Private Pay Practitioners Premium Podcast

DJ Burr

Private pay isn't a dream. It's a decision. And this podcast is for the therapists who are making it. Each week I sit down with private pay practitioners and industry experts who are actually doing the work -- building sustainable practices, ditching insurance, and creating businesses that don't require their burnout to survive. Real conversations. Practical strategies. Let's get to work. New episodes biweekly. Join 17,000+ therapists at privatepaypractitioners.com

  1. Aug 12

    S2E36 | We Make Spectacular Friends | Provider Community, CE Training & Bringing Bodies Together | Elena Khazanova

    This week I sat down with Elena Khazanova and I did not expect to almost cry. Elena has been doing this work for over 25 years. She started as a massage therapist and craniosacral therapist, went back for her counseling degree, and built a practice that now centers entirely on provider wellbeing. She brings providers together for connection, friendship, networking, and play. And she trains therapists to become CE providers so that the clinical wisdom sitting inside practitioners who are not PESI favorites can actually get out into the world. We talked about why you do not have to go straight to the APA to become a CE provider, how EFT tapping helped her teach over a thousand therapists a trauma intervention that also protects them from secondary trauma in real time, what it means to build gift bonds instead of trauma bonds in your provider community, why visibility has been the hardest thing for minority and marginalized therapists to claim, and what happens when you get providers in a room together and ask them to talk about their gifts instead of their credentials. She also asked me what my deepest gift is. And then she asked me what the world would look like if that gift fully flowed into it. I did not see that coming. And then we talked about the friends I have made in this community who have shown up for me in ways some of my blood family never did. Friends who sat in the bed with me when I lost my daughter. Friends who were officiants at my wedding. Friends I called from the ICU. We make spectacular friends. This episode reminded me why. If this episode got you thinking about who is in your corner and who should be, let's talk. Book a 90-minute strategy session at privatepaypractitioners.com. Elena Khazanova: elenakhazanova.com

  2. Aug 5

    S2E35 | Career Trauma Is Real and Nobody Is Talking About It | Amanda Chenkin, LPC

    This week I sat down with Amanda Chenkin, a licensed professional counselor and certified career counselor based in Baltimore, Maryland. Amanda specializes in career trauma and has been private pay from day one because she was not going to let an insurance company decide whether her work was necessary. Career trauma is not a phrase most people have heard. But they have lived it. Chronic underpayment. Bullying. Microaggressions. Layoffs. Being stuck in a job that is hurting you because you cannot afford to lose the health insurance. That is career trauma. And it shows up in the therapy room every single day. We talked about how career counseling and mental health are more integrated than most people realize, why career counseling is a Z code in the ICD-10 and what that tells us about how the system values this work, how she structures her practice around bulk hour packages and extended sessions, what it means to leave a system that is not serving you when financial and career trauma have you convinced it is the only safe thing to hold on to, and why the clients are struggling, the therapists are struggling, and the insurance companies are doing great. She also made me think about the shirt I was wearing. Every act of change started with someone fed up. That is why we are both here. If this episode got you thinking about career trauma in yourself or your clients, let's talk. Book a 90-minute strategy session at privatepaypractitioners.com. Amanda Chenkin: choicecareercounseling.com Email: amanda@choicecareercounseling.com Get the shirt: https://www.zazzle.com/fed_up_and_fired_up_bipoc_t_shirt-256653074668722699

  3. Jul 14

    S2E32 | I Don't Like to Be Put in a Box | Sex Therapy, Private Pay & Building on Your Own Terms | Malia Scott, LPC, CSCT

    This week I sat down with Malia Scott, a licensed professional counselor and certified sex and couples therapist based in Lubbock, Texas, and the founder of Rewilding Relationships. Malia specializes in relationship and erotic recovery and has been private pay from day one. She started her PLLC the day she graduated. She knew what she wanted and she went after it. We talked about what rewilding actually means and where that word came from for her, how she built a practice around sex therapy when you cannot say the word sex on social media, the think global act local networking strategy she applies across Texas, Colorado, and beyond, why she quit drinking a year and a half ago and what that did for her nervous system and her practice, what she witnessed working with sex workers through Pineapple Support, and why the numbers are just not numbering for insurance based practitioners right now. She also said something I want everyone to hear. Do good work and have good boundaries. That is the whole thing. Malia has a free webinar coming up on August 27th from noon to 1pm CST called Rewilding Your Practice: The Decision to Leave Insurance. And this fall she is running an eight-week deep dive cohort starting September 10th for therapists who are ready to go all the way into that decision making process. If this episode lit something up for you, let's talk. Book a 90-minute strategy session at privatepaypractitioners.com. Malia Scott: rewildingrelationships.com Free webinar August 27th, noon to 1pm CST: rewildingrelationships.com Therapist Instagram: @rewildingyourpractice Practice Instagram: @rewildingrelationships

  4. Jul 8

    S2E30 | Research Is Me Search | Niche Clarity, Networking & Building a Practice Around Who You Are | Dr. Matt Richardson

    This week I sat down with Dr. Matt Richardson, a psychologist based in Boston licensed in Massachusetts, New York, Maine, and Florida. Matt specializes in high-achieving millennial gay men navigating body shame, disordered eating, and anxiety. When I saw that niche I knew immediately that this person knows exactly who they want to work with. Matt opened his doors the same day he got licensed in August 2024. He came in knowing what he wanted to do, transitioned off insurance quickly, and has since completed close to a hundred networking calls in his first year. He is doing a lot of things right. Getting in front of his ideal client in a meaningful way is the work in progress. We talked about how he built a niche from his own lived experience with an eating disorder, why he struggled to find anyone in the field who understood how these issues showed up in gay men, the networking strategy that is working for him, where LGBT-owned allied health practices fit into his referral picture, what community talks and podcast appearances are opening up, and what it means to make sure you actually get paid when someone asks you to present. He also said something I love. Research is me search. That is how the best niches get built. If this episode got you thinking about who you are actually built to serve, let's talk. Book a 90-minute strategy session at privatepaypractitioners.com. Dr. Matt Richardson: roughwaterspsych.com Email: matt@roughwaterspsych.com

    S2E30 | Research Is Me Search | Niche Clarity, Networking & Building a Practice Around Who You Are | Dr. Matt Richardson

  5. Jul 7

    S2E31 | The Nudge | Private Pay, Trust & Building a Practice That Feels Like Yours | Jacqui Nelson, LMHC

    This week I sat down with Jacqui Nelson, a licensed mental health counselor and founder of Liminal Psychotherapy in Spokane, Washington. Jacqui specializes in religious trauma, faith deconstruction, identity reconstruction, and childhood trauma. She is also an approved supervisor and is hosting her first retreat this fall called The Slumber Party Retreat. Jacqui got kicked out of her church at 28. That experience of profound loss, confusion, and identity collapse is exactly what led her to the work she does now. She does not just understand religious trauma clinically. She lived it. We talked about what it looks like to leave insurance six months ago and not look back, how she dropped half her caseload when she sent that email and then watched new referrals show up anyway, why she pulled a tarot card at a retreat that said abundance and decided to follow that nudge, what private pay has opened up for her beyond the therapy room including groups, public speaking at $2,500 a talk, and a retreat she filled with nine people on her first try. She also said something about the insurance companies that I think a lot of you have been thinking but haven't said out loud. They are predatory toward the clinician and predatory toward the client. This one is good. Go listen. Jacqui Nelson: liminal-psychotherapy.com Instagram: @liminal-psychotherapy If this episode got you thinking about your own transition, let's talk. Book a 90-minute strategy session at privatepaypractitioners.com.

    S2E31 | The Nudge | Private Pay, Trust & Building a Practice That Feels Like Yours | Jacqui Nelson, LMHC

  6. Jul 1

    S2E29 | My Worst Day in Private Pay Beats My Best Day Working for Someone Else | Amanda Morris, LCSW

    I sat down with Amanda Morris, a licensed clinical social worker with 25 years of experience based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Amanda specializes in emotional abuse recovery with a particular focus on autistic, AuDHD, and neurodivergent women, many of whom are late-diagnosed or self-suspected and finally making sense of relationships that left them questioning their own reality. She is an AuDHD therapist herself and brings both specialized training and lived experience to the work. We talked about the insurance and VC platform landscape and what is actually happening behind the scenes, why she deliberately cut from six clients a day to four and dropped an entire workday, what it looks like to launch an eight-week private pay emotional abuse recovery group, how she structured three payment tiers for her group using SimplePractice, Accelerated Resolution Therapy and why she jumped right in with clients the week after getting trained, the IFS gatekeeping conversation your audience has been having on the Facebook page, and why our ethical responsibility to clients starts with taking care of ourselves. She said something that I think many of us have thought, “If I am exhausted, resentful, burned out, and poor, am I the best therapist for anyone?" Ain't that the truth. And then she said something else. "My worst day in private pay beats my best day working for someone else." Amanda, you and I think a lot a like! If this episode got you thinking about your own sustainability and what your practice actually needs to look like, let's talk. Book a 90-minute strategy session at privatepaypractitioners.com. Amanda Morris: amandamorristherapy.com Social: @amandamorristherapy

    S2E29 | My Worst Day in Private Pay Beats My Best Day Working for Someone Else | Amanda Morris, LCSW

  7. Jun 24 ·  Bonus

    S2 | Minisode | Why Therapists Apologize for Their Rates

    You did not set your rate to hurt anyone. So why does it feel like you need to apologize for it? In this one I am getting into where that apology comes from, what it is costing you, and what changes when you stop leading with sorry. Maybe it's time to explore in a 1:1! Book today at privatepaypractitioners.com

    S2 | Minisode | Why Therapists Apologize for Their Rates

  8. Jun 18

    S2E27 | Your Genius Is Already There | Groups, Private Pay & Building a Practice That Lights You Up | Melissa Guttman, MT-BC, LCAT

    I sat down with Melissa Guttman, a licensed creative arts therapist, music therapist, and founder of IFS Witch in New York. Melissa specializes in trauma therapy for highly sensitive women in midlife recovering from narcissistic abuse. She uses IFS, Brainspotting, music therapy, and spiritual modalities including astrology and intuitive development. But what made this conversation so rich is what Melissa has built beyond her clinical practice. She runs multiple consultation and support groups for therapists, teaches a training called Designing Your Unique Group Offering, and has built an entire coaching and consultation wing of her business by simply listening to what people kept asking her for. We talked about how she filled her first groups using local listservs that most therapists overlook, why you do not need three certifications to start adding value, what it looks like to leave insurance panels when you have no safety net, the difference between coaching and therapy containers and why it matters, and why your genius is already inside you waiting to be unlocked. She also said something that stopped me. Leaving the insurance panels felt like leaving an abusive relationship. Every panel she drops, her self-respect goes up. If this episode got you thinking about what you are sitting on and where to start, let's talk. Book a 90-minute strategy session at privatepaypractitioners.com. Melissa Guttman: ifswitch.com Email: melissaguttman@protonmail.com Podcast: No Bad Charts on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube Instagram and TikTok: @fallengoldenchild

    S2E27 | Your Genius Is Already There | Groups, Private Pay & Building a Practice That Lights You Up | Melissa Guttman, MT-BC, LCAT
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About

Private pay isn't a dream. It's a decision. And this podcast is for the therapists who are making it. Each week I sit down with private pay practitioners and industry experts who are actually doing the work -- building sustainable practices, ditching insurance, and creating businesses that don't require their burnout to survive. Real conversations. Practical strategies. Let's get to work. New episodes biweekly. Join 17,000+ therapists at privatepaypractitioners.com

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