Blog
10 tips for counting and tracking your counseling internship hours
Completing your counseling internship requires keeping track of a lot of things. I was never so grateful for my strange love of spreadsheets as when I was a counseling intern. I had about a billion things to keep track of and it really helped me out. And with all those things you have to keep track of, it’s easy to let little details slip through the cracks. That time you spent treatment planning and looking up mindfulness exercises online for your client? The extra 15 minutes you spent consulting on the phone with the parent of a teen client...
read moreBeing a turtle and why it’s bad for business
Today was revolutionary. I walked out of the house carrying only my planner and a cup of tea. Why’s that such a big deal? I’ve been a turtle for a long time—carrying all the comforts of home & then some with me wherever I go. My turtling habits started early. As a kid, I used to heap all of my textbooks into my backpack. (Yes, all of them.) I tipped over more than once while sitting due to the sheer weight of my backpack. It was embarrassing. Why did I insist on packing it all along with me? I was worried about being late to class. Maybe...
read moreDon’t be a “perfect” intern
I don’t like working with perfect interns. Well, maybe that’s a bit silly to say. Because no one’s perfect. What I really mean is interns who are so preoccupied with being perfect or the best that they are closed off to learning. I speak from some experience, here. I used to struggle with this a ton in my own internship. The line between being high-achieving and being a perfectionist can be very thin sometimes. And being a motivated worker can get you very far in life, regardless of your line of work. So it’s hard to know when being...
read moreLPC interns: what counts as direct and indirect internship hours?
Today’s post is about gray areas. Specifically, it’s about tallying hours for internship, and what counts for direct and indirect hours for LPC-interns in Texas. Working in the gray When it comes to ethics and board rules in the counseling profession, it’s a mixed bag. In some places, details are very clearly spelled out. With others, things are gray, asking us to take into account the context and the therapeutic implications of our choices. There are some good reasons for this. An ethics code needs to offer guidance on appropriate...
read moreMaking peace with marketing as a therapist or counselor
But first, a few marketing horror stories. Just because. A couple of months ago, I was in a car supply shop, trying to get a large sponge and some buckets. The birds in my neighborhood have a thing for my car, and I needed to give it a really good washing. It was only after I returned home with the goods that I realized I can’t give my car a wash when Austin is in stage 2 water restriction. (But that’s a tangent for another time.) So when I got into the store, I made a beeline for the supplies. I was in a hurry, I knew what I needed, and I...
read moreHow to get the supervision you want
If you haven’t yet matched with a supervisor for your post-graduate internship, this post is for you. If you plan on being assigned a supervisor as a part of your full-time employment, this post is for you. If you are unhappy with your relationship with your current supervisor, this post is for you. Why? This post will help you climb inside your current/future supervisor’s head. It will give you a competitive edge during interviews. And, it will go a long way towards cultivating a positive supervisor-supervisee relationship, whether or not...
read more7 tips for introverts building a private practice
I remember being an itchy angel in the nativity scene one Christmas season. Crooked halo, wings off-kilter, standing in a patch of sparse hay—out in the middle of a Texas “winter” that somehow still managed to be muggy and uncomfortably warm. One of the joys of living in Houston as a child, I guess. Growing up, I bet you were in your fair share of recitals, plays or sing-a-longs, too. Book reports in front of the class. Presentations about the rainforest. That sort of stuff. As an introvert, these projects often terrified me. I would get...
read moreTherapy is not peanut butter
Someone really startled me at last month’s licensing workshop. They asked me a really (good) unexpected question. They said: “Everyone tells me that the Austin market is saturated with therapists. So, why would someone bother pursuing their LPC or LMFT? Do we really need more therapists in this town?” I really had to stop and think about it. Not because I wasn’t sure of my answer, but that I wasn’t sure how best to explain why… Therapy is not peanut butter Here’s what I think. Even though Austin—or wherever...
read more5 people thought this was a terrible idea.
If you’re signed up for my newsletters, you already know about the fabulous, FREE Mind Your Own Business conference that’s going on right now. Yes, it’s a free conference for therapists on building and growing your private practice. Yes, it’s online & happening now, from July 6th through the end of the month. Yes, it’s kind of silly that it is free. But if you’re new here, I need to tell you something. In fact, even if you’re a newsletter subscriber, there’s something you should know, too....
read moreOne simple tip that will set you apart
Today’s post is about an important but often overlooked piece of common sense. In my workshops, I often tell people that progress in internship (and private practice) has to do with building relationships. If you’re only a couple of semesters into your program, or you’ve long since graduated and are looking to move positions or transition to private practice, the message is the same: you can’t succeed without building heartfelt, meaningful relationships with others. Whether you’re building relationships with professors, classmates, future...
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