In 2019, I founded a collective I called “The Compassion Project”. My idea was that I could supervise interns to provide lower cost and pro bono services in exchange for clinical supervision and ongoing training in the field. As a therapist supervisor and educator I felt I was equipped to help and I could give back by offering pro bono clinical supervision.

It worked really well at first. I would actually say it was a ‘windfall’ of sorts. It was a ‘balanced’ business model, albeit a private practice one, where those who could afford to pay for my services, either through private pay or using their extended health benefits insurance, would be indirectly helping to fund those who needed access. My logo was plain. I designed it this way purposefully with the idea that we were a ‘work in progress’ and that it would evolve organically as I navigated the unchartered territories of providing mental health services in a private practice business model.

We were open for 3 months and then the pandemic happened…and so I did what we all did during that time…I pivoted…

I was practicing while consulting to and/or supervising some colleagues practices. My therapeutic services were mainly in person but my clinical supervision services started to grow online. My niche was supporting those counsellors and therapists who lived in rural communities. Mainly in the northern or remote parts of the country or those who were isolated without much supports. When the pandemic happened I felt it would be most helpful to provide more clinical supervision as I navigated online learning environments for both myself and my two school aged children. At the time of the pandemic they were 4 and 6 years old. I did not feel that I had the capacity to provide safer spaces for my clients while at the same time holding the energy for my two kiddos who were impacted by having to go to school online while coping with two burnt out parents who were trying to cope with the collective trauma of having to isolate and decide how best to keep ourselves and our family safe.

The Empowered Supervisor happened as a result of pivoting once more. I noticed that a lot of my colleagues were doing the same thing I did a few years prior. They were trying to pivot and there was a mass exodus of counsellors/therapist and social workers from healthcare and agency settings who were also trying to navigate private practice. There were also new counsellors in the field who were fresh out of grad school and hanging up shingles of their own. All of this was happening in isolation without much support or guidance from our colleges, professional associations and I am not sure that the government really knows what it is that we are all doing out here on our own. But what I do know is that since the pandemic a lot of us are continuing to provide access to mental health services and employing the idea of a balanced business model in hopes of helping to support those who cannot afford mental health services or those who access government funded services who find them unhelpful or (in my experience) even harmful have a place to go that is safer.

Watch, Read, Listen