My Fears About Private Practice Only Live in My Head
I met with another art therapist for coffee this weekend. We talked about careers, where we’re at, where we’d like to go, and more. As I talked about my art therapy private practice and how smoothly everything has been going, I noted how differently I felt just one year ago.
In May 2021, I started implementing changes in my private practice so that it could honor my needs (you read about that journey here).
Since I was doing a lot of things different from the norm in the mental health field (like setting a fee higher, choosing hours that worked best for me, limiting my caseload, etc.), I experienced a lot of fear:
What would my clients think of me?
Are other therapists going to judge me?
Are these new changes actually going to work?
I’ve spent the past year working through those fears. I’ve talked through them in therapy, consultation groups, personal conversations with friends, and writing essays like this one.
Since December 2021, I’ve written an essay a day. Today I wrote essay number 287. I’m slowly becoming bolder and bolder in stating my views and opinions. I’m slowly becoming more and more confident as I dismantle the things that scare me.
