Counseling Programs Aren’t Teaching Business — and Our Students Are Paying the Price
There’s something happening in counseling programs right now that we are not naming loudly enough.
Students are asking how to survive after graduation — financially, emotionally, and professionally — and we don’t have a structured answer for them.
Not because the answer doesn’t exist.
But because our field has not decided it’s acceptable to teach it.
The Gap No One Wants to Own
Most counseling programs do not teach students how to:
Start a private practice
Understand money and pricing
Diversify income
Think entrepreneurially across seasons of life
Use their degree beyond agency work
Or build careers that don’t require self-sacrifice to survive
And what’s confusing to me is this:
Most counselor educators have private practices.
We’re doing the thing — but we’re not teaching the thing.
Instead, we pass down a quiet message:
“You didn’t get into this profession to become rich.”
Which sounds noble — until you realize how deeply that belief keeps counselors underpaid, overworked, and trapped.
Why This Matters to Me — Personally
I’ve never had a six-figure private practice.
And that’s exactly why I don’t call myself a business coach.
What I have done is something far more relevant to the realities of counselors’ lives:
I’ve run a counseling practice for five years that met different needs in different seasons.
When I needed flexibility as a new mother, my business gave me that
When I needed to heal from burnout, my business let me slow down
When I needed creativity, my business allowed me to create
When I needed stability, I combined practice with adjunct teaching
I’ve always had multiple streams of income, intentionally.
Not to hustle — but to survive without self-abandonment.
For me, entrepreneurship has been healing, not aspirational.
My Dissertation Was a Business Decision
This is where my story and this gap collide.
I didn’t complete my dissertation because I wanted to be published, tenured, or positioned as an academic.
I completed it because I was watching something happen in my clinical work that the field didn’t have language for.
After George Floyd was murdered — while pregnant with a Black son — I made the decision to serve only Black women.
That choice protected my nervous system.
It clarified my work.
And it revealed a truth I could no longer ignore:
There were no counseling theories that spoke to my lived experience as a Black woman — or to the women I was serving.
So I built one.
My dissertation on how Black professional mothers unlearn the Strong Black Woman narrative wasn’t academic curiosity.
It was applied research.
It mirrored what I was seeing in my practice.
It became the foundation of my business.
It shaped the services I offer today.
That’s when I realized:
A dissertation can be a business model.
A theory can be a tool for liberation.
Research can serve real people — not just journals.
Students Are Asking for This — Loudly
In the last two semesters, this gap has been unavoidable.
I teach career counseling. My goal is not to create “good employees.”
My goal is to help students use the degree they paid for.
We talk about:
Agency work
Private practice
Entrepreneurship
Professional identity
Workplace accommodations
Multiple career paths
I created an assignment called Know Your Number — calculating what students actually need to earn to sustain their lives.
They were stunned.
So was my co-teacher — who realized she was undercharging.
This isn’t abstract.
This is survival math.
And when two of my students began learning business development during practicum under a site supervisor, my colleagues were uncomfortable.
But the students were learning something essential.
That discomfort told me everything I needed to know.
This Isn’t About Capitalism — It’s About Liberation
The resistance to business education in counseling isn’t accidental.
It’s tied to:
Martyrdom culture
Internalized oppression
White supremacy
And the belief that caring professions require self-sacrifice
Especially for Black women.
But here’s the truth:
Burned-out counselors don’t help clients.
Underpaid counselors leave the field.
Students who can’t survive don’t stay enrolled.
Teaching business isn’t a betrayal of counseling values.
It’s a retention strategy.
A wellness intervention.
A workforce development solution.
Where This Fits in My Work
This is not a new direction.
It is a continuation.
My work has always sat at the intersection of:
Psychology
Work
Identity
Nervous System Health
Liberation
Teaching counselors how to build sustainable careers is directly aligned with helping Black women unlearn the Strong Black Woman narrative.
Because martyrdom is a belief system.
And beliefs can be unlearned.
What Comes Next
This spring, I’m building a seminar — because students asked for it.
Long-term, this work could become:
A university seminar or elective
A speaking topic for counseling programs and HBCUs
A CEU series on business + burnout + ethics
A research project on training gaps and student outcomes
A retention and employability solution for counseling programs
Organizations don’t pay for ideas.
They pay for solutions.
And this is a solution to:
Burnout
Attrition
Student dissatisfaction
Workforce instability
The counseling field is behind.
And I’m not interested in shaming it.
I’m interested in helping it catch up.
If this blog resonates, please follow along on my newsletter so that you can keep up with the expansion of my work.
