Log In
Hannah said to me: “I want to have my own counselling centre. But I get challenged by the idea that clients should pay for the services they get.
“Is it morally fair to make money out of individuals’ pain and suffering?” she said. “Can you suggest other ways of doing that without our clients paying for counselling?”
Here are my views:
Someone always has to pay, somehow.
In some countries, the government will pay.
If the practitioner doesn’t charge or the government doesn’t pay, it is a gift relationship.
But gifting your services means you may be subsidising the work from another income, from the salary earned in previous years, from a partner’s salary, or some other means.
Somehow, you have to put bread on the table. A few practitioners may provide a free service in their retirement, but there aren’t enough old practitioners to go round. In short, someone has to pay.
And payment isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If my car is troubled, I will pay a garage to fix it. If my foot is in pain, I (or the government) will pay a doctor to mend it. If my house has a problem, I will ask a builder to mend it.
Helping someone to deal with their emotional distress is not unlike these cases.
If a client gets your service for free, they may not value it. If they have paid for it, they will take it seriously, and probably heal faster.
The more expensive something is, the more people value them. Often, if not always, the more you pay for something, the better it is.
We don’t want to put a price on everything in our life. For family members, we provide things for free, in addition to our love.
But are there ways to provide counselling with charging the client?
If someone has no money, you may provide them with a free or reduced price service. But that is subsidised by your paying clients.
You may have another job, and provide counselling ‘on the side’, for free. Again, your salary is providing the subsidy.
In rare cases, you may get a grant to provide counselling, but few people can do that.
Let me know what you think. Email me
