I Just Started My Counseling Practice and Can’t Decide On My Prices

How do you set your fees?

How to set your fees is a great question and not something that comes naturally. When we went to graduate school, we didn’t have a class on setting prices. I don’t remember my professor explaining how to set your fees when you start a private practice. So, when I started my private practice, I had to Google what to do. However, I didn’t find anything concrete. Sure, there was some advice here and there, but there is no playbook on what to do. As clinicians, we tend to stick to concrete things – we want trustworthy and reliable information. We go through intensive workshops to support other people, so we want to put into practice.

There’s a lack of structure and information out there when it comes to setting our fees. This missing information is why I wanted to give some thoughtful advice about starting the process. No one taught us what we should charge. It can make you feel lost, and it makes us vulnerable. We need to be confident in our fees. An attorney will charge $500 an hour and feel confident about that price. Sometimes, clinicians can struggle even to charge $20 or $30 an hour. There has to be a level of ethics and morale there.

Here are a few avenues that you can take:

1. Mindset work. Build confidence from within. You studied hard, you’re diligent, and you believe in yourself. It can be challenging to say that the intake session is $300 because it’s a high number. If you lack confidence, then it can make the conversation difficult.
2. Market research. Look at all the counselors in your area. Then write down what their intake fee is, a regular session price, and an evaluation. Dig deeper and look at their years of experience. This research can help you find a good starting point.
3. Question and answer. Reach out to other counselors in your area and ask how they set their fees. The counselor will most likely give you their insight and guide you. Like how our professors in graduate school guided us, it’s beautiful that we can ask for help.

As always, if you have questions regarding your journey in building a private practice, then reach out to me. I am more than happy to answer your questions on A Counselor’s Journey YouTube Channel. I love the work that I do, and I love being here with you. Connect with me HERE.

Discover more about navigating and building your private practice by listening to interviews from amazing counselors who are overcoming challenges and creating their ideal private practice on my podcast, A Counselor’s Journey to Private Practice.

Are you looking for a niche? My courses will give you everything you need to niche your practice with immigration evaluations and consistently get new clients. Are you ready to write expert-level immigration evaluations? Enroll in my training courses HERE.