Imposter syndrome is a common issue for therapists running their own practices – but it’s no less challenging because of that. If you’ve ever struggled with imposter syndrome and wondering if you’re good enough, this blog post is for you!
Why is imposter syndrome so common among therapists?
In our roles as therapists, we have to undergo years of studying to qualify, during which we’re trained to question ourselves and assess where we have room to grow, improve, and learn. Even after all those years of dedication, focus, and training, we’re encouraged to engage in Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and constantly seek to improve ourselves. These factors can combine to make us acutely aware of what we don’t know and any shortcomings we have. It’s easy to focus on our weaknesses rather than our strengths.
Add in the fact that most mental health professionals don’t have much business training, and it makes sense that we may feel overwhelmed or out of our depth at times when running our own businesses.
One question we ask our LIT members when someone is struggling with imposter syndrome is to consider whether it’s a mindset issue or a skillset issue. What we mean by that is that, more often than not, we have the skills we need to do our job well. Instead, it might be our mindset that’s holding us back, creating blocks and making us doubt ourselves. Once we know that, we can target the root of the issue.
How to recognise imposter syndrome: When does it show up?
The first step to beating imposter syndrome is to recognise what’s going on and know that imposter syndrome is affecting you.
So, when is it likely to show up, and what are some of the signs? You might find that you’re holding back in your business, avoiding being visible online to market your services, or not meeting your business and/or financial goals – but you don’t know why or what’s going on. Or you might feel disconnected from your business overall and less motivated or excited to work on it.
Any of those situations could suggest that imposter syndrome is at play here. So, we’d recommend you dig a bit deeper and pay attention to how you feel about your business. Are there any worries that are coming up or places where you feel you don’t know enough to take action? Are there areas in your business or particular challenges that you’re avoiding?
Reflecting on your business can help you determine what’s holding you back and the root causes. You might notice thoughts coming up like:
- “Who am I to do this?”
- “Why would anyone want to work with me?”
- “Why would anyone pay me this much?”
This is a good indication that imposter syndrome is at play.
Other tell-tale signs include procrastination, avoiding taking action, and coming up with excuses for why you’re not doing the things you want to do in your business.
Common Situations that Lead to Imposter Syndrome
Another common time for imposter syndrome to appear is when you start offering a new service for the first time. For example, you might decide to branch out from 1:1 therapy to working with groups or offering online workshops. It can also appear when you start charging for a service you’ve previously offered for free or when you raise your prices.
Some therapists find that imposter syndrome pops up when they increase the number of people they’re working with. That could mean going from working with individuals to couples or groups or taking on speaking engagements with larger audiences. Then, suddenly, there are a lot more people to please, and you might get different types of feedback than before.
Whenever you’re doing something new or for the first time, it’s normal to feel some anxiety and doubts creep in. But when these doubts become overwhelming and hold you back from moving forward, it’s a cause for concern. We don’t want imposter syndrome to stop you from reaching your goals and offering your much needed services and expertise to the world!
And even when you’ve worked out that you’re dealing with imposter syndrome, it’s tricky to know how to face up and get to where you want to be in your business. In that case, we have some tips to help you beat imposter syndrome.
The Effect of The Internet & Social Media
Another factor to consider is that our hyper-connected digital world can exacerbate imposter syndrome in many ways. Firstly, it’s easy to compare to colleagues online who are further along in their journey or successful in ways you want to be. In this case, it’s important to remember that we don’t get the full picture from someone’s social media presence or website.
It’s a carefully edited highlights reel of someone else’s life and/or business.
So, it’s easy to feel “less than” another therapist, whether they are earning more money or booked out with clients (or at the very least, saying that they are). But remember that you don’t know their full story, the challenges they’ve come up against, their failures, and other factors that set them apart from you.
Secondly, there is such a need for online therapists, so someone else’s success doesn’t mean you’re failing or there isn’t room out there for us all. Developing an abundance mindset is key and will help you feel more confident in yourself, knowing that the market is large enough for all of us.
Knowing Your USP
If you are worried about your “competitors,” it can also be helpful to clarify your USP (unique selling proposition) – or what sets you apart from all the other online therapists out there.
- What do you offer?
- Who do you help? (i.e., who is your ideal client?)
- How do you help them?
Knowing your USP can help you stand out from the crowd and connect with your ideal clients in an authentic and memorable way.
The Risk of Visibility
Another concern is that you could get negative comments on social media, whether from past or current clients or internet trolls. Having an online presence always brings some risks with it, as you are making yourself more visible. As a therapist, you might worry about how much of your personal life you should show to maintain the necessary distance from your clients.
We live in a time where people are sharing more than ever online, and there have even been cases of people uploading videos of their therapy sessions. So, you might have real concerns about social media, which could lead to increased imposter syndrome.
Managing Social Media & Imposter Syndrome
If you feel that social media could be contributing to your imposter syndrome, think about setting up some healthy boundaries with social media.
What would you tell your clients if they were in a similar situation? It’s not always easy to follow our own advice, but if you can distance yourself from social media, it could be really beneficial.
You might decide to only use social media to share your own content. There are Chrome extensions that remove the Facebook feed so you’re not tempted to scroll and browse other colleagues’ content. You could also choose to schedule your social media content in another app like Later so you don’t need to use the Facebook and Instagram apps at all.
Another thing you can do is control how people interact with your content. For example, if you have a blog, you could set it up so it only displays comments you’ve pre-approved. (This is great for weeding out spam, too). You could choose to switch off comments on other platforms if that makes you feel more comfortable.
It’s also useful to consider what you’re comfortable sharing online, knowing that current and potential clients might see it. Having clear guidelines can help you to know what to share and when to take a step back.
And finally, know that you can’t control everything online, but you’re not alone if you get the occasional negative comment from time to time. You can’t please everyone! Keep some positive feedback and messages from clients handy so you can read them whenever you’re feeling the doubts build up.
Reframing Imposter Syndrome: “Growing Pains”
A powerful tool to cope with imposter syndrome is reframing how you look at it. For example, as we mentioned earlier, it tends to show up when you’re trying something for the first time. And just like with anything new, there are bound to be growing pains. If you can come to anticipate that imposter syndrome will rear up when you’re embarking on a new project, it can be easier to cope with when it does.
You might be:
- Taking the first step towards becoming location independent
- Transitioning from working for others to being your own boss
- Adding coaching into your therapy practice
- Launching a new service – such as group therapy
- Or promoting a new offer, like an online course or workshop
If you know ahead of time that you’re likely to face imposter syndrome, you can plan accordingly, and you’ll be less surprised if it does occur. You could identify what you tend to do when imposter syndrome hits and come up with an action plan to overcome it. So, if you start procrastinating, you’ll know exactly what’s happening and hopefully, how to get ahead and stop it from holding you back.
Increasing your client touchpoints so you get more feedback
One challenge of the type of mental health work we do is that we don’t always get a lot of feedback on how we’re doing. In many cases, we work with clients over the long term, and when our clients feel better, that’s when they stop working with us – so we don’t see the end result of the process.
Of course, not all of our clients’ situations and symptoms improve, so it can be challenging and emotional work at times.
However, there are things you can do to increase the feedback you get from clients. One simple step is to save any emails with positive feedback from clients so you can look back at them later on.
You might also like to find more touchpoints with your clients so you can gauge how it’s going and get useful feedback from them. For example, you could ask your clients at the end of the session if it was helpful and if there was anything they would have liked to have done differently during the session. You could also (or alternatively) have a check-in form they can fill in between sessions to give you feedback.
Another thing you can do independently is to look back and reflect on how far you’ve come and how many people you’ve helped since you started working as a therapist. It’s easy to focus on where you want to be and forget how much progress you’ve already made and the impact you’ve had on others.
Connecting with Others to Beat Imposter Syndrome
Imposter syndrome can be paralysing as it has you going around in circles in your head, thinking the same intrusive thoughts. Plus, imposter syndrome really feeds on shame, which is why speaking about it with others can be so powerful. It externalises the imposter syndrome and helps you distance yourself from it so you can identify it and even come to understand where it’s coming from and what’s causing it.
Bringing your challenges with imposter syndrome to a case supervision session or simply chatting about it with a colleague over coffee can break down any stigma you feel around imposter syndrome, too. You’ll probably hear that you’re not the only one who’s felt this way or had similar struggles, which can be encouraging.
The more we talk about and normalise the challenges of being a therapist business owner, the less scary they become. We realise we’re not alone in our struggles and that others have overcome the same challenges, so we can too. We often experience this in our LIT events; being able to speak openly, share vulnerably, and learn from other like-minded colleagues is a game-changer.
So, we recommend finding people you can talk to about your challenges – ideally, people who are on a similar journey and can understand the ups and downs of running a business. We’d love for you to join us inside the LIT Community – find out more and sign up here!
Identifying Legitimate Causes of Imposter Syndrome
Finally, we wanted to cover an important factor that’s often overlooked when it comes to imposter syndrome. It can be unhelpful to pathologise imposter syndrome by calling it a syndrome, when there might be very real and significant societal reasons as to why you feel it, depending on your own situation.
So, if you’re feeling imposter syndrome, we recommend examining where it is coming from. For women and other minority groups, it can feel so much harder to break down barriers and take on roles such as being a business owner due to the way we are socialised. There are often subtle (or not so subtle) societal messages that you are doing something wrong or intruding in a place where you’re not welcome. You might literally be a pioneer, blazing a trail for others to follow – with all the challenges that come with that role.
This is even more true for People of Colour, and for Women of Colour in particular, as different stigmas and disparities intersect, often in ways that are little understood. While it might not take all the weight off, just knowing that external factors are also to blame can be a weight off your chest.
The Wrap-Up
We hope this blog post has helped you feel less alone in coping with imposter syndrome. Know that many of us struggle with imposter syndrome (and it often pops up again just when you think you’ve mastered it!). We have even more tips for overcoming imposter syndrome here.
But there are things you can do to beat imposter syndrome and stop it from holding you back in your life and business. Let us know how you cope with imposter syndrome, and share your tips in the comments below!
And if you’re looking to have more of these kinds of conversations, join us inside the LIT Community! It’s our dedicated community for mental health therapists around the world who are launching or growing their online businesses and practices. And most importantly, it’s a warm, welcoming space where we can be vulnerable, learn from each other, and work towards our goals in life and business!
Find out more and join the LIT Community here!!
