are you on sliding-scale for therapy?

My Pdoc has lowered her fees for me and with my insurance, I am only out of pocket about $10-15. My T has never offered to lower her fees for me. She works in a private practice and is not the practice manager so I know it is not up to her. I am way too embarrassed to ask her about it either so yeah... I am not working at the moment and my parents are pay for T.

The conclusion so far is that no one ever turns down a discount but a lot of people say they would!

I started seeing my T when she was practising in a community centre, and the fees were minimal. After a couple of years she moved into private practise and her fees jumped by about 500%, but she continued to charge me the community centre rate. In my country insurance is not available.

yeah, i've been thinking about that too! the funny thing is that at this point if i were to answer the poll, i'd be the only one in the "my therapist offered, and i said no."

i'm still mulling it all over. i did think of some things in the plus column:

- it's more money in her pocket, as if i cut back to twice a month it would be $300. with sliding scale however, i could go for four sessions which would give her $500 (although it would be twice the "work" for her)
- there are probably other clients that she's offered this too, and it's likely they're taking her up on it. why shouldn't i?
- maybe she would go out of her way to ensure that nothing would change between us, since she knows i'm worried about that
- maybe she'd resent me more for not accepting it, as she's going out of her way to make therapy affordable to me. also, if i was struggling with something, maybe she'd be less "sympathetic" to my needs since the help was there but i wasn't willing to take it.
- she's been practicing for almost 30 years (she's 70). it's possible she'll retire at some point in the next few years. i'd be upset that i missed out on having as much therapy with her as i could have.

if i decide to do it, i've come up with an alternative plan which is to have the discounted amount equal $100/month. this seems like an ok number to me, and would be easy enough to keep track of. so in theory, i'd owe her $1200 at the end of the year and i would pay that back eventually. so maybe this would be another "plus" as perhaps it would be nice for her to continue to get paid when she's retired.

i see her again tomorrow and want to have a decision made, as don't want to spend too much more time going over all this again. i have a bunch of other, more pressing things that i've been wanting/needing to talk about.

thanks to everyone that answered the poll, and for all the feedback!

I wonder: does anybody ever turn down a discount anywhere else? At the grocery store? In an appliance store? At the doctors or vets? On a rental vehicle or flight ticket? It would seem foolish to turn down an offer of a reduced fee anywhere else, wouldn't it?
What do you think it is that makes us feel so different about therapy, what is it that makes people feel like they wouldn't want to accept a discount if it is offered?? (Even though it seems that most people do take the offer eventually).

I wish, but no. I think the agency offers it but I guess not for people with insurance. It sucks because we have a high deductible so we end up paying $96 a session.

Ouch! Some insurance you got. Not.

Wikid said she turned it down.

Well, I turned it down for a while, because it didn't feel okay. So I might have answered saying I'd turn it down, if it hadn't actually been offered before. Luckily my T helped me work through it and I see it in a more healthy way now.

I think I answered the question weird.

Current T has NOT offered, but if she did I would not accept.
XT DID offer and I did not accept.