[crystalrose]

My fees are getting to be too expensive. Making my finances and savings go down. To get quality care where i live you really need to pay and see a private T rather than see a free T, do you think its appropriate or inappropriate boundaries to ask a therapist or pdoc to adjust fees? I also owe my therapist/pdoc money? Since I quit my job I have less money and don't know how to approach this. Advice would be great.

[Melbadaze]

you can ask....i've begun working the odd extra hour overtime at work to balance the cost of fees and living...

[sw628]

My T works on a sliding scale ( adjust payment due to income and need etc).. Maybe you can ask T is she does that. It was very helpful for me because I'm not in a place right now to afford the high fee my T charges per week.

[ECHOES]

It's something important to talk about in therapy, even if a reduced fee isn't possible.

[deliquesce]

if you owe them money then maybe you could bring it up by saying you are finding it difficult to afford therapy right now, and that you want to pay them back in a responsible manner, and maybe you could have a session/part session discussing the options available to you (how you will afford ongoing therapy & how to pay them back).

i have never asked for a reduced fee but pretty much every health professional i have seen has offered one when they find out i have a limited income.

[splitimage]

When I had to go down to part time hours for 10 weeks this past summer, in order to go to rehab, I asked my T for a reduced fee. She was happy to accomodate me, and I got to keep seeing her. Then when I went back to full time, I went back to paying her full rate.

---splitimage

[Hearty]

I think it's definitely appropriate to talk about your financial difficulties regarding therapy fees. The way I see it - how can you talk about anything in your life if you can't talk about finances and the stresses that come with it?

I have a hard time discussing money, but I asked my previous therapist for a fee reduction out of necessity, and he accommodated me even though he didn't work on a sliding scale at the time. It wasn't much of a reduction, but it was less anyway.

What my current wonderful therapist said to me while we're discussing his fee is that he did not want me to pay more than what I could realistically afford, because it would further create problems and stresses in my life. And he wanted therapy to help my life...not make it more difficult. He might be the most empathetic and understanding therapist around, but he made a lot of sense to me. And his understanding words made me trust him more while feeling cared for.

I would talk to your therapist about your current financial situation, and maybe together you'll come up with a solution that will work for both of you. I think most therapists will be understanding with the economy being the way it is. Good luck and take care.

[ECHOES]

My therapist has offered to let me pay a couple of session later, by paying extra on each following session. We have talked about money several times, not just my financial difficulties but money in general and specifically what it means to me, etc.

[crystalrose]

I discussed it with T when I first saw her she said she could adjust my fee. Her other patients that go in before me always come out and the receptionist says their fee and its 20 dollars more than my fee. I owe about 70 dollars. Pdoc was sick today so I couldn't ask her. I'l ask her next appt.
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