Episode 26 · 23 min · Aug 5, 2026
Why This Therapist Says Her Job Isn't To Fix You | Candida Crane, LMHC
with Candida Crane, LMHC
There was a moment early in Candida Crane's career when a teacher finally got through to her: your job is not to fix people. Her immediate reaction? She almost left the field. "I think I thought, oh, this might be wrong for me," she recalls on Therapist Voices. For someone who had spent years working the streets of Seattle with chronically mentally ill individuals, the urge to swoop in and solve things was almost hardwired. Letting go of that instinct turned out to be the defining professional lesson of her life, and the one she now credits with making her a far more effective therapist.
Crane is a licensed mental health counselor in Washington state with a career spanning more than two decades. She began in community mental health in Seattle before earning a master's in school counseling, where she spent over 16 years supporting students, including specialized group work with kids on the autism spectrum. When the pandemic pushed mental health care into virtual spaces, Crane moved into telehealth and has since built a full-time virtual practice with ReachLink. Her clinical approach brings together cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness, and relational therapy, all centered on helping clients develop healthier self-talk and feel genuinely safe in session.
The conversation with host Jessica ranges across the practical and the philosophical. On the practical side, Crane shares what she has observed about telehealth's effectiveness: research backs up what her own experience confirms, that virtual therapy produces comparable outcomes to in-person care for most clients, with better attendance rates as a bonus. She also describes how joining ReachLink changed her day-to-day work by removing the administrative burden that weighs on so many independent practitioners, billing, insurance navigation, client intake, making space for what she actually trained to do.
On the therapeutic side, Crane offers a frank look at what her clients in Washington are bringing to session right now. The political climate is a constant presence in the room. Feelings of powerlessness and hopelessness have become pervasive, and Crane is honest about the fact that she is not immune. Her response is grounded in the same tools she teaches: lean on cognitive behavioral frameworks to interrupt negative self-talk, practice mindfulness not as a luxury but as a basic health strategy, and create a relational space where clients feel remembered and heard. Her definition of that last point is specific, bringing up details from past sessions, tracking the direction a client wants to go, staying genuinely attuned rather than just present.
Crane is particularly thoughtful about inner dialogue. Her signature prompt to clients captures the approach cleanly: if you had a friend who talked to you the way you talk to yourself, would you want to be their friend? Most people, she says, immediately answer no. That single question tends to open something. She traces her own mindfulness practice through years of struggling with a restless mind, yoga classes where she felt sure she would never be able to sit still, and gradual accumulation of a capacity she now treats as essential to avoiding burnout. She fills her own cup with walks, gardening, watching birds, the kind of grounding in small sensory detail that she recommends to clients not as self-help wisdom but as lived experience.
The hardest part of the conversation, and arguably the most honest, is her account of learning to be a facilitator rather than a fixer. She describes the frustration clients sometimes feel when they realize therapy is not going to hand them a solution, that the therapist sitting across from them, virtually or otherwise, intends to give them tools rather than wield those tools for them. A few clients have told her outright that she was not helping. She used to find that upsetting. Now she reads it as information: a signal about how trapped the person feels, how urgently they want out of the discomfort. And she has watched those same clients, the ones who initially pushed back, stay in the work and arrive somewhere better. That arc, from resistance to growth, is what keeps the job meaningful.
Crane closes by reflecting on isolation in telehealth, a real risk she felt acutely on a previous platform where consulting with a colleague was nearly impossible. ReachLink's accessibility changed that. Knowing someone is available when a case gets complicated, when a risk of self-harm needs an immediate check-in, matters enormously. It is not just a support structure. It is what makes sustainable virtual practice possible.
Candida Crane's conversation is a reminder that the most important thing a therapist can offer is not answers but a space safe enough that the client can find their own.
In this episode, you will learn:
- Recognize how virtual therapy produces comparable outcomes to in-person care for most clients, with research backing up what experienced telehealth providers observe directly.
- Examine your internal dialogue by asking: if a friend talked to you the way you talk to yourself, would you want that friendship?
- Practice mindfulness as a daily grounding tool, starting with small moments like watching birds, focusing on ambient sounds, or paying attention to your breathing.
- Understand that a therapist's role is to provide tools and a safe space, not to fix clients or make choices for them.
- Why feelings of political powerlessness and hopelessness are showing up in therapy sessions and what therapists can do to help clients feel more empowered.
- Build therapeutic rapport intentionally by remembering client details and bringing specifics from past sessions into current conversations.
- Notice when clients push back on the therapeutic process and read that resistance as information about how trapped they feel, not as a sign the work is failing.
Host
Hello and welcome back to Therapist Voices at ReachLink. Today I'm very excited. My name is Jessica Hurwitz. I have one of our ReachLink providers, Candida Crane, that we're so happy to have. She's a licensed mental health provider in the state of Washington. Candida, thank you so much for being here. So I wanted to ask you a little bit—
Guest
Thank you.
Host
About how your practice has been, what you've experienced, especially lately in counseling. Do you mind telling us a little bit about your practice today and who mostly serve?
Guest
So I'm happy to be here. I started in community mental health in Seattle, Washington. And I did that for around 15 years, over 10 years. And then I went back to school to get my master's in school counseling. And so I actually have a master's in education with a credential in school counseling for about 16, 17 years. And then I was being encouraged by my friends in the field to get my license to practice. I was really working with actually kids on the autism spectrum after I got my license to practice and I was doing group therapy with those teaching social skills. And then the pandemic happened and then there was a big push towards virtual health, mental health. And I got hooked up with doing that on the side, on top of doing this, continuing my school counseling. Until I moved remote and now it's been awesome because I've been able to just predominantly do virtual.
Host
That's great. Has it, has it been, I know it's such a transition for a lot of providers to do almost fully or fully virtual. Has that been a nice change or do you ever feel like you wish you had some in-person sessions?
Guest
I was, at first I was concerned that virtual mental health maybe wasn't as efficient or as beneficial as in person, but actually I've done research and it is as they have the same results unless it's a severe case of a person who's suffering from mental illness, but it, for more of the general mental health kind of purposes, it does have the same results. I'm kind of all about like what's going to be best for the client.
Host
Yeah.
Guest
There's so many benefits to virtual because it's more convenient. People actually have better attendance with virtual than they do in person because there's less barriers to getting into, like leaving, getting to an office, traffic, all those things. It wasn't an adjustment to work from home predominantly. I did start realizing that I did need to get out and do some things. Just to have more of the in-person experience, volunteering, those kinds of things. But overall, it's, it's been great.
Host
Good. Well, we are selfishly happy that it's been great because that means we get to have you and more of you, I hope. Um, have you found with, with being on a platform that there are certain things that have helped you be able to focus more on the session and less on the other stuff? I always say that I know providers these days are expected to do everything, including the therapy that you actually went to school for. Um, do you feel that there are resources kind of available for you to be able to be in the session, not doing all the other stuff that you typically would have to?
Guest
So ReachLink working for you guys, um, has been wonderful because, you know, there is a lot of notes that have to be done, you know, all the networking taken to get to, to get clients in. And a lot of that is already, you know, taken care of through ReachLink, the billing, dealing with insurances, all that is just really a lot of work, a lot of frustration for therapists and organizations such as ReachLink is just, is, makes it so much more easy. And, and you can actually focus more on doing therapy and researching things and looking up things for people. Instead of being bogged down with trying to get paid and all those things. And then the benefits of AI helping with note-taking has been really, really helpful. You know, you always have to go back in and take a look at to see if AI got it right. Often AI will do quotes that are not quite accurate. So, but it's nice that you can tweak it, you can change it, you can take things out. If it, you feel like it was off the mark before you submit it. So, um, yeah, that's a huge, huge, uh, time saver. Good.
Host
I think anything that can be done, you know, as technology progresses to, for providers to be able to actually focus sounds pretty simple. I don't know why it's not on, on actually the session, what you went to school for, what you did all this training for. It certainly was not to learn how to bill and, and do all this tech stuff. So I'm glad.
Guest
Yes.
Host
I have a bit of a question that's gonna veer us a tiny bit, but I'm really curious what, what you've noticed. I haven't talked to as many providers in Washington lately, so I'm curious kind of what societal issues are coming up the most in your sessions.
Guest
In Washington? The state of our country, the feeling of loss of our democracy, some of the things that are happening, people are really grappling with what they can do, how powerless they feel about some of the things that are happening in the news, in politics. It's kind of creating this level of stress on a lot of the individuals I talk to. That makes it really difficult to stay positive, to be positive, which is a lot of what I try to work with them on is, is trying to like see the cup half full, but it's hard. It's, it's hard. And I can't say that it's not affecting me either. So often I just support them in their feelings around that and maybe give them some ideas of things that they can do to feel a little bit more empowered.
Host
Yeah.
Guest
Um, but I do think it's just a really difficult time right now in our country.
Host
That feeling of helplessness and/or hopelessness is just, I mean, that's so difficult. And then to have anything else going on that you would rather focus on in your counseling, but you feel like you can't even get there. Are there certain therapeutic approaches or frameworks that you've specifically found to be helpful for clients now?
Guest
So, so one of the things, I mean, it's, it's not really any different than what I would normally do. But you know, the cognitive behavioral therapies, like how we think, what our dialogue is to ourselves is really important. Some people are not that aware of how they're talking to themselves. What are they saying? Are they supporting themselves or are they Just constantly being hard on themselves and like criticizing themselves for everything they do or not do. And those kinds of things can really affect our ability to function and our ability to see things in a brighter light. So I really work with them around their internal dialogue and being more aware of that and being more, you know, just trying to be their their own best friend, because my whole thing is if you had a friend that talked to you like you talk to yourself, would you want to be their friend? And a lot of people say, no, I wouldn't want to be their friend. So there's one. And then another one is, you know, mindfulness. I'm a big supporter of mindfulness because I really do think that it's just a basic health strategy tool that we need, I think, as a country. needs to embrace more. Mindfulness is very common around the world in different forms, and people have incorporated it into their daily ways of living. We're kind of slower on the uptake on that. That's one thing I really try to support and teach and encourage those kinds of things. Also connecting with the clients. Like, I really want them to know I'm a safe space. It's called relational therapy. I wanna be a, a very active listener. I wanna remember what they had to say. I wanna like bring things back to them to remember from past sessions so they know that I'm like, I'm very in tune with what's going on in their lives and, and who they are and their direction they wanna go. And I think that that seems to be beneficial because I, they feel safe and they wanna share.
Host
Yeah.
Guest
And that's what it's all about. The fact that they can be vulnerable and feel safe and know that they'll be supported and sometimes challenged in a kind way, just to help them think maybe differently.
Host
That's gotta be the most, one of the most important things to know that you're being heard, not just heard, but you're remembering, you're not making your own goals for them. You're really, I get meeting them where they are, it sounds like. I always think that in my therapy days of providing therapy, I always think, oh gosh, I would never take my— I never took my own advice. It's just always so different with yourself versus your clients. Do you practice a lot of that mindfulness? Is there something that you do to make sure you don't get burned out?
Guest
Yes. So I love being outside. I love walks, gardening, watching the birds, those kinds of things. I just, you know, mindfulness is Really, once you kind of get the hang of it, it's a very easy thing to incorporate into so many aspects of your life. But just really being in the moment, like watching the birds fly and watch how the wind carries their wings, really being aware of sounds going on around you. You know, I mean, those kinds of things, just getting your mind to stop spiraling. And overthinking and just really being in the moment. And the more you practice it, the better you get at it. And I started out really not being very good at it. I, my mind was always all over the place. Um, and I liked yoga and a lot of yoga is that you need to be, you know, you're trying to like relax and think of your breathing and being in the moment. And I always just thought I was never going to be able to Sit there calmly and not feel like I have to think about the next thing I have to do. But now, because I've practiced it for so many years, I can bring my mind back and be in the moment. And it's such a grounding experience. And I really do think it helps with, you know, preventing burnout. And because you're basically filling your cup back up. And that's another thing is I really try to teach clients to do is you can't give from an empty cup. You know, you gotta, you know, help yourself be the best person you can be so then you can give to others, which is— there's a lot of fulfillment in that.
Host
I love that. It is, especially hearing from someone. I know you're not— well, maybe you are necessarily telling them all the stuff you're doing for your own mindfulness, but knowing that that's coming from a genuine place of someone maybe who's been there, who has seen certain things, certain mindset or framework really work in health, that probably just makes everything that much more believable, relatable. Were you always, well, you said that that took you some work to get there. What was your practice like right when you became a therapist?
Guest
When I was in mental health, you know, community mental health, I, it was such a steep learning curve. But I did learn a lot about de-escalation. That's the biggest thing I think I came out of working with chronically mentally ill people and working on the streets of Seattle was de-escalation. But that takes a lot of mental bandwidth. That can be very burning out when you're doing that a lot, too much. Then when I got into school counseling, I learned a lot about listening. In connecting with people and meeting them there where they're at, helping them feel safe. That, that's probably where I, I really learned that. And then when I became a licensed mental health provider, that was another huge learning curve in regards to not feeling so overwhelmed by some of the people's problems that I would listen to and know that I was not there to completely fix them. I was there to give them tools. And it's really up to them to whether they're going to use those tools or not. And also to provide a safe space for them. But if they don't share and they're not honest, I'm limited in regards to how much I can help them navigate things. To kind of try to understand that I'm not going to fix everything, that they really, it's more their choice.
Host
Yeah.
Guest
job and I'm more of a facilitator. That, that's probably the biggest thing I've kind of learned through working in private practice.
Host
That's something that I struggled with so much, even learning about therapy. I knew that was going to be hard for me to not swoop in. Like, I feel like when I found that out, there must've been like one day of grad school where someone, a teacher told me that, like got it across to me that your role is not to fix things. And I think I thought, oh. This might be wrong for me. I really want to fix everything, but that's taking away obviously the entire point of all of this.
Guest
That's the thing is it's a process. And the part of the process is them learning to know that they can change things and they can make different choices. You don't want to take that away from them.
Host
That's a hard one. I think I would imagine not everyone is just able to do that. Right when they start out, right when they start seeing clients, it's such a natural urge to just wanna make things better, especially people that go into the helping profession. But I think you were truly, or I was truly taking away something really powerful for people.
Guest
But then there's our client. There are some clients who, you know, will feel frustrated because they'll feel like it's too much and they'll be like, you're not help— you're not really helping me.
Host
That's what I was curious of. Yeah. If there are people that are like, oh, wait a second, I thought you were gonna kind of guide me and tell me what what to do. Does that come up a lot? Right.
Guest
Not so much. It's interesting. I definitely have had that come up and it tells me how frustrated and hard it feels for them. That's what that tells me. Um, it used to kind of upset me, but now I feel like it just gives me a little bit of an insight right now. I'll be like, you know, I know this is hard. You know, it's a bad feeling and you want to get out of it. You just have to know that it will take some time and work to get through it. I haven't lost those clients. I mean, I, one or two that has, I've had that happen are still with me and they're in a much better space now. At that point, I kind of thought they were going to drop off because they were like, you're not, you know, this is not really helping.
Host
It must've been really nice to see those names reappear on your schedule when they did that. Oh, you know what? Like this, this went okay.
Guest
But it's having, sometimes having those hard conversations.
Host
Hopefully is, that's an important one. Those hard conversations, who wants to have them? But I guess you've become skilled at sitting with them. If you care deeply about mental health, whether as a therapist or someone seeking support, this message is for you. If you're a therapist listening and you're looking for more flexibility, more balance, or a way to expand your impact, ReachLink is growing. We've been building a community of thoughtful, dedicated clinicians who want to make care more accessible through telehealth without losing the human connection that matters most. With ReachLink, you can work from anywhere, set a schedule that fits your life, and let us handle the administrative work so you can focus on what you came to do— help your clients. And if you're looking for support, at ReachLink, we believe mental health care should meet you where you are. In how you feel and in how you live. Whether you're navigating stress, burnout, relationships, or major life changes, you don't have to go through it alone. With the ReachLink app, you can connect with licensed, experienced therapists through secure, convenient telehealth sessions from your space on your time. No commute, no waiting rooms, just real support when you need it. So whether you're ready to start therapy or ready to offer it, ReachLink is here. Download the app or learn more at reachlink.com because better mental health should always be within reach. What are the most common issues or concerns that, that you work with right now in your sessions with clients?
Guest
Inner dialogue, I think, is one that comes up a lot. Trying to manage their anxieties by giving them tools. I would think, you know, feeling down and powerless about, and hopeless around things in life. Some of that though comes kind of come back, comes back to self-talk and, and actually self-care. That's another big one is like, are they eating right? Are they getting regular sleep? Are they abusing drugs and alcohol, which sometimes come out later in this? They don't like originally come to the therapy for that, but then it kind of is a little bit of an underlying habit of dealing with things that are really kind of like a barrier to their self-care. And it often kind of is just, and I'm talking about abuse. I'm not talking about just, you know, recreational, but I'm just talking about like, you know, on a consistent basis. And then it, they, it kind of comes out later that, you know, yeah, this has not been healthy for me. And then often when they kind of When I support them in like managing that, sometimes things can turn around really quickly, but people don't really realize how much abuse of drugs and alcohol can affect them.
Host
Especially if it's not something that they had identified already and/or had decided they were comfortable bringing up at the beginning of counseling. I mean, that's, that's really hard. And I imagine you've got to really have that rapport for that to even To even come out.
Guest
Yeah. Because people, they, they wanna kind of come across in the beginning as, I don't really need this. Some of those people are like, oh yeah, my wife told me to come.
Host
I just wanted to check it out. I just wanna see what counseling's all about.
Guest
I just wanna check it out. Right. Or like, yeah, I've been feeling sad, but I don't really know. I don't, I mean, I, it might just not be a thing that I have to worry about. You know, there's a lot of, but then once it, but I think that makes sense because they don't know me. They don't trust, you know, they don't know me. They don't trust me. They don't know that. I'm a safe space and it's kind of a new experience for them. I think for a lot of the people that have never done it before.
Host
Starting counseling, I just, I can't imagine all the things that you work your— or many people might work themselves up about. I remember starting counseling quite a few times myself, having that first session and then feeling like, oh, not ready, not ready yet. But you do, I think a lot of people put on, you know, their it's not a safe space yet. I just want to check it out. My— that's a huge one. My spouse, my mother, whoever thought it would be a good idea. But I think the second that someone realizes that it's been helpful for them, I would imagine that's so fulfilling for you in turn.
Guest
Yeah. Oh, definitely. Yeah. It's a very fulfilling job. I mean, it's a hard job sometimes, and sometimes you feel like you're Swimming upstream. But then there's a lot of cases where I would say, you know, majority of my cases is they feel better. They start feeling better and they start feeling like more in control of their lives and in control of like how they're feeling and not be so afraid or anxious about like maybe like feeling feelings.
Host
Yeah.
Guest
I mean, that's, that's a big thing is letting themselves actually feel these hard feelings and knowing that it's, it's okay. It's okay. They're, you know, they're going to get through it. It's the light at the end of the tunnel kind of thing.
Host
Would you, would you say that with, you know, I know there's so many benefits to this option of video counseling. I think it seems often like a world where people, especially providers, are maybe feeling a little bit isolated. So I guess for some people that could be nice, but do you experience that? Was it a big change to not have someone in the office next door, to have a little bit more isolation as a therapist when you went remote?
Guest
Yeah, no. And, and that, that's a fair question. Yeah, it can feel isolating. The platform I had before ReachLink, it was definitely isolating because I had no, like, there was some situations that were like, And I was starting out. I mean, it was fairly new for me to have indiv— doing individual counseling. There was nobody to talk to. I mean, the only thing I could do is like do a, you know, an email or something. And even that, it was like, I didn't, it wasn't. So that was one thing I really appreciated about coming to a platform like ReachLink because I was able to actually talk to someone. I've had a couple cases where I was like, I just wanted to make sure I covered my bases, you know, like with a risk of self-harm or something. And I wanted to cover my bases and I, I'm, it just felt like I needed to like consult with someone and I was able to like right away with ReachLink, which was just a huge deal for a therapist because sometimes there is a lot of weight. And if you don't have someone to talk to or consult with or check in with, It can promote burnout.
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