"How much?" - How much is counselling and why?

I would like to explore whether fees could be the reason for many counsellors experiencing a drop in client numbers. For context, I would like to start with some background. I acknowledge that there is a cost of living crisis and that in hard times, people cut back on non-essentials. However, when you buy a house or a car you pay for maintenance, if your car is high end you do not take it to a backstreet garage. Similarly, you do not get Bodge & Leggit to maintain your home. Your mental health is a priority. You pay far more if it is not looked after properly and by qualified and competent counsellors.

In order to explain why I charge the fee I charge, please let me explain my monthly costs:

• Each session involves a room charge – usually £10 per session. Even if the client does not attend, I am still charged.
• In order to practice, I am a member of a membership body costing £186.00 or £15.50 per month.
• It is necessary for me to have insurance in order to practice legally and ethically costing £110.60 or £9.22 per month.
• Every month I am required to have clinical supervision costing £40 per month.
• Because I offer online counselling, I pay £15.59 per month for Zoom (more secure and better quality than Teams).
• I pay for my IT/telephone service costing £53.53 per month.
• Advertising on an online platform costs me £19.50 per month.
• Mobile phone charges are £18.00 per month
• I have a dual sim phone which is necessary for work which cost £230.
• I have a dress code I abide by at £20 per month.
• I have to provide furnishings for my therapy room which I budget at £5 per month.

So these are just my regular monthly costs which total £206.50 per month.

Now, I would like to consider the cost of the training I undertook to become a qualified counsellor.

So, it took me four years of training to qualify as a counsellor and, in total, I paid approximately £7,000 over the four years.

I am also required to have regular continuous professional development (CPD) which can be free. However, in the last two years, I have paid £1,750 for two specific courses which enable me to practice in a niche area (trauma counselling). As well as this, in the last year I have spent at least £800 on books for CPD.

Experience has shown me that the maximum number of clients I can cope with before burnout becomes likely is 15 per week.

As a committed socialist and also in order to keep my skills fresh, I give five sessions per week for free (my choice). I offer reduced fee sessions to a charity for £25 per session and typically see four clients per week at this fee. 

In theory, I have the capacity for six full-fee-paying clients. I charge £70 per session so three clients cover my monthly outgoings. This leaves a potential for three full-fee-paying clients and four x £25 per sessions as income. This is approximately £310 per month income.

I am content to work for such a low income, but the figure does not cover the whole picture.

Clients are not assured or predictable. Some clients attend for months at a time and others for one or two sessions. No prediction is possible. Some clients do not pay and even for sums such as £70 per session, Small Claims Court is not really worthwhile, so a loss is incurred. Indeed it is not unusual for some clients to cease without any notification. All of this describes a very unstable and insecure source of income.

In my experience, some clients can have a very blasé and cavalier attitude to counselling. An attitude they would not consider or be allowed to get away with if it was their mechanic, builder, solicitor, architect, gym or mobile phone provider. I would offer that this attitude would not be allowed to carry on if it was used when dealing with a finance provider, or credit card. Neither would it be accepted if it was exhibited with their bank or overdraft.

I do not run a car and have no pension, sick pay or holiday pay. And yes a holiday is a necessity.

Practising what I preach, I have weekly counselling which costs £200 per month. So on a full month, I net about £160. Not a lot when you consider the length of time it took to train, the cost of the training and the monthly overheads. Then there is an accountant's fee to factor in as well as tax liability.

I could drive a bus and get paid more, but I love being a counsellor and was aware that when I started training it would not make me rich. I accepted that then and accept it now.

I could run myself into burnout and be marginally better off in terms of income, for a while at least. I could charge sums far in excess of my current rate, but believe that counselling should be provided on the basis of need and not the ability to pay.

So when you read or are told my rate, please pause and consider my costs, my income and my commitment. £70 per session is a big number when viewed in the light of the median pay rate in the UK. 

What is not considered often though is the cost of not having counselling. The cost of maladaptive coping strategies i.e. drinking, drugs, divorce, lost earnings, relationship breakdown, ill health, etc.

When viewed in the light of the consequences, £70 per session seems mighty fair and mighty cheap...