeking new and innovative ways to boost your income-earning potential? After practicing as a therapist for any length of time, you quickly recognize the limitations placed on your income-earning capacity and the number of hours in a day. Affectionately referenced as "butt-in-chair" hours, we are restricted to what we can professionally accomplish in our working day and we often also have to factor in how much we can emotionally tolerate each day and each week. Your "butt-in-chair" hours mean you are only compensated for that time. Being a therapist is both rewarding and taxing!
However, your therapist-brain holds so much information and knowledge. All the years you spent in school learning how to be a therapist. All of the hours you have spent reading books related to the field of psychotherapy and how best to support and treat your clients. All of the additional trainings you have taken. Not to mention all of the experience you have accumulated in your professional life.
Finding ways to tap into that knowledge and experience, and generating additional income streams from it, is the next step to elevating your earning power. One way to generate additional income is to find ways to document your knowledge and experience in a way that can be shared with prospective clients and with other therapists.
This blog post was written with the intention of exploring how having an additional stream of income can benefit your professional practice and your bottom line. It will also provide helpful tips on getting started!
Side-hustles for therapists
Therapists have always cared deeply about their work and the well-being of their clients. Recently, side-hustles and alternate income-generating opportunities for therapists have been popping up more and more in discussion boards and emails.
Mental health and/or therapy-related resources are always in demand. Indeed, most therapists I've met have created or put together documents to support their clients. These are the kinds of documents and resources that other therapists would also find extremely helpful - so that they don't have to "reinvent the wheel". I've been so grateful when these have been shared with me! Selling these already-made resources, is a win-win - they are ready to be shared (after a little tweaking) and they are ready to be bought!
If you have not yet created these kinds of resources for yourself, perhaps they have been "stewing" in the back of your mind! These are the resources that could be created during your down-time - in between clients or any other free time you have!
When you are planning on selling resources, you are not limited to "butt-in-chair" hours, and once created, these resources have the potential to be sold any time, any day of the week!
Avoid Burn-Out
Not only does this generate income, but it's also a great way for therapists to avoid burn-out. Creating and selling resources is a great way to diversify income streams, by not having to rely solely on "butt-in-chair" hours. Your resources can be shared with prospective clients or uploaded to online marketplaces. It is an innovative way to leverage the knowledge, experience and skills that you have from being a therapist, while avoiding burn-out from overworking yourself!
Creating therapy resources can increase your professional recognition
Creating therapy resources can also be a great way to supplement and promote your therapy practice. Your resources have the potential to be recognized by your colleagues and by prospective clients and it could become one of the ways that you receive professional recognition as well as increase your referral network. Indeed, creating therapy resources like audiobooks, blog posts, worksheets, how-to videos, or therapy protocols, etc., contribute to you establishing yourself as an expert in your field and facilitates becoming an authority for other mental health professionals. Sharing your knowledge and experience is not only a useful service to other professionals, but it helps to position you as knowledgeable expert in the field.
Support other therapists
As therapists, our jobs are to support and help those in need of mental health assistance. But what many don't realize is that we can also make a greater impact on the industry by supporting each other. Creating mental health resources for therapists to use, such as ebooks, videos, or therapy protocols etc, is also a great way to support other therapists in their professional growth. By sharing knowledge and expertise, you are able to make learning the profession of therapy easier and less intimidating. The resources other therapists have access to will help increase their skill-set and help them become better professionals!
Outline the benefits of creating passive income through digital products
Creating digital products is an amazing way for therapists to create passive income and generate additional streams of income. Instead of trading time for money, digital products allow you to create once and receive income multiple times – even earning money while you’re sleeping! Through digital products such as e-courses, webinars, memberships, and more, you can create many different kinds of resources that provide value to your buyers. Not only does it bring in money passively, but you are growing your professional reputation, as well as supporting other therapist's professional growth.
Developing additional streams of income can have many advantages in your therapy practice. Not only can it provide increased security through passive income and increased money flow, but it also offers a platform to share your expertise, gain notoriety, make a larger impact on the industry, and support other therapists. Creating digital products that address mental health challenges, in a way that is accessible for both therapists and their clients, can be financially beneficial to you and very helpful to your buyers. Whether you’re a beginner looking to get started with resources or an experienced practitioner sharing your wisdom with others, there is no limit to the potential opportunities available when creating resources! So what are you waiting for? It's time to start growing your practice today by taking advantage of the existing market for therapy resources and make an impact beyond what traditional therapy affords. Begin creating resources that add value to the field of mental health and become an established contributor in the space!