Dear therapist: math is your friend, and money isn't the enemy
When considering how much to charge for services, I will always advocate using actual data rather than feelings, fear, or guesswork.
If you follow me on instagram, you’ll likely have noticed that I recently shared a Private Practice Fee Calculator, free for folks to access (well, in exchange for an email address) and use to make sense of what they actually need to charge in private practice to meet their financial goals & pay for necessary expenditures.
There are a few things I want to say in today’s post particularly for earlier-career clinicians who are angling for private practice in the near or distant future—but before I do, I wanna make sure everyone has access to this tool to start figuring out what their private practice financials need to look like to make reaching their goals feasible.
You can grab your copy here: Private Practice Income Calculator
So, disclosure—yes, I will ask for your email address to give access to this tool. TBH you can do what I often do and I won’t blame you one bit or even feel offended: enter your info, grab the tool, and unsubscribe if you want. That’s if you’re not really interested in getting any more emails from me, which I totally get.
However, if you do have any interest in hanging around and learning specifically about starting a private practice (now or in the future), you’re more than welcome to hang out on that mailing list for as long as you like. I don’t like to be super salesy or pushy with stuff, so when I send things it’ll be because I actually think it’ll be helpful, or because I’m trying to promote the tools & services I think might be helpful.
Additionally, I will be sharing another post later this week for all subscribers (or maybe next week, whenever I get to it really) about ways to give back that don’t automatically mean sliding your fee and/or living above the poverty line while working full time as a mental health professional in private practice, so keep an eye out for that one.
Okay, with that out of the way, here some thoughts on using this tool, as well as an exploration of some of the major *feels* that might come with charging money for the services you provide.
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