Community Mental Health

Why Therapists Quit

Curt and Katie chat about the systemic reasons that therapists leave the profession. We look at the work environment, the infrastructure of community mental health, as well as the frequent ways that therapists set up their own private practices. We also identify changes on a systems level as well as calls to actions for individuals who would like to continue as a therapist.  

It’s time to reimagine therapy and what it means to be a therapist. To support you as a whole person and a therapist, your hosts, Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy talk about how to approach the role of therapist in the modern age.

In this episode we talk about:

• Challenges in the mental health system leading to therapists quitting the profession
• Why therapists don’t stay therapists when they wanted to stay therapists
• Obstacles and lack of opportunities
• The lack of quality of supervision or inadequate training for other elements of the job
• The lack of research on therapist workforce issues
• Not a lot of empathy for therapists as we “chose” to do this
• Caseload sizes, the weight of carrying the challenges of many people
• Niche fatigue and hearing the same story over and over
• The challenge of holding the hope for clients and communities
• The heaviness and the boredom of hearing so many similar conversations
• The full workload including paperwork and other consultations, case management and advocacy
• Who is drawn to the work, the desire for deep and meaningful work, and the problems of the bureaucratic system in providing meaningful work
• The training doesn’t match the actual job
• The status quo and inertia in the work, while at the same time that all the changes that happen in the other pieces of the profession
• Productivity standards and billing, differences in philosophy
• Systemic problems with under and unpaid services and requirements
• What we’re asking from the professional organizations and the challenges that professional organizations may have in advocating for these types of systemic changes
• What could actually move forward in legislation
• The issues related to antitrust
• People are more concerned about our patients than about therapists
• Why clinicians in all settings (including community mental health, private practice, etc.)
• The sameness of the workload when you’re in private practice
• The isolation as a therapist
• Increased demands with higher demand, less delineated work/life balance
• The appeal of a job where you can just show up
• The weight we carry as business owners, including decision-making and responsibility to generate income
• The benefit of diversifying your caseload
• Calls to action: advocating for quality workplaces, finding peer support, setting boundaries for yourself throughout your professional journey, what we can do if enough of us make these changes
• The time is now to address mental health systemic problems – shining a light on how we are well-situated, making sure we are paid, and sharing messages to support the community