In this episode, Tiffany sits down with Amanda Starfield, a Massachusetts-based therapist and former clinical director who walked away from 15 years in agency leadership to build a sustainable, premium-fee private practice.
Amanda gets real about the internal war between wanting to serve others and realizing she couldn’t keep doing it from a system built on exploitation. When she left her “secure” job, she didn’t take insurance — she set her fee at $200 and later raised it to $320, discovering that charging her worth actually made her a better therapist and mentor.
If you’ve ever told yourself you “can’t” charge more because you care too much, Amanda’s story will lovingly destroy that illusion.
Listen to the episode:
In this episode, Amanda will share:
- How she went from running a statewide adolescent program to walking away cold turkey during the pandemic
- Why she refused to take insurance and how that decision saved her clinical integrity
- What it really looks like to hold social justice and sustainability together
- How raising her fees to $320 per session deepened her clinical work
- Why connection, community, and liberation—not burnout—are her new metrics for success
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Resources mentioned
More about Amanda
Amanda Starfield is a Clinical Social Worker and Clinical Director who believes our greatest healing comes through connection—with ourselves, with each other, and with the world around us. Grounded in trauma-informed practice and a liberation framework, she supports supervisors and clinical leaders ready to disrupt cycles of trauma in mental health systems and to lead with clarity, compassion, and genuine connection. Whether in the therapy room, in consultation, or in the middle of the woods, Amanda’s presence encourages others to slow down, notice what’s true, and discover new ways forward.
