EP. 296 The Fully Booked Therapist Standard 1: Why Honesty and Vulnerability Are the Foundation of a Fully Booked Practice

Welcome back to the Fully Booked Therapist podcast.

I'm your host, Heather Hammell.

If you caught last week's episode, you heard me introduce the 12 core standards of the Fully Booked Therapist.

Today, we're going deep on the very first one, standard one.

They are honest and vulnerable.

And I want to start off with a story.

Every time I've hired a coach, it has felt like the most vulnerable thing that I could do.

And I don't mean vulnerable in like a soft abstract way.

I mean, in a very real, very uncomfortable way where your stomach does that thing and your brain starts running through all of the worst case scenarios.

What if I spend the money and I don't get what I need? What if I say something dumb? What if I don't even know how to ask for the help that I need? What if I show up and everyone else has it together and I'm the only one who clearly doesn't? I think a lot of us walk into coaching or avoid coaching altogether because we're carrying this belief that we should already have it figured out That asking for help is a sign that something is wrong with us.

That a good therapist, a smart business owner, a capable adult should have this all sorted out.

That we should be able to do this on our own.

And I get it because therapists, especially us, we are the helpers.

We are the ones who people come to with their hard stuff.

Flipping that and being the one who needs help, who doesn't have the answer, who has to sit in someone else's coaching chair, that's uncomfortable in a very specific way.

But here's what I know after years of hiring coaches and doing this work myself.

Every single time that I have taken the chance and worked on my own development, I have won every time.

I've either felt better, been more calm, been able to grow faster, made more money, or all of those things all at the same time.

The only time I've lost money and I mean truly walked away with less than I came in with is when I thought paying for coaching would hand me the result without me having to do anything.

Or when I felt so uncertain and so exposed that I didn't allow myself to actually show up.

I paid and then I hid.

I sat in the back.

I didn't ask the real questions.

I brought the polished version of myself instead of the true one.

And because I wasn't honest about what was actually happening, I couldn't get the help with what was actually happening.