20 Ideas To Make Passive Income As A Therapist
Use your intelligence and professional knowledge to create value.
Let’s be clear, as therapists, most of us are intrinsically motivated to help others. We feel offended when people point fingers at us with the money talk because, trust me, we did not choose this career because we wanted money. We genuinely LOVE what we do.
Nonetheless, our profession is expensive and lengthy.
We go to school for at least seven years. Not to forget, it is quite unlikely to find a scholarship for a graduate mental health program. The internship training is not financially convenient, either. We pay pretty expensive credits to complete our internship. We have to cover all of our transportation expenses (I had a long and unpleasant commute) plus our own liability insurance. Side note — the internship is unpaid.
When we finally finish school, we jump into a meager entry-level salary (USD 40k/year, if you are lucky). And let’s not get too excited here because, at this point, we are not even licensed yet!
So this is when we must start our supervised hours, ranging from USD 80–120 per session. There goes 1/4 of our salary for the following two years. The licensure process also requires us to get money out of our pockets. I would say, at least, USD 600. Finally, let’s not even go into details about student loans because that will make me want to cry a little.
When I say “therapists want to make money,” it is because we earnestly need an income to financially endure all the years in where we are not “distinguished” clinicians yet.
Not to diminish our importance in any way, but let’s be honest. When we are not yet licensed, do not have enough years of experience, or have not started a notable practice, making a sustainable salary is a true challenge. I am 99% confident you are almost nodding as you read.
There are several ways in which you can create passive income streams to support your living expenses. I hope you can get some inspiration from this list that I created for my fellow clinicians. So let’s cut short the blah-blah-blah and get down to business!
IDEAS TO MAKE MONEY AS A THERAPIST
1. Use your intelligence and professional knowledge to create value in your community.
- Create a Youtube Channel and educate people about your career path, job, or interests.
- Become a mentor/tutor for students in undergrad/grad school
- Create courses and workshops for sale in Udemy
- Offer value and create your own community with Patreon.com
- Start a podcast: Click here for an Udemy course on how to start a podcast
- If you enjoy writing, write a book on Amazon KDP (no upfront costs!): Check out the books I am selling
- Or get paid to blog for passive income: I obviously recommend Medium.com
- Become a consultant for therapists (ideas: marketing, private practice, social media, office design, etc.…).
2. Use your community and expand your network. You never know where it will take you.
- Reach out to schoolmates and alumni. Find out what they are doing, where they work, and how their journey has been since graduation.
- Do LinkedIn searches. Explore what people with similar degrees are doing, and if you are feeling a little extra social, take a shot and message them. Do not be afraid; most people like to help. Some won’t answer, and what’s the big deal?
- Use social medial to put your name out there. Instagram has a lovely mental health community that has certainly changed my life!. My best friend and I created a company that was born on IG and is not doing amazingly well!
- In summary, find inspiration from others, connect, ask for help, and look for opportunities to participate in this field. You will never know what’s out there if you stay stagnant and afraid.
3. Think outside the box. You can make money in alternative ways while you are growing as a professional.
- Do affiliate marketing. Sign up with companies that you like, and promote their services for profit. E.g., HelloFresh
- Create a product and sell it — for example, Amazon FBA — private labeling on Amazon.
- Find a product and sell it — for example, find a product in Aliexpress and drop-ship it via Shopify. Check out my Shopify website.
- If you like arts and crafts, get your Cricut already!
- If you are computer savvy and hold a spark of creativity, get a Fiverr account, and provide digital services.
- Invest in stocks: Check out Robinhood.com (you will get free stocks for simply clicking here)
- Invest in Cryptocurrencies: Check out Coinbase. Get $10 in Bitcoin by just signing up with my link.
- Learn to trade currencies — I recommend taking a look at The Currency Nomad.
Thanks for Reading!
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Note: Some links mentioned in this article are affiliate links. If you choose to purchase these products through these links, it will help me earn a small amount of money — at no extra cost to you. Thanks!)
Daniela Marin | Licensed Therapist|Founder of HealingRight
