What Goes into the Price of Therapy?

1. justify the expense

2. benefits: providing privacy; enabling others to have as well

pics for us to look at: https://www.dreamstime.com/photos-images/money-scale-balance-life.html

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.

[weave in somewhere here] With the popularization of self-care, it can seem that could take the place of therapy. Most popular forms of self-care merely function as aftercare, and do not address the root problems causing the need for soothing self-care. As your therapist, I recommend you do self-care! And, I believe therapy is a key part of being able to fully function in this hectic and increasingly polarized world of ours.

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 standard of care that I believe all therapists should uphold. I price my sessions such that a quarter of my caseload is at a deeply reduced rate through the Open Path Collective.

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{to the wealthy} 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.

It can be difficult to decide how you choose to spend your time and choose to spend your money. Life is all a series of choices and trade-offs. In my role as a therapist, I want to encourage you to prioritize your mental well-being and choose a therapist that is a good fit for you, while also feeling empowered to make the best decision for you.

{to the middle} - this doesn’t seem like to the middle, here. [merge with “working here”] I acknowledge that (change this wording) access to the best care for you can be a financial strain for some people and an outright impossibility for others. Another barrier is that those with limited financial resources often only find access to therapists in training or those with limited experience. They often have limited choices as to who they see for therapy, and often can only find access to care that requires a diagnosis. Seeing a therapist that’s a good fit might feel out of reach. I am committed to making therapy accessible and have structured my practice and fee structure so that I can offer 25% of my practice to individuals in need of significantly reduced fees. Those clients paying my standard fee enable me to provide therapy to those who wouldn’t otherwise be able to access quality care and choice of the approach to therapy that is the best fit for them.

[weave in above] I am committed to making choice in therapy accessible by offering significantly reduced fee sessions to clients for whom my standard rate is simply not possible. At present, those spaces obtain over 1/4 of my practice.

Therapy is not an insignificant expense for most people.

[working here] Preventative investment in your mental well-being is so important, however unfortunately insurance companies look at mental health coverage through a pathologizing lens. People can bypass this by paying out of pocket, however, not everyone has that financial ability. Privacy and agency are of utmost importance to me so I have chosen to be an out-of-network provider only. (I discuss this further on my Services page.)

{to the poor} I offer these reduced-fee spots through a psychotherapy collective called Open Path Collective. Open Path is a nationwide group of therapists who offer significantly reduced fee sessions between $40 - $70 for individual therapy sessions. If you’re interested in one of my reduced-fee spaces, visit my profile on the Open Path website. These reduced-fee spaces are very popular and often full, however, when a space is available it will show on Open Path. No matter your financial situation or insurance coverage, I hope you are able to find a therapist that is ideal for you.

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I find that many people are unaware of the full picture of running a private practice, and that additional context can help them understand the price of therapy. Here I’ll offer

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A Window into the Nitty Gritty

Although some people have experienced being a sole proprietor, understandably, not everyone has. This section is to help bridge the gap for people wondering why private practice therapy costs what it does. 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.

• Therapists in private practice have to pay approximately 50-60% of their earnings to cover the following:

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

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

  • other business expenses;

  • required continuing education.

• In addition to the 50-60% above, in my case I’m also paying:

  • student loans from graduate degrees;

  • medical insurance;

  • retirement;

  • advanced specialist trainings and certifications above and beyond required hours. which I choose to seek out to keep myself current and enhance the level of expertise I’m able to offer.

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• Some therapists in private practice participated in unpaid internships and clinical placements which incurred a financial loss at the time. In my particular case, I also spent many years abroad and bring much lived experience into my work, much of which included similar financial rammifications. . [?and compensating for the financial loss from the time required in unpaid internships and clinical placements?]

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• {As previously discussed above, therapists in practice by themselves only get paid for the time for which they are actually providing therapy. They do not usually have a caseload of 40 clients, and the number of regular sessions is lower due to absences. There is no vacation or sick pay. They also earn no money while attending continue ed. } Therapists in private practice only get paid for the time for which they are actually providing therapy - the time you, the client, actually pays for. [Therapists in private practice do not get paid for a 40 hour work week - unless they see 40 clients a week which, to me, would be impossible and unethical.]

  • As an example, if a therapist has 20 clients on their caseload (holding and cherishing all of the intricacies of those clients’ worlds) and 4 clients are away on a given week, the therapist is only compensated for 16 hours that week, though maintains responsibility for all 20 clients on their caseload.

  • When clients are sick or otherwise need to cancel within the therapist’s cancellation policy (mine is with only 24 hours notice), the therapist does not get compensated for those sessions.

  • When a therapist in private practice takes holiday or vacation, they do not get paid for the time they are away like they would from an employer.

  • If a therapist is sick or is unable to hold a session for another reason, they do not get compensated like they would from an employer.

  • The time outside of sessions in which a therapist is doing documentation, participating in continuing education courses / certification / conferences, liaising with other providers, researching resources or referrals, preparing for sessions, etc. - is also time for which they are not compensated. [learning, keeping culturally relevant, domestic and world issues, etc. ???]

  • When the session ends, my time reflecting on the session doesn’t end. This is vital to the way I work and enriches our work together. While you cannot see this work it does have value.

• All the things an employer in the US would typically provide (health insurance, dental & vision coverage, sick pay, holiday pay, vacation pay, retirement fund, compensation whilst attending conferences or trainings, etc.) have to be incorporated into the fees that a private practice therapist charges.