Yes. Insurances always under pay doctors, hospitals, and even Ts and Pdocs. My Ts rate, I think, is $120/hr. She won't tell me what my insurance pays her, but my guess is in the $50 range. She doesn't charge for emails, texts, or phone calls. She is smart and charges my insurance phone calls to my Pdoc.

Her husband is a teacher, he makes a low amount of money. T teaches 3 classes at a college on top of her private practice, but she only works 4 days a week. Plus living in our area, raising a baby, and paying off both hers (ph.d) and her husband's (ma) student loans (from an expensive university)...yeah, they aren't "rich".

And I do think they are under appreciated. There are so many "bad" Ts out there. The ones who are actually "good" get a bad rep from the bad ones. I actually takes a lot of skill to truly ve empathetic, to learn how to listen and not just hear, to maintain their emotions and boundaries, all while processing the clients issues and helping them process things in a healthy productive manner. Plus, for some reason, people tend to think of Ts as "perfect". They expect them to have great relationships, no mental health issues of their own, and to never make mistakes. Reality: they are human like all the rest of us. It must be hard to have the majority of theur clients put them on a pedestal.

But that's just another reason why I appreciate my T. She is real with me. I, of course, can easily see her strengths. But she also lets me know her weakness...to keep my perception of her real and not ideal. She considers us equals and that both of us are actually teaching each other. She actually practices what she preaches. She says if she expects her clients to do something, then she needs to do it too: going for walks, meditation, deep breathing, etc.