Starting a practice
5 health care entrepreneur ideas and opportunities for therapists
Headway discusses profitable mental health care entrepreneur ideas for therapists to diversify income, reduce administrative burden, and grow your practice.
August 6, 2025
5 min read
Practicing therapy can be an extremely rewarding career path. You show up each day knowing that you make a tangible impact in your clients’ lives, helping them to grow, reach their goals, and take control of their mental health.
The financial rewards of being a therapist, however, may not always keep pace with the emotional ones. That reality leads many therapists to look for money-making opportunities outside of their traditional therapy practice.
Embracing entrepreneurship is a great way to boost your earnings potential as a mental health provider, while simultaneously broadening your professional horizons. Here are five health care entrepreneurship opportunities to consider.
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Why therapists are turning to entrepreneurship
Though it may be surprising to those outside the profession, therapists know that it can be difficult to make a good living working in the mental health field. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average therapist salary in the U.S. is $75,660.
Why is that? For one thing, mental health services tend to be reimbursed at lower rates than physical healthcare, meaning mental health providers often make less than their peers in medicine.
Plus, overhead costs can be high regardless of whether a therapist is in a private or group practice. Private practice therapists must shoulder all of the costs associated with running their businesses, from rent to insurance premiums, while those in group practice generally have to give up a portion of their earnings in exchange for a place in the group.
Entrepreneurial opportunities offer an attractive way for therapists to overcome these difficulties and increase their earnings.
Breaking free from administrative burdens
The amount of (typically unpaid) administrative work — such as documentation and billing — required of mental health providers also contributes to the financial and logistical challenges of practicing therapy.
Administrative work can be a drain on a therapist’s time and energy, eating into the number of paid patient-facing hours a provider can work per day. There’s a ceiling on the number of patients any provider can see without burning out, falling behind, or letting patient care standards slip, and the demands of administrative work are a major reason for that situation.
Of course, there are tools that can help ease the burdens of administrative work — like Headway. The all-encompassing Headway platform streamlines necessary but tedious administrative tasks with resources like intake and notation templates and billing support services, saving providers precious time and energy.
Entrepreneurial side hustles are another way to alleviate that burden and avoid burnout. These efforts can either reduce or redirect the administrative work that therapists have to do, or create new revenue streams that don’t generate additional administrative tasks.
Top entrepreneurial ventures for therapists
The sky’s the limit when it comes to entrepreneurship. Your unique ideas and skillset may lead you to many opportunities beyond those listed here — but the five below are a great place to start your brainstorm.
1. Building a specialized private practice
Therapists who are currently part of a group practice — or who are already in private practice but struggling to gain traction — may want to consider starting a private practice that fills a specific niche. Whether it’s offering a certain treatment modality, focusing on a specific mental health concern, or working with an underserved population, carving out a specialty may help more patients connect with you. Think about any relevant training courses you’ve already completed or could take to shore up specialized skills, and do some research on the competition in your area. Is there a gap in the market that you could fill?
By defining and advertising a specialty, you may find that marketing becomes easier and more effective, leading to fewer unpaid consultations that don’t go anywhere and more paying clients. You may be able to charge more for your services, too.
And remember, when you’re starting your specialized private practice, working with a partner like Headway can minimize the burden of time-consuming administrative tasks required for launch, such as credentialing.
2. Launching a teletherapy platform
In today’s digital-first world, therapists who don’t offer teletherapy risk getting left behind. If you don’t already offer virtual services, consider adding them to your repertoire and advertising these services online. Headway makes it easy to see patients virtually, with the option to add online bookings directly to your provider directory page.
The benefits are twofold: you'll attract new patients who don’t want to meet face-to-face and you may be able to save time and money if you can work from home on at least some days, saving the time required to commute and potentially cutting down on overhead costs.
You don’t necessarily need a fancy platform to offer teletherapy sessions; even HIPAA-compliant versions of consumer-friendly platforms like Zoom can work. Just be sure your technology is fast and reliable, and brush up on all relevant HIPAA regulations before you start offering these sessions.
3. Creating digital products and courses
If you have particular expertise or unique experience, you can monetize that knowledge by educating other therapists or members of the public. Selling online courses, training webinars, e-books, blog subscriptions, or other types of paid content can be a great way to diversify your income — without having to take on new clients and all the additional administrative work that entails. While creating these offerings does require a lot of up-front effort, these products provide passive income once they’re complete.
Take inspiration from the famous psychotherapist and relationship Ester Perel, who has developed paid digital courses on topics likely to be popular with the public, such as rediscovering desire and conflict resolution for couples. She also offers training sessions targeted toward fellow clinicians.
4. Developing a therapy app or digital tool
There’s a huge market for therapy apps and other digital tools focused on mental health, like chatbots, meditation and mindfulness apps, and digital gratitude journals. If you’re tech savvy, you could consider creating tools that complement your therapeutic services and generate additional income without the need to see more patients. Or, you could partner with developers who are interested in working in this space.
Again, this path would require quite a bit of up-front time, effort, and money. Depending on the ambitions of your project, you may even need to explore opportunities for venture capital or other investment. But, if successful, an app or digital tool could generate considerable passive income over time.
5. Offering consultation and training services
If creating virtual tools or remote training courses isn’t your thing, consider sharing your expertise in person. If you’re a seasoned therapist, you could offer your insights to those just breaking into the profession. Or, if you have a particular area of expertise in your clinical practice, you could design seminars or conference presentations focused on that topic.
Mental health is also a hot topic outside the field. Schools, corporations, health systems, and other types of businesses may be looking for mental health experts who can advise them on initiatives to improve well-being among their people. Or, you may be able to provide content consultation, writing, or editing services to media organizations or companies that create therapy-focused content.
Overcoming financial challenges in therapy entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurial ventures often come with some amount of risk. By striking outside the confines of classic employment, you’re opening yourself up to both huge possibilities and potential downsides. Getting a side hustle off the ground often requires a lot of time, effort, and money — all of which may be in relatively short supply if you’re a busy therapist struggling to maximize your earnings in an industry with low reimbursement rates and high startup costs. The payoffs can be great, but they take a while to materialize.
From outside investment to crowd-funding initiatives, there are plenty of ways that therapists can raise the money necessary to realize their entrepreneurial dreams. Don’t forget the impact of the right partner, either. Working with a platform like Headway — which streamlines every element of a private practice and promises providers consistent and competitive pay — can free up the time and money needed to launch an ambitious side venture.
Headway can help you build a profitable practice
With Headway, there are no up-front or recurring costs for therapists who join our platform, meaning providers unlock free access to our robust online provider directory, enjoy time-saving tools like documentation templates, and make consistent and competitive compensation, all without paying a cent. Whether private practice is your ultimate goal or a stop on the way to your larger entrepreneurial vision, Headway is here to make it possible and profitable.
This content is for general informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute clinical, legal, financial, or professional advice. All decisions should be made at the discretion of the individual or organization, in consultation with qualified clinical, legal, or other appropriate professionals.
© 2025 Therapymatch, Inc. dba Headway. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without permission.
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