Why Is Therapy So Expensive?

Have you been looking into starting counseling? Good for you! But you may now be thinking, “Why is therapy so expensive?” Great question! The following article outlines all the reasons why therapist is so expensive and why it’s still worth it.

One major reason therapy costs so much is that insurance doesn’t really pay a living wage for therapy appointments. Therapists accepting insurance and Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) often end up having to double the number of clients they see just to make ends meet. This increased workload leads to a high risk of burnout and a sense of disconnection.

EAPs are even worse than regular insurance. Therapists dealing with EAPs face even lower compensation, pushing them further towards burnout. When therapists are stretched too thin, they can’t provide the quality care their clients need.

Another big factor is the continuing education requirements for therapists. I don’t know if you know this, but therapists are required to do upwards of 40 hours of continuing education every time they renew their license. Many of us choose to take crucial, but expensive, trainings. For instance, EMDR training averages about $1500 a pop. And that’s just the training itself! There’s also the cost of consultation, certification, and advanced training.

I estimate that I’ve spent almost half a million dollars on training and education so far in my career. It could easily be more. This ongoing investment is essential for maintaining the quality of care we provide.

To provide great care, therapists must take care of themselves first. It’s like that saying: you can’t pour from an empty jar. If a therapist is burned out and checked out, the quality of therapy suffers. Maybe you’ve met a therapist like that before—someone who seems more like a chit-chat buddy than a professional.

At Hope for the Journey, we aim to provide high-quality therapy, which means prioritizing self-care. That’s one reason we opt for self-pay. This allows us to stay financially secure and avoid the burnout that comes with dealing with insurance and EAPs.

While we start with self-pay, we still have a big heart for accessibility. We have implemented a Master’s level intern program, allowing us to provide low-cost services by therapists-in-training who receive a lot of support from us. These therapists offer good trauma-informed care at a lower price point.

Our next step, still a couple of years away but already in the works, is to add a non-profit arm to our practice. This will enable us to expand our sliding scale options and provide a wide variety of care to people of all income levels. By building a financially secure base first, we can sustainably add more accessible services in the future.

So, rather than playing the insurance game and killing ourselves trying to keep up, we’re opting to prioritize self-care. This ensures we can continue our education, take good care of ourselves, and pour back into our clients effectively. We believe in the value of good therapy—especially trauma work—which should be life-changing. If therapy is truly effective, the investment is well worth it.

We’re always open to discussing our policies and future goals for adding more accessibility to our services. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask. Thanks for taking the time to understand why therapy can be so expensive and how we’re working to make it more accessible.

Let’s go out and do some good in the world today!