To wonder how people afford counselling privately?

[MedianRange]

Counselling where I live starts at £40 per hour 50 minutes with some charging £50 or £60. Concessions for unwaged are minimum £35 per hour.

The average salary where I live is £19k.

How do people afford it??

I am unsure how much benefit people get if they are not working but I'm pretty sure they are unlikely to have £35 left over a month let alone each week or fortnight.

I'm also thinking that most people who would require counselling have had life issues that has probably impacted their earning potential.

But then if the counsellors get very few clients at these rates, it would make sense that they would charge less so I am honestly confused.

Any ideas anyone??

Yes Median I can see your point absolutely there.
However there's just no way I could realistically provide therapy any more cheaply. As I said most of my clients are in work and the ones paying the full rate see it as not only buying the counselling but buying it at a time convenient to them - they don't have to take time out of work to attend.

Oh, and some of my longer term clients do come fortnightly rather than weekly.

'Eating out, hobbies, cigs, alcohol, nights out are all pretty costly.

There is always this notion that, whenever people say they cannot afford something, other fools conclude it's because such people drink/eat out/smoke/go out.

Comes up all the time.

Can't afford to buy a home of your own? Must be because you have nights out, holidays, Sky, a mobile, smoke and drink.

Can't afford therapy? Must be because you go out, eat out, smoke and drink.

ilovesooty

Out of interest, after all your costs, how much do you actually earn per hour?

I do appreciate that there is a lot of cost to get qualified although all qualifications above A-Levels leave people in debt these days

How do people on an average of 19k a year afford to smoke 20 cigarettes a day at approximately £8 per day totalling £56 a week? I don't know but plenty of people seem to manage it, year in, year out.

I guess the answer is prioritising. If you want or need something badly enough to go without other things in order to afford it.

expat I didn't make the eating out / smoking/ drinking comments, nor would I.
I do think though that there's often a view that counselling is a luxury, whereas I think people can get to a stage where the situation becomes so distressing for people that it becomes in their view a necessity, though I appreciate the money still has to be found and that's difficult for many.

Median I haven't actually calculated it but my accountant (another item of expenditure) still has me running at a loss. I won't finish paying off the debt for some time but I'm hoping it will be worth it in the end. If I lose my day job I'll still have a skill I can use.
Counselling training is really expensive as are the ongoing costs. I'm set to spend nearly a thousand on professional development this year.

I had counselling in two different areas that charged a low fee for the unwaged- I think they were run by charities. One was up North, while I was a student- it cost £12 a session.

More recently I had some with an organization where I currently live in London. They charge whatever is comfortable for people to pay. I used to pay £14 a week, although a lot of the counsellors are trainees- though you can specify if you don't want one.

However, I had to stop due to changing jobs and having variable shifts- you could only use the service if you could commit to a definite time slit every week.

Medain how many of these people who are debt to study have to give for free hundreds of hours of their time?
To qualify that is exactly what we had to do, hundreds of hours, these hours only count if the client turns up so for people like myself who worked with addicts those hours took years.
Years of giving my time, when working with certain groups there is only a small % that they turn up, if they don't turn up that time doesn't count towards your hours.
Once you work out a wage after all overheads isn't as much as you would think.

To be honest when you train as a counsellor you are continually told that is is for the love of it because the money isn't great.

my gym membership is local authority , £32 a month, frozen for life and, like median has already said, essential to my mental and physical health (hopefully I'm saving the nhs a few quid too). maybe I should cancel it and have one counselling session a month .

'expat I didn't make the eating out / smoking/ drinking comments, nor would I. '

And I never wrote that you did.

Do people think being able to afford something covers incurring debts to buy x, y, z??

That said I am not saying that therapists shouldn't charge as much as they do, there must be enough people out there who can afford it (or able to borrow the money to pay for it). I just think I live in a different world to them.

£30 a fortnight would potentially be more doable but I've been looking locally for nigh on 2 years now and the minimum has consistently been £40 for working clients. If I met a therapist and found that they weren't suitable for whatever reason, that's £40 down the drain before I even start, and that is the equivalent of a new pair of shoes and a day out for DD.

'How do people on an average of 19k a year afford to smoke 20 cigarettes a day at approximately £8 per day totalling £56 a week? I don't know but plenty of people seem to manage it, year in, year out.'

What the fuck has that got to do with people who cannot afford private counselling?

No expat you didn't. I just wanted to distance myself from the comment.

Median - ask for a free assessment session. I always do a free session to see if we want to work together. You shouldn't be paying £40 to find out if you want to work with someone.

In my experience as having worked with both paying and non paying clients, there has definitely been far greater commitment, respect (cancelling appointments rather than no show) and therapeutic movement in paying clients in general.

I used to have a very specialist psychotherapy in a posh London psychiatric hospital 2x a week at £118 per hour. I was a teenager and my dad (6 figure salary earner) paid for it.

I don't do free assessment sessions for a number of reasons not least that I incur costs for travel and room hire anyway, but I know many do. I'm happy to chat with people on the phone beforehand though.

niddy I'm inclined to agree.

In the case of the charity I chair, a no show client forfeits their place and goes back on the waiting list.

I don't think the issue is usually how much therapists charge, but that there is not nearly enough provision in the nhs. If you live in London there are some places where you can have good psychotherapy - for children ad adults on the nhs- but Im aware this is not the case everywhere.

I've just had a look at councelling in my small, crappy town & I thought - no! It can't be that much!

£45.00!

But it might be a good idea for myself, so thank you to the OP for bringing the topic up!

My experiance too niddy!
If they pay they turn up if they don't pay they don't!

I do meet my clients for an informal chat before any arrangments for therapy but I'm lucky as I don't incur any cost.

When looking for a counsellor ask the GP, phone services and always ask if they do concessions etc, it is always worth an ask.

I do a few people who have no income for a very small fee plus I still volunteer PLUS I have another job!

Tutt I'm not sure I get your point. I'm a qualified teacher, taught nearly 200 hours for free, all degrees/professions require a lot of unpaid time be it practising the profession, studying etc etc. I would say most jobs which are predominantly helping are not very well paid. Full-time counsellors who are employed earn about £25-£30k (about £14-£16 an hour) they have to pay NI, tax, and travelling costs too. Self employed therapists have additional costs but can put these against their tax bill and they pay lower NI.

OH charges £60 for counselling - he specialises in relationship counselling. He isn't short of clients.