You’ve been doing this work for a while. You see clients, manage cancellations, and keep up with paperwork. All while paying rent, insurance, and professional development.
Maybe you’ve noticed something shifting. Is your energy level lower than it used to be? Are you seeing more clients just to keep income steady? Or perhaps things are going well, and you wonder if it is time to raise your therapy session fees.
Let’s explore how to know whether it makes sense to raise your therapy session fees, and how you can do that in a way that aligns what you charge with what you give.
What To Notice First
Before you stumbled on this blog, there were signs that made you wonder if your therapy session fee still supports you in the way you want.
- When you finish a day, do you feel satisfied? Or do you feel exhausted from packing too much in?
- Has your overhead increased? Think rent, software, continuing education, insurance, supervision.
- When you look at peers or colleagues with similar training and practice style, you notice that your fees are lower. Is that okay or does something feel out of alignment?
- Do you ever think I wish I could see fewer clients with more breathing room, but can’t because of income?
Are You Absorbing More Costs Over The Years?
It’s important to remember that in order to keep providing therapy hours, your practice needs to be profitable. You can’t do that if you’re absorbing a long list of costs that quietly rise year after year.
Inflation alone means that even if your expenses stayed the same on paper, your money buys less than it did two or three years ago. Office rent and utilities often increase annually. Software subscriptions, from your EHR to your telehealth platform to your scheduling system, inch up with “small” price changes. Professional liability insurance, license renewal fees and required continuing education aren’t optional and also rise over time. If you have admin help, a virtual assistant or a biller, their rates increase too, as wages in the economy rise.
Many therapists find that without regular fee adjustments, their real income gradually shrinks, even if their caseload stays full. That shrinking can be invisible because you’re still busy and revenue still looks similar, but take-home pay after expenses can tell a different story.
Naming these costs is not selfish; it’s simply being a responsible steward of your practice, so you can make a grounded decision about fees.
How Do You Arrive At A Fee That’s Fair?
There are a few ways to decide what a fair fee would look like in your life and practice.
You can plan backwards from your goals. What is your income goal after all expenses, taxes, preparation, travel, vacation, self‐care are accounted for? Picture how many sessions you want to hold, how many hours off for rest, admin, and supervision. Then calculate the session fee that would get you there.
It’s also important to consider what you offer. Maybe you’ve done additional training or certification. Maybe your specialty has become more refined, or your niche has deepened. Those things have value. If clients are getting more from you in some ways, then it makes sense that your fees reflect that.
Lastly, it helps to know the market. Talk with colleagues, look at local directories, and see what people with similar training charge. If everyone around you with your skills is charging much more, or charging very differently by modality or length, that can help you see if you are undercharging out of habit.
Curious about how to increase therapy practice profitability? We break it down for you right here.
What Raising Fees Might Look Like In Practice
You don’t have to raise everything overnight. There are ways to do this gently.
First, you might raise your fee (or fees) for new clients immediately, while leaving existing clients at the old rate for a while. That gives them notice and gives you time to adjust. You could also phase in the increase, perhaps in 60 or 90 days for everyone, so people have time to plan.
You might decide to keep some sliding scale or reduced‐fee spots. Maybe you limit them to a few clients or set criteria so offering a sliding scale does not turn into a burden for you. Having a consistent system feels safer than doing favors as they come up because those favors add up.
You can also include the fee change policy in your informed consent or client agreement. Something like “session fees may be reviewed annually with notice,” so clients know ahead of time that changes may come.
Need Help Setting Your Fees?
It’s understandable that some therapists fear they will lose too many clients. But usually, fewer clients than we imagine actually leave, and many understand when you explain with care and honesty.
If you’re unsure of how much costs have been eating into your practice’s margin, or if you need more clarity in your practice’s finances, that’s exactly what we do at Traktion.
We work with therapy practice owners to build a more profitable practice that supports their lives.
Schedule an introductory call with our team, and we’ll get right back to you!