The Comeback

[00:00:00] Hey. Hey, Shawna. Here you are listening to the business of therapizing this is episode four, the Catchup. Now here's the show. [00:00:10] 1234. [00:00:18] Alright? Y'all, I'm back. It's been a while since my last episode. My bad. I just got into the throes of private Practice. I had a busy summer and now I am ready to start making episodes again. So if you're here with me, this is your first time. Go back and check those other three episodes. And if you're coming back after those three episodes, welcome back. So let's get chatting because it has been quite a summer. I'm going to start off with the WGA and SAG AFTRA strikes because I think this has something that really mirrors what's going on in the mental health industry as well. So let me give you a little bit of a background and we're going to go with that, okay? So I'm going to give you a quick synopsis. If you need more information, please go ahead and Google it. But basically, the writers of Hollywood, the writers of America had decided to go on strike after their negotiations had broken down. Basically, their negotiations with the major studios of Hollywood were not coming to any conclusions. They were not able to get anything that they were asking for at all. And the major things that were on the table were stuff that had to do a lot with streaming services. Essentially, what's been going on is the introduction of AI and the introduction of streaming services has caused these studios to not give writers enough orders of episodes and enough residuals to actually make a livable wage at this point. And I know, like a lot of people, when we're thinking of Hollywood and we're thinking of writers and actors, we're thinking that these people are like millionaires and they're making lots and lots and lots of money. But their structure works just like the rest of the socioeconomic structure, where you have a couple of people up top who are celebrities, but they are a small percentage. When you look at the rest of the writers and the actors, they are regular people. Like some of the people who are on strike right now. They are literally working like waitresses and barista gigs just to make their ends meet while they are on strike right now. But then the plot thickens because the SAG AFTRA goes on strike as well. And now we're talking about the actors. So now both actors and writers are on strike. And this is the first time that this has happened in a couple of years. And when I say a couple, I mean decades, right? It's been a while since something like this has happened and both of them are citing the same thing and both of them are saying that the studios are trying to pay them less and not even pay them on time. But a lot of this is being affected really by technology in the industry. So like, these streaming platforms are not giving actors and writers. They're not allowing for actors and writers to get the residuals the same way that they could before, right? So when you watch something on the show, let's talk about our favorite sitcoms that would go into syndication and they would be playing reruns over and over and over again every time those episodes were played. Those actors that were a part of the show, those writers that were a part of the show, they would make money off of the residuals. So if you think about some of the longest playing shows on television, those people would make money off of those shows and off of the shows that they were making. New to that. So with the introduction of streaming television, less and less people are watching network television. Basically the wild west, right? This is like a whole new thing that they don't have contracts for and the studios are aware of this. So they can make money off of this streaming service without actually paying people for this work at this point in time. And some of the receipts for the way these people were paid was egregious some of the shows. One of the streaming services, like flagship show, the show that we know this streaming service for, were literally paying people $29, I think, in residuals. That's ridiculous. Like $29 as a paycheck that can not even pay the rent, that could barely put gas in somebody's car at this point in time. Some of the things that were coming out though was like the really egregious things that the studios have been saying. They are just like, we're basically going to starve these people out until they give us what they want. So the studios haven't really been coming back to the table to negotiate with either union. It's been a really interesting watch. But as I've looked more into this, some of the writers who have been posting about this on social media have said some things that really got me thinking about how this looks a lot like what has been happening in the mental health industry. And as you know, I've been telling you guys that it feels like we clinicians people in the mental health industry, mental health professionals are being gentrified out of our own field. It feels like a little bit of a takeover when it comes to tech bros and venture capitalists. And somebody said this on their social media. A writer said this exactly that. It feels like a hostile takeover and it's almost like a bait and switch, right? Like here comes the tech industry telling people like, oh, there's this really cool thing and you're going to do this really cool streaming service and it's going to be great. And all of the studios, they just saw money, money. [00:06:21] But when it doesn't work the way that they want to, they just decide not to pay people so that they can continue to make money and they're going to raise their prices anyway. When we look at the mental health field, we have those big online platforms. You have those big online platforms that made a lot of promises and then turn around and not even really appropriately play the clinicians, the people who are running and driving the service. And what happens about that is that those promises have to be fulfilled in some way. And who ends up being responsible for fulfilling those promises? Who ends up being the one who takes the brunt of the frustration when they promise a client or they promise a person that you can have access to a clinician? Twenty four seven. And the clinician is like whoa, whoa, whoa. No, I'm not going to be in your room for you to talk to me at any point in time of the day. There's rules here, there's boundaries, right? It's the clinician that takes the brunt of that. So what can therapists learn from all of this? One thing I have noticed when it comes to clinicians is that we are so afraid. We are so afraid at times that we just refuse to engage in anything. What I'm saying here in this first point is that we cannot operate from a place of isolation. We have to have an idea about how to approach changing times and listening to what the people who we want to work with want and need. Most people are showing us that they need access to affordable quality care. This may not even be one to one services because not everybody needs clinical care. We have to remember that people are in various stages of healing and we can expand beyond one to one services. We can meet people where they are at and they don't have to be in the throes of crisis to come in and work with a clinician in some way. We can offer preventative services. We can offer maintenance services. We can offer educational services. One off services. When you look at it in that sense it pulls you from off of your proverbial couch and onto the mindset of being a therapizing. At the end of the day, we can't ignore that. We have to be able to shift with the times and acknowledge that people want things that have not been given to them in the past. [00:08:46] Going back to the other point that I was starting to touch on is that these major online services that are run by Tech Bros. And fueled by venture capitalists highlight major issues within the mental health industry. They are literally showing you what the issues are. We can't ignore those issues. We know that accessibility is an issue. We know that people want access to affordable care. We know that getting into care quickly is also an issue for many people. So we as a community of therapists and mental health professionals, we have the ability to approach that those needs, those issues we can approach that both ethically and morally. That is the advantage that we have over a lot of these companies, right? And when you see a company that's popping up and they're like, hey, we're going to give you a really easy way to do this particular thing. Yes, question it, I get it. But also question the issue, question the appeal. Because what we know with some of these companies that are popping up is that it is really hard for clinicians to get access to Credentialing. So if we know that that's an issue and we need to be able to get into Credentialing both ethically and morally, then somebody needs to provide that from the ethical and moral sense. It doesn't have to be fueled by venture capitalists. But being able to have a credentialer and biller to make insurance easier is a big deal. We can't ignore that. That's what we need. We can't ignore that, that's not a problem. And just by saying, oh, I don't like this company over there because it's this, that. And the third, that's not going to solve the issue or the problem. And the reason why people flock over to a certain place is because it makes that problem easier for them. It fills a pain point. So we can't ignore it. We have to look at those pain points and we have to be able to come up with solutions as a community about how we can address this. And the last thing that I think that we can take from this is knowing that it's time for us as clinicians to take action. Just like I said before, these industries clearly see a problem and they come in and they do the bait and switch and they're like, we have a solution for you, but it's going to cost you. It's going to cost the people that are using this service. Ha. What's important in all of that is for us to know that when these things start to pop up, we can't hide from it. We need to do what we can to assist in protecting our field. We need to be like, oh you're right, that totally is a problem, let me see what I can offer. Or oh, you know what? That totally is a problem. Let me get together. I don't have to be in a group practice. I can still operate individually if I wanted to. But let me work with these group of people over here and see how we can go about this. Let's maybe create a co op. Let's maybe create something that we can go about this in a way that doesn't allow for people that are attempting to exploit the industry, exploit our industry. I think that what is going on on the actor and writer side right now is super cool. We're really seeing collective bargaining at work. I think that for other industries where this is happening too, because we know it's not just our industry. We know it's not just the Hollywood industry in itself, but for other industries where stuff like this is happening. I think it's really important for a community approach to be taken. I think that, again, we can't hide from the change that's happening. We're not going to be able to stop the robots. We're also seeing this stuff kind of come up with AI, right? There was, like, some apps that I started to see not too long ago where it was like, speak to a therapist anytime. Because it's an AI therapist. We're not going to be able to stop those things at all. What we're going to have to do is learn those things and take action together as a community so that we can come together and take a community approach to how to solve this. As mental health clinicians, we know that it has been for the entirety of this industry that people at the top weren't always clinicians. So they don't understand, nor did they have the moral and ethical obligations that we as providers, as licensed clinicians, hold. We know that this has been going on in our industry for a long time. This is just like a new phase of it when it comes to tech and venture capitalists coming in. But that also tells me that there's money to be had in this area. [00:13:38] So we have to be able to recognize this and not hide away from it. We can create services. We can do many things as clinicians, and I think a lot of encouragement. We need to be able to encourage each other and tell each other that the ideas that we have are possible instead of shying away from some of the things that we told were completely taboo and completely impossible. I've been in the field for ten plus years, and ten years ago, I was not even taught about online therapy, and now I'm a virtual therapizing. Again, we have to stop acting as if some things are impossible in this field when we know it completely is. But it starts with our mindsets, and it starts with our understanding of what's happening, how it's happening, and our way and our ability to take action in that. [00:14:33] That's all that I have for you all today. I hope you have a great day. I look forward to making more episodes. See you soon.