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Susie flipped her head around and glared at me like I’d just called her baby ugly. 

Offended. Defensive. Gobsmacked! 

“Extremely unethical! I would never do that. I did not go into this profession to help myself!” 

The disdain dripped off of her like warm molasses. 

I knew my question would stir the pot, but I didn’t expect it to rile people up. 

The Scene: CEU Ethics Workshop. 10 therapists sitting in a circle, each bringing an ethical quandary for the group to discuss. 

My Question: What is the most ethical way to screen potential clients to ensure we are only working with our favorite, most ideal clients?

This question was inspired by my observation that therapists are the absolute worst at choosing who they should work with. 

After thirty minutes of debate (and open skepticism of my motives as a therapist 😲), I realized my belief that therapists need to carefully curate their clientele is rather divisive. 

To be clear, I believe you should have full control over the clients you invite into your business, and that these clients should be people you absolutely love working with – no exceptions! 

Nothing will burn you out faster than weak screening procedures and a caseload full of non-ideal clients.

Susie disagreed. 

Well, she didn’t disagree that working with non-ideal clients causes burnout, she just disagreed that we’re allowed to do anything about it.

“Maegan, the therapist’s job is to help those in need. You can’t turn people away who are asking for help. That’s cruel. Don’t do harm because you want an easier workday!” 

Okay, Susie, here are two reasons why I think you’re full of b-o-l-o-g-n-a… 

1 – I can’t do my best, most transformative work with every single person who knocks on my door. I’m doing non-ideal clients a disservice by keeping them on my caseload instead of referring them to someone who’s going to love working with them. I want to do my best work everyday, and I can only do that with the right kind of client. 

2 – I have zero shame about wanting an easier workday! Am I here to help people? Absolutely. Do I need to be a therapy martyr in order to help people? NOPE. My business will bring me joy and pleasure every single day. There’s no room for clients I dread in that equation! 

In my world, the business owner is always more important than the client. 

Hard to wrap your head around when you’ve been trained since grad school that everything you do should be in service of the hurting human sitting on the other side of your coffee table. 

But I know the truth – YOU are a hurting human too. And you deserve a business that liberates you in the same way you help liberate your clients.

That starts by getting clear about who you really want to serve and creating ethical processes to ensure your ideal clients are the only people allowed into your office. 

This is a tricky process… Especially when it comes time to refer out current clients who you know are no longer ideal fits for your business. *GULP* 

Here’s an easy exercise to get you started: 

Print out a list of all of your clients from the past 12 months. 

Select your three favorite highlighters (my fav part of this process). Pick one color for YAY, one for MEH, and one for UGH. 

Now I want you to go through each name on that list and highlight how they make you feel when you see their name on your schedule. 

No one is watching you, so don’t feel bad for labeling people as MEH or UGH. This is just for you – and I need you to be really honest with yourself. 

All done? Take a step back and analyze your results. 

If you’re not 100% YAY, we’ve got some work to do – assuming you want a business that’s joyful, energizing, and sustainable. 

Helping you narrow down your ideal client, holding your hand as you ethically redesign your caseload, and teaching you how to create an aligned marketing plan that speaks directly to your perfect people is just one component of my new program, The Next-Level Therapist.

If you don’t love who you’re working with, there’s no way you’re going to love your business. And I want you to really love it, not just tolerate it because it pays the bills. 

In my opinion, Susie’s wrong on this one. 

If you want to be in a room full of therapists ready to challenge Susie’s status quo by building businesses that put your needs first, join the waitlist for The Next-Level Therapist. 

This is the final week you can join the waitlist. I’ll be sending personal invitations with program details this week, and next week we open the doors to everyone.* 

And if you do the client inventory exercise, hit reply and let me know what you discovered. I’d love to cheer you on.

*Everyone = folks who are the perfect, most ideal clients for me. You’ll know if that’s you after reading the registration page.

**The person from that ethics workshop wasn’t really named Susie. I chose the Susie pseudonym because she reminded me of Susie from Curb Your Enthusiasm. Feel free to re-read this email with Susie’s voice in your head 🤣