Everybody has a side hustle these days. Whether you are selling things online or starting up your own business, people must have multiple streams of income in this day and age. No matter what your profession is, you could do with another means of making income.
Psychology is a professional and well-respected career path. As a therapist, you may find that you are not making as much money as you want to. This could be for several reasons. Some therapists aren’t able to establish large or consistent client bases. Some therapists may not be getting paid enough at their workplaces.
That is why you need to find a way to transfer the skills that you have to a useful and lucrative side hustle. Many people think that side hustles aren’t for people with professional careers, but they couldn’t be more wrong.
Even as a therapist, there are many ways that you can earn money outside of your regular practice. The side hustles available for therapists may be different than those for other people, but that doesn’t mean that they are not profitable.
As economic conditions globally continue to deteriorate, it is now more important than ever that people look for side gigs to earn extra money. In this guide, we will be walking you through all the options available for a therapist looking for a side hustle to earn money through.
10 side hustle for a Therapist
Here are ten options for ways that you can make money as a therapist besides your regular job;
Start a therapy blog
This is one of the best ways for a therapist to make money besides their day job. Blogging is easy, accessible, and doesn’t require any extra training or qualifications. As a licensed therapist, you already have a wealth of knowledge to dig from and share.
A blog is a place where you can share your thoughts, opinions, experiences, and more. This makes it a side hustle that is not only financially rewarding but emotionally rewarding as well. With a blog, you can create a community of people with shared experiences or a shared desire for knowledge.
There are many ways to make money through a blog and the content of your blog can determine what avenues of making money you choose. Just because you are a mental health professional doesn’t mean that you can’t explore different topics.
You can go past the basics of a mental health blog and make yours a lifestyle blog about living as a therapist. You can make money by doing sponsored posts for brands and businesses, being a brand ambassador, or joining an affiliate marketing program.
A blog also allows you to sell additional products like courses and training.
Join an affiliating marketing program
As a licensed therapist, you may already have your own website, blog, or online presence. Instead of letting these just be features of your career, you can join an affiliate marketing program and make money from these things.
Many people know about affiliate marketing but not a lot of people know about how profitable it is or how easy it is to make money by joining a program. If you already have a website that pulls in a lot of traffic or a successful blog, you’ve done half of the work.
Affiliate marketing is a marketing system where an affiliate promotes a company’s products or services and receives a commission for every customer they bring to the company. Once you’ve established your business, you can earn lots of money through affiliate marketing, which makes it one of the most lucrative side hustles for a therapist.
Many people are interested in psychology today and there are affiliate programs made specifically for therapists to utilize. One example of this is the affiliate program of Online-Therapy.com. They offer a well-paying and easy-to-use affiliate program that a therapist can join as well as other resources to support therapists and patients.
Create a YouTube channel
If you are looking for an unorthodox method of earning extra money, a YouTube channel might be just what you need. Youtube has become a driving force for content creation and online careers and you can join the platform to make extra money as a psychologist.
Starting a Youtube channel is easy and costs nothing so you don’t have to spend any money or resources on your channel. Many people enjoy learning about things in an informal context or watching videos that are both informative and exciting.
You can do whatever you want on your Youtube channel. You can explain psychological terms and concepts in an easy-to-understand manner, discuss different mental health topics or even dissect the mental health of popular fictional characters.
All you have to do is come up with a good concept and you can start making money in no time. Youtubers primarily make money through video sponsorships but you can also work with Youtube to play ads during your videos and receive payment for them.
Start a therapy podcast
A podcast is another great way to make money with a flexible schedule as a therapist. If you are a good talker and you feel the audio format is more suitable for you, try it out. Podcasts are very popular, especially among millennials, so the demand is there.
A podcast is an audio-only format so you have to make sure to pick interesting and engaging topics. As a therapist, you can have guests on your podcast and discuss mental health, trauma, and other topics that people may not have easy access to.
You can monetize your podcast by gaining sponsors which will happen as you continue to grow in popularity. Creating an online product like a podcast often goes hand in hand with other products. With time, you can create a brand that includes a blog, podcast, Youtube channel, and many other online products.
Starting a podcast is also cost and stress-free so you don’t have to spend any money. Just make sure to fact-check all the information you share online and don’t violate any laws as you do so.
Create an online course
E-learning is growing in popularity among people today. This is because learning online makes education more accessible, affordable, and flexible. As a therapist, you have an opportunity to provide for the needs of people that are interested in learning about things online.
You can collate your knowledge and share it with people as an online course. The amount of topics you can cover in your course is endless and you can offer multiple courses about countless topics. You can create courses teaching about struggles like depression or anxiety, how to deal with them, methods to help people understand their symptoms better, and more.
Or you can create therapy courses tailored towards specific demographics such as couples therapy or therapy for addicts.
The costs of online courses can range from mid to high and the amount of investment it takes to create the course may be a lot. You will have to research the course topics to ensure that the information you are sharing is factual. You will also have to spend time and resources creating the content of the course such as slides, videos, graphics, tests, and more.
The benefit of an online course is that once you have created it, you can earn passive income through it for a long time without having to put in any additional effort. Once it is out there, you can keep making money from it every time someone purchases it.
Publish a book
The ultimate collation of sharing your knowledge and experience as a therapist would be writing a book and publishing it. A book is a great medium to share your knowledge in a more in-depth way that blogging or an online course.
Writing a book may not be an easy process, though. You will have to do a lot of research on whatever topic you choose. You can write a book about a specific field or branch of psychology or you could opt for creating a self-help book for people dealing with particular struggles.
If you want to do something different, you can branch out of the non-fiction genre entirely and even write a fiction book. As a therapist, you can create complex and interesting characters that resonate with people.
You can choose to publish a book either physically or digitally. Platforms like Amazon Kindle allow people to self-publish their books and you can contact a literary agent to share your book idea and get it published.
Book publishing is a very competitive field but if your book does well, you can make large amounts of passive income through it. Once you have published your book, you will be able to make income from it for a long time.
Become a consultant
Consultants are highly-demanded and highly-paid professionals in a field. If you are looking for an effortless method of making additional income as a therapist, look no further than starting up a consulting business.
A consultant is a professional that offers advice and assistance to an individual or business based on their expertise in the field. As a therapist, there are many areas where you can offer consulting services and make extra cash.
Your services as a consultant are guaranteed to secure you high pay and work flexibility. You can work for organizations and businesses to help with human resource problems and conflicts. You can work on a contract basis to solve work-related issues and conflicts between people in the workplace.
You can also work as a consultant to people working on projects such as films, books, and more. People often need a professional that they can contact for clarification and explanation of certain things when they are working on projects. Therefore, you can work as a psychology consultant for film production or similar projects.
As a consultant, you need to work on your networking skills and dedicate time and resources to marketing yourself and your services.
Start freelance writing
Freelance writing is a great avenue to make money as a therapist, especially if you don’t want to commit to starting your own blog or any other business idea. Working as a freelancer lets you work flexibly and comfortably.
As a freelance writer, you determine how much income you make by how many jobs you take. Freelancing as a therapist can be very lucrative because countless psychology-related blogs and websites are always looking for writers.
You can also write articles in magazines, newspapers, online publications, and more. As a freelancer, you just have to find places that require your services or submit your writing to different places. If you have a passion or talent for writing, sharing your pieces in different publications is a great way to make money on the side.
There are many freelancing websites that you can sign up for such as Upwork. You can also check listings online for writing vacancies in publications that are looking for freelance writers of different niches. You can make additional money by writing blog posts on websites.
Join Talkspace
Talkspace is an online therapy platform that lets people get easy access to therapy and other mental health resources. The platform is beneficial to both therapists and patients as it provides a means for them to connect.
As a therapist, you can sign up on Talkspace to get additional work besides your day job. Talkspace provides virtual mental health assistance for people globally, so it allows therapists to reach more people than they would have been able to physically.
Talkspace also cares for the people on the platform, both therapists and patients. Talkspace offers affordable rates for mental health services and lets therapists match with patients that they feel they can work with successfully.
As a therapist, you will have to provide proof that you are licensed and then undergo some light training on how to use the platform. You get to decide what types of therapy work best for both you and your patients, whether that is video chat, audio, or chat sessions.
Joining a platform like Talkspace lets you manage how much work you do and gives you an additional means of earning money as a therapist. You don’t have to spend any money to join Talkspace as a therapist as well.
Try out public speaking
This is a great example of a way a therapist can earn money through a side hustle. If you have the charisma for it and you are a good speaker, public speaking is a great way to make extra money as a therapist.
Public speaking also serves as an avenue to branch out to other forms of services and products. if you establish yourself as a reputable public speaker, people will be interested in any other products you put out.
You can start by organizing free seminars, workshops, and conferences to introduce people to your style of speaking and topics. Over time, you can begin to charge for your events and you will steadily build an audience.
As a public speaker, you can make money either by hosting your own events or by getting hired or asked to be a guest speaker at different events. Institutions like schools, offices, prisons, and more often bring in public speakers to address people and share information on topics.
As a public speaker, you get to travel, connect to audiences and share information. It may be challenging to constantly come up with fresh and original content for your talks but you can spend time working on your content.
Conclusion
Just because you are a therapist doesn’t mean that you can’t branch out into other fields to make money. As you can see from our list, there are many means for a therapist to make a steady income besides having a private or group practice.
Some of these side hustle options may require things like a large time commitment or a steady internet connection, but they are worth it for the amount of income they can bring. They offer therapists more freedom to work and ways of making money outside the regular business week.
If you are a therapist and you are wondering whether you should try out any of these side hustles, talk to some other therapists. You will find that most people have other businesses they participate in besides their day jobs.
Don’t limit yourself to only one field or practice. You can start making steady streams of money today.
