8 Things I Learned in My First Year as a Therapist
As a therapist in private group practice, I’ve spent several years developing my professional identity. I look back on the first year of my work fondly and with a lot of empathy, because I learned a lot of valuable insight about myself, others, and the world of therapy. If you’re a new therapist, perhaps these ideas could be valuable to you as you begin your job search and hopefully help you get a great start to your career!
Take supervision seriously.
Supervision can be expensive! I’m fortunate to be a part of a private practice that offers regular supervision as a benefit to employees. I think looking at the comparison between paying for something vs getting paid for something, it’s common to see folks not take something as seriously when they don’t have to contribute their money toward that thing. This is not the case for my experience in supervision. When I started, I made a commitment to myself to prepare for supervision just like I would prepare for a session with a client. I got in the habit of regularly reviewing my cases and calling some clinical issues to mind that I wanted some help on from my supervisor. I also learned to do a regular inventory of myself to see if there was anything behind the scenes (countertransference, impostor syndrome, etc) because those things are so important to bring up in supervision.
A good practice will give you the space to try new things.
When you’re fresh out of grad school and you’re working on finding your professional identity, it can be tough to figure out what your therapeutic interests are. I remember feeling this way in my first year as a clinician. I also remember feeling like EVERYTHING was interesting to me and I wanted to dip my feet in all kinds of possibilities with clients. I felt like LifeSpring was very supportive of anything I’d want to try out, and so within that first year I got to experiment with something I’d always wanted to try. It was pandemic time, the vaccine was out, and folks were feeling the impact of social isolation and Seasonal Affective Disorder was worse than ever. I saw the intersection of these two things and proposed a small therapy group idea that would take clients out into nature once/month and work through their feelings of isolation and seasonal depression. Nobody “required” me to try out a group. I was given the space to brainstorm an idea with myself and my director, and we made it happen. Along the way, I felt myself growing more and more comfortable and confident in the voice I had as a part of LifeSpring.
Everyone gets impostor syndrome.
Simply enough, it happens to everyone. I remember feeling unsure of myself sometimes, relying heavily on interventions with clients, and almost planning out every session before it even happened! I found in group supervision that some of my other colleagues had been in the same boat, and it definitely normalized the feeling for me, and allowed me to give myself grace because I was still growing into my professional identity and, from the way I saw it, having impostor syndrome really just means that you care A LOT about doing right by your clients. The tough parts about impostor syndrome seemed to wear off after a little while as I grew in my clinical judgment, and over time evolved into a sense of confidence and competence in my work.
This is not to say that I never have moments where I feel like a “phony” because those moments do arise. But now they’re just moments, and I’ve learned how to adjust my self-talk to promote a greater sense of confidence in myself. If you’re currently experiencing impostor syndrome, I encourage you to bring it up in supervision and see what happens as you grow over time!
The importance of a healthy work environment.
Luckily enough, I can’t tell you any horror stories about my time as a therapist surrounding the work environment I’m in. But there have been several times when I’ve encountered challenges that I could tell would have impacted me much more greatly had it not been for the dynamic of the team I had. A healthy work environment came in handy for me when I inevitably encountered mistakes in my work. It would have been warranted to expect criticism for my mistakes, but I’ve instead been met with grace, understanding, and “It happens to all of us. Are you ok?” before any discussion around how I could improve in the future. I’ll never take that for granted. And if you’re currently in an environment that doesn’t care for and uplift its team, please know there is better out there for you!
How to build genuine rapport with clients.
Going along the lines of impostor syndrome, one thing I noticed in myself and other clinicians fresh out of graduate school was a tendency to lean on the clinical side of therapy a bit too much. I soon learned that, while it’s important to emphasize things like homework between sessions and continually offering tools for clients to utilize, the biggest indicator of a person’s feeling of success in therapy comes down to the therapeutic relationship. Once I learned this, I found a way to incorporate genuine rapport building with clients - genuinely taking an interest in their inner world, mourning losses with them, and celebrating victories with them along the way. To incorporate this into your own work, I would suggest discussing opening/closing rituals with clients, sharing small bits about your own life if asked, and allowing your personal sense of humor and personality to show in the way you present as a clinician.
The difference between simply “clocking in/out” at work and truly showing up as a member of a team.
Don’t get me wrong, I value the idea of “clocking in/clocking out” in the sense that - when I’m working, I’m all in, and when I’m not working, my “Out of Office” message is on and that time is protected. But I’m in my 4th year as a therapist at LifeSpring, and I have yet to experience a true sense of burnout. I attribute this to a few things (being able to choose my own hours, my awesome clients, etc) but I especially attribute this to our team’s commitment to our therapists’ wellbeing and quality time together. I believe this has made a world of difference in how I view my work, and, more specifically, my role as a LifeSpring therapist. Quality time is a value that our team collectively shares, which means when we get together for our annual ritual events, the focus is often on connection, fun, and community with one another. It’s incredibly rewarding and rejuvenating for me, and I certainly feel like it’s been such a force in combating any signs of burnout.
Keep track of your hours toward licensure from day 1.
This was a big lesson to learn! Pretty straightforward, but I definitely did not start out strong with keeping track of my hours. I ended up needing to go back into my schedule and dig into old timesheets to retroactively enter my licensure hours into a spreadsheet, which was not the most fun use of a good afternoon. If you’re on the front end of things, PLEASE find a good excel spreadsheet template, organize it using your favorite fonts/colors, and start off on the right foot from day 1! LifeSpring has a great log template that I’d highly recommend.
Solid documentation is your BFF!
It seems to me that every practice does documentation for sessions a little differently. I’ve spoken with other therapists around Maryland, and it seems like it’s not always the same across the board (although it definitely should be). If you accept insurance, get a hold of that insurance company’s audit tool, and follow it closely. I learned some invaluable skills in my first year as a clinician about how to keep documentation air tight, which always includes updated questionnaires, updated treatment plans, release forms, etc. I also learned how to compose a solid progress note, highlighting symptomology and proving medical necessity for the client to be coming to therapy while also protecting the client’s privacy and striking the balance of disclosure. It certainly seems tedious sometimes, but it also helped me grow in my confidence a lot in my first year.
If you’re a new therapist currently in your first year, maybe some of this resonates with you already! My hope is that perhaps these ideas could be valuable to you as you begin your job search and help you get a great start to your career!
Do you agree with those 8 lessons? If you’re a therapist beyond that first year, is there anything else you would add to this list? Let us know!
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Written by: Mickayla Waldhauser, LGPC
