To wonder how people afford counselling privately?

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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??

i didnt know it was that much, i luckily just got referred to have counselling on the nhs, got an 6-8 week wait tho.
I think they assess how big your issue is, i spoke to a lady first and gave her a quick breakdown then she rang me back and said they can give counselling

Super if you agree a concessionary rate you shouldn't refer to it again and the service you provide should be exactly the same professional service you deliver to full paying customers.

The thing about more expensive treatments potentially being more effective wasn't about anything you said - I was thinking of a documentary I saw a few years ago where they were demonstrating how branded painkillers in a shiny box that cost several pounds were rated as more effective than generic drugs by people taking them for pain.

It's a really interesting field. I wasn't saying you said any of that, I was just continuing the conversation about reasons why people receiving free or low-cost therapy might not attend as reliably as people paying the full fee.

One thing I wondered about was whether people receiving free treatment are likely to be more ill, or have more additional pressures, or whether they are more likely to be ambivalent about treatment in the first place - perhaps the counselling is paid for by others because other people want the person to get counselling more than the person wants it themselves.

If they pay they turn up if they don't pay they don't! is a bit blanket - none of the other counsellors on the thread have worded it quite like that. I think if I were a non-paying client of yours I might be upset to hear that.

I find it laughable that people would say 'oh, if its necessary they'll find a way' or 'sacrifice luxuries to pay for it'.

Some people do need years of help, my ds has been one of them. It has cost tens of thousands of pounds to get him to a point where he can interact with people/the world around him. The NHS would never have covered his complex therapy, we could afford it but there majority of people? Not a chance!

(I should clarify, it was exactly the same tablets in both boxes.)

I went through a charity service locally recommended by my ds's paediatrician. Their fees were on a sliding scale, and I only had to pay £5 for each session - once a week, allotted one year of counselling. The counsellor was absolutely brilliant.

Well fatcunt you do have a point and I am quite blunt so sorry if that offended in anyway it certainly wasn't meant to olivebranch
If a client doesn't turn up we explore why, many differing reason in all fairness, and I'm sure if you were a client and heard me say that (which you wouldn't and on a screen it looks harse when in reality it isn't) they would take it as it is discussed in the first session, it is all talked about within the boundry setting session, about how important that as a free service it is to turn up and not taken advantage of as there are many, many people waiting to acess the service... this might sound quite hard but it is the way we have work.

I don't doubt you would discuss it with the client in an appropriate way.

The cost of therapy reflects a lot of things:

• Thousands of pounds of training
• Professional membership fees, CPD costs, insurance
• Room hire (and even if you work from home there's the heating costs, plus presumably you're paying extra rent/mortgage to have the 'spare' space)
• Supervision fees (and travel to supervision)
• Unpaid subsequent note-making time, liaison with GPs/other agencies where appropriate, communication with parents, safeguarding, paperwork, invoicing, etc etc etc

So for every hour of therapy given there's roughly one hour of associated 'other' work, making it more like £20 per hour, before tax. And counsellors are recommended not to see more than 20 clients a week.

Yes there should be more available on the NHS. Lobby your MP. Vote for a political party who gives a damn about mental health. Don't blame the therapist for charging too much

I had three years of weekly private counselling at £40 an hour. I was able to afford it as DH and I both earn a good wage. If I'd had to wait for the NHS it would've been a quick 8 week course and that's your lot, which perhaps wouldn't have been so good at sorting my head out.

My Mum is a counsellor and has spent years and years training, and still attends regular supervision, training, seminars and all sorts. It's only since she began her training that I was able to understand why private counselling costs so much, and why the NHS has such an enormous backlog in certain areas.

What was your counselling for Charlotte? If you don't mind me asking?

I've had counselling and more specialised therapy (including psychotherapy) for short/longer term periods on the NHS, so it is available to some, although with a postcode lottery. I've been in the MH system for 20 years and I must have had at least 10 or so discrete periods of therapy over the years, including one which lasted 2 years and took place 3 times a week - so not just a quick 8 week course for everyone. I've never paid for any therapy (but I do value it - I don't agree that if it's too cheap that the patient won't place any value on it).

I was lucky as I live near a major NHS psychotherapy training clinic but there's more than one in the country, and it's worth investigating further what you could get referred to, it may be that there is one near to you. It is of course limited and most likely to go to those who have the most persistent and serious MH issues, and for the longer term therapy I had to go on a waiting list for over a year (but that's a tiny fraction of the time that I've had MH issues overall, so doesn't seem so urgent to me).

I got eight sessions with a counsellor who usually charged around £40 a session, paid for by the other side in a car crash - I had severe phobia.

"Don't blame the therapist for charging too much "

Such empathy for those who are desperate for help but cannot afford it!

I did it because I was desperate. And it was well worth it. I had a about 2 years.

That's often the way I think, and it's wrong.

Therapists are in business and we charge what we need to charge. As I said I do a very time consuming volunteering role which enables vulnerable people to access free bereavement counselling.
I don't think minniebar meant to be unempathic. She was making the point that National Health provision just doesn't meet people's needs.

I am currently seeing a therapist, she charges £45 for 50 mins, my mum and dad are helping me with the money as there is no way i could afford it otherwise. I am finding it so helpful that it is definitely worth the money.

My mum runs a counselling centre which offers reduced counselling for people on low incomes, they let people pay what they can afford. Its a charity and struggles to stay afloat at times.

Sorry to hear that so many of you have had crap experiences of therapy in and outside of the NHS. I think as a starting point when thinking about what therapy to opt for you should look at the relevant NICE guidelines, counselling may be used as a generic term for talking therapy but it is not recommended for more complex presentations, for example if you have severe depression you should be offered 16 -20 sessions of a high intensity therapy such as CBT, if your problems fall into the category of personality disorder then the guidelines suggest a more intensive therapy still. When you're struggling emotionally the last thing you should have to do is fight for the right care but it helps to be well informed and be able to ask questions of your GP or service provider if you feel fobbed off. Hope you are feeling better soon OP.

Ilovesooty - just to clarify it was not me who was the counsellor! I knew she shouldn't have referred to it again either.... she kept on trying to make it about one person even though I told her it wasn't about that person!

Super I realised you were the client. I was just agreeing that I thought her behaviour was appalling.

YANBU. I've been having counselling since September at £30pw, it's usually £40min but I am with somebody who needs to get experience. I'm stopping it in a few weeks and am so looking forward to having the money back, we can afford it, but only just and it's wiped out any potential svaings which isn't great.

I couldn't even get it on NHS and even then that would have been six sessions which wouldn't have even touched the sides.

Proper qualified psychologists are more like £100 - £120 an hour and some people are covered by BUPA. Cheap at the price if it solves your issues. Lots of people pay at those rates. I suppose they tend to be people with reasonably well paid careers or else the private health insurance. You may be better with fewer sessions but with someone charging at those rates.

I've seen an awful lot of counsellors in the past....

Free ones via college, who were OK...

A free one (Relate) via a work healthcare scheme, who was laughable

One who was training on the counselling course at the local college, who was nice enough but didn't hit the spot- £5.00 per session

Two trainee counsellors who were both brilliant (found them through word of mouth), both of whom charged £10.00 per session

A qualified counsellor who I found through the BACP website, who agreed, grudgingly, to accept £35 per hour as a concession (this was some years ago, in an area of very low wages) whom I found neither nice, helpful nor professional .

Based on my experience, I'd say that the therapeutic experience has very little to do with how much you pay, it just depends on whether you meet a counsellor that you click with.

(by the way, my head is sorted out now. Finally ).