Melvin kicks off Season 11 of Selling the Couch with a powerful and timely conversation on how therapists and online educators can AI-proof their online courses in 2026 and beyond.

If you’re worried that AI tools might replace the need for your course, this episode will help you rethink that fear, and give you a framework to build something deeply human, emotionally intelligent, and resilient.

Learn the 3 keys to future-proofing your course:

Sustainable Community – Build connection that lasts beyond the launch

Blue Ocean Positioning – Create a course that stands alone in your niche

Meaningful Gamification – Design experiences that transform, not just inform

You’ll also get a behind-the-scenes look at how Melvin made the difficult decision to retire his previous programs, and what led to the creation of Haven, a calm, supportive community for therapists moving into online income.

Resources:

Want to launch your online course?

Check out our new membership site that’s launching in January! Find out more and join us in Haven here.

Mentioned in this episode:

Try Alma!

Building and managing the practice you truly want can feel overwhelming. That’s why Alma is here—to help you create not just any practice, but your private practice. With Alma, you’ll get the tools and resources you need to navigate insurance with ease, connect with referrals that are the right fit for your style, and streamline those time-consuming administrative tasks. That means less time buried in the details and more time focused on delivering exceptional care to your clients. You support your clients. Alma supports you. Learn more at sellingthecouch.com/alma and get 2 months FREE—an exclusive offer for STC listeners.

Today’s show is a coaching call about online courses and the imposter syndrome that sneaks in with fear and doubt. Join us to learn more!

Our Featured Guest for today’s coaching call:

Nikki Sewell, LCSW

Nikki was ready to get her pilot students into her course, but she has encountered a lot of fear around charging her worth for her grief course for therapists. Nikki built a successful private practice focusing on the niche of grief counseling, motivated by losing her father to suicide during her grad school years and suddenly losing her husband at age 41 back in 2013. Join the coaching call with Nikki and Melvin!

Nikki Sewell

You’ll Learn:

● How Nikki found her niche in grief counseling with widows, suicide survivors, and orphaned adults

● Why Nikki views her grief counseling work as something beautiful that empowers people to see “what’s lost, what’s left, and what’s possible”

● How Nikki decided to create her online course to help other grief and trauma therapists

● Why the best online courses combine clinical training with personal experience–like Nikki is doing

● How money blocks, shame, and internal voices get in the way to create imposter syndrome for Nikki

● The new perspective: Nikki’s course is helping clinicians to become better clinicians, help their clients more fully, and become better business owners (who make more money)

● Why we struggle with shame in charging what we are worth because we are a “helping profession”

● How Nikki can implement the same steps in charging for her online course that she employed in establishing her private practice

● How to take a “ladder view” of our expertise and experience, realizing that there are always people on lower rungs who need your help

● Why it’s better to take the tortoise approach and pace yourself in launching a course

Resources:

Want to launch your online course?

Check out our new membership site that’s launching in January! Find out more and join us in Haven here.

Mentioned in this episode:

Try Alma!

Building and managing the practice you truly want can feel overwhelming. That’s why Alma is here—to help you create not just any practice, but your private practice. With Alma, you’ll get the tools and resources you need to navigate insurance with ease, connect with referrals that are the right fit for your style, and streamline those time-consuming administrative tasks. That means less time buried in the details and more time focused on delivering exceptional care to your clients. You support your clients. Alma supports you. Learn more at sellingthecouch.com/alma and get 2 months FREE—an exclusive offer for STC listeners.

Many clinicians are left wondering if their best work lies in the clinical field or the coaching/consulting arena. I’ve felt this dilemma myself, pondering how to balance my interests, endeavors, and the evolution of family life. I realized that I couldn’t sustain multiple paths, and I made the hard decision to give up my clinical work.

If you are struggling along those same lines, I hope today’s show gives you insights, clarity, and encouragement. Join us to learn more!

Our Featured Guest

Angela Williams, LCSW

Angela Williams is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in Orlando, Florida. She has made the transition from clinician to coach, and she now works with other therapists who are making the same change in their lives. Angela shares her thoughts about why so many clinicians are leaving for the world of coaching, along with the biggest roadblocks that may come up on this path. She gives her best tips for overcoming those big roadblocks and recommends several books as helpful resources.

Website

You’ll Learn:

• Why so many therapists are becoming coaches
• How the therapy field, with its inherent regulations, contains many barriers to providing services to clients—and coaching is different
• The biggest mental roadblock for Angela in moving from clinician to coach
• Why each clinician feels like the “insecure expert” and has to intentionally build up their confidence
• Why it’s challenging to become an online, visible brand rather than a care provider
• What holds clinicians back the most and presents the biggest roadblocks
• How a mindset coach can help us rewrite our roadblocks into our success story
• How perfectionism, fear of failure, and standards of success can prevent us from taking action
• Why money blocks and financial literacy play into our beliefs about money
• Why the fear of success can be just as crippling as the fear of failure
• Books recommended by Angela: The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks, Get Rich, Lucky Bitch by Denise Duffield-Thomas, and You Are a Badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero

Resources:

Want to launch your online course?

Check out our new membership site that’s launching in January! Find out more and join us in Haven here.

Mentioned in this episode:

Try Alma!

Building and managing the practice you truly want can feel overwhelming. That’s why Alma is here—to help you create not just any practice, but your private practice. With Alma, you’ll get the tools and resources you need to navigate insurance with ease, connect with referrals that are the right fit for your style, and streamline those time-consuming administrative tasks. That means less time buried in the details and more time focused on delivering exceptional care to your clients. You support your clients. Alma supports you. Learn more at sellingthecouch.com/alma and get 2 months FREE—an exclusive offer for STC listeners.