How to Make Money as a Counselor in 2025: Ways to Make Money as a Therapist Before Your Private Practice is Established
What many people don’t realize when they begin the journey to becoming a therapist is that it takes time to build a sustainable income as a therapist in private practice. It can be disheartening when you find yourself struggling financially at the beginning of your career, but in today’s market, there is high demand for mental health services in a variety of ways beyond one-on-one counseling.
Whether you are an aspiring therapist in the trenches of a master’s program or a newly licensed therapist building your private practice, money can be tight. Many people wonder how to make money as a counselor without an established practice or a steady flow of therapy clients. Fortunately, there are numerous ways to do so, whether through part-time opportunities, networking, or building a strong referral base to grow your client list over time.
How to Make Money as a Counselor in 2025: Side Gigs to Consider
We live in a time where side hustles are a perfectly viable way to generate income. Successful professionals across all industries strive to create multiple income streams and often start with a side hustle. Exploring the perfect side hustles for counselors can provide financial stability while gaining valuable experience.
Here we will discuss ways to generate extra income while you’re still pursuing your master’s and several ways to make more money once you’re licensed but not yet making a sustainable income. These alternative income sources for therapists can help ease financial strain while building your career.
3 Ways to Make Money When You’re Still in School
Believe it or not, there are many ways to start earning as a therapist in training before you get your license. A bachelor’s degree and current enrollment in a master’s program give you sufficient credibility to dip your toe into the space and generate income even though you’re still a student.
1) Start a Blog
Starting a profitable blog does require a good amount of work in the beginning. Although it’s easier than ever to build a website, a little bit of technical savvy will be helpful here. But once your site is built, you can start creating content based on mental health topics that interest you. With some basic knowledge of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), you can structure your content so that Google sends traffic to your site.
If you consistently publish valuable, engaging content that ranks in Google searches, you will drive organic traffic to your website. With consistent traffic, you can start to monetize your blog with affiliate marketing and ad revenue. If any of this sounds foreign to you, YouTube is a great way to learn blogging basics.
Here's more information on the process and its potential benefits:
Building Your Blog: Setting up a blog requires some initial work, such as choosing a domain name, selecting a hosting platform, and designing your website. While technical skills can help, there are user-friendly platforms available that make the process accessible to those without extensive technical knowledge.
Content Creation: The heart of your blog is the content you create. As a therapist, you have a wealth of knowledge to share on mental health topics. Identify areas of specialization and interest, and develop content that provides value to your target audience. This could include articles, guides, how-to's, personal reflections, and more.
Consistency and Quality: Consistency is key in blogging. Regularly publishing high-quality content not only keeps your audience engaged but also improves your blog's authority and search engine rankings.
Research and Authenticity: Base your content on accurate information and credible sources. Authenticity is important in building trust with your audience.
Educational Outreach: Your blog can serve as an educational resource beyond your therapy sessions. By sharing valuable insights and practical advice, you contribute positively to the mental health discourse.
2) Freelance Writing
If you enjoy writing but aren’t interested in building and maintaining your own blog, you can make money as a counselor in mental health. Online publications like Psychology Today pay contributors upwards of $1 per word for quality content.
Aside from established publications, there are also plenty of opportunities to write for other mental health professionals. Established private practice therapists with successful therapy practices often don’t have time to write their own marketing materials. Offering blog content to therapists who are a ways ahead of you in the journey is another way to generate income while you’re still in school.
Here are more insights into how you can explore this avenue:
Quality Content Matters: When submitting articles to established publications, the quality of your content is key. Editors are looking for well-researched, insightful, and engaging pieces that resonate with their readership. Your articles should offer value and contribute to the ongoing conversation in the mental health field.
Networking and Exposure: Writing for established publications can provide exposure and increase your credibility within the mental health community. It's a way to showcase your knowledge and connect with professionals who share your interests.
Building Your Portfolio: Freelance writing can help you build a diverse portfolio of published articles. This portfolio can be a valuable asset if you choose to transition into other areas of the mental health field, such as private practice, teaching, or consulting.
Professional Development: Writing about mental health topics can be a form of ongoing professional development. As you research and write, you deepen your understanding of various subjects, which can enhance your therapeutic skills.
3) Design Templates
Master’s degree programs require a lot of writing and research – we get it! If you’re burnt out on writing but have a knack for design, you can generate a revenue stream by designing templates for therapists to use in their marketing.
Simple design tools like Canva are easy to learn and enable you to create templates that you can sell over and over. Templates for newsletters, social media, e-books, and more are always in demand. You can sell your work either by creating your own e-commerce site or joining third-party marketplaces.
Here's more information about this opportunity:
Selling Reusable Templates: Once you've created templates, you can sell them multiple times. This scalability makes it possible to generate income streams for therapists from your designs over the long term.
Template Types: Consider creating templates that cater to therapists' specific needs. For instance, therapy session worksheets, mood trackers, intake forms, and social media graphics tailored to mental health topics can be popular choices.
Customization Options: Design templates that allow therapists to customize colors, fonts, and content to align with their branding and messaging.
Continuous Innovation: Stay updated on design trends and therapists' preferences to keep your template offerings fresh and relevant.
Make Money as a Therapist: Additional Ways to Make Money While Building a Private Practice
So you’ve done the hard work of completing your master’s program and obtained your license to practice as a therapist. Congratulations, that’s no small task! If you’ve decided to go into private practice, it will take time to establish yourself, build a client base, and generate reliable income streams for therapists.
If you’re asking yourself how to make money as a therapist that’s just starting out, there’s good news. Now that you’re licensed you have additional credibility that will open up doors you may not have had access to as a student.
Start a Podcast
It seems like everyone and everyone has a podcast these days. And that’s because they’re a great way to gain exposure, work with other professionals in the space, and eventually monetize your counseling skills. Starting a podcast may seem like a daunting task but it’s easier than you think to get started.
The best way to generate passive income from your podcast is with sponsorships. Once you build an audience, companies will pay you to promote their products on your podcast. Podcast hosts also can use their platform to promote their own offerings and services.
Here's more information on starting a podcast and exploring monetization opportunities:
Effective Exposure and Collaboration: Podcasts provide an excellent platform for therapists to share their insights, advice, and stories in a more personal and engaging format. Collaborating with other professionals as guests can broaden your network and offer diverse perspectives to your audience.
Low Barrier to Entry: Starting a podcast is more accessible than ever. You can record episodes using relatively affordable equipment, edit them using user-friendly software, and distribute them on platforms like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and more.
Promoting Your Own Offerings: Podcast hosts can leverage their platform to promote their own services, workshops, courses, or products. Sharing valuable content on your podcast can establish you as an expert, making listeners more receptive to exploring what you have to offer.
Create Online Courses
If you’ve built a blog, started a podcast, or have a social media presence, you’re in an excellent position to create and sell your own products to your audience. You build credibility by continuing to show up for the people who are interested in what you do, and if they love the free content you have provided, it’s likely they’ll be interested in a paid product as well.
But what would my course be about? Well, there is no shortage of challenges in today’s world. People are struggling with depression, anxiety, difficulties in relationships, and uncertainty about what their purpose is in life – just to name a few. As a licensed therapist, you’re in the position to build a framework for your audience to find a better way to navigate these challenges. Online courses are the perfect way to do that.
Maybe you love teaching people about communication skills, nervous system regulation, or self-care practices. People who know, like, and trust you because they’ve followed your work, will be willing to pay to learn these skills. And once you’ve built the program you can continue to offer it to your community which enables you to earn extra money.
Let's dive into more details about developing and selling online courses:
Addressing Real Challenges: Today's world presents numerous challenges, and people are actively seeking solutions. Online courses allow you to leverage your expertise as a licensed therapist to offer practical guidance on issues like depression, anxiety, relationships, self-discovery, and personal growth.
Course Topics: Identify areas where your expertise aligns with your audience's needs. Communication skills, stress management, self-care practices, resilience building, emotional regulation, and mindfulness are just a few examples of potential course topics.
Segmentation: Depending on your audience's needs, you can offer different courses targeting specific challenges or audiences. For instance, you could have a course tailored for individuals, couples, parents, or professionals in the mental health field.
Corporate Retreats and Workshops
In the last few years, businesses have become acutely aware of the importance of supporting the mental health of their employees. But they often don’t know how to do that. Companies are looking to mental health professionals like you to help them provide their staff with experiences that are supportive, meaningful, and nourishing.
As a licensed therapist, you can design retreats and workshops that you offer to business owners who want to put their people first. This is not only a great way to generate more income, but it’s also an opportunity to flex your creative muscle. Designing informative and interactive experiences for people to support their mental well-being or build better relationships with their colleagues can be a very rewarding experience.
Here's more information on how to develop and provide these experiences:
Tailored Experiences: Craft retreats and workshops that address specific mental health challenges, promote team-building, enhance communication, or foster a culture of well-being within the workplace.
Professional Networking: Collaborate with other professionals in related fields to enhance the value of your workshops. For instance, partnering with a nutritionist for a holistic well-being workshop can offer a comprehensive approach.
Flexibility: Offer different formats, such as half-day workshops, full-day retreats, or multi-day programs, to cater to varying schedules and needs.
It’s Never Too Early to Start Making Extra Money in the Mental Health Field
Now that you see how to make money as a counselor before your practice is up and running, have fun with it. There are abundant possibilities and resources available to help you once you choose a path. Whether you simply want to make extra money to get through the lean times, or you're looking to build a counseling practice income with multiple income streams for therapists as a long-term strategy, the knowledge you have right now is enough to get started.
If you’re in the early stages of your journey to becoming a licensed therapist and need guidance, we’re here to help. The Therapist Network provides an opportunity to network with other professionals, in various stages of their careers who have found creative ways to make money as a counselor outside of their private practice. Join the Network to build relationships with other therapists and enjoy unlimited clinical consultation groups. You don’t have to do it alone!
