Feb 05 2025 19 mins
I think we can agree that stress is something we’d all like to reduce in private practice! For me, in 2024, I realized that my working life was too stressful. It was something I really wanted to change so that I could relax more and enjoy my work and life!
I’ve now come up with three strategies for 2025 that I’ll be implementing to see if I can decrease stress and increase a sense of contentment when I log on and off from my Canadian private practice.
In this episode:
-
A quick recap
-
Addressing the financial stress
-
Managing email checking
-
Changing my social media habits
A quick recap
If you haven’t listened to previous episodes, in 2024 I realized how stressed out I was feeling. If you want to learn more about how I got out of those stressful situations, you can listen to my podcast episodes 135 and episode 144.
We know, as therapists, that chronic stress is not good for a person’s mental or physical health and wellbeing. The goal for my life is to reduce stress as much as possible. I know that I got lost in the stress of private practice and forgot how great it feels to NOT be stressed often!
Addressing the financial stress
Over the holiday break, I took 2 weeks off to think about how I could better manage things that were often stressful in my private practice, allowing me to change my work routine for the better.
When I started my practice, a monthly budget worked well, since my clientele was still growing and sometimes unsteady. Some months I would have more personal bills and other months more practice expenses, so money was constantly being moved around, which was stressful to manage!
However, now that my practice has grown a bit more, this method was no longer working.
I worked out how much I generally spend, save, and pay for the year, divided it up to find a monthly figure, and now know how much I have to work with instead of leaving everything to the end of the month to figure out.
Basically, I gave myself a salary! And this has been so helpful in managing stress.
Managing email checking
I would check my emails pretty constantly and that led to burn out and also big dopamine hits when emails would come through. It made it harder to stay relaxed. What started as an effort to be efficient spiraled a bit into an unnecessary stressful situation.
So now, I’ve taken my email and slack accounts and hidden their bookmarks from my main view on my internet browser. I now only check them three times a day! So far, this is helping to feel less wired and anxious after a long day of working.
Changing my social media habits
We all struggle with balancing social media. It has become a part of our marketing and still remains, for many people, a standard form of communicating. However, I knew that I wanted to change my approach with it because I didn’t want it to be taking up so much of my energy.
I’ve even started reading a digital newspaper on my breaks (instead of getting my news from google or the internet), and it has been great! Sure, there’s stress with what’s happening in the world, but by managing information overload, it is becoming easier to manage digesting the news and stress.
Connect with me:
Resources mentioned and useful links:
Ep 151: Chanel Wainscott: Riding the Waves of Private Practice | EP 151
Learn more about the tools and deals that I love and use for my Canadian private practice
Sign up for my free e-course on How to Start an Online Canadian Private Practice
Jane App (use code FEARLESS for one month free)
Get some help and freebies on your website with WordPress!
Rate, review, and subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, and TuneIn