Hi everyone!
I am interested to hear from people who have private experience as clinical psychologists or psychotherapists.
I do have mental health experience at the present, as well as extensive experience working in hospitals and other public institutions in Ontario in a clinical (non-psychology) role. I dislike the public sector, due to poor quality of services I have observed, as well as complete lack of autonomy or innovation when it comes to service providers. Working on a mental health or general medicine ward, I have often felt that patients get less than the minimum required amount and quality of therapy to progress. In Canada, particularly Ontario, hospitals often fail to provide psychotherapy. Social workers deal only with financial, housing, discharge issues and most of them do not provide therapy to inpatients. Psychologists are not employed in councelling roles in the hospitals, and psychiatrists barely have the time to ask the patient if they feel suicidal today. To them, the money is the same regardless of how long they take to talk to the patients.
For these, and other reasons, I dislike the public sector in Ontario, and especially the inpatient psychiatry sector.
I am not decided yet on committing to a PhD program. But, I would like to provide psychotherapy services with a Master's and I am willing to put in my best effort into becoming a good therapist, including taking additional courses and training. I want to feel fully prepared to face my clients. Unfortunatelly, PhD is out of my radar. I have a lot of responsibilites, such as family, which make it harder (and even impossible) for me to spend another 4-5 years in school.
I was recently talking to a psychologist in private practice. He refused to comment on the field and just said that it was "extremely stressful" and that "he loves being self-employed versus working for someone".
Could you please help me with more feedback on what does it feel like to provide private therapy? I have to do my research before investing time, money and dreams.
I am trying to think of more specific questions, such as "Is the competition fierce?"; "Do you have enough clients?", "Do you often feel threatened or intimidated by agressive clients?"; "Is the hassle of running your own business taking away the joy of working?". What else do you want to tell me? How does it feel like to be out there, practicing as a private therapist? What are the advantages in this type of setting? I am asking mostly about disadvantages in the previous questions, because to me, the field appears extremely attractive and I am afraid I might be discounting some negative factors.
Thank you to all who reply. I am also open to private messages.