- Welcome to "Salary Journeys," a series that discusses how much people have made over their careers.
- In this journey, a clinical psychologist shares her challenges at a community mental-health clinic.
- She says she would like to leave, but her student loans are holding her back.
I'm a 59-year-old white woman making $72,000 as a clinical psychologist at a community center in the Midwest.
I work with people who have severe and persistent mental illness, generational poverty — things like that. They tell me that they appreciate me, and I love my job. I've been doing it for 14 years.
But right now, mental-health professionals like me are slammed, and we're extremely underpaid. I've been making student-loan payments since I graduated with a master's degree in 2007, and I still have $32,000 in debt.
It's really unfortunate because, especially over the past two years of the pandemic, it seems as though everyone has a mental-health problem. But mental-health providers can't take any more clients. If I could pick it up and move it and not have a two-hour commute, I'd retire from here.
Still, I'm almost 60 years old. I have an overwhelming number of cases, and I'm at my burnout point. If I can get my debt under control, I have so many other professional options outside of this clinic.
This is my salary journey over 33 years.
Editor's note: Insider has verified the source's pay and identity with documents for their current or most recent job.
Personal chef and assistant, $70,000 plus bonuses
I worked different jobs here and there for 20 years, but I always wanted to be a psychologist. In undergrad, my minor was in psychology, but at that time, you needed a master's degree to practice. I just didn't want to go to grad school, and I didn't go until two decades later.
I started as a private chef (mostly self-taught) and assistant for a wealthy family in the Washington, DC, area for about seven years. I made $70,000 with bonuses, and when I left, they gave me a good severance package, offering enough money for me to go to grad school.
But looking back 20 years ago, I made pretty much what I make now. I try not to let that get to me.
Mental-health clinic intern, unpaid
While I got my master's, I started at the community mental-health center I work for today.
I started as an unpaid intern. I was lucky to get a $100 stipend a week for gas and expenses. I still had some savings from my six months of severance, and I had a house in the DC area that I sold when I left. I lived off of that and the tail end of my student loans.
My classmates and I all agreed that first jobs in this field often didn't pay well, but it was usually better to take them.
Clinical psychologist, $72,000
The clinic hired me the day I graduated, offering me $36,000 as a psychologist.
Since then, I've never received a promotion. Every year, if I meet my goals, I get a raise. But I've only asked for more one time in the 14 years that I've been there. They gave me an additional $5,000, but I haven't asked since. I have this fear of being told, "No, we can hire someone else."
Today, I have almost 50 clients in my caseload, which is a lot because I see many of them four times a month, so I'm extremely busy. Also, not everybody on my team has a grad degree, so I have to do testing for the whole agency and the local courthouse.
I also go into nursing homes once a year for a psychological evaluation report for every client who has Medicaid. Most of what I do is outside of my job description.
Even though I've been making student-loan payments for 14 years, I still owe $32,000. My clinic only recently enrolled in the state student-loan program, which will eliminate $20,000 of debt once I reach 120 payments.
My hope is my loans will be forgiven. Right now, I'm sitting at 91 payments and counting. Once my obligation to the state is done, I can leave. I'd like to be in private practice.
I do have respect at my clinic. I have decent benefits. But I also know that some of the newer people coming in started at a much higher salary — sometimes our agency just has to get talent in the door because people don't want to drive to this rural county.
The main thing keeping me at this agency is those student loans. I needed them to get my degree. But I'm frustrated because the interest rates are too high. So right now, I feel as though my student loans are a noose around my neck, and I can't leave until those are paid off.
There are so many other things I want to do, like start a private practice, retire, and travel with my husband. But until I can figure out the loans, I'm stuck at this same job.
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