Day in the life of
Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker – Luzelly Frias
I am a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW) and I primarily work with young adults who are black, brown, indigenous, and non-black people of color experiencing depression, anxiety, life transitions, racial trauma, relationship issues, and workplace stress.
I own a private practice and I am the only clinician so my typical day is usually driven by my schedule with clients. At the moment I work Monday to Thursday 10am-7pm with most days having breaks in between to allow for notes, billing, phone calls, and emails. I tend to have peer supervision on a bi-weekly schedule with other clinicians in solo private practice to complete HIPAA compliant case consultations.
Pros
Autonomy & flexibility in schedule, being my own boss (!!), choosing the clients I want to work with, improved self care & better balance, pushes me out of my comfort zone, and allows me to reach out to other clinicians doing similar work to collaborate, refer, and share resources, improving my clinical skills due to the flexibility allowing more time to read research and books that align with the type of clients I am working with.
Cons
Solo-entrepreneurship can be lonely and difficult since most graduate programs do not provide much (or any) guidance on having a private practice business, not having coworkers, shifting to business mode can be difficult especially when it comes to discussing marketing, taxes, rates, and knowing your worth as a therapist (we tend to care a whole lot about everyone else and often forget about ourselves), when working with insurance panels rates are very low and reimbursement is very inconsistent overhead expenses, and lacking benefits.
