We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Joy Carter. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Joy below.
Alright, Joy thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Setting up an independent practice is a daunting endeavor. Can you talk to us about what it was like for you – what were some of the main steps, challenges, etc.
My journey to start my own practice began about 20 years ago. When I started my social work career, my plan was to be a clinical social worker with a private practice providing mental health therapy. The idea of having my own business and supporting people through their life’s journeys was appealing to me, so I thought this would be a great way to have the best of both worlds.
To be able to practice mental health therapy independently, you have to have an independent clinical license. In order to get the license, you have to complete a certain number of supervised clinical hours that meet specific requirements in the state where you plan to practice. While I was in the process of getting my supervised clinical hours, the guidelines around what hours would meet the state requirements changed. As a result, I could no longer get hours that counted towards my independent clinical license at my medical social work job. The only way to accrue the hours needed was at a community mental health agency. Working in community mental health would require me to work more hours for less pay than I was getting as a medical social worker. I chose to continue with my medical social work job and gave up on the idea of being independently licensed and having my own business as a private practitioner.
Years later, I met another social worker who was working at a group practice at a conference. In the course of the conversation, I discovered that he was working for a group practice as an employee where he was able to get the required hours to obtain his clinical license. The rules changed in my state so that now social workers could obtain supervised clinical licensure hours as an employee or contractor working for an individual or group practice. With this information, I eventually became an employee of a local group practice and began to accrue hours toward clinical licensure. An interesting side note is that when I started the interview process with the group practice I was looking at their website to prepare for the interview. I looked at the page that had bios for the therapists that worked at the group practice and guess who was there? The person I spoke with at the conference that informed me that I could get clinical hours working for an individual or group practice! He was the reason I started back on my journey to receive my independent clinical license. And now he was going to be my coworker!
In February of 2022, I achieved my dream of being a business owner with a private practice. I also completed my hours, passed the clinical exam, and obtained my independent clinical social work license in May of 2022!
Looking back on this journey, it’s difficult to say if I would do anything differently, as I feel most of what I went through made me a better social worker and mental health therapist. My medical social work background has helped me work with people experiencing chronic illness and people who are working in the healthcare industry. I also had the opportunity to train other social service and mental health practitioners at a community mental health agency for children and young adults. This experience has given me valuable skills in public speaking, training, and curriculum development. I have been able to use these skills to facilitate workshops, presentations, and training on mental health topics in a variety of settings. I have worked with a local community college to build a social services department to assist students in getting their basic needs met so that they can be successful in school. Even though I am no longer with the college, the program processes that I created with the assistance of social work interns still exist and are used by the college. I have also been able to support social work student interns at our local university as a field liaison. In this position, I supported students all over the country in obtaining quality learning experiences in their internships to start their social work careers. I still have students reach out to me for guidance in their careers even after they have graduated from the program.
My advice to a professional just starting out who might want to start their own private practice would be to start learning the business side of the practice as soon as possible. While this is not taught in schools, it is vital to a sustainable practice. If your practice is sustainable you can effectively use all of the clinical skills you have learned in grad school and subsequent training. Even if your plan is to outsource business tasks, it’s still important to have a basic understanding so you aren’t vulnerable to scams and such. Base your rates on the calculation of what you need to keep your business sustainable. Make sure you will make enough to pay your business expenses, taxes, and yourself a reasonable salary to meet your needs. Remember that you also need to pay for your benefits such as health insurance, retirement, etc. When you are able to keep your financial and business stresses to a minimum, it helps you to be present during sessions so you can best support your clients on their journeys of transformation.
Joy, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Like many of us who go into the mental health profession, I originally thought I wanted to be a therapist because friends, family, and sometimes strangers would often confide in me and ask for my advice. I liked being in that role and enjoyed hearing about people’s experiences, so I thought it would be a good fit. As I have learned with time and experience, mental health therapy is much more than simply giving advice and listening to experiences. It is creating a safe space for people to share their thoughts and feelings. It is believing that people have the answers within them. Partnering with individuals in the therapeutic process helps them come to their own conclusions about what will be helpful.
My interest in working with professional women and BIPOC issues has developed from my own experiences as a Black professional woman. I was often the only Black person and Black woman in many of the spaces I was in, professionally, personally, and academically. There is often extreme pressure to do more than your colleagues, work longer hours, take on harder assignments, and be perfect without making mistakes. These types of situations can cause a number of mental health challenges for BIPOC women and women struggling with anxiety, often leading to what some call ‘imposter syndrome.” Sometimes these challenges have people considering different paths in life than they had originally planned for. Life is not what they expected when they started on their career and/or life path as adults. Transitional phases of life, such as ending a relationship, changing careers, retiring, or moving can also have people considering new and different life paths. While no two people’s experiences are the same, I find myself in the unique position to be able to create a healing and nurturing space in a world that doesn’t always support and sometimes undermines our well-being.
I specialize in working with professional women with anxiety and BIPOC women’s issues in my telehealth mental health therapy private practice. I provide individual therapy sessions that clients can access from the convenience of their home or office from anywhere in Arizona. My practice is influenced by revolutionary self-care, which is a term coined by activist and poet Audre Lorde. She states that caring for ourselves “…is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation…” Revolutionary self-care is creating a life that is supportive and nurturing. To support my clients’ revolutionary self-care, I am trained in eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy (EMDR) and brainspotting. I also use mindfulness, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and other treatment approaches to tailor services to my clients’ needs. I have over 20 years of experience in social work and have worked in a variety of settings, including medical, mental health, and higher education. My knowledge of community services is helpful for clients who need resources outside of therapy to support their well-being. I am honored to do this work and proud that I have been able to create a virtual space where women are supported and nurtured.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
At the beginning of my career, many mental health professionals made decisions about clients’ care without their input. In fact, when I first started in the field we would do “staffings” about client care that did not include the client in the discussion, even though they were capable of making decisions about their care. I found that what would happen is that the plan the staffing team came up with would often not be effective with the client or the needs of the client would have changed since the staffing session was held. Luckily the views about mental health have changed to a more person/client-centered approach, where the client is involved in their care decisions whenever possible. While it may take some trial and error as they experiment with new techniques and mindsets, I have found that including the client in their care plan is more helpful to them because they were involved in decisions affecting their life and well-being. Mental health professionals have information and tools that we are experts in using to assist clients, which are most effective when we partner with clients in making their treatment decisions.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
It took me 20 years to get my license as an independent clinical social worker and open a business as a mental health private practice. I encountered many obstacles along the way. I even went in a different direction for a time after changes were made in the requirements needed to obtain the license that didn’t fit with what I was doing professionally at the time. Though I was disappointed, I was able to have some wonderful experiences in social work that I may not have gotten had I gone directly into private practice. I had the opportunity to learn to train, present and develop curriculum on a variety of mental health topics. I was also able to assist with the development of a social service program at a local community college and support social work students at the beginning of their careers with our local university. Even though my career path took an unexpected turn, I was able to make the best of it. I found positions in social work that I enjoyed, met great people, and learned new, useful skills
Getting independent clinical licensure in my state is a multi-step process. Masters level social workers have to complete a certain number of supervised clinical hours, obtain a certain number of clinical supervision hours, be approved to sit for the clinical exam, and then pass the clinical exam. I was in my late 40’s when I decided to revive my dream of being a business owner with a mental health private practice. The requirements to get my clinical social work license had changed and it now made sense for me to revisit that goal. I am a Black woman and took the social work clinical licensing exam in my 50’s. I learned after taking the exam that the pass rates for that exam were low for Black social workers was low and even lower for people over 50. I beat the odds and passed my exam on the first try! I have finally realized my dream of being an independently licensed clinical social worker in May of 2022! I now have a business as a mental health therapist and my dream has been fulfilled!
Contact Info:
- Website: joycartertherapy.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joycarterlcsw/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JoyCarterLCSW
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joycarterlcsw/