The Traveling Therapist Podcast · Kym Tolson

194. Supporting Future Clinicians Through Online Tutoring with Dr. Pam Turner

·32 min

Dr. Pam Turner, a licensed clinical social worker and online tutoring business owner, joins host Kim Tolson to discuss her unique path to becoming a traveling therapist. This episode details how Dr. Pam built a specialty tutoring company for mental health licensure exams while embracing a location-independent lifestyle. She explains her transition from a traditional clinician and college professor to the founder of Academic Coaching for World Changers. Dr. Pam's business tutors for exams like the LCSW, LMFT, NCE, and CPCE, focusing on teaching standardized test-taking skills rather than clinical practice. Her company employs 14 other licensed tutors who all successfully passed their exams using her proprietary methods. The program boasts a 96% passing rate and often works with professionals who have been out of school for over 20 years or have failed exams multiple times. Dr. Pam emphasizes that smart clinicians often lack the specific skill of navigating standardized tests, which demand knowledge of theory and ethics in a particular format. Her approach includes recommending accommodations, like extra time or a reader, for clients with learning difficulties. She started the business alone, pretending to be her own assistant, after working for another tutoring company. A key insight is that the exam often requires answers based on textbook theory, not necessarily real-world agency protocols, such as the ethics around accepting client gifts. Dr. Pam's tutoring method is grounded in research on neuroplasticity and how the brain learns, which she teaches clients who may have never developed study skills. She shares that scaling her business was terrifying and required hiring a CFO and a chief scheduler to handle areas outside her expertise. A profound personal revelation was that launching her own business only happened after her husband's death, which forced her to rediscover herself and her capabilities in her 50s. The tone is conversational and inspirational, blending practical business advice with personal storytelling. Dr. Pam's style is encouraging and faith-based, often referencing her belief that her journey was part of a larger plan. This episode would deeply resonate with pre-licensed clinicians struggling with exam anxiety or anyone interested in building a scalable, location-independent business in the mental health space. Listeners seeking a highly technical breakdown of exam content or those averse to personal faith references might find other episodes more aligned with their interests.

As heard by us

A practical, encouraging look at how people can recover from licensure exam setbacks.

The piece keeps its focus on practical ways people can move past licensure exam setbacks without turning a failed test into a final verdict. It gives weight to accommodations, study habits, and the mindset shift that treats a miss as a gap to close, not a character flaw.

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Why you'd press play

Need a calmer way to think about standardized-test setbacks?

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