I'm under appreciated and underpaid, therapist says

I don't know where she got her numbers from, payscale says the average salary for psychotherapists is 53,988, ranging from 35 k at the bottom all the way to 165 K

How weird would it be if I made more than my T? Never occurred to me!!

I wouldn't want this person to be my T. I agree with JustShakey - the first thing that jumped out at me is that she isn't practicing good self-care, and she sounds like she's in victim mode (i.e. "Poor me, my clients expect me to call them between sessions and I don't get paid for that! And omg there is NOTHING I can do about that!"

I think it's a little nuts. She can set boundaries about how much contact she'll have out of session. She can charge extra for emails/calls. Heck, she can set up a website and do distance therapy, and charge extra for more calls/emails, like some Ts here do. There's nothing wrong with any of those ideas, and it sounds like she doesn't have the ability to take control of her own business, which is why I think she'd be an awful T (for me at least). I don't want someone who feels powerless trying to help me get my life together!

Oh, and she can choose to raise her rates, and to not take insurance if they pay too low. Ts do it all the time. MOST Ts I've talked to won't take insurance (my current T does not), they will give you receipts and help you file for out-of-network benefits, but they don't do any of the tedious paperwork, waiting around for insurance to pay up, or dealing with ins. companies that want to pay 1/2 of their rate and call it good.

(I didn't have a chance to read everyone's reply yet, just the first page - forgive me if I'm duplicating what's been said... it's late, late work night, and I wanted to reply b/c I saw this at lunch and thought it sounded crazy!)

Thanks!

My H is a fairly new T working for a public agency making crap money. He works his butt off and every single night he is working on his laptop until midnight because the government agency that pays for his program requires a ton of paperwork and strict deadlines for completing it. Hopefully one day he will go into private practice but until then I am the breadwinner. He loves his clients for the most part, hates the beauracracy and does wish he was better compensated.

My T is in private practice and is also a professor, so I'm assuming he does pretty well. It's still work though and not easy and deserves every dollar he gets.

I was a public defender and under appreciated and underpaid. I think most people would like more appreciation and money no matter what. I understood I made choices and tradeoffs for choosing the career(s) I have chosen. I think therapists and others do the same. I hope this blogger learns to accept some responsibility for her own career choices.

So outside of the school setting from what I know they make less. $35,000 is pretty low and sounds accurate for a new T. After some years of experience I hope that would increase (but it's not a way to get rich).

I think being a T is one of those careers where you can make a good living, but from multiple jobs. So a T may work in a clinic or residential program and also have private clients, consult, teach...Actually in Massachusetts, school counselors make good money, but many are frustrated by the school environment.

Give me land, lots of land and the starry skies above...

Cowgirls also get the blues, so it might be a good bet.

Let's talk about the other half of the equation. Why does she feel unappreciated? Many patients worship their therapists. Isn't that worth something?

((Don't get me wrong --- flyover country is beautiful ))

Yeah, this woman is just like my mom. Always wants to help and to be seen as helpful and then complains about how people are such a nuisance and don't appreciate her and don't give her her due.
She recently invited some friends from abroad to come stay with her and then complained when they didn't pay her. She was upset when she wasn't invited to one of her neighbor's kids' wedding 'after all she had done for them'. She complains that her friends are a nuisance. She was very active in the local parish but gave it up because she had 'had enough of those small-minded people'. She used to do bereavement counseling through a church group and I'm not sure what happened there, only that it appears she's not friends with anybody from that group anymore. If you don't want to talk to her you're being anti-social or you have an inferiority complex. If you don't think that she's a wonderful person you are not worth her time (but you better appreciate all that she did for you anyway).
Yeah. Freakin' martyr complex much?

Oh, she's not interested in the other half of the equation. It has to be Someone Else's Problem. Otherwise life would be unbearable. I sincerely hope she doesn't have children.

Well, I have a lot of problems with this particular blogger and many of her attitudes, but her wage "stats"generally jive with info from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The 90th percentile mean wage for her state was @ $68K. The higher the credential, exempting private practice, the higher the pay. The mean for PhD level positions is @ $80K; for "mental health counselor" @$40K. Her state also has a tremendous oversupply, @ 2.5 times more professionals than available positions. Income is market-driven in any field, so I'm not sure what "relative worth" or value means.

Maybe she should take her own advice and take the actions necessary to improve her income or stop whining.

My T(psychologist) directed a Big Ten school counseling center, had a small private practice, and also did court assessments. He did well enough that he could offer generous sliding scale fees to his private clients and not accept insurance. He has an above average, very comfortable retirement.

I think this particular blog post was directed at her sucky in-laws, but she raises some valid points about how value in the free market system is not always captured by the practitioners.

An easy example? I was on the verge of quitting my job and being hospitalized when I started therapy. With help, I kept my emotional storm under control enough to stay functioning and I got a raise at work. My therapist will never fully be compensated extra for the money she helped me to earn. But, I don't think she would complain or that she even sees the world the way that I do.

I don't think professional compensation works like this. If I draft a K for a client - the client pays me for that work -not the amount they earn under the K.

Sometimes it might be a therapist's duty to help you see that your high paying job is too stressful and you would be happier trading that income for some peace of mind.

If a therapist helps you to make a lifestyle choice, should that be deducted from her salary?

I agree. Life is about choices - and accepting the consequences of those choices.

I have compassion for those who find they have chosen the wrong careers, but in a free country it's never too late to change.

Yeah I'm sure they are. People often project their parents failures onto their therapists, the expectations are sky high (I.e. How many of us expect emails/ texts bw sessions, get mad when we don't get a reply soon enough, question their "true" feelings constantly.)

I work in finance, and I'm sure they don't make much money. Hourly it might seem like it, but they don't see a client 40 hours a week unless they want to work a total of 60 what with reading, maintaining files, filing insurance etc. not only that they must pay for their office space, license fees, continuing education etc etc. A therapist is lucky to make a modest living, and not all of them can keep enough clients to even do that. Unless your therapist has published several best seller self help books, and has a website bringing in advertising money, they are middle class at best.

Petra5ed, I agree that therapists work hard and often have to work with transference reactions from their clients. I sincerely hope that they've had a good enough education to recognize that there is such a thing as transference reactions and that it isn't directed at them for any other reason than that's what happens in psychotherapy. If the reaction makes them uncomfortable or angry or depressed, then he/she is in the wrong profession.

I appreciate my therapist very much and I believe she works long hours. But that doesn't make me feel sorry for her or feel that I need to hold back on an email or phone call if that's a boundary my therapist hasn't set. Just so you know, I don't personally feel the need to call or write, but if I did and my therapist hadn't discussed that as something she doesn't accept, then that's her problem. It's on her to bring it up at the next session and set her boundary. I also don't feel bad that the therapist has to complete paper work galore or pay licensing fees and continuing education classes. Most professional positions require that nowadays. Rent on an office is something the therapist chooses to do--she wants to be her own boss. I guess what I'm saying is that even if the therapist is "middle class at best", that's the category I put myself in and I don't feel a need to whine about it. If I did, I'd find a new profession. And I also believe that if asked, my therapist would express the same sentiment. She gets what her job is and it's pretty obvious that she loves what she does . . . although I'm sure she has bad days just like the rest of us.

One of the problems I have with this blogger is that she is in no different position than almost any other person who works in terms of the downsides and she has a lot of upsides. Everyone has parts of a job they don't like, don't get paid to do exactly, don't get appreciated for, deal with people who have unrealistic expectations, etc. Whining in a blog and blaming clients because there are parts of being a therapist she does not like does not make her or the plight of her ilk particularly sympathetic to me.
She works for herself (which she does not have to do), she gets to set her own schedule, wear what she deems appropriate, accept a client or decline at her own will, take time off when she wants (and yes I know she does not get paid - but that is not unique to therapists - many sole practitioners of different professions are in the same situation) and so on. These are all things any number of people are not lucky enough to have.

Some of my best friends are middle class.

Lol. I'm middle class. Everyone seems to hate my guts on this site.

Here I know how to fit in. Wow, that therapist is such a complainer. What right does she have, everyone knows therapists aren't allowed to have issues or ever discuss them. I bet she's raking it in, yachting on the weekends and vacationing in Paris every year. And her jobs so easy.

I don't think anyone said she was incorrect about the salary range for beginners. Plus her whining was that society does not love her enough - not individual clients (who she seems to believe do adore her).

Everyone has a professional face and a private face. I accept that. But Ts are in a peculiar position of trust. I expect more from them and I feel entitled to do so. They are, in sense, a modern priesthood. If the professional face is just a mask for a mercenary and narcissistic reality, I feel cheated.

Petra5ed, I thought for a moment that it might be best for me not to post about this again due to the possibility of hurting your feelings even more, but I decided it was better that I come on and apologize if you felt my response to you was expressing hatred or disrespect. That truly wasn't my intention. I want you to know that I truly respect your right to post and express your opinion. You stated it clearly and with obvious appreciation for all the hard work that therapists do. I hope you understand that I hold no "hate" toward you, and I just wanted to express my opinion about the issue. I hope there are no hard feelings. Take care.

Unless there is a 2nd income in the household, I just realized that she probably cannot afford her own psychotherapy.