Kayla: Welcome back to the Designer Practice Podcast, and I'm your host Kayla Das.
In today's episode, Sarah Binks, Registered Social Worker and Psychotherapist, will discuss scarcity mindset and how it can impact your practice.
Hi, Sarah. Welcome to the show. I'm so glad to have you here today.
Sarah: Hi, Kayla. Thanks so much for having me.
Kayla: Sarah, before we dive into today's episode, please introduce yourself, where you're from, and tell us a little bit about you and your practice journey.
Sarah: So, I'm originally from Australia, but I now live in Ontario with my family. My background is in school social work and community mental health. I run a private practice where I specialize in clinical supervision and money mindset coaching for therapists. I'm also a PhD candidate researching school social work practice. And I teach at a local community college as well.
Kayla: So, first of all, what is scarcity mindset?
Sarah: So, a scarcity mindset is a mental state where you constantly focus on what you lack, what you might lose, rather than focusing on opportunities or abundance.
So, for therapists, they may have thoughts like there's never enough. I can't afford it. What if clients leave? And so, the mindset can create anxiety around resources, whether that's money, time or opportunities. And it can often lead to those fear-based decisions rather than any growth orientated ones.
Kayla: What's the opposite of a scarcity mindset?
Sarah: So, the opposite would be abundance. So, thinking about what actually is out there and what can I tap into rather than being scared and fearful of the lack of something.
Kayla: How does scarcity mindset show up for therapists specifically. And as it relates to building and growing private practices?
Sarah: So, for many therapists, the scarcity mindset can show up in times when they're feeling stressed or overwhelmed. Now my personal experience starting a private practice and then through the work that I do as a supervisor and as a business coach, I see many common areas where scarcity shows up for many therapists when they're either thinking about starting or running a private practice.
So, such thoughts as, I might be even too scared to leave a salaried job to start a private practice. It can show up when therapists are thinking about what rates they should set. And how many, if any, sliding scale clients they would take on. Or it may show up in a reluctance to raise rates over time as well.
It may show up when with therapists saying yes to every client who requests a consult, and that might translate into accepting unsuitable clients. And unsuitable can mean many different things. That could be unsuitable, either somebody who's outside of your scope, or it could be somebody who's not an ideal fit for you. And it just might be somebody who you just don't enjoy working with those presenting problems as well.
It can also show up for therapists in the form of a fear of deciding on a niche or a fear of specializing. And that's feeling like I need to be everything for everyone or else I'm not going to get any clients.
We may also see a lack of boundaries. This is when I personally relate to regarding booking times, for clients at any time based on their availability and not on yours. And so, if you do have set shifts, And you're like, okay, I'm going to work with private practice clients in these hours, that will play out that you're actually now booking outside of shift to meet their needs and ignoring your own.
It can also show up with a resistance to taking breaks or to taking time off. So that fear-based thinking that I need to be booking back-to-back-to-back or booking days off or taking time off for things like vacation or family time.
And then there's two final areas, not final, but two final areas I'm going to refer to. That scarcity mindset can really limit clinicians marketing and investment in their business. Now, it isn't something we learned at grad school, how to do marketing. I know for me, I certainly didn't learn anything about marketing or running a business in my social work degree. And so, a scarcity mindset can really show up when you're thinking about investing in things like a website or professional photos or having a client management system. Or if you provide virtual services, are you investing in lighting in a quality camera? Have you set up your background to be professional and approachable?
And often the scarcity mindset traps therapists into thinking that they need to make the money first before investing in the business. And that limiting investment, we also see that extend to investing in supervision. Some therapists will be like, well, I can't afford supervision, but we know that's a key important part for ethical practice. It my limit their investment in professional development and training as well. A scarcity mindset can really hamper growth and really stop therapists flourishing and thriving in private practice.
I couldn't agree more with all of those points. One that I see a lot is the fear of niching down. I look at it as when we're first starting our private practices, a lot of people start as generalists. And there's a couple reasons for that. Sometimes people do want to test the water and see who they want to work with.
But a lot of times when I'm working with therapist in my business coaching, a lot of it comes to, well, if I don't work with everyone, what if I don't get enough clients? So, the scarcity mindset is cutting in, right?
And unfortunately, what's happening is that they're not getting enough clients because they're not able to market themselves in a way that the client sees that, yes, this person is a fit for me. This therapist fits what I need as a therapist because I'm experiencing hypothetically workplace burnout. I want someone who is going to be really specific about that's what they serve.
However, when we're quote unquote a generalist and we're a fear of specializing or niching down, our clients aren't feeling that connection through any of our marketing, whether it's your Psychology Today profile, whether it's your website, whether it's your social media, whether it's an ad that you put out in the local newspaper. It doesn't matter, but As a generalist, you're going to see less clients because clients aren't feeling connected.
And there's nowhere else that we would expect someone to work with everyone. For instance, even as a therapist working in any type of center, whether it's a hospital, not for profit, another private practice, usually you're there for a specific reason.
Even if you're working in a hospital, you're hired usually on a specific ward, or a specific department, working with a specific type of client. The same if you're working in a non for profit. I used to work in domestic violence shelters. Obviously, that's a very specific niche. Usually, in every other job that we would get hired, we would be working with a single population or at least an umbrella type of population.
However, when we go into our own practices, we think we have to work with everyone. And this could also have ethical considerations, because if you're not referring out, if it's outside of your scope of practice, that can cause some issues, not only for you, but for the client as well.
Really, we should be working with a small subsection of clients and then making our way up as we start building our skills, our competencies, and our trainings, but we do it the opposite way.
Sarah: Yeah, that's such a great point, I think, because the scarcity mindset gets us stuck in the fear, right? And then that absolutely has the potential to compromise ethical practice. 100%. And that is so important. And I think in terms of the concept of abundance it's something to be embraced. Because if you do have this underlying belief that there are enough clients for everyone. It will take a little bit of the edge off that fear. And it's really important to recognize that if we are saying no to somebody, that doesn't mean that there's going to be no more clients coming, right? We're actually then creating space where our client’s ideal client can come in and there is going to be time and space for that person on our caseload.
Kayla: I agree. If listeners are nodding along and they're saying, yes, this is definitely me, I'm experiencing scarcity mindset. Do you have any steps or strategies that listeners can take to start overcoming this mindset?
Sarah: Absolutely. The first thing I did, I heard about manifestation and abundance, probably about a year before I actually decided to look into it. I am very much a type A, extremely practical person. And so, for me, I thought it was way too woo woo for me. But when I actually, open myself up to hearing about it and just through podcasts and audio books from the library and things like that, I encourage anyone to open themselves up with open skepticism to the concepts of abundance.
I think it is something that no matter how you really feel about it, whether you're all in or you're sort of staying openly skeptical. What was interesting for me from learning from the laws of attraction approach was there is a lot of alignment with the modalities and approaches we use in therapy. And I was able to make those connections like, oh, that's really interesting in terms of the mindset work and very simply an abundance mindset for therapists in private practice, just means recognizing that there is enough opportunities, clients, and resources for everyone. And having faith that we don't need the proof before we can believe it, but having that faith so that when we refer out, like you mentioned, or when we specialize or when we raise our rates, we're not losing opportunities, but we're creating space for those more suitable clients.
And it really helps view in terms of competition from other therapists. Sometimes the fear of referring out is because of the protectionist or the fear of joining consultation groups or supervision groups is the fear that if I share my wisdom with others, then they'll take all my clients. And the abundance mindset shifts that away from that scarcity to thinking about our peers, our other therapists, not as competitors, who's their success is going to diminish your potential. But it's believing that investing in yourself and your practice creates more value and not less.
Kayla: I am totally relating to everything that you're saying. And one of the things I do in my business coaching is I never look at it as competitors. Actually, I've even had quote unquote competitors on this podcast sharing their services and what they provide. And it's because I believe collaboration is the key to success. Not competition.
And the truth is, if we open up our mind that even if it's other therapists, maybe having this referral relationship with a couple different therapists, people might be thinking, well, they'll take my clients or they'll get some ideas from me. But they'll send you clients, you'll build this network of community that if they need to refer someone out, you're already on their list.
I know for me, the biggest growth I've seen, and again, this is my business coaching practice, is when I actually opened up the idea that I can connect with quote unquote competitors and I'm saying that, specifically. Because they're going to share me to their communities, and I'm going to share them with mine, and we can all benefit from that.
And even though as therapists, some clients, obviously, we don't want our clients seeing multiple therapists at a time. But there may be a time where they work with one therapist, and, for whatever reason, they want to work on a different issue, or maybe they've gotten what they can out of sessions, or maybe it's just not a fit.
I mean, I don't know about you, but I know there's lots of times that, I've been with all types of practitioners who I try it out, but it's just not a fit. Maybe I should try someone else, has nothing to do with the other therapist. But then you're there like, oh, I remember that this person talked about this person, or I heard this person on a podcast or whatever it is.
And I think that it's really important to acknowledge that collaboration really is the key. At least I'm going to say that in my business, that is how I grew is through collaboration. And if I can say to anyone, do it, do it.
Sarah: It is so important because being in private practice is so isolating, right? Either you're in a solo practice or if you're part of a group practice, your hours may not align up. So, it's very different to agency work where maybe you had a staff room, maybe you had times where you'd be standing by the kettle, waiting for your tea. There was those incidental sort of those doorway conversations, which in a lot of people in private practice and now, especially since the pandemic, as we've moved into a lot of virtual practitioners.
So, being able to open yourself up to an abundance mindset and know that these aren't my competitors. These are my peers and being able to have a network can really help not just grow your business, but that connection in that community, which are all so important. So important to build your own mental health as a clinician to really prevent burnout, minimize compassion fatigue and having somebody just to be like, oh, I get it.
But then also having someone to be able to celebrate your wins with too. And if something great happens in your life, they're able to be there and celebrate that with you as well, without feeling like it's taking away from them and their own practice.
Kayla: I agree. 100%. Do you have any additional advice, insights, or tips for listeners who may be experiencing scarcity mindset when it comes to their practice, but want to start moving towards a more abundant business?
Sarah: Yeah, think the second thing that I found extremely helpful in challenging my scarcity mindset was learning about my money mindset and how I do money and how my thinking around money impacts it. My thinking around scarcity and my thinking around abundance. And what I found extremely helpful for challenging my scarcity mindset was learning about Kendall Summerhawk's sacred money archetypes.
I was so moved by what I learned when I first took the quiz to find out what my top three of the eight sacred money archetypes I have. It was so illuminating to see how my archetypes were impacting my money mindset in running my private practice so much so that I then invested in becoming certified as a Sacred Money Archetypes coach. And launched my coaching business alongside my private practice.
And when this might be something completely new to you in terms of what are the sacred money archetypes. So, I definitely will leave a link in the show notes for more information, but just to sort of talk generally about it. I find that by understanding the strengths and challenges of your distinct money personality type, it can identify patterns in your behavior that impact your money and your business decisions, and especially as it relates to scarcity and abundance.
And then that really links with your ability to thrive in private practice. So, I want to give you some of my own personal experience. So, my top three archetypes, nurturer, accumulator and ruler. It's okay if you don't know what they are just yet, but finding out about these three and the challenges and strengths associated with those threes just helped me understand why I struggled so much in the beginning when setting up my private practice.
So, for me, I struggled so much with setting boundaries around charging for cancellations. I would jump in and automatically offer a discount or a sliding scale fee because I was terrified. And really, I would constantly book outside of my scheduled hours.
When I found out about my archetypes, it was like a light bulb moment. I was just like, this makes total sense. And then really it helped me understand why I was resistant to investing in advertising and growing my business. It took me a year to get my website up and running. And I just was stuck. And that's what scarcity mindset does to you. You just get stuck and you feel like you don't know the way forward. And so, by learning about an abundance mindset and learning about how this relates to my money archetypes-- it wasn't wave a magic wand and it was all fixed, but it gave me those next steps.
What do I need to do first to start to be my authentic self? To not follow a cookie cutter, this is how business should run, but what do I need as a nurturer to feel like I'm looking after my clients? What do I need from that accumulator mindset who is concerned about money and wants to have all the information? And really before making a decision to invest in business wants to make sure that there's a specific return on investment. So, it really allowed me to develop my business that really attuned into my values and really fit with my money mindset. So that I could reduce the scarcity, reduce the fear, and then really tailor my private practice to my own style.
And when you're honoring your authenticity, your clients can feel that you show up invigorated and open. And that just translates into more effective practice because you're aligning yourself with those things. You're not doing the icky things that make you cringe, sometimes sales tactics that just don't sit well. And you might not know why, but sometimes if you're able to find out about your archetypes, then you're like, okay, now I get it. Now I understand why that was so cringe to me.
Kayla: So, I know you actually have a free quiz that's specifically tailored toward therapists. Can you tell us what it is and how it can help listeners?
Sarah: Absolutely. So, like I said before, I believe so much, and I saw the differences made in my private practice when I first started that by becoming a Certified Sacred Money Archetypes coach, I now have access to the tools.
So I have the free quiz on my website that, our listeners can take, and you find out what your top three sacred money archetypes are and then I have information on that in terms of how this relates specifically to therapists in private practice and how you can help move from scarcity thinking into a more abundance mindset to help your private practice thrive.
And it really provides some powerful insights in opportunities that you can take to grow and invest in your private practice as well.
Kayla: So, to take Sarah's free sacred Money Archetypes quiz for therapists, check out sarahbinks.com.
Or you can simply scroll down to the show notes and click on the link.
Sarah, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today to discuss scarcity mindset and how it can impact our practice.
Sarah: Thank you so much, Kayla, for having me. It's been wonderful.
Kayla: Thank you everyone for tuning in to today's episode and I hope you join me again soon on the Designer Practice Podcast.
Until next time, bye for now.
