Believe it or not, if you're a therapist or a coach and you're experiencing the imposter syndrome, you're not alone. I have this nagging voice in my head and all of your colleagues have it too, to various degrees. Today we'll talk about how to work with it, and how the imposter syndrome can actually become your best friend when you grow your counseling private practice or coaching business. Let's brainstorm a gameplan for your business: http://bit.ly/practicegameplan
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About the 6-Figure Practice Program:
The Six Figure Practice with Sasha Raskin, is an online program and community for helpers such as counselors and coaches, who are building their private practice. If you’re looking for a clear, step-by-step road map for creating and marketing your private practice, you're at the right place!
Free resources to grow and market your counseling private practice or coaching business:
Free 22 minutes crash course - "How to Create a Thriving Counseling / Coaching Private Practice": https://www.the6figurepractice.com/free-22-minute-crash-course
Free resources about marketing for therapists and marketing for coaches: https://www.the6figurepractice.com/blog
Free 30-minutes strategy session with Sasha Raskin: https://www.the6figurepractice.com/schedule-a-free-30-min-strategy-session/
Our accelerator program for creating a 6-figure business:
The 6 Figure Practice Program: https://www.the6figurepractice.com/the-6-figure-practice-program-accelerator/
More ways to connect:
Website: https://www.the6figurepractice.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the6figurepractice
Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2174406112863019
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/the6figurepractice
Chat with me on messenger: https://m.me/the6figurepractice
Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCITSmYvj-vpwuWrOuwqYr5w
About me:
My name is Sasha Raskin. I’m a Number 1 Best Selling Co-Author in 12 Countries, a Doctoral student in Counseling Education and Supervision, a coach, a psychotherapist and an adjunct faculty at a graduate counseling program at Naropa University.
One of the things I’m enjoying the most is helping other therapists and coaches build their successful private practice so that they could actually help the clients they were taught to help, and thrive themselves. I’m almost always fully booked, so my ability to work with individuals is limited. That is why I’ve created this program to deliver powerful results and create a community where you will feel supported by each other!
This program's primary goal is to help you build a thriving private practice, in a fun and authentic way. Counselors and coaches invest an incredible amount of time, money, and effort into building their helping skills. However, when their training ends, they usually find themselves lacking the business skills that are needed to start and run a successful private practice, feel isolated, discouraged and not knowing where to start.
I believe that to be truly helpful to others, therapists and coaches have to learn to thrive themselves and definitely know how to get clients whom they can help.
This is where this program comes in. If you're willing to learn and work hard, a 6-figure private practice is within your reach in a year - 2 years. This program will give you a clear outline, and detailed instructions on how to get there.
Transcription
Imposter syndrome can be your best friend when you grow your therapy or coaching private practice
Founder of the 6 figure practice program which is a private practice accelerator. And today I want to talk about something that comes up very often on the one hand for counselors and coaches and on the other I think it's not being talked enough about, which is the imposter syndrome. It's this nagging voice that you sometimes hear that says that you're just not good enough at being a counselor, at being a coach, who are you even to help others, right? It's that voice.
And I want to start with a story. About two or three, probably three years ago, I watched I'm Not Your Guru which is a documentary on Netflix that shows a few parts of Date with Destiny with Tony Robbins and how he works. And it sparked my interest specifically because there was a lot of overlap with the work that therapists and coaches do. And on the other hand, it was so radically different.
So I decided I would go and experience it myself. And the first event I went to was UPW, unleash the power within. There were 8,000 people and it's the one where we walked on hot coal which was a pretty remarkable experience on the first night, right? So very different than your regular therapy session. And on the first day or the second one he talked about, Tony Robbins, about different fears that we as humans have. And he said that the two biggest fears that humans have are (1) not enough, (2) I won't be loved.
And then he asked a really good question, he said, "Who can relate?" And that was the most powerful experience for me when I saw 8,000 hands go up in the air, including mine. And I think just the realization that we're in this together, it's kind of scary just to be alive honestly on some existential level, and especially as a counselor and a coach where you probably feel some responsibility for the lives of your clients to some extent of course, right? It can be pretty scary when you think, when you hear this voice of maybe you're just not enough, you're just not good enough as a counselor or a coach.
And I totally get it. I heard it many times. Honestly, I still have it to some extent on Sundays specifically. Before the work week begins there's this thought of, "Well, tomorrow I'm going to work with clients, and who am I to help others navigate their lives," right? It's that voice. And it passes pretty quickly with the first session usually just because there is the actual session that happens that is very different than thinking about it.
And it's especially a big part of the coaches and counselors' development especially during the first few hundred hours, right? So it's unavoidable and in a way it's paying your dues as a counselor and a coach.
Two of my biggest ones were, I just want to share with you those before we talk about how to actually use the imposter syndrome to your advantage, is ... well, the first one when I came to the US six years ago, this is actually my third country that I live in, I was born in Russia then my family immigrated to Israel and now I'm here in Colorado, USA. I had this big fear of English is my third language; I'm going to be a foreign in a new country, right? So there's a big cultural difference. No one will ever take me seriously, none of my clients. And that was a huge, huge fear.
And even before that I was kind of scared that I won't get accepted to any practicum or internship, specifically because of my accent. So if I'm being very frank it's a little bit nerve-wracking every time that I go live knowing that some of my words won't be understood by you, right? And I'm getting better and I know it's a very, very quiet voice now in my head but it's still there.
And I noticed how that imposter syndrome started appearing more and more and more as closer as I would get to applying for a practicum or applying to the internship or doing my first counseling sessions with clients or coaching sessions. And one of my coaches, Rich Litvin, he said, "I hope you always have the imposter syndrome because that means that you're playing a bigger game, at the next level." Basically stepping out of your comfort zone and that's why you feel uncomfortable, right? Because it's something you've never done before and something frankly that you need to pay your dues to become better at.
And I think that's very important because it's a radical different approach to looking at the imposter syndrome and all those fears, because when I don't need to fight the imposter syndrome, but I actually learn to accept it as this north star, this symbol of me moving towards something that would definitely entail personal growth and professional growth then I can just use it as a little medal, right? "Oh, okay, I'm doing this thing, it's difficult, it's going to require some time and effort and repetition and getting better at and getting comfortable with being uncomfortable." So there is a price to pay but there's also a prize, right?
The second time where I especially felt the imposter syndrome was ... so I'm a business coach and I work mostly with counselors and coaches to help them grow their practice, and you can go to the link below, the6figureofpractice.com, there's infinite amount of free resources there. And I also work with other businesses, specifically start-ups, many of them in the healthcare industry, helping them to grow their products, to help to make the world a better place as cliché as it sounds. And I worked with small businesses for years, but this one was a tricky one because there was this bubble that I wasn't a part of, the bubble of business coaches that work with start-ups and bigger businesses, so there's bigger funding involved, bigger organizations.
And it was scary for me, right? So that imposter syndrome kicked in really quick. So I had to create that first experience of working with a bigger organization, with a bigger business to actually create the lived experience for myself to see that I'm being helpful. Otherwise, just from thinking about doing it I would just be over thinking it and the imposter syndrome would just grow and grow and grow. But I did my best to use that imposter syndrome as a guideline towards, as a GPS, towards where I want to go next.
So all I wanted to say in this podcast episode and Facebook live, Instagram live, wherever you're watching or listening to it, is that (a) it's normal, (b) it usually means that you're doing something that requires self-growth and professional growth, and it is a part of the package. So I hope it's been helpful. And I'll see you on the next live.
