Corporate mental health trainings?

[foreverbull]

Have any folks in here entered the niche of providing mental health-related trainings in corporate environments as an outside consultant?

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[PsyDr]

Have any folks in here entered the niche of providing mental health-related trainings in corporate environments as an outside consultant?

there’s an apa publication where some smart guys started up just such an opportunity... in the US Virgin Islands. Look for something like “weird jobs in psychology”

 

[WisNeuro]

I've definitely considered starting some BS company to feed companies some BS jargony trainings for 10k+ a pop.

 

[singasongofjoy]

is that sort of what "executive coaches' do? A friend form high school has some job where they help new exectutives or whatever help change the ****ty culture of a place and it sounds kinda like that. At least in the "improve your self regulation, interpersonal skills, and keep realistic expectations of others/work-life balance etc etc" kind of way. Right now I feel like cooperate mental health recommendation #1 could be enforcing meeting-free days once every 1-2 months. I heard Google (or was it Apple?) started doing that this year and I WANT THAT

 

[Sanman]

There's a guy who is like 90 who does this for my wife's company. I am trying to figure out how I can get hired to teach psych 101 stuff to her company for a lot of money.

 

[MAClinician]

I have a former coworker who got his first masters in I/O psych, then got his masters in mental health counseling/school counseling and is now going back for his PhD in I/O psych with the goal to do such trainings. Not sure how it will work out for him, tbh.

 

[AbnormalPsych]

I know of one clinical psychologist in a major metro who did this, but I have no clue how or what or any details. They didn't seem to have repeat business - so not sure it went too well. Sounds like a sweet gig if you can figure out the model.

 

[cara susanna]

Just say words like "synergize," "pro-active," and "paradigm" a lot.

 

[Sanman]

Just say words like "synergize," "pro-active," and "paradigm" a lot.

You might need your six sigma black belt to do that.

 

[albatross_at_crossroads]

is that sort of what "executive coaches' do? A friend form high school has some job where they help new exectutives or whatever help change the ****ty culture of a place and it sounds kinda like that. At least in the "improve your self regulation, interpersonal skills, and keep realistic expectations of others/work-life balance etc etc" kind of way. Right now I feel like cooperate mental health recommendation #1 could be enforcing meeting-free days once every 1-2 months. I heard Google (or was it Apple?) started doing that this year and I WANT THAT

I did something like this as a consultant for a while (couple of years). It was not in the US, but the corporate environments were very similar. You do have to share the market with the "executive coaches" - some of them are legit, some of them are scam artists. The good part is that in some cases you get to make a real difference in the wellbeing of the employees and the pay is really good. The bad part is that you have to fight with so much misinformation, biases and lack of ethics that it really demoralizes you.

I joined a small "boutique" consulting firm for this. The thing is, to be successful and have repeat business, you have to be a great business person. Take what is involved in marketing your own private practice and multiply it by 10. You either are/become this very good salesperson/ marketer or you have someone on your team who is really good at this and can bring clients and close deals.

You do have to become familiar with how things work in the corporate world, their jargon, what things work and which ones don't. Even if you have the best of intentions, speaking and acting like in the "psychology world" will not make them listen to you or pay you for your expertise. The most successful people I've seen in this field worked hard to build their reputations, are constantly informing themselves through I/O and mental health conferences/ articles and highly prefer the corporate world to academia/hospitals/mental health clinics, etc. They are constantly "networking" with potential clients, keeping in close touch with previous clients and always "courting" the big companies. If you are in a bigger city, there are more opportunities but also more competition; smaller places have less competition but less opportunities.

I would not do this on my own. I don't have the "sales" mindset at all. But if you are really into this career choice, a small team with diverse skillsets can bring in a lot of income and a lot of independence and flexibility. I enjoyed big parts of the work and I may come back to it in the future, but doing this full-time burns you out after a while, like all consultant jobs.

To do it part-time - I am not sure if it's worth it. You have to invest a lot of time to become known, otherwise you need someone to recommend you highly and you might get very few gigs. Let me know if you have questions, happy to share from my (somewhat limited) experience.

 

[cara susanna]

I did something like this as a consultant for a while (couple of years). It was not in the US, but the corporate environments were very similar. You do have to share the market with the "executive coaches" - some of them are legit, some of them are scam artists. The good part is that in some cases you get to make a real difference in the wellbeing of the employees and the pay is really good. The bad part is that you have to fight with so much misinformation, biases and lack of ethics that it really demoralizes you.

I joined a small "boutique" consulting firm for this. The thing is, to be successful and have repeat business, you have to be a great business person. Take what is involved in marketing your own private practice and multiply it by 10. You either are/become this very good salesperson/ marketer or you have someone on your team who is really good at this and can bring clients and close deals.

You do have to become familiar with how things work in the corporate world, their jargon, what things work and which ones don't. Even if you have the best of intentions, speaking and acting like in the "psychology world" will not make them listen to you or pay you for your expertise. The most successful people I've seen in this field worked hard to build their reputations, are constantly informing themselves through I/O and mental health conferences/ articles and highly prefer the corporate world to academia/hospitals/mental health clinics, etc. They are constantly "networking" with potential clients, keeping in close touch with previous clients and always "courting" the big companies. If you are in a bigger city, there are more opportunities but also more competition; smaller places have less competition but less opportunities.

I would not do this on my own. I don't have the "sales" mindset at all. But if you are really into this career choice, a small team with diverse skillsets can bring in a lot of income and a lot of independence and flexibility. I enjoyed big parts of the work and I may come back to it in the future, but doing this full-time burns you out after a while, like all consultant jobs.

To do it part-time - I am not sure if it's worth it. You have to invest a lot of time to become known, otherwise you need someone to recommend you highly and you might get very few gigs. Let me know if you have questions, happy to share from my (somewhat limited) experience.

In your opinion, does the money justify the amount of work/effort involved?

 

[albatross_at_crossroads]

In your opinion, does the money justify the amount of work/effort involved?

In my opinion, yes. The pay is considerable even outside the US.

To expand - we did trainings and shared experience with consultants from US, Canada, Australia, China, etc. They all said the same thing - that they spent a lot of time chasing contracts and clients, but the pay was very good compared to what psychologists earned in various other settings in their countries, including private practice.

To be honest, in many ways you set your own rates. The corporations can afford it, and they don't really bat an eye at 5-10k per day of training for Western Europe and 2k-5k for Eastern Europe for example. The senior consultants charged 300 euros and up per hour. Companies pay similar prices for other types of trainings as well (from what they've told me). Also, often times the more you charge, the more they seem to value you, especially if you know how to present yourself. I was initially surprised at this, since I am more of a "softie" and would try to give people discounts and accommodate them as much as possible, but in hindsight it makes sense in the business world.

If you own the business, you can make a LOT of money. If you are a consultant, you start pretty high and then you get to negotiate your salary.
In my last year I had a fixed high salary, paid conferences/ trainings in various other countries and a percent of sales that I brought in. Those added up, since many previous clients liked my work and asked for us to return.

 

[BuckeyeLove]

Dude I know wrote a book about "talking to people." almost as a joke. he makes over a million a year now talking about that book with companies. No liability. whatsoever. Was doing stupid clinical stuff like a peon for years prior. needless to say I'm not jealous.