["Tilly may"]

I am seeing my T "Laurie" once per month.

before my benefits at work covered it but it ran out, so I have to pay until my husbands benefits kick in. i thought it was 60 dollars per hour as the brochure in the waiting room said that. However I went to her this week and she charged me 80 dollars.
Anyway, I paid for it by modelling nude at the art gallery for life drawing classes. I get paid 25 dollars an hour to model. so i had to model 3 hours plus to pay for one session.

i have a full time job but do not have extra money in my budget to pay for Laurie, because i bought a house that i cant afford and thats another story.

So last night at the gallery while holding still for 20 minutes at a time, I kept thinking if she is worth it.

how do you afford it? where do you scrimp to make up for it?

[retro_chic]

I pay for mine through savings and the income I get through freelance design jobs. The jobs I get are small and infrequent though. My health insurance also covers some of it. My therapist charges $185 (AUD) so I am quite envious of your $80 fee! Good luck with everything

At the moment the govt here will pay for 10 sessions. I pay then get a refund which I use to live on. I am only a student and get $210/fortnight so I don't know what I'm going to do when my 10 sessions are up.

[Yoda]

I have Medicare but it does not cover T sessions because she has a Master's degree and medicare only covers those who supervised by MD/DO. So I pay $50 cash each session

[Nightlight]

I'm a student too and I get $160 to live on a week. Some weeks (as long as I can afford a doctors appointment) I can manage to get a disability allowance for a limited time, generally 10 weeks or so and that contributes $60 per week towards counselling costs, medical fees, prescriptions etc. I can apply for six free sessions a year, but I didn't know I was able to reapply for it yearly, as that was never made clear previously (I was just told that six sessions was my maximum under that particular scheme).

This year I've been told yes you get the student allowance, then no actually it's cancelled again, (you need to send in more forms, but we don't actually tell you that). So right now everything is from my savings...and as a student struggling to get by, I can't continue like this for long. Life got so out of kilter I was barely managing a few hours of work a week last year. I'm not sure how I'll manage this year.

Sometimes it's so hard to access necessary help.

[Asiablue]

i pay out my own pocket. It's very hard finding the money.

[feralkittymom]

I was very lucky to begin therapy when I was a grad student at a large University 25 years ago, so the services at the University were very cheap, and the number of sessions was unlimited. I think I paid @ $15 an hour at first, then @$20.

When I wasn't eligible for the University services anymore, I saw my T in his private practice, and he kept my fee at $15 for a long time because I hadn't found a job. When I got a job, we went up to $30, which was @ half his normal fee. Finally, I got more stability and could pay his full fee. I rarely had any insurance that covered counseling.

[tinyrabbit]

I pay out of my wages. My mum gives me some money towards it, but that's a whole load of awkward.

My T is charging me his bottom price, and has never asked to see proof of income. It's not cheap, but it is worth it.

[Perna]

I got a full-time job to pay for mine; we had been living on my husband's salary mostly, I only worked part-time or took consulting jobs.

My new full-time salary went to joint health insurance (husband was a consultant so individual health insurance was more expensive for him so I put him on my work insurance), therapy out-of-pocket payments, and max percentage allowable into a retirement account. There was a tiny bit left over and that just added to paying our living expenses.

[retro_chic]

Wow, everyone's therapists are so much cheaper than mine! I live in Australia and most of the therapists seem to charge around the same as mine ($185). I get a rebate from my health insurance of $110 (approx.) But still... My Pdoc on the other hand reduced her fees and only charges me around $80 per session and I only end up being out of pocket $10 which is great!

[ECHOES]

My $400 per month therapy expense is just part of my budget. I can barely afford it, but it comes before many things. I consider it as important as basic living expenses like rent and utilities.

[Nightlight]

Health insurance here tends not to cover any psychological services. Therapists here tend to charge $115 or more. More for psychologists (which mine is not). I think $150 or more per hour is around about what a psychologist charges here too.

[Perna]

Originally Posted by retro_chic

Wow, everyone's therapists are so much cheaper than mine! I live in Australia and most of the therapists seem to charge around the same as mine ($185). I get a rebate from my health insurance of $110 (approx.) But still... My Pdoc on the other hand reduced her fees and only charges me around $80 per session and I only end up being out of pocket $10 which is great!

Yes, you all do seem expensive to costs in the US and your dollar isn't that much less than the US ($0.98 AUD to $1.00 USD): http://www.psychology.org.au/Assets/...ended_Fees.pdf

[Anne2.0]

We are fortunate to be on good insurance that covers therapy with a $20 copay per session. I work for myself and earn enough money to be able to afford it.

[struggling2]

my sessions are $125 for individual and $50 for group...I do both once a week and have a $20 co-pay for both. Sessions are unlimited. However, for about 6mos T wasn't covered as an in-network provider and I was paying out of pocket $110 a session. That sucked but she's worth it.

I spend approximately $200 a month on therapy, If I go 2 x's a week. I have a full time job with good medical coverage and my kids are grown and out of the house.

[Switch]

My old T charged 150$/session, had to be out of pocket. No T is covered by any insurance I know, and if so very limited. He reduced the price for me at one point to 100$, and when it was clear I was struggling with that it was 150$/2weeks. Which was awesome. But that was him losing money on me...

I spend the same $200 a month now for my phone sessions that I did when t was in town and insurance helped. The insurance thing wouldn't work with her out of state. So she's only charging me my what my copay was, bless her heart, because she works out of her home now and doesn't have office expenses. H and I both work full time so it's part of our budget.

[anneo59]

Originally Posted by "Tilly may"

I am seeing my T "Laurie" once per month.

before my benefits at work covered it but it ran out, so I have to pay until my husbands benefits kick in. i thought it was 60 dollars per hour as the brochure in the waiting room said that. However I went to her this week and she charged me 80 dollars.
Anyway, I paid for it by modelling nude at the art gallery for life drawing classes. I get paid 25 dollars an hour to model. so i had to model 3 hours plus to pay for one session.

i have a full time job but do not have extra money in my budget to pay for Laurie, because i bought a house that i cant afford and thats another story.

So last night at the gallery while holding still for 20 minutes at a time, I kept thinking if she is worth it.

how do you afford it? where do you scrimp to make up for it?

I cut back on unnecessary trips in car, or combine errands, work related, to save on gasoline. I have a garden and freeze veggies. Sometimes husband gets game meat and we are careful to prepare it appropriately. Not a meat fan myself, though. Rarely eat out. My psychiatrist sees me once quarterly, unless I am having problems. Have to get a new counselor, therapist though-mine is moving, dread starting over here.

[BlessedRhiannon]

I budget $400 a month for medical expenses. It's just part of my monthly budget and while it's a lot of money, it's worth it for me. Neither my T nor my pdoc take insurance. I meet with pdoc every 2 months, and he's $175 per appointment. T is every two weeks at $150. If I meet more often with T, then I have to do without something else. I work full time and make a decent salary, so usually, it just means I can't go out to eat a few times, or can't buy something extra. If I need to exceed my "medical" budget in one month, I'll usually borrow those funds from my entertainment or clothing or eating out budget, all of which are flexible and optional expenses.

[content30]

I have a full-time job and good health insurance, which actually includes therapy. However, my T is out of network (always has been). Because of this, I pay on a sliding scale ($85) out of my own pocket. I do have a flexible spending account, though. So, I have money deducted out of each paycheck. That money is then tax free. I pay for anything medical, including T, out of that flexible spending account. Right now, I only see T every other week, as I am doing well. So, it's not too expensive. She is worth every penny and then some to me!

[critterlady]

My T charges $150 USD/session and insurance pays $125 of that. I see him 2x/week, so I pay about $200 USD out of pocket per month. It's just part of my budget. I tend to go out to eat less often, but that's probably just as well.

[scorpiosis37]

My health insurance (through my job) pays for everything except a $10 copay. The copay is easily affordable with my salary. Reading everyone else's posts makes me realize how fortunate I am with my health insurance plan.

[sunrise]

I pay $125-$180 per session, depending on the length, and all is out-of-pocket. I have sessions every 2-4 weeks and can vary the interval to help save money. Right now I am in the middle of a 4 wk interval and am appreciating having the extra money in my pocketbook. Usually, I deduct from savings to pay, as my salary doesn't cover all my living expenses and daughter's college tuition. I try to find ways to cut back on expenses, such as stopping newspaper delivery, letting magazine subscriptions lapse, stopping Netflix, downgrading my CostCo membership, not going to the doctor, etc. I also stopped taking one of my more expensive medications, and this helped with the cash flow too. Every little bit helps! I haven't done this for therapy, but in the past, when I needed extra cash, I would do focus groups at a market research firm. Another thing I used to do was buy popular concert tickets and then resell them on eBay at a profit.

[QuietCat]

I have insurance but it has a HIGH deductible to pay off at the start of each year before the insurance company starts paying for the sessions. This year I've deposited my tax refund into my health savings account to pay off the deductible.

I work for the DoD and about to lose about 20% of my pay because of the sequester but I refuse to stop seeing T. I'd give up my cable TV and a few other thing first.