Episode #748: Why You're Counting Down To Time Off

Summary

Podcast Summary: Abundant Practice Podcast

Episode #748: Why You're Counting Down To Time Off
Host: Allison Puryear
Guest: Rebecca Smith
Release Date: April 11, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Allison Puryear and guest Rebecca Smith tackle a common pain point for private practice therapists: the feeling of building a practice you want to escape from. They answer a listener’s question about constantly counting down to weekends, cancellations, or vacations, and discuss how to make a private practice genuinely sustainable and enjoyable. Their advice centers on realigning practice structures to fit therapists' actual lives, setting boundaries, and proactively reassessing work-life balance.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Identifying the Real Problem

[03:02–04:13]

• The listener’s question resonates with many therapists who started private practice for freedom but end up feeling trapped.
• Rebecca Smith: Raises the possibility that niche mismatch or burnout, especially for trauma therapists, could be at play:

  “Sometimes we take on... trauma therapy because they're great at it... then that can really burn you out.” [03:30]

• Alice: Suggests it might be about boundaries and structural issues more than just clinical fatigue.

2. Aligning Practice with Life (Not the Other Way Around)

[04:36–06:13]

• Taking time off in private practice often feels financially risky, causing therapists to under-schedule vacations.
• Vacations might be infrequent (“in 2034, I said I was going to go to Europe... we got to do this something in 2026.” – Alice, 05:09)
• Rebecca: Encourages restructuring your caseload to fit your life and not the reverse:

  “... instead of restructuring your life around your caseload, encourage this person to restructure their caseload around their life.” [05:43]

3. The “Big Rocks” Metaphor for Scheduling

[06:13–07:30]

• Alice: Proposes seeing life’s priorities as “big rocks” in your schedule:

  “If you have a jar and you're trying to fill it with rocks... most therapists, your caseload is the biggest rock. But it doesn't have to be.” [06:56]

• Rebecca: Reiterates the importance of putting life’s priorities first:

  “Your life should be... the big rocks.” [07:03]

• Sleep, health, family, relationships—these go in the schedule first; the caseload fills in around them.

4. Avoiding Burnout and Re-Evaluating Regularly

[07:34–09:30]

• Real talk: You may not want to interact with anyone after a full therapy day—acknowledge it and plan accordingly.
• Regularly schedule “non-clinical work days” to think and plan—not just see clients.
• Alice: Suggests an annual calendar review:

  “I always do have a note every year in my calendar... that's like what does next year look like?” [09:30]

5. Planning for Predictable Life Seasons

[09:48–11:02]

• Rebecca: Shares her calendar strategy of blocking out time in especially busy seasons, e.g., May for end-of-school-year activities:

  “I have a note for myself in my calendar... that I cannot miss that's like, remember that May is so busy and you need to scale back on work stuff...” [09:49]

• Normalize changing your work plan from year to year as life circumstances shift.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Your life is more important, period. I love being a therapist, but my family's more important, my sleep is more important.”
  — Rebecca Smith, 08:16

• “You can have what you want. You just have to know what it is.”
  — Rebecca Smith, 09:23

• “For a lot of therapists, your caseload is the biggest rock. But it doesn't have to be.”
  — Alice, 06:56

• “If you're taking one of these non clinical work days, it's a good time to go through this worksheet. It's free.”
  — Rebecca Smith, 11:42

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Actionable Takeaways

• Assess if your niche or client population is burning you out. Consider shifts if needed.
• Prioritize personal needs and set your caseload and working hours around them—not the other way around.
• Schedule personal priorities as non-negotiable “big rocks”, then fit clients around them.
• Reassess your work-life balance at least annually (or even quarterly); adjust your schedule proactively for busy life seasons.
• Take actual, frequent breaks and vacations—price your services to enable this without financial hardship.
• Use available worksheets and resources (linked in show notes) to clarify what you want from your practice.

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [03:02] – Listener question and initial reactions
• [03:30] – Burnout in niche populations, especially trauma therapists
• [04:36] – The income/vacation problem in private practice
• [05:43] – Advice to restructure caseload vs. life
• [06:56] – The “Big Rocks” calendar metaphor
• [09:30] – The importance of annual (or more frequent) work-life reassessment
• [09:49] – Planning for life-specific busy seasons

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Overall Tone & Style

The tone is supportive, candid, and practical, mixing well-worn therapist wisdom with real-life examples and humor. Both hosts openly share their structures, challenges, and strategies for living well as therapists, making the advice relatable and action-oriented.

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Additional Resources

• Limitless Practice Program: For therapists wanting tailored help correcting these issues ([link in show notes])
• Free “Build the Right Practice” Worksheet: Guided questions to help therapists realign their practice with their values and priorities ([link in show notes])

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Summary by Abundant Practice Podcast Summarizer

Transcript

[Alice]

Foreign.

[Rebecca Smith]

Welcome to Ask Abundance. Y' all ask the questions about having a fun and thriving practice. We answer them. We have a worksheet for you today so you can bring this answer into your life. If you want support in your practice, we have you covered with on demand or one on one support. Links for the worksheet and support are in the show notes. Can't get enough Ask Abundance. Check out our YouTube channel for the entire library therapists whose practices are full. Is this actually the practice you want? If you're secretly stuck, you're cramming in evening sessions, glued to insurance panels, unable to raise rates. Limitless practice is your way out. Over 12 weeks, you'll make the changes you've been thinking about making for months so that you can work fewer hours while making more money. You'll design a schedule that actually fits your life and you'll say yes to only the clients you love. Together, we'll release you from your golden handcuffs. We're capping the cohort at 10 people because I'm personally running every individual call, every group call, and every accountability check in. People on the waitlist will get first dibs on those spots and then the opportunity to sign up will go out to the rest of my audience. So join the waitlist now. I'm going to put the link in the show notes and I look forward to helping you get your practice exactly where you want it. Welcome back to Ask Abundance. Today I am joined by Rebecca Smith. Rebecca is a limitless practice grad who came aboard Team Abundance. She's got a premium fee private pay practice in New Orleans and is great at helping Abundance therapists imagine what's possible for them. Here is today's question. I started my practice because I wanted more freedom, but lately it feels like I've built something I'm constantly trying to get a break from. Even when things are fine, I catch myself counting down to weekends, cancellations, or the next vacation. Like that's the only time I get to breathe. I don't want to hate my work and I definitely don't want to keep restructuring my life around my caseload. How do I stop building a practice I need to escape from and start building one I actually want to live inside of? I love the way that that question's worded. I do too. And before we get into it, I want to thank Therapy Notes for sponsoring Ask Abundance. I've talked about them for years, know their features by heart, but what truly sets them apart is that they genuinely care about your experience. It's not just about Troubleshooting. They actively implement user suggested features like clinical outcome tracking and their AI notes feature. Therapy fuel. Everyone at TherapyNotes believes in the product and wants you to love it too. Plus they're independently owned, which means no venture capital and no pressure to prioritize investors over customers. This independence allows them to keep their prices fair, to focus on innovation and prioritize customer experience. With over 100,000 therapists our already on board, they've proven that you don't have to compromise success for quality. If you're ready to see for yourself, try Therapy notes free for two months with the code abundanttherapynotes.com all right, Rebecca, what stood out to you about this question?

[Alice]

Let's hop in. This question is so tough because it really feels like exactly what they said. They're trying to escape their practice and it feels really unsure of I guess kind of why. Like what, what, what is it that's not working.

[Rebecca Smith]

Yeah, that's my question too. Like is this somebody that switching a niche would make a really big difference? Like.

[Alice]

Right.

[Rebecca Smith]

Sometimes we take on and I see this a lot with trauma therapists specifically of like they take on this niche of trauma therapy because they're great at it. It's a population they really care about and then that can really burn you out.

[Alice]

Yeah.

[Rebecca Smith]

It's a hard population to work with for a lot of people. And so often switching their niche to something that is aligned but maybe less intense.

[Alice]

Yeah.

[Rebecca Smith]

So maybe anxiety related or depression related, just something that's just less, less intense.

[Alice]

Yeah.

[Rebecca Smith]

Can make a really big difference. So that was my first thought when I read this.

[Alice]

Yeah, I, when I was reading this too, I also felt like it was a clinical question more than a businessy question until it got to the part I don't want to keep restructuring my life around my caseload. Right. And maybe I'm pull, maybe that's not quite the issue. But I do want to highlight that one that seems like there needs to be some more boundary setting. I talk about like I'm counting down to weekends, cancellations and the next vacation and the first thing that popped in my head was you might need more vacation.

[Rebecca Smith]

Right.

[Alice]

The hard thing about being in private practice, especially a solo private practice, taking a break means taking a loss of income. And so you probably aren't scheduling enough honestly then means with this trickle down rate, which then means you're maybe not charging enough to be able to compensate for an appropriate amount of time off.

[Rebecca Smith]

Yeah, yeah, I think that that's a good point that like I've heard because I read it and I was like, oh, yeah, they're taking vacations, but we don't know if next vacation means three years.

[Alice]

Yeah. Like in 2034, I said I was going to go to Europe. You're like, okay, we got to do this something in 2026.

[Rebecca Smith]

Yeah, absolutely. And so the restructuring my life around my caseload, that's another thing. It's like, if are you working times you don't want to work or days you don't want to work, and if you are, that's truly a pretty easy fix. It feels really scary. But the vast majority of clients are going to stay with you at a different time or on a different day. So I would, instead of restructuring your life around your caseload, encourage this person to restructure their caseload around their life. I don't get the sense that they're like missing things that are important to them. Like I never get to go to my kids recital or whatever. I don't, I don't get that sense. But it still sounds like their practice is kind of the driving force in their life.

[Alice]

Yeah.

[Rebecca Smith]

And I don't know if that's because they're just like unhappy in it or if it's structured that way.

[Alice]

I can't remember if you'd give me so much advice. I can't remember if you said something about this or it was from somewhere else, but it was. I have this thing in my head of like thinking about your calendar and being really intentional about everything in your calendar. So yeah, your, your caseload, but also going for a run. Like when you have to pick up your kid, did you do your book club, Blah, blah, blah, y. And, and the idea of like, if you have a, you have a jar and you're trying to fill it with rocks for some reason, which you're going to put these big ones in first and then you're going to fill in with little ones and little ones and then some sand. Right. For a lot of therapists, your caseload is the biggest rock. But it doesn't have to be like,

[Rebecca Smith]

yes, it does not have to be like that. Your life should be like your life. Things are the big rocks.

[Alice]

Absolutely. You do only have 24 hours in a day, but like sleep. Biggest rock, big old rock right there. And then also, when do you want to prioritize you. When do you want to prioritize your relationships or your friends or your family or your puppy dog in the background and make those big rocks first, plot those in your schedule and then see what does it look like to like fill in the caseload around that.

[Rebecca Smith]

Yes.

[Alice]

And then, and then go from there.

[Rebecca Smith]

I was actually speaking with a therapist earlier today who is, she's just working her tail off and she's like, I, I don't want to talk to anybody by the time I'm done with my workday. Like, I really just, I definitely don't want to have any small talk, but I don't want to have any big talk either. Like, I just want it to be quiet. And most of us don't come home to a household or a life that is then quiet for the rest of the day. Most of us have some chaos going on when we get home. So making sure that your practice isn't outsized in terms of priority in your life. Like, yes, it is your livelihood and it is an important job and your life is more important. Your life is more important, period. I love being a therapist, but my family's more important, my sleep is more important.

[Alice]

Your health is more important 100% and, and like figuring that out over the course of the year too. Give yourself enough time working, but not in session to like really brainstorm what do I want this to look like? And know that next year you should do that again. You should change it year to year, even just a little bit based on your current needs. I think that that constant shifting is really important.

[Rebecca Smith]

Yeah, it really is. And I think that constant shifting is important and it's something that most of us don't take the time to be quite. And still. And do we just stay on the train and if you were just like on the train of your private practice, except for those moments when you're off off because you've got your weekends or your vacations or whatever. I think this is a good opportunity to schedule some time that is a non clinical workday.

[Alice]

Yeah.

[Rebecca Smith]

To think through what do you actually want? Because you can, you can have what you want. You just have to know what it is. Yeah.

[Alice]

And do it frequently. You could do it quarterly. But I always do have a, I have a note every year in my calendar sometime in like usually early October. That's like what does next year look like? Because then you're going to want to plan how you do it and tell your clients in November and December to make a January change.

[Rebecca Smith]

Yes. So I think it probably was me with the whole calendar thing because my calendar looks crazy. But like one of the things, for instance, every May or actually it's mid April, I have a note for myself in my calendar that I cannot miss that's like, remember that May is so busy and you need to scale back on work stuff because there are 43 end of school year parties and 72 volunteer opportunities that you're volun told what to do. And all these things that in order to, you know, show up for my kids the way they want me to show up and bake whatever thing or go to the store to get a baked good or whatever, you know, like to, to make sure that I am doing what I want to do to help them celebrate the end of the school year. It's done. And I don't know why so many kids are born in May. One of mine is, but there's also like a thousand birthday parties during the busiest month of the year. So yeah, May is like my December. So I remember that every year that if I'm taking two weeks off at the end of the year because December is so intense, why am I acting like everything's normal in May when for me it's typically busier, you know?

[Alice]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Rebecca Smith]

So amazing. Okay. I hope that this was helpful for this person. If you're listening to this question, you're like, this sounds like me. Like I definitely need to make some changes. And my practice, it's full, it's, it's thriving on paper, but it's not what I want and need it to be. Then Limitless practice might be a good fit for you. I'm going to put the link for that in the show notes and for the pod and in the caption. We also have a great worksheet that kind of speaks to what we were just saying of like, you can have what you want, but you need to know what it is. And it's a build the right practice thing. It's going to ask you these questions about what you actually want in your practice. So if you're taking one of these non clinical work days, it's a good time to go through this worksheet. It's free. I'll put the link for that in there as well. Thanks so much, Rebecca.

[Alice]

I'll see you later. Thanks Alice. Bye.

[Rebecca Smith]

If you're ready for a much easier practice, TherapyNotes is the way to go. Go to therapynotes.com and use the promo code abundant for two months free. I hope that helped. Please get in touch with any of your questions for askabundance. If you're listening, you probably need some support building your practice. If you're a super newbie, grab our free checklist using the link in the show notes. I'd love for you to follow rate and review. But I really want you to share this episode with a therapist friend. Let's help all our colleagues build what they want.