Episode 193 How To Create A Practice That Aligns With Your Sensitivity & Intuitive Gifts To Prevent Burnout: Interview With Christie Hays

Chris McDonald: Are you a therapist who's feeling overwhelmed, struggling to balance your intuitive gifts and sensitivity with the demands of your practice? Join me on today's episode, how to create a practice that aligns with your sensitivity and intuitive gifts to prevent burnout, discover practical strategies to harness your unique strengths, maintain your energy, set your boundaries, and build a sustainable, fulfilling practice.

You will discover ideas for managing a healthy money mindset and how this can help prevent burnout as well. Don't miss this enlightening conversation that could transform your approach to therapy and self care on today's episode of the Holistic Counseling Podcast. Stay tuned. This is Holistic Counseling, the podcast for mental health therapists who want to deepen their knowledge of holistic modalities and build their practice with confidence.

I'm your host, Chris McDonald, Licensed Therapist. I am so glad you're here for the journey.

Do you have any ethical or legal concerns about blending holistic modalities with traditional therapy? Is this holding you back from integrating these? You are not alone. There are some things to consider to protect your license and practice before diving into holistic counseling strategies. This is why I created my one hour recorded training, The Ethical and Legal Considerations of Holistic Counseling.

In it, we will explore how to protect yourself against liability as a holistic therapist. You will learn more about scope of practice versus scope of competence and informed consent. Also addressed is how you can expand your therapy practice ethically into the holistic realms and where to draw the line.

I also address the ethics of research based interventions and how this works for holistic counseling practices. You get all this plus one continuing education contact hour to learn more, go to hcpodcast. org forward slash ethics course. That's hcpodcast. org forward slash ethics course. I'll come to another episode of the holistic counseling podcast.

Thanks for joining me today. Just some thoughts as therapists, our sensitivity and intuitive abilities can be our greatest strengths, allowing us to connect deeply with our clients and guide them on their healing journeys. However, on the other side of the coin, the same gifts can leave us vulnerable to burnout if they're not managed properly.

When you're a more sensitive person, you feel things much deeper and may struggle with finding balance that works for you instead of against you. In this episode, we'll explore how to create a practice that not only honors these gifts, but also supports your wellbeing and professional sustainability.

Our guest today has successfully navigated this delicate balance, sharing her insights and practical strategies for integrating sensitivity and intuition into her practices without sacrificing your own health. Today's guest is Kristi Hayes. She is a highly sensitive empath and intuitive person herself, and also is a therapist and business coach dedicated to helping others who are highly sensitive and intuitive to overcome burnout so that they can create a thriving, sustainable, and full private pay practice as a therapist.

Kristi founded the Soulful Practice Academy to provide business coaching tailored to the specific needs of the highly sensitive, empath, and intuitive healer in private practice. Welcome to the Holistic Counseling Podcast,

Christie Hays: Christy. Thank you, Chris. Thanks for having me. So excited to be here and talk about one of my favorite topics.

Chris McDonald: Thanks for having me. Of course. So I wondered if we could start from the beginning with you. So how did you first discover that you are a sensitive, highly sensitive person and were more intuitive? Great question.

Christie Hays: I think there has been a knowing within me my whole life that I was a little different. I, lots of different experiences as a kid, different types of dreams, maybe where I was visiting and talking with people.

Also noticing how I observed the world around me. I seem to feel and experience feelings. much bigger, had the very common but harmful experience of people telling me I was too sensitive, need to grow a thicker skin, get over it, stop crying, had some of those experiences as well. And then in adulthood found the terminology of a highly sensitive person and It was finally like some pieces clicked like, Oh, I am really sensitive to light and sound and smell and the environment and medications and foods, you know?

Oh, okay. I do sense and feel feelings deep in my body that other people don't. I'm having a very different experience there. And so finding highly sensitive and empath is a label sometimes people use as well. Just things finally started to click for me. And then the more intuitive piece, as I embrace that I was more sensitive to the environment around me and stepped away from viewing my intuitive gifts as something that might be wrong with me or evil or bad, once I get away from some of those more harmful messages, I got to fully embrace that.

Maybe I do have these gifts. Maybe I am connected to, you know, these higher spirit, source, universe, God, whatever you want to call it, that I do have a connection that other people don't. And that's, that's a really cool, wonderful thing that I can utilize. It's a highly beneficial thing for my clients in session, along with my sensitivity and my impact.

Yeah, so it's definitely been a lifelong journey. To get there and sort of here's a puzzle piece. Here's a puzzle piece. Oh my goodness. They all click.

Chris McDonald: And I love how you call it gifts because we could call it something negative that this is not a good thing. And I'm too, like you said, too sensitive or I shouldn't use my intuitive sense in sessions.

You know, those kinds of judgmental things come up.

Christie Hays: Yes,

Chris McDonald: definitely.

Christie Hays: I think. Labeling as gifts. I had to do that for myself too, because I did view it as a weakness. I did view my sensitivity to heightened emotions that, you know, I couldn't work with really high conflict people, really high conflict couples, those more intense type of sessions.

I compared myself to other therapists and viewed it as a defect within myself. Uh, I'm broken, I'm wrong, or there's the evidence as to why I'll never be successful, never make it because of this versus, wow, you can connect with your clients on a deeper, more intense level. You can have this sense of knowing in session.

I need to ask this question. I don't know why, but we need to talk about this piece. Okay. You telling me you're fine, but I'm feeling very deeply within me. What emotion are you having? So as soon as I was able to see it as GIFs and I could use it in session with my clients, transformation, not only for me, but for them was wonderful and, and mind blowing.

Chris McDonald: I could see how that could make you more, even more effective, right? If we're in tune and notice these subtle differences and intuition and bringing it all together and, and not questioning. I think that's what I've learned in this journey too, is that a lot of times we question, well, wait a second, where's that coming from?

Should I share this with, and that's what I've learned, just share it, just share it, just ask, and

Christie Hays: I'll even frame it like, I just have an urge to ask this. You don't have to answer if this is self based, let me know, like, with full consent with your clients, but so many times I've been, I've had a session and I've been like, is this really what you want to talk about today?

Is there something else going on, like just a sense of there's something deeper hidden underneath. And they go, yeah, there's this thing I want to talk about and I've been really afraid to, and boom, there you go. And it just gives them permission and opens it up. And yeah, it, it's a great gift. And I think we have them for a reason.

I think we're sensitive for a reason. We're intuitive for a reason. And if we're in alignment and using them to connect with. a higher purpose, a calling. We feel better. Our clients feel better. Things get easier when we don't fight against our own

Chris McDonald: nature. That makes a lot of sense. But what are some of the unique challenges for therapists that might be more sensitive or intuitive in sessions?

Christie Hays: For me, it's the energy drain. It's the big thing. I think for highly sensitive and intuitive, gifted in those ways. I think we experience energy drain faster and deeper than maybe a, like, neurotypical type person or someone who doesn't identify in this way. And so our ability to see a larger caseload, our ability to see a certain number of clients per day, number of days per week, if we don't take care of our energy drain, That happens in session that leads to burnout really fast.

So I think understanding like for me, I have a max capacity of maybe three, maybe four clients in a day, and I can really only see clients about three, maybe four days a week. And because I need all of that extra time to recover, regroup, to really take care of myself, take care of my body. So when I was trying to see 5, 6, 7 plus clients a day, 5, 6 days a week, just tapped out energy wise.

So I think needing to have a smaller caseload leads to have other considerations in business. Like. Are you charging enough to be able to accommodate having a small caseload? You know, are you also taking insurance and have that administrative overhead? I think we also tend to be more introverted. And so when we are in solo private practice, that may be the ideal business model for us.

But are you alone?

Chris McDonald: Where's your community? Where's your supports? Because I think that, yeah, if you're more sensitive and you are alone as a solo practitioner, that you're more likely to get burned out too if you don't build some of these community foundations. And I was just connecting with another therapist on the phone today just for a consultation.

And it just felt so good. Just like, yes, someone else to talk to, because we all need that. We need to develop these supports. And because otherwise it's just, It's lonely out there, and it's, we have a lot of these feelings inside too, just connecting with other people that get it and understand there, there can be challenges with private practice.

Christie Hays: Yeah, definitely that tendency to, to go it alone ends up biting us in there. I think we really need community and support and community and support. They get it like sometimes going into other consultation groups and other, you know, therapist groups, sometimes online or in person. You know, is someone going to understand and respect that I am not taking insurance and I am charging in this way and not going to shame me for it?

I am very selective in who I work with and is that going to be accepted and supported? So I think also finding the right type of community and support is really helpful too.

Chris McDonald: Yeah, because I know, especially online, there can be some really, what's the word, difficult, uh, other therapists that are very judgmental, and it just surprises me some of the comments I read that therapists say on Facebook.

Christie Hays: Yeah, it's, it's really tough and a tendency to want to, because we feel so deeply, not get in and not start any controversy by having these conversations. That if we retreat inwards, then that loneliness alone type feeling really grows

Chris McDonald: and that's not healthy for anyone either that isolation, you know, so how do therapists protect their energy?

Because I know you mentioned maybe looking at caseload and. What they're charging. Is there other ways they can do that in business to protect themselves? Uh,

Christie Hays: yeah. So protecting energy, other things you can do outside of managing your caseload and finances to make sure that you are supporting yourself there with your schedule, other things you'll want to do to protect your energy is maintaining your own boundaries.

And your own boundaries in terms of who are you working with? So I think it's really important for those of us that are sensitive and intuitive to really be niched and focused on who is our ideal client? Who were we called to help and serve in this way? Because I think if we try and be a generalist, be a therapist to everybody.

Then that is going to drain your energy. So being able to say no to clients, being able to refer clients out that aren't going to be a good fit for you. And that comes from a place of it's okay to say no, it's okay to refer out. I don't have to from a scarcity place. Also boundaries in terms of your schedule and boundaries in terms of if someone's calling and saying, yeah, I really need to be seen early in the morning.

Well, for me, I'm not a morning person. I work better mid to late morning into the early evening. So if someone was demanding an 8 a. m. session. That would really be outside of my boundaries. That's really going to drain me. Have a huge impact on there. So maintaining your boundaries in terms of scheduling, when do you work best, and then maintaining your boundaries in terms of your policies.

Within your practice. Do you have a no show policy, a cancellation policy? And are you reinforcing that? I think the desire to not have any confrontation with the clients, you know, I don't want to make them mad. I don't want them being upset. So I'm not going to charge them really starts to drain you financially if you're not keeping up with that and keeping consistency with that.

And then if you were financially stressed and not making enough. Then that is also going to lead to burnout and energy drain and other ways.

Chris McDonald: Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. And just to backtrack what you said, as far as we can say no to clients, because I've had this happen recently that a person appears a certain way or a consultation, and then you see them for a while and it's not what you thought this was going to be.

And then other issues come up and maybe you're qualified, but it's just not a good match. It's okay to backtrack to get consultation and even refer out. So I think just giving yourself that permission to protect your energy and your overall wellbeing.

Christie Hays: Yeah, that you, you're not required to be a therapist for everyone.

You're not required to say yes, and you're also not required to continue working. with clients. Ethically, we're allowed to protect ourselves. I remember that from an ethics training I went to, uh, at a conference several years ago, and that was what they led with. It's like, you're allowed to protect yourself, and ethically, you have that right.

And I don't mean that in terms of, oh my goodness, this client is dangerous, but in terms of, it's really going to hurt me to continue working with this person, and therefore that it will actually start to hurt them if I continue to work with them. Yeah, so the ability to say no and refer out or go, this is beyond my scope.

That's okay. There's someone else out there that, that it's not. And let me still be a resource for that client and connect them appropriately. But it doesn't have to be.

Chris McDonald: Yeah, for

Christie Hays: sure.

Chris McDonald: That, that, I think that's really helpful, too, to remember it's not always us, right? There, there's lots of other therapists out there.

It doesn't mean that something's inherently wrong with us. Yeah. We can't, we can't possibly help everybody that comes our way.

Christie Hays: Yeah, and I think that's one way I like to view sort of like marketing and networking in private practice is how can you be a valuable resource for your clients? You know, how can you know, okay, who are the good people?

Who are the high quality referrals for this, this, and this? For me, in my therapy practice, I work with adult women. And so I needed to find out, okay, who are the men that work, you know, who works with men similarly to me? Okay, great. I need to go. Build some relationships there so that I don't feel so alone in that.

I've got these resources that I can lean on. Okay. You need a couples therapist, a parent coach, you, you know, want to look into medication. So that's also part of the like networking and community building is how are you becoming a resource?

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org forward slash workbook today. Well, I wanted to ask you something that we had talked a little bit about before we got started, and that was money. So I wonder, yes, therapist relationship with money. Can this cause. Burnout if they haven't worked through money blocks

Christie Hays: a thousand percent. Yes, I fully believe that one of the reasons that burnout is so prevalent among therapists is because we are working too much for too little pay.

And that is that is fast track to burnout. You have to be able to financially take care of yourself or you are not effective in that chair. The finance, because then we've got resentment, we've got jealousy of clients, you know, if you are hurting yourself to see clients, you're going to end up hurting them and we are taught such martyrdom, if you will, in terms of, are you a helper and healer?

Well, you didn't get in this for the money. Sure. I think we all got into this because we want to help people, but just because we want to help people doesn't mean we can't be financially well, taking care of. In that work and the expectation is hurting us quite a bit. So I think we really, really, really have to work on our relationship with money, our mindset around money, our mindset around charging what we need to charge.

Our mindset and how we think about, do I take insurance? Do I not take insurance? It becomes what is the best for you. And whatever it is, it's okay.

Chris McDonald: There's a lot of fears in the therapist world with going off insurance. Can we talk about that? What has been your experience with that?

Christie Hays: Number one I get is all my clients are going to leave me and I'm going to end up broke and have no clients.

And I'll be devastated financially. There's the narrative. That's what I get right off the bat with um, I think understanding going off insurance, it's a process, right? As a business coach, I don't ever want to leave you worse off. Right. We want to figure out what is the balance. How do we build up your private pay clients so that when you go off insurance, if you do lose some clients, it's not going to devastate you financially.

So that's the first is knowing that you don't have to completely rip the bandaid off right away and be open and bleeding and loaded and hurting in that process. So I think, I think that's first you can go step by step. I think two is we don't get to decide. What clients can afford. I think that it is. We don't get to decide what clients can and cannot afford.

That's not our job. So the idea of if I go off insurance, no one's going to pay me my private pay rate. You're already making that decision for them. Whereas you're not thinking about the relationship you have built with them, the transformations you have helped them through. You don't know. Maybe going private pay is possible for them.

But thinking they're all going to leave you is your own mindset stuff getting in the way of that conversation. If you approach that conversation with your clients, I'm no longer be going to be accepting insurance as of this date. My private pay rate will be this and then you need to get real quiet and listen to them.

And then a whole bunch of good stuff's going to come up. They're either going to be, Oh, okay, I think I can do that. Or that maybe sounds a little stressful. I'm not sure how I can do that. They want to kind of process through it, talk about how it could happen. And then they might be upset. But really what's coming up for them in that moment is their own relationship to money.

And you need to take yourself out of the equation because you have already done your own work with your relationship around money. And you can keep the focus on them in that moment. I'm hearing that this is really stressful for you. What might it be like to prioritize therapy in this way and financially prioritize this?

What might that look like for you? Because I think if we also haven't worked on our own relationship with money, we're missing such a huge piece of stress for our clients that we need to be talking about money and talking about their finances in therapy sessions for not where we're missing a huge chunk.

Like, if you were stressed financially, you were stressed in other areas. So my advice would be one. Remember, it's a process. You don't have to like rip the band aid off. You can go step by step. You can focus on getting more private pay clients and then slowly get off maybe one panel than another as you need to.

Two, work on your mindset because I think it will surprise you how many clients want to stay. And three, if you are niched, you have that, I like to call them soulmate clients. If you are working with those clients that you're meant to be working with, that conversation also goes a lot easier. If you're in alignment, it sounds like.

Yeah, yeah. And then lastly, working on detaching from the outcome. If you go to private pay and someone decides not to continue working with you, that was just what was best for them. Some people are going to need to continue to use their insurance. That's fine. It doesn't mean anything about you as a person, as a therapist.

It just means that what was best for them in that moment. So releasing the outcome for them. And letting the client decide what's going to be best for them going forward.

Chris McDonald: So have you heard some success stories from therapists you've worked with? Maybe it turned out better than they thought.

Christie Hays: Yes, I think one client I'm working with right now, uh, really just working on mindset has made Consultation calls with clients so much easier being able to pitch things like, Hey, I think an intensive would really be helpful for you and insurance isn't going to cover those.

And here's why, and really leading with value with those clients. And then the conversation about insurance. It's either a blip on the radar or it makes it so much easier

Chris McDonald: to have. Yeah, absolutely. And I love how you break it down. This could be a process and it doesn't have to be okay tomorrow. It's going to be.

Yeah. Yeah. Cause I think that gradual approach may help some therapists and to recognize that, you know, maybe they can do things differently in their practice and that's okay to make these shifts.

Christie Hays: Yeah. Yeah. And then when you give your notice to insurance, you've also got to give lead time. So you've got.

usually 60, 90 plus days. So that gives you time to figure out how am I going to replace this income? It gives you sort of a runway headstart. It's not, Hey, I'm going to go off insurance and it happens tomorrow. And then you're broke and have no clients. That's just not how that process works.

Chris McDonald: Exactly. Yeah.

So really recognize it. Maybe you're, what is your mindset around that and really challenging that and then using whatever therapy. Modalities work for you. If that's EMDR with

Christie Hays: this or brain spotting. Yes, absolutely. I don't know how many times I've gone to my own therapist and talked about money. Even gone into my therapist and be like, I think you need, I think you need to be charging more.

I think I need to be paying you more. So realizing that it's such a huge part of running your own business. And we have so many negative. Mindset beliefs around money in our profession that we should be broke. We will be broke. There's not enough clients. No one wants to pay for therapy. No one wants to work.

Be careful where you are getting your information and what. It's sort of feeding into your mindset there.

Chris McDonald: Yeah. And figuring out what is best for you and

Christie Hays: your practice. Absolutely. Absolutely. For me, insurance was never going to be best. It was always going to be stressful. It wasn't going to pay me enough.

So insurance was never going to be best for me. I am a big proponent of highly sensitive and intuitive. I likely insurance is going to be difficult for you. But I never want to say point blank. You have to be all private pay if you want to be insurance and that aligns with you. Let's figure out how to make that work and make that happen so you can still take care of yourself.

Understanding that your business is going to be, have to be set up differently. Like you may need a biller. You may need lots of extra help and support so that you have space to do your notes and, and all that.

Chris McDonald: What do you tell therapists about self care and ways that they can manage it? Because what I hear a lot is I don't have time.

But first, if you don't make time, your body won't make time

Christie Hays: for you.

Chris McDonald: Yes.

Christie Hays: The more you take care of yourself, the better you are in the therapy chair. That when you take care of yourself, you're becoming a better therapist. You are caring for your clients in that moment. That you have a strong ethical responsibility to be doing your own work, to be taking care of your body, your mind, your spirit.

So that when you sit in that chair, it can be about them and not about you. And is it movement? Is it getting into your own therapy? Uh, that is one of the first things I say, if you don't have a therapist and you weren't prioritizing your own work. On a consistent basis from a private pay place, how are you expecting your clients to do that?

So how are you walking the talk? And so for me, that looks like movement outside in nature. It looks like meditation and hypnosis, journaling and writing, working with my intuitive gifts and exploring that. It looks like regular therapy. It looks like keeping up with doctor's appointments, managing my diet to better take care of my health conditions that I have.

So it's really looking at if taking care of yourself was a full time job, what would that look like for newer? As a business owner, stuff's going to show up. Right? There's nothing like being a business owner that will make all of your own stuff show up. And so you have to make taking care of yourself a priority, whatever that looks like for you.

Otherwise it's going to show up in the therapy room. It'll show up in your consultations. It'll show up when you're networking, your clients will feel it. Maybe not really go, Oh, hey, you're not taking care of yourself, but they'll notice something is off.

Chris McDonald: Yeah, that co regulation, they can pick up on that for sure.

Christie Hays: Yeah, absolutely.

Chris McDonald: Yeah. What are the signs of

Christie Hays: burnout? Burnout is, I saw a really good description of it. Thinking of like a corn husk that is completely dried out. There's nothing left. There's no nutrients left. It is just depletion. Signs that you might be burnt out. I look for disturbances. So like disturbances in your sleep.

Are you sleeping too much? Is it suddenly hard for you to fall asleep or wake up? For me, big sign for me is my dreams. Are your dreams more intense? More stressful? Are you waking up really tense? Do you have the Sunday scaries or Sunday blues? Like, oh my gosh, I've got to go do this again. Are you not enjoying your work as a therapist?

Are you dreading it? Dreading client sessions? Are you procrastinating? Are you not doing your notes? Are you not doing your billing? Not charging clients? Avoiding your email? You know, where are you avoiding sort of head in the sand? Do you feel so tired that you think no amount of naps or sleeping or time off would ever make me feel better?

You know, that longing to run away with a cocktail on the beach and never come back. Yeah, escapism. Yes, escaping. How are you numbing? You know, are you numbing with food? Are you having a glass or two or more of wine at the end of the day? For me, at the height of some of my burnout, um, I couldn't talk at the end of the day.

I would come home and I'd be like, I have used all of my words. They are gone. I couldn't be in relationship with people. Some relationship with my spouse was really struggling. I didn't want to go out and spend time with my friends. So that retreat inwards, not only made the burnout worse, but I didn't have energy for anything else to lit me up in my life because work was sucking it all away from me.

Chris McDonald: I think it's just that mindfulness too of noticing like, what is going on with me? And sometimes it can be subtle at times. Are you looking at the clock in sessions? Just like, Praying for the day to get done for the session to get right. These can be simple signs. Yeah.

Christie Hays: Yeah. Are you zoning out and then physical?

What's your physical body telling you? Are you noticing a flare up of any chronic things that you have? I'm someone that has, you know, several different chronic conditions that, that I manage. If there's a flare up, that's usually my body telling me something's going on. There's a stress point or, you know, maybe I do need to make an adjustment here.

So I think also our physical bodies will tell us. neck, shoulders, back. Are you getting injured? Are your migraines flaring up? Are you having pain, indigestion, nausea? Is your appetite upset? I think sometimes we get what I like to call sort of emotionally decapitated from our bodies. We live so much up in our heads.

We lose what our body's trying to tell us that, hey, something's wrong. Pay attention, care for me, rest, take a break, breathe. So what do we do if we notice a lot of these signs in ourselves? For me, I like to start with taking care of the physical body first, to help calm our nervous system down, to help remind our bodies, I'm safe, I've got it.

We're okay. So prioritize, how can you care for your physical body? And then if you need to take a break, take a break, take time off. If you need to, and this is going to scare a lot of people, if you need to cancel some sessions and really rest, do you need to get back into your own therapy? Do you need to increase your frequency in your own therapy?

For me, the simplest tweaks that I will make if I notice. Something showing up is, okay, I need to reprioritize my sleep. I need to prioritize maybe more gentle movement. I'm someone who really likes to run, but maybe I need to just do walks or some really gentle yoga. Instead, I need to really minimize stress.

Um, in my environment. So what sort of things am I consuming? Am I consuming, uh, like drama TV shows or action or something that might be really high stimulating? Do I need to maybe read instead? You know, what are the, the slight little tweaks and adjustments there? Do I need to meal prep so that I make sure I can keep my blood sugar up throughout the day?

Um, so that I'm eating appropriately. Okay. You know, am I drinking enough water? Like I always have my water beside me. I have to have, I have to have a cup and a straw. I don't know why I have to have a straw, but I do. I heard it helps you drink more water. Yeah. To me, it just makes it easier. And then I'm not spilling it all over me.

The small things, right? The small things. So yeah. What, what are those little tweaks? And I think don't panic like your body, your mind, they're just warning signs that saying, Hey, Something's off. Let's make some adjustments, see how it goes.

Chris McDonald: And it might take some experimentation, too, to see what works.

Christie Hays: Yes.

Yes. So try some things. Okay. That didn't help. Taking some time off helps, but not a lot. And realizing that full recovery from burnout is a process. You're not going to get it solved in a weekend. You're not going to get it magically solved by meal prepping one weekend or prioritizing sleep for a few days.

It is, it's a process that you'll have to kind of commit to making those adjustments.

Chris McDonald: Absolutely it. It takes some time, for sure. It's not one and done with these two. Yeah, so what's a takeaway? You could share that that could be more preventative strategies for burnout for those that might be more highly sensitive.

The biggest thing I

Christie Hays: could give you as a takeaway is, one, you were at high risk for burnout. Two, if you are working too much for too little pay, I can guarantee you, you will burn out. Be cautious of your caseload, be aware of how much you need to be making to be able to financially take care of yourself and that your gifts, your sensitivity, your intuitiveness are highly valuable assets in your business and for your clients and are worthy, you are worthy of being compensated for those gifts and the usage of those in your business.

Chris McDonald: Absolutely. I feel like listeners need to get the transcript of this on the website and highlight some of what you said and just put exclamation points and make mantras because you've said some real gems today. I really appreciate that.

Christie Hays: Oh, thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Um, you can't see my monitor, but it is.

It's covered in post it notes with lots of mantras and sayings, and I've got my, my vision board over here. I have them present. It's on my phone. Like, yeah. Get out your sticky notes, write them down, put it wherever you need to see

Chris McDonald: it. And some of these messages, we got to hear them more than once, many times.

Yes. Especially around money. I know that's a deep topic with therapists for sure. So we really just, that's do the work I think is, is what you're saying

Christie Hays: too. Yeah. Do the work. Don't believe all the BS out there. I was told I would not make money as a therapist, I would be broke, I, that was the expectation set to me from orientation and grad school.

So know there is, you are fighting a lot of messages that we get from the get go. So, don't beat yourself up. It takes intentional work to undo those messages. to be able to charge what you need to charge and fully take care of yourself and business. We are not taught how to do this.

Chris McDonald: Yes, for sure. So give yourself that self compassion and grace.

Another good strategy for helping prevent burnout, right, is that self compassion. So what's the best way for listeners to find you to learn more about you? Yes, so

Christie Hays: you can find me on Instagram at Christy He's Coaching. If you'd like to know more about me, want help with your private practice, if you're a highly sensitive empath intuitive therapist, you can find my group on Facebook.

So the Soulful Practice Academy on Facebook, you can find me there. Would love to have you in the community with everyone else who's highly sensitive, empath, intuitive, all working on our mindset together. really supportive, uplifting community that's going to look different from some of the other groups that are out there.

Chris McDonald: Yes. Yeah.

Christie Hays: Thank you so much for coming on the podcast today, Christy. Thank you for having me.

Chris McDonald: I love talking about this. I really appreciate the time and space to do it. Absolutely. And thank you listeners for being here today. And I have some questions for you. Are you struggling with feelings of burnout and emotional exhaustion?

Are you ready to boost your energy, build your stress resilience and discover more balance? The self care for the will help you to power up your self care and overall wellness. This workbook is meticulously designed to address the unique challenges faced by counselors just like you. It also provides simple strategies that are not only practical, but easy to integrate into your busy life.

Check it out today at hcpodcast. org forward slash workbook. That's hcpodcast. org forward slash workbook. And this is Chris McDonald sending each one of you. Much light and love. Until next time, take care. Thanks for listening. The information in this podcast is for general educational purposes only, and it is given with the understanding that neither the host, the publisher, or the guests are giving legal financial counseling or any other kind of professional advice.

If you need a professional, please find the right one for you. The Holistic Counseling Podcast is proudly part of the Psych Craft Network.

Steve Bisson: Hey there. Are you searching for answers and clarity on your mental health journey? Well, I've got the podcast just for you. Welcome to finding your way through therapy, a podcast. That's like having a heartfelt conversation with a trusted friend and who understands what you're going through. I'm your host, Steve Disa, a therapist and proud member of the psych craft network.

Finding your way through therapy is a safe space where we openly explore the emotional complexities of mental health from busting common myths to sharing actionable. Advice. We'll navigate this journey together through solo episodes as well as special gifts. Discover your inner strength, resilience, and hope as we explore topics like self-care building, healthy relationship, cognitive behavioral therapy, and overcoming challenges, you'll come away with a renewed sense of self and the tools to create a life filled with fulfillment and wellbeing.

So join me on finding your way through therapy as we become your companion on this deeply personal. I am part of the psych craft network and truly enjoy all the episodes and back to your regular schedule programming.