What Goes into the Price of Therapy?

The Role of Therapy in Your Life

Therapy is sometimes seen as a luxury, but mental health is fundamental to optimal functioning. Without a healthy mind, all other areas of life suffer. Therapy is an investment in yourself. More self-awareness, self-knowledge, coping skills, and self-compassion make it easier to navigate life, have the life you want, and have the quality of relationships you desire. Having the time to reflect on decisions, values, and goals leads to greater chances of success in getting where you want to be and knowing when you are there. In mental health, similar to physical health, preventive measures can have a profound impact. So, while many people may originally seek out therapy at a time of an immediate issue, therapy can form a solid foundation that allows the rest of your life to flourish.

Popular culture promotes self-care, which may lead some to believe they don’t need therapy. In reality, self-care should build your resilience rather than merely soothe or pamper. As your therapist, I recommend you do self-care! And, I believe therapy is a key part of building the resilience to fully function in this hectic and increasingly polarized world of ours. We may not be able to control what’s going on around us, so building resiliency is ever important.

The Role of the Therapist in Your Therapy

How This Becomes a Price

My goal is to carefully carve a path for my business that honors the financial well-being of my clients and myself. I’m a first-generation college graduate, and I’ve followed my passion over profit throughout my life. I want to be able to serve a variety of people to a very high standard. I organize my business so that I can maintain the high standards that I hold for my profession. I price my sessions such that a quarter of my caseload is at a deeply reduced rate through the Open Path Collective. You may have the financial freedom to be able to pay out of pocket for therapy without it being a second thought. Or, for you, it may be a case of juggling priorities to be able to pay out of pocket for therapy. In either case, my full-fee clients are what allow me to offer therapy to my Open Path clients.

Open Path Collective exists for people who would not otherwise be able to afford to work with independent therapists. Affordable therapy options often lack the most experienced therapists and/or the specialties that I’m able to provide. Open Path doesn’t compensate the therapists; rather, this is a group of us who care about making therapy more widely accessible. These reduced-fee spaces are very popular and often full, however, when a space is available, it will show on my Open Path profile.

A Window into the Nitty Gritty

I feel it’s valuable and important to be transparent about what the business side of my private practice entails and put it into context. This is what running a private practice looks like for me:

• A typical therapist in private practice has to pay approximately 50% of their earnings to cover the following:

  • taxes (federal income tax, 15.3% self-employment tax, and state tax);

  • office space and/or HIPAA-compliant telehealth platform;

  • HIPAA-compliant email;

  • professional liability insurance;

  • for each state in which they are licensed:

    • initial licensure application fees, which also include fees for background checks, forwarding transcripts, forwarding national exams, and taking state exams as required;

    • recurring licensure fees;

    • required ongoing continuing education;

  • professional association membership fees;

  • advertising;

  • bookkeeping software;

  • legal and/or accounting consultation;

  • office supplies.

• In addition to the 50% above, in my case I’m also paying:

  • student loans from graduate degrees;

  • health insurance - as a self-employed person, the lowest plan available to me on the marketplace costs over $15,000 per year between premiums and deductibles before coverage kicks in;

  • all dental & vision coverage are completely out of pocket expenses;

  • professional business consulting;

  • professional conferences;

  • specialized professional trainings and certifications;

  • higher security business email;

  • dedicated business phone;

  • licensure/registration in a total of 4 states, including the initial fees, recurring fees, and continuing education requirements;

  • retirement is something I dollar-for-dollar contribute to without any “employer matching;”

  • unpaid internships and clinical placements both in the US and the UK which incurred a financial loss at the time.

• Keep in mind, therapists in solo private practice don’t get compensated for the following that an employer pays for:

  • Sick leave

  • Vacation time

  • Jury duty

  • Attending trainings / conferences

  • Client cancellations

    • if made with at least 24 hours’ notice, although I might be able to accommodate another client’s schedule change request for the week, I cannot recover the income (“walk-ins” are not a part of therapy private practice)

    • if made with less than 24 hours’ notice, the fee applies, but my time has already been allocated

I wanted people to have a window into the time and financial realities of operating my own solo private practice. I hope this provides some perspective, and want you to know that I absolutely love my work and find all of the benefits outweigh these costs.