Therapists are the identified patients of our culture, right?
In our families, we were the ones who named what everybody else refused to see.
When something felt off, when something wasn't right.
If you were as a little one, you spoke up and this was probably met, this could have been met with a lot of ways, but because you're a therapist right now, it was probably met with be quiet, anger, shut up, sit down, distress.
Sadness, right?
You named reality.
Something doesn't feel right and maybe you didn't always have words for it, but you spoke up or you reacted, you cried, you got disregulated, you were different than other kids because you sensed the emotional resonance in the room.
You sensed when something was not right.
When people were not living in integrity, you knew it.
You, you, you probably had the, the mom or the teacher or the dad who, who spoke to you being a little more perceptive or a lot more perceptive than those around you and then that was not always met with that wasn't always said with joy or encouragement, right?
Definitely not in my case.
So you, went into the world, maybe you stopped speaking up.
often if you stopped speaking up, you got sick, depressed, anxious, right?
It came out in other ways.
you could have been one of the rare few who had parents who encouraged and appreciated you calling out and saying what you saw even when it wasn't the popular opinion, but then you probably didn't become a therapist.
You're probably a very successful person not listening to this podcast.
If you are a licensed mental health therapist, you became a therapist because you wanted to find a way to say what was possible without destroying those around you.
It's just what you did.
It's just, it's just how you, how you went out in the world, right?
We are the people who named what everyone else refused to see, and now in the larger society, it's the same thing.
You are the canary in the coal mine.
You feel the fractures first in your personal space, in your community, and also within the larger society.
You notice the contradictions early, even if you don't have words for them, you might sense it within yourself, attention, especially in our political scene where people try to, where there is a desire to split.
It's good or bad, it's this or that, it's Republican or Democrat, right?
It's, it's, it's immigrants or no immigrants.
It's just all the ways we wanna split, divide, be divisive.
You, you fight for nuance and complexity in a world that is addicted to black and white.
Quick social media takes, right?
Black and white, quick news takes.
That doesn't work.
You know it's not true.
And yes, people don't often want to hear it.
They don't want to hear it, but that doesn't mean you're wrong.
It means you're on the vanguard.
It means you're paying attention to things that other people are not paying attention to.
It means you have your finger on the pulse and that often is gonna make you unpopular at first.
You're not gonna stay unpopular, right?
As you start holding complexity, people want connection.
People want impact.
People want to be around those of us who say what's true even when it's uncomfortable, but not at first.
You will be the identified patient for our society.
By the way, my name is Tiffany McLean.
I'm the founder of Lean In Make Bank where we have real honest conversations about the clinical work we do and the role of money within that clinical work.
This, being on the vanguard, saying what you see, holding the nuance and complexity in a society that wishes things were so easy as an AI algorithm, right?
Pop in a question, get an answer, done and done.
That's not how the world works.
That's how a recipe works for macaroni and cheese, but it's not how complex relationships work.
It's not how relating works.
It's not how, trauma, attachment, connection, possibility, transformation.
It's not how it works.
It is the role of the modern therapist to speak the truth before it's convenient.
It is your role to hold depth when culture is wanting to flatten everything.
You fight for the nuance and the complexities that you see.
It is your role in 2026 as a therapist to claim authority in a system that would prefer you stay small, and I know you're uncomfortable with the idea of claiming authority.
But if you don't do it, big tech will, AI will, the algorithm will, concrete thinking, black and white thinking, that's who's gonna take up space and that's gonna, that's who's gonna set the course for us if we don't start owning our authority, valuing our time and getting paid for it, valuing our thinking, valuing the way we show up in the world and getting paid for it.
If you don't start taking up space and getting paid for it, you will become obsolete and the alternative is dark.
The alternative is dark.
If you are going to lead in 2026, if we as mental health clinicians, psychologists, licensed marriage and family therapists, LCSWs, LPPCs, if you are going to lead in 2026, you must own your authority.
You must understand how to make an impact.
You must charge accordingly.
This starts with you.
If you are on insurance panels, if you are taking Medicare, if you are seeing 30 clients a week, overworked, underpaid, and struggling, ceding your, your time and your money to the big tech AI insurance companies and you don't know how to get out, you feel trapped, you certainly are not gonna be able to show up as an, as an empowered change agent who can inspire your clients to get to another place in their life.
The first place to start with understanding your ability to make an impact, your ability to have agency is to start in your own practice.
What would it mean if you could charge your life first fee?
What do I mean when I say that?
That's the fee that allows you to fully live your life.
Have ease, sleep, physical health, mental and emotional health, pay for your own therapy weekly, pay for your own clinical consultation, go on regular vacations, be maxing out your retirement, paying off all your student loans, able to have relationships with your spouse, with your kids, with your friends, with yourself, because you're charging enough.
You own your time, right?
If you want to truly help others and then step into a place of changing our cultural narrative, being a thought leader, being a change maker, having authority because you, you actually have the skills and the natural proclivity to do so, you have to start with your life first fee.
If you could charge your life first fee, $300 per session.
See 15 clients max a week.
Take 3 day weekends every weekend.
Take 6 weeks off every year.
Who would you be?
With that kind of spaciousness, how would you show up in the world?
Kindness, curiosity, generosity.
How would your clinical work change?
What would you be able to do on a bigger level?
What would you have to say if you had the space and time and creativity and ease and financial security and stability and abundance to actually show up fully?
Speak out, have a voice, whether that's writing your book, whether that's going and doing public speaking.
Whether that's simply saying what's true in your relationship, not ceding to codependent dynamics, not keeping your mouth shut cause you don't wanna hurt other people's feelings.
What would it mean to show up in professional spaces as someone who's financially abundant, who has made your own space, who got out of being overworked and underpaid and actually stepped into the life you wanted.
You could then go out and make real changes as a therapist, but it has to start with you.
If you wanna go on this journey, if you're tired of just being exhausted, being pushed around, being beholden to big tech agencies, even being, being beholden to your own fear.
Right?
Your own fear, your own feeling of your own lack of agency, your own feeling that you can't actually make changes in your own life.
That's no way to live.
If you're tired of it, if you're ready for something different, send me an email, Tiffany at leanin Makebank.
And say impact.
Tiffany at LeanI Makebank.com and just say impact.
I'm gonna know what you mean.
And I'm gonna show you how you can actually step into truly creating transformative change, truly living your life.
Truly having what you want when you started your private practice journey, your, your licensed mental health journey all those years ago, for that little you, that 3 year old you who wanted to speak up but was told nobody wants to hear it.
Keep your mouth shut.
You're, you're, you're making things uncomfortable for the rest of us.
Fuck that.
It is time for you to take your place.
It is time for you to step up and own your authority.
It is time for you to actually have your voice and it starts with you.
And I'm gonna assert it starts with your fee.
Owning your fee, owning your life first fee.
Send me an email, Tiffany at lean and Makebank.com.
Say impact.
And I will show you how.