​Heal Play Love University- 8 Tips to Help You Decide How Much to Charge Your Therapy Clients 

Charging Clients for Therapy Advice for NEW Therapists Heal Play Love University #therapistbootcamp

Therapist Bootcamp. Advice for Therapy Interns. Should I Charge for an Initial Therapy Consultation? What to expect on your initial phone consult with a therapist.

How much does therapy cost? Advice for new therapists. A New Therapist's Nightmare! This therapy vlog will cover the topic of costs and fees of therapy from a therapist's perspective. For example, some therapist feel weird taking money from clients.

Most new therapists freak out over taking money from clients. Some therapists want to offer therapy for free, thinking a free therapy session is the best thing to do as a nice person. Therapists tend to lean toward the empathetic side (I guess it's in our nature to be extra kind??), and they bad to take so much money for an hour of talking.

Oftentimes, therapists start their journey as interns, working for an agency or another therapist’s established private practice. That means some one else is usually in charge of invoicing and collecting payment. When the therapist gets into private practice, they are uncomfortable with the payment aspect. Plus, agency work is typically low paying, so MFT associates or interns can learn to devalue the work they do (and the work they put in to doing the work they do).
Here are a couple of ideas that may help new therapists negotiate this awkward early stage.
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1) It’s not just an hour- what you are doing in that hour- those many hours put together over the course of treatment- is changing lives. You are changing the trajectory for at least one person- maybe saving a marriage- maybe saving an entire family. And that, in turn, can change the course for the next generation – and the next.
The fact that you are getting in there and healing old wounds- perhaps putting an end to generational abuse or disconnect- is invaluable! Do you understand the impact here? Your work with one person can literally change generations.
This understanding alone should make everyone understand the value of the therapy hour.
2) If that’s not enough, I’ll give you more… You have paid – or are probably still paying- for the education it took to get you into the business of transformation. There were tuition fees, books and other expenses related to learning how to change lives and families.
3) You have paid your dues. You have not only completed your figgin’ master’s degree, you completed an internship that included thousands of hours of supervised client contact.
4) You have overhead. You have to pay for licensing fees, continuing education units, professional liability insurance, general liability insurance, an office space, office furniture and supplies, marketing – like your subscription to Psychology Today … if you are community based, you pay for gas and upkeep on your car. If you work with kids, you probably provide snacks. You most likely provide coffee, tea and bottled water.
5) The hour isn’t the only thing! That “therapy hour” or 50 minutes of client time isn’t the only thing you do for your client. If you can always get your notes done in 10 minutes, good for you.
Some of us can’t. Plus, we may spend time researching for updated interventions related to the client’s presenting problems.
6) Other time-related stuff. To be great therapists, we spend time going to seminars, attending professional organization meetings, reading publications related to our field.
7) You may have worked for free or as a low-paid associate during your internship. You’ve grown accustom to poverty wages. Actually getting paid what you’re worth feels odd. Remember that interns don’t get paid well- if at all. Agencies have a reputation for overworking and underpaying their employees. If you are out of that environment, get out of that mentality.
8) You are you! The relationship aspect of therapy is important. You can’t put a number on what YOU bring to the therapy session. That “click” with the client. That compassion. That knowing smile. All of that stuff has great healing value- how do you put a dollar amount on that? I think we can take ourselves for granted. We forget about the struggles we faced making it here. We get used to the “new normal” during internship.