Jill Osborne, EDS, LPC is in private practice at Eagles Landing Christian Counseling Center with offices in McDonough and Conyers, Georgia.
On Wednesday, Jill wrote in asking if it is “ever a time to lower your fees.”
She’s not asking about when to use reduced fee scholarships or sliding fee scales.
Instead, she’s asking about lowering fees across the board and how to know if your fees are “reasonable.”
Those are such good questions that I wanted to bring them forward to this blog post so that all of you can read my position and then, of course, share your own thoughts, too.
I’ve written posts to help you set appropriate fees for your professional services in Know Your Worth – Setting Fees for Your Practice and in How Mental Health Professionals Can Justify Their Clinical Fees, too.
Hopefully, you did your homework before setting your fees for your clinical work.
However, I suppose that there might come a time when you may want to reduce your fees across the board.
During a time of economic crisis in your community . . . or when you realize that your fees were initially set too high . . . or possibly during a period when you no longer need to make an income to support yourself and your family . . . .
It is possible.
Truthfully, I have never been confronted with any of these instances.
All too often, I see mental health professionals under-value their work rather than over-value it.
And, all too often, they fail to increase their fees to keep up with the cost of living in their own backyard.
How do you know if your fees are set just right?
I think it is Maldcom Gladwell who recommends the “squeak test.”
When you are tightening a screw, you keep tightening until it squeaks and you get a little resistance?
How much resistance?
He (and I) recommend 10%.
What does that actually look like?
It means that 10% of the time when you are letting potential clients know what you charge, you ought to get some complaints.
Of course, if you don’t have the stomach for that 10% who squeak, then you’ll probably not have the stomach to charge what you are worth.
And, if you do re-evaluate professional fees periodically and find it appropriate to reduce them, I can only imagine that your clients would welcome the news.
Perhaps you can help us think of other situations when your professional fees should be reduced for everyone.
If so, please share!
This is very helpful, Tamara! I thought I was probably in the right place with pricing, despite some grumbles from would-be clients, and this provided some reassurance. I sent your post to a few other MT business owners, too. Thanks!
Thank YOU, Rachelle, for taking time to let me know that this is helpful and for sharing my post with your colleagues. I do love music therapists and am happy to support you on your journey!
I just found your site, and I am THRILLED! I’m working myself up to open a private practice and I plan to read through everything you have here!
Thanks for putting yourself out there to get information to newbies like me!!!
Alyssa
Alyssa! I’m so glad you found our growing online community here at Private Practice from the Inside Out!. I look forward to chatting with you and helping you grow your own private practice from the ground up! If I can do anything to help, please don’t hesitate to let me know!
Tamara
I am a US trained therapist working now back at home in india and your blog is so helpful to me! Thanks!!! I frequently tell young therapists here about it to help them get started. Your post on fees helps me as I frequently wonder whether I charge too much. Based on your squeak test I realize that my charges must be just right 🙂
Diana
Diana! Thank you for following my blog and taking time out of your day to let me know that you are finding the information helpful! I so appreciate you sharing Private Practice from the Inside Out with therapists who are just getting started! I hope that together we can help them avoid some of the holes that I’ve stepped in or at least learn how to minimize the fallout!
Where are you in India and what is it you do? I have to admit I’ve been surprised at how many therapists from India are actually following me here. I’ve wondered if I should add the ability to translate the blog into other languages. Do you have any thoughts about this?
I look forward to hearing your voice here, Diana! Let me know if there are gaps in information or if I can help in any way!
Hi Tamara,
I’m so glad this site is here. I am a psychologist resident in Oregon and am working towards being licensed. I have my doctorate in psychology. I do not know what I should be charging. Some websites other residents in OR have set up say 60-95, based on need. My supervisor charges $100 and only works with cash/check. I am thinking about using Square on my iPhone to take debit/credit payments as well. I know I can’t charge as much as she does, since she is licensed and I am not. She recommended I start with 60/hr, and slide down from there to $40/hr. I think I am worth WAY more than this, for my training and degree (as you mentioned in a different article). I was thinking about $75 or 80. If you could share your thoughts with me or if others would as well, I would really appreciate it! I’m going to come back to this site again and again!
Hi, Brad! I’m so glad you are finding my work to be useful! You may want to check out my post Know Your Worth – Setting Fees for Your Practice. Truthfully, I am a bit shocked that your colleagues in Oregon are charging so little for their professional services. And, neither do I think your fees need to be based on your supervisor’s fees.
I would not recommend that you set your fee lower than you can afford to based on your costs of doing business. The next consideration is to take into account what the Usual and Customary Fee is for professionals in your geographic area who offer similar experience, training, and services. The “going rate” for our professional services can vary significantly from state to state and country to country. Without taking these two factors into account, it is difficult to determine an appropriate fee.
Anyone else among us who is from Oregon? Care to join this conversation?
Thanks for this post, it’s great. I have my fees set to a point and will entertain sliding my scale for folks who demonstrate motivation to work with me. It’s set so that I can slide it and still be OK, but it’s hard to be comfortable during the times that the calls don’t come or you happen to run into all 10% of your squeaks in one run.
Kat, I can’t remember how long you’ve been in private practice but I promise you . . . if you stick with it, it does get easier. And, it’s not that you won’t have slow times . . . . You will. Instead, what you do with those slow times and how you talk to yourself during those slow times . . . . those are the things that will change.
I’ve learned to be grateful for the slow times and use them to work on one of my pet projects or reach out to a colleague that I have been remiss in connecting with. (Are there ever enough hours in the day?!)
Thanks Tamara, that helps. I’ve been in practice actively for about 15 months with a total of 2 years invested (I got my website up before I took my first client, for example). I’m also very part time, so the slow times seem like it goes from a trickle to a stop – so I just need to remember to have that perspective. I recently moved into my own office, so that took so much time and energy that now I’m sort of “coming back online” and trying to resume my pet projects here so to speak! 🙂 Thanks!
Kat, one of the really smart things that you are doing is you are surrounding yourself with multiple communities of mental health professionals to support you in growing your practice while also reaching out to other mental health professionals to support others. That dual focus will only serve to boost your credibility as well as your reputation – both of which are invaluable for any therapist in private practice.
And, by the way, I am so grateful to have you as part of this community. You are quick to reach out here to support a colleague – offering encouragement, resources, and authenticity. It is exactly what I had hoped would happen here at Private Practice from the Inside Out.
Thank you so much Tamara! Believe me, the gratitude is mutual. I feel fortunate to have a place to go to where I know there will be a warm reception and I can trust that it’s a safe place to put myself out there and make comments. This has helped me trust that I can jump in and create that when and where I show up online as well. It’s so self-reinforcing to truly enjoy connecting and giving, and seeing that it does make folks think of you and treat you as a friend and colleague. This field is incredibly lonely and daunting if you don’t have friends and colleagues! This site is like the Cheers of blogs for me.
SWEET! I love that analogy! Don’t be surprised if I quote you on that!
Have a good night!
Tamara,
Thank you for sharing the analogy of the “squeak test” in regards to setting your professional fee! It is very helpful and I know it will be something I will think about again and again (and use!) as I move forward in private practice. I have been thinking a lot about raising my fee for services with current clients in my practice and am looking for any guidance I can find in how to do this. A little context, I’ve been in practice for almost two years and will (hopefully!) earn my LPC in the next few months! I recently moved to a new office and my expenses have increased as a result. At the time of the move, I increased my fee for new clients but I did not raise it for current clients. As a result, there is now a large gap between clients who started out with me at a reduced fee from my old rate and new clients who’ve started with me recently. Also, I undervalued my services when first starting out, so there is a significant difference in what some of my clients are currently paying. After much reflection and talking to colleagues, I have decided that I am going to implement a fee increase with current clients and am now just looking for as many resources I can find as to how to do that and how to have that conversation with clients. I appreciate you sharing Julie Hanks blog post here about increasing your fee in waves because it is a helpful one as well! Your “squeak test” is definitely going to help me gauge how much to raise my current clients fees and where to set my fee in the future! Thank you for your unwavering guidance and support! I always know I can turn to your blog for guidance!
Catherine! You’re so welcome! That’s so kind of you to drop in here to let me know how this is helpful to you! I’m so excited to hear that you’re almost licensed, too! Yaaahooo!
Catherine I’m going to call and pretend to be a potential client that squeaks so you can practice being confident about how much you charge! Ha! No but really I’m glad we are both sort of figuring this out (again) in our practices. I’m glad you saw this post because I was totally going to forward it to you!
And, I’m thinking “Now THAT’s a GREAT IDEA!” – role playing that squeak! Perhaps we can hire you out!:)
Kat, role playing the squeak is a great idea! I could use some practice delivering my fee with confidence!:) Thanks for thinking of me when you read this post and for your friendship and professional support!
Likewise back to both of you! It’s great to have friends on a parallel journey that you can connect with. Social media rocks, I guess *said with a sigh*….