As someone who has worked with several therapists related to childhood trauma, I don't believe this is the norm at all, it is not in any ethics code I am aware of, and although I think it's great that some therapists have sliding scales and do work for free (and I relate to that sense of a calling rather than a career, which I'm sure is true for some of them), I'm not sure that this might make sense at all.

I think that giving someone free or reduced therapy might backfire into reducing the client's sense of self value and may make them feel worse about the care that they receive. I'm not sure what it would be expected that long term therapy should result in a negative financial change.

For me, since I wanted long term therapy and still do, I have to make sure that I can afford it. In the early days, keeping my job so I could continue to have good insurance with a small co-pay for sessions. If I was decompensating during therapy and my financial empire was tanking for the long term, I'd wonder if therapy was helping me. Or maybe dealing with trauma was too intense or too fast for right now (at times it has seemed that way to me). I would not stay in therapy where the consequences for my real life-- financial, social, employment, whatever were too great.

I don't think it's responsible-- and you may not be suggesting this-- for a therapist to treat a trauma survivor who walks in the door functional, including being able to pay for therapy, and who is so affected by the therapy that s/he can no longer pay for it. Then the therapist gives it for free, which seems to reinforce the message that s/he is so messed up that s/he needs therapy for free. A better route might be for the therapist to help the client keep or achieve his or her financial goals so the person can live like they want to, including therapy as part of their lifestyle. It feels to me like free or reduced cost therapy could have the opposite effect.

In addition, there are resources in many communities, especially for survivors of trauma. There are free community mental health agencies, there is free counseling for survivors (including free support groups) at Rape Crisis Services and Domestic Violence Shelters (the later almost always do counseling for non-residents of the shelter, and the definition of domestic violence includes all familial relationships and doesn't have to be intimate partner violence. Sometimes these free counselors are able to hook clients up with a higher level of care, if needed, as they have access to other therapists in the community, some (at least in my town) who volunteer to provide free services to survivors who need more than what the organizations can provide.

I wish there were more free and low cost services for mental health. I do understand that not everybody can access them, but I also think that a particular T is not required for progress. I'm sure this is a minority opinion on this board, but for me if a therapist thinks they are the only one who can help me and so they give me therapy for free, I'm going to want to run away from them. This facilitates the sense that it is a therapist, rather than therapy itself, that can help people. And while I believe in a good fit between the therapist and client, it would feel like my therapist was more like a guru if he was required in order for me to make progress.