Fast Company just sent me their online newsletter with an article (well, really a slide show) titled, “The Kanye Curriculum: 7 Ways to Be a Success.”
According to Kanye West, the very first key to success is “Know your worth.”
I agree.
For psychotherapists, artists, and healing arts professionals, knowing what you’re worth is key to attracting your ideal client and building a strong practice.
If you don’t know what your services are worth, here are four ways to find out:
- Call your state licensing board and ask them what the UCR, Usual and Customary Rate, is for someone with your credentials. When I moved to Colorado, I called the Licensed Professional Counselors Board of Examiners to ask what LPC’s charge. (In 2002, their response was ” between $80 and $125 per hour.”)
- Poll the professionals in your geographic area. Call them up, introduce yourself and explain that you are doing a survey of your profession’s fees in the area. Ask them what they charge for their hourly fee. (And, offer to share your results with them. Better yet, offer to share it with us here at Private Practice from the Inside Out).
Check out Psychotherapy Finances. They poll their subscribers each year and do the work for you!Unfortunately, Psychotherapy Finances has apparently gone out of business since this post was written. [Updated 03-26-15]- Contact the state division of your professional association. For me, that’s the Colorado Counseling Association. Most state organizations will have this type of information available to share with the general public.
And, do the rest of us a favor . . . let us know what you learn about UCRs in your geographic area and tell us where you got your information.
I am a new therapist to private practice and have, what I hope, is a simple question. I have one fee for a 55 min session. I charge everyone the same fee, and I do accept insurance. The problem is – when a clt arrives late and we can only do a 45 minute (or less) session, I can only bill insurance the respective time code (90832, 90834 etc). The billing program, however, asks for my charge per session. I dont have different rates for different lengths of sessions because I expect clts to arrive on time and for our sessions to be 55 minutes. Do I need to set up different fees for different length sessions, or do I just have 1 flat rate, bill insurance that flat rate, and put in the appropriate and honest CPT code? Thanks! I’m in DC if that matters or will help anyone else reading this in the future.
Unfortunately Psychotherapy Finance seems to be out of business..I tried about a year ago to look them up, subscribe, etc and was unsuccessful. Now even the links have ceased to work
Thank you, Stacey! I appreciate you taking the time to let me know!. I have updated the post with this information just now. Bummer! They produced great info for years that many therapists relied on. However, they always did a lousy job of marketing their newsletter so I’m not terribly surprised. Would love to know what happened to them if anyone happens to know . . . .
Just an FYI, I tried contacting the state licensing board here in CO for my MH profession and was told they don’t collect UCR information. I was bummed as I was curious what they would say.
That’s interesting, Ethan.
I’ve contacted DORA in the past (I’m also in Colorado) and they have said that for LPC’s, Social Workers, and LMFT’s the UCR ranges from $80-$125/hour.
I wonder if we just spoke to different individuals or if they no longer gather that info . . . .
I wonder if our professional associations might gather that type of info for us. It would certainly be of service to their membership to do so.
Hi, Ethan! I haven’t spoken with the state (Colorado) licensing board about UCR in several years but I have in the past and they reported the fees for licensed mental health professionals in Colorado ranged from ($80-$120 / hour). Again, that was several years ago but it does give you some place to start.