BOOK REVIEW: “Therapy Private Practice” by Jackie Schuld
Put on your oxygen mask before helping others
The hardest year of my life was during my internship as a clinical psychologist. I have never felt so scared and overwhelmed. I wrote a long essay to figure out why that experience was so very stressful (you can read a draft here). Long story short: I was trying to be “perfect”!
Turns out that people who are “born helpers” and decide to build a career on that orientation have some specific vulnerabilities (as well as great virtues and strengths) that can set them up for suffering and failure if they’re not careful. Good advice about this topic is rare and valuable.
I have received many comments from therapists over the years about my article saying that it helped them to cope better with their own training and career. I led a peer support group for psychology interns at the hospital where I did my training, and I know it was very helpful to them as we processed their professional struggles (and unrealistic expectations) together.
Meet Jackie Schuld
One of my favorite writers on Medium is Jackie Schuld. She is one of the smartest, most talented and compassionate people I’ve encountered. Her essays about life and therapy and therapists and autism are crisp and clear and insightful. She is a brilliant artist.
Jackie has published a book about grief and a collection of essays about autism. She is a strong advocate for people with autism/ASD and wants them to receive the best advice and help possible. Jackie is also a champion for her fellow psychotherapists, and has just published a collection of her essays about how to build a healthy and successful therapy practice.
I am very concerned about the epidemic of “burnout” in the behavioral and medical health professions, and so I am very glad that Jackie has shared her insights about how psychotherapists can take better care of themselves while doing their healing work. Here is my review of her book on Amazon which I recommend highly to anyone working as a counselor/therapist in the current dysfunctional healthcare environment.
BOOK REVIEW: “Therapy Private Practice” by Jackie Schuld
Psychotherapists (and other health professionals) are burning out and leaving the field in large numbers, resulting in a serious shortage of mental health professionals. This was a big problem before the COVID pandemic, and has become exponentially worse in the past several years.
There are two root causes of the burnout epidemic among behavioral and other health professionals: (1) the special nature of people who chose a “helping” profession, and (2) the reality of a capitalist economic system valuing profit over people/health. In particular, the self-sacrificing and perfectionistic tendencies of many people who are “born helpers” and chose to become professional helpers/therapists sets them up to be ideal workers on the for-profit healthcare plantation. Great suffering ensues.
Jackie Schuld wrote Therapy Private Practice out of a genuine desire to protect her fellow professionals from the pain she experienced as she started and built her own career and practice. She brings a very special combination of wide intelligence/knowledge and deep compassion and humility to her work and writing. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), Board-Certified Art Therapist (ATR-BC), and Registered Expressive Arts Therapist (REAT). She is also a very talented artist.
The brief crisp essays in this book (accompanied by the author’s delightful line drawings) address the following key topics:
- Starting/changing your practice
- Meeting your needs
- Thought patterns that impact you
- Marketing your practice
- Getting your fees and money in order
- Policies to support your practice
The author advises therapists to build a practice that respects their true nature and legitimate needs and realistic human limitations. In doing so, they will be able to build a satisfying and sustainable practice/career from which they can offer the same sane advice to their clients.
Every therapist will benefit from buying and reading Therapy Private Practice by Jackie Schuld.
