Burned out, morally injured, and wondering if you’re the problem? Good news and bad news: it's not you, it's the system. This episode is for clinicians, group practice owners, and mental health leaders who feel trapped between their ethics, insurance demands, and the crushing weight of “doing it all.”In this conversation, we unpack the evolving challenges facing clinicians in independent practice, especially the shift from “I’m just burned out” to recognizing true moral injury. We look at how systemic forces, insurance r...
Burned out, morally injured, and wondering if you’re the problem? Good news and bad news: it's not you, it's the system. This episode is for clinicians, group practice owners, and mental health leaders who feel trapped between their ethics, insurance demands, and the crushing weight of “doing it all.”
In this conversation, we unpack the evolving challenges facing clinicians in independent practice, especially the shift from “I’m just burned out” to recognizing true moral injury. We look at how systemic forces, insurance requirements, and changing rules in healthcare are reshaping what it even means to do ethical, sustainable clinical work.
You’ll hear how isolation in leadership, constant multitasking, and opaque power dynamics erode both capacity and integrity over time. The episode also explores why so many group practice owners feel like they “failed,” when in reality the rules changed without their consent or control.
What you’ll learn
➡️ Why your group practice didn’t fail just because you “couldn’t hack the rules”
➡️ The difference between burnout as a capacity failure and moral injury as an integrity failure
➡️ How clinicians become the vicarious “fall guy” for insurance companies and broken systems
➡️ Why burnout can stop being a phase and start to feel like an identity you can’t escape
➡️ How isolation at the top quietly harms clinical judgment, leadership, and well-being
➡️ What it looks like to reinvent your work using technology and AI without losing your humanity
➡️ Why “off the chair” means refusing to believe that suffering is the price of legitimacy in this field
If you’ve ever thought, “I can survive this if I can just see a way out,” this episode sketches the contours of that way out. It offers language, frameworks, and possibilities for clinicians who are ready to stop surviving in silence and start reimagining what practice can look like.
Episode chapters
00:00 – Introduction to the journey of clinicians
06:46 – The illusion of freedom in group practice
09:05 – The changing landscape of healthcare
10:26 – The new power dynamics in healthcare
12:53 – The burden of multitasking in practice management
13:11 – Understanding moral injury vs. burnout
17:55 – The impact of moral injury on clinicians
21:13 – The isolation of leadership in healthcare
25:07 – Navigating workplace turmoil
27:48 – The burden of leadership in mental health
30:27 – The impact of insurance on mental health practices
36:43 – The journey to selling a practice
40:24 – Reinventing mental health care in a changing landscape
45:58 – Embracing technology for sustainable practice
48:33 – Finding hope and healing in the chaos
50:33 – Understanding human behavior and cues
51:24 – Taking action for change
If this episode resonated with you, hit subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations. Leave a review to help other clinicians find this show, and share this episode with a colleague who is quietly burning out or carrying moral injury alone.
Connect with us!
Website: www.offthechair.com
Instagram: @offthechairpodcast
YouTube: @offthechairpodcast
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