Hello. I am a recent MSW graduate. Neither of my practicums involved direct counseling work, and I am looking for my first "real" job. I was offered a job as a therapist working with victims of sexual assault. The organization/team seems amazing, but I am not sure if I should accept the job. I would be the only therapist/social worker on staff. I am deeply concerned about having to just "figure it out" as someone who does not have counseling experience. At the same time, this organization is offering to pay for my supervision and has great pay. I need a job, but I am terrified that I won't know what to do, nor will I have anyone to shadow. If anyone has any advice, I am in desperate need. Thank you.

Originally posted by u/northern_hare on Reddit.

Top comment by u/ArgentNoble

I would be the only therapist/social worker on staff.

You are not a clinician, so it would be illegal to be the only clinician on staff. You, as a fresh MSW, would have no independent license for clinical practice and you would require a supervisor of some kind.

At the same time, this organization is offering to pay for my supervision and has great pay.

They are willing to pay for your LCSW supervision, it seems like. Have you asked them whose license you will be practicing under, as you have no legal authority to engage in clinical practice imdependently?

[I do not see an option to add flair?]

[CA ASW]

Probably most of the people in this sub follow a few or more social media psychotherapist influencers. We might do this to get some quick ideas or simply gauge what the pop psychology world is currently talking about so that we can dispel misinterpretations with our clients. Of course, this medium is so brief and surface-level that it can't possibly convey complex psychological topics in a robust enough way to be very useful. In recent years, may of these influencers have leaned into progressive politics as part of their brand, in order to appear more accommodating to marginalized communities, more approachable to the layman, or otherwise trustworthy. However, this is simply another marketing tactic that cannot be divorced from capitalism writ large.

This morning I stumbled upon one of these influencers - a person of marginalized identity that preaches some vague neo-left political signalling and its accompanying lexicon, topical subject matter, and penchant for punchy quips. The influencer was lamenting his contradictory feeling about his plans to expand his private practice into a group practice in which he would employ associate therapists, even though he recognizes the system in which associates are severely exploited is unjust. He expressed this as an unfortunate inevitability that he should be put in such an inescapable situation so he was setting up a crowdsourcing campaign for low income clients to pay and maybe, if I'm understanding correctly to pay his associates a bit more.

I commented that he was making the voluntary choice to take on such a role as an exploiter as a matter of fact, not of opinion and that perhaps instead he could set up his practice as a cooperative in which the workers are also co-owners that all share in the profit of the practice and make consensus decisions regarding reinvestment. His response was to immediately block me.

I bring this story up because it speaks to a wider misconception about left politics. One can embody as many marginalized identities as they identify with, speak the language of accessibility, have a demeanor of approachability, seem knowledgeable about history and current systems that can affect mental health but still voluntarily become part of the problem they claim to be against. With the right amount of effort, most LCSW's can make a living wage. Of course, it would increase their salary to employ associates but it is not necessary to get by, or even make a handsome income.

Being a business owner that extracts part of the labor value from an employee's labor makes someone a capitalist. Nobody forces them too. They carry on the cycle of exploitation and in this case - the cycle they preach that they are against daily in a public forum to increase their potential client pool. In fact, I'd argue that psychotherapist influencers almost have to be addicted to external validation to streamline their online presence and ensure their metrics are yielding the highest results. This sullies content presented because it is not presented as objective findings through something like a peer-reviewed hypothesis; it is presented as fact when it is oftentimes personal opinion presented as consensus of the psychology community.

I do not believe in purity tests but I do believe in definitions. Anti-capitalism does not involve voluntary capitalists proclaiming their guilt but continuing their exploitation. It involves the cessation of these systems and replacing them with better systems that have their own means-tested history.

Do any of you have thoughts on this topic?

tl;dr - Therapist influencers give me the ick and most are full of sh*t, especially the ones that signal left-of-center political positioning.

Originally posted by u/Jeremy-O-Toole on Reddit.

Top comment by u/Co-op_Therapist

I agree so much with your critiques here.

I'm planning on leaving the agency I'm part of in about a year and starting a co-op for exactly the reasons you mention. I am excited at the thought of providing clinical supervision and supporting new therapists, but I have zero desire to be anyone's boss. I want all of us together to see exactly what money has come in, what the rent costs, the EHR, insurance, etc. and when we start making more funds deciding what to invest in the business vs. what to pay out as bonuses.

Because I have looked at the sorts of things that any new agency owner would also look at my social media as are full of "how I make over 200k a year by owning a group practice and only working 3 days a week" ads that just make me feel disgusted with whichever alleged therapist is in the ad. I can argue that it's bullshit when insurance companies (cough, Cigna) don't pay us what our time is worth without thinking it is ok to make up the difference by exploiting someone straight out of grad school.

I swear you cannot make this stuff up. They want to allow open carry in libraries and they want to raise the age on when you can get a library card without a parent from 16 to 18. I guess books are more dangerous than guns? You can read the story here.

Originally posted by u/LatherRinseRage on Reddit.

Top comment by u/Mistrrcarter

Card age limit is insanity.

So I am a hospital social worker. In my unit, there are 8 social workers/case managers. I recently applied and interviewed for another job. Well… while waiting to hear back about if I got this job, 2 of my coworkers have put in their resignations in the last 2 days. And of course, I got a call Sunday… and the job I interviewed for is giving me an offer.

Now, because of my coworkers resignations, I am going back and forth on if I should accept the offer. In my mind, I know I should. I hate the current hospital I’m at and it has only gotten worse with new leadership. I never even really wanted to work here in the first place because its so far and im paying about $300/month between parking and tolls. The only reason I even work here is because they were the only hospital at the time who would hire me without “medical discharge experience”. Now that I have that experience, I want to go to the new hospital which was my first choice to begin with. But now that my coworkers are leaving, I feel like I need to stay so that I don’t inconvenience my other coworkers who will still be there. This place has such a hard time hiring people that I know they will be without coverage for a while and swamped with cases. In my head, I know I should do whats best for me… but it is giving me so much anxiety that I’m dreaming about it and not sleeping well.

Idk. Idk what to do.

—————-

EDIT: I have read the overwhelming responses, and though I still feel bad… I will take the offer. I know it may have seemed like an easy decision, but it is eating me up because I like my coworkers 😭 Thinking about it more after I posted this, I thought about how much anxiety I have had working here and how Ive been so burned out by the company alone that I have been isolating myself and I dont want that anymore. Thanks for the responses and the push I needed.

Originally posted by u/SanktaJasmine on Reddit.

Top comment by u/Metalsneakers

Seems pretty clear that you hate working there and it’s not your job to keep others happy. Also, it’s clear that other people also hate working there. The answer is pretty clear 😉

Hi all,

I had posted here a few weeks back about making this video, and here is the finished product! Got a lot of great responses and people from here reaching out. The video tries to give a history of the "chemical imbalance theory", why it's wrong, and then explores criticism of the theory from a critical psychiatric perspective.

Hope y'all enjoy.

Originally posted by u/Racker150 on Reddit.

Top comment by u/Friendly_Nerd

Disclaimer: I haven’t watched the video because i am out of the house.

I feel like the “chemical imbalance” idea is reductive and removes agency. Sure, maybe it’s like that for some people, but we really can’t prove it for anyone yet. I feel that it’s a convenient justification to just put people on antidepressants and forget about further treatment. It encourages people to view themselves as unfixable when they simply may not have found the right treatment or perspective yet.

Plus it stinks of biological reductionism to me which I have a personal beef with.

Originally posted by u/tlmsmith on Reddit.

Top comment by u/TRex_N_FX

Isn't this sign a full time joker?

Not someone I directly supervise, but someone under another supervisor reports they're completing up to 20 home visits a day with the average being more than 10. To me, this seems either to be a lie or that they're not providing quality services. Either way, upper leadership genuinely didn't seem to be bothered when this was flagged and defended the worker saying that they "schedule all their visits for a couple days a month" (the worker's caseload size is ~60). I'm shocked it won't be investigated any further given that that particular team has had issues in the past with people entering fraudulent HV notes. Anyway, just a Monday ramble!

ETA: Since it's come up, the visits are spread out across the city and the commute between visits can be a few minutes to 30+ minutes. Looking at the report, there's multiple instances of an alleged visit having started before it would be even physically possible to having been able to drive there. For example, let's say the prior visit started at 9am, the next visit is reported to have started at 9:15, but the commute between the two locations is 30 minutes (without traffic).

Originally posted by u/SocialWorkerr on Reddit.

Top comment by u/Born_Astronomer_4613

They are not actually seeing all of these clients

Hello friends and neighbors! I'm heading out of town for the week to sit next to a pool and not do computer stuff. No event list this week! So it's your turn - comment with any events you're aware of or excited to attend.

Don't burn the place down while I'm out of town!

Originally posted by u/clearliquidclearjar on Reddit.

Top comment by u/Keilp100128

Have fun!

InfinityCon is this weekend for anyone looking for some anime/nerd themed thing to do! It's small, but it's always fun to see who's vending and chat with the artists. :)

I’m a 26M Registered Social Worker (RSW) here in the Philippines, and honestly, I am just so exhausted and frustrated with how our profession is treated in this country.

We went to college, studied hard, passed a difficult board exam, and swore an oath. Yet, the moment you tell someone you’re a social worker, they look at you like you’re either a generic volunteer, a glorified clerk, or someone whose entire job is just hand out relief goods during a typhoon. The absolute lack of professional respect from the general public—and even from other professions—is incredibly demoralizing.

But it’s not just the lack of respect; it’s the systemic trap of the career path itself.

If you want to practice, your options are basically limited to three things:

Low-paying NGO jobs where you are overworked to the bone.

Competitive government positions (DSWD/LGU) where you’re often stuck on endless Contract of Service (COS) or Job Order (JO) status with no security, no benefits, and a mountain of bureaucratic stress.

Shifting careers entirely.

What hits the hardest is looking at other board-certified professions. Look at teachers—if they want extra income or independence, they can do private tutoring, open learning centers, or teach online. Look at accountants—they can handle freelance bookkeeping, take on private corporate clients, or start their own consulting firms.

But what about us? As RSWs, we have virtually zero opportunities for private independent practice. The entire system is built to make us dependent on institutional employment. We aren't given the framework, the legal backing, or the market to open a private practice where we can offer specialized counseling, community consultancy, or clinical social work independently. We are completely boxed in.

I chose this field because I genuinely wanted to make a difference and build a sustainable career in social development. Instead, at 26, I feel completely undervalued, underpaid, and stuck.

Any other RSWs here feeling the same way? How are you copying with the stagnation, or have you already started looking for an exit strategy out of the profession entirely?

Originally posted by u/Quick_Maybe5151 on Reddit.

Top comment by u/ValueCrazy5213

Yuck! If your degree is accepted in US, you have alot more oppurtunity. My wife and both are licensed clinical social workers, MSW degrees, and we make close to 400,000 US dollars a year in private mental health practice.

Originally posted by u/CleanAnimator4899 on Reddit.

Top comment by u/obliviousresearcher

I am reading this right now! I would love to form a book club just to discuss this book.

I will say, I am finding it to be a difficult read, but only because my reading muscle hasn't been exercised in a while.

If anyone else is struggling to read, I would recommend listening to this interview of Lara Sheehi on Breakthrough news.

This interview brought me immense hope and I immediately sought out the book to read.

https://youtu.be/K1xD4hFyu1s?is=k4db81bb5NZB0oE6

Aka David M Burks Property Management. They deleted their Google listing to get out from under the cascade of bad reviews. In all my years of renting they were by far the worst of the worst. Lying and saying we never paid rent (we started filming ourselves handing them our checks), holes in the roof that they wouldn’t fix, leaving hundreds of voicemails never to be returned. All of the reviews were same story. They have all the same dilapidated properties listed. Please do yourself a favor and don’t fall for the trap

Originally posted by u/Belladabawl1 on Reddit.

Top comment by u/Madmartigan56

Good looking out!!

I think this is fantastic. New Jersey is going to start charging companies whose employees are on Medicaid. I think this really speaks to what we are seeing were companies refuse to pay living wages, but we can clearly see that our societies are still paying for it.

The fees are pretty low right now but I can see in the future where they choose to raise them.

This is great news

Originally posted by u/cannotberushed- on Reddit.

Top comment by u/Lucky-Reference-7667

Omg FINALLY!! I just read about how Walmart employs 2.3 million people worldwide and is the largest revenue generating business in the world. Hundreds of billions a year in revenue. I refused to look at how many employees are on govt provided medical insurance.