125: Profit Isn’t Selfish: Financial Self-Care and Why Your Practice Can’t Run on Empty with Carla Titus

A Simple Therapy Podcast:

Honest Conversations on Therapy, Mental Health, Healing and Self-Growth.

In this episode of A Simple Therapy Podcast, Sindee Gozansky welcomes Carla Titus—finance expert, founder of Wealth & Worth Within, and fractional CFO who helps practice owners build sustainable, profitable businesses. Carla brings warmth and clarity to a topic many therapists avoid: money. She shares how financial burnout starts with not paying yourself at all and why the “everyone else first” mindset is quietly destroying your business.

Together, Sindee and Carla explore why profit isn’t selfish, how to stop being scared of your own bank account, and the difference between revenue that looks good on paper versus actually having money left over. Carla breaks down her five-part framework—pay, capacity, cash flow, planning, and profit—and why you can’t save your way out of trouble when the real issues are payroll structure and rent. She shares her detective approach to diagnosing what’s broken in your numbers and why December coming every year should not be a surprise.

This conversation is full of real examples, practical strategies, and permission to stop treating your business like a volunteer position. Carla’s honesty reminds us that sustainable practice ownership means paying yourself with intention, learning about money in ways that work for your brain, and building financial self-care so you can actually sleep at night.

01:29 – Meet Carla Titus: Finance Expert Who Champions Therapists

03:58 – Financial Burnout: Why Practice Owners Aren’t Paying Themselves

08:08 – How Carla Found Her Way to Supporting Mental Health Practices

10:59 – Real Stories: When Group Practice Owners Tap Out

17:11 – The Numbers That Actually Matter: Payroll and Rent

20:26 – The Five-Part Framework: Pay, Capacity, Cash Flow, Planning, Profit

28:48 – How to Start Paying Yourself (Even If You Have No Profit Yet)

34:43 – Seasonal Planning: Preparing for Slowdowns and Surprises

37:09 – What Financial Peace of Mind Actually Looks Like

41:31 – Learning About Money in Ways That Work for You

43:47 – How to Work with Carla: Free Resources and CFO Services

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