If therapy were a donation-based service, what would you pay for an average session?

Suppose therapy was set up as a donation-based service, like a yoga class might be. At the end of the session you pay the therapist based on what you think they deserved from the job they did in the session. No insurance, you’re paying out of your pocket. You’re not rich, but you can pay any amount you choose.

That’s exclusive of stuff like out-of-session contact, your feelings towards the therapist, how much they change their schedule to accommodate you, etc. It’s a purely transactional question and a thought exercise, so put aside any other factors (yes, I know we do not live in that kind of a world, but, like I said, thought exercise). You are judging only the worth of that one session.

Think of that session as your typical session with that therapist. If they’re all good, that’s your average. Same with bad. If a mix, the average session quality between good and bad.

And then assign it a value. In the poll there are US dollar amounts but feel free to put your own currency in the comments. Then at the end choices about whether this is more/less/the same as your therapist’s regular hourly rate, if you know that.

Me, I would say most of them the average session was worth about $50, calculating the effort they put in and how useful I found it. Some, like DBC and CW, would be down around $20. Nos. 1 and 3 I would put as high as $80 and $100, respectively.

And yes I know this is not how therapy works, plus they have overhead and rent and taxes etc. I’m just curious to see what base value people would assign to a typical session if other factors are excluded.

ETA: in case it wasn’t clear, by “normal rate” I mean their full rate, before insurance or copays factor in.

$15 -$25 (when person was in crisis/dying/dead).
Except for the times (not infrequently) when I thought the woman should be paying me.

I said $41-60. Out of pocket (insurance covers 60%), marriage counselor is $70, as is T. Ex-T was $40 (she kept me at her lower rate). I'm thinking in terms of it averaging out, because some sessions with MC have been more like $70, while others have been more like $20. Or negative values, because they really upset me. I feel most of my sessions with current T have been worth the amount he charges, which also works out to be $70 with insurance. But I also feel like that's a little more than is fair to charge (at least based on our income! I suppose I could bring that up with him, but...), so $60 seems more reasonable...

To clarify, the $70 is what we pay, so MC and T actually charge $175. We then get checks from the insurance for $105.

(At the risk of severely over-thinking this and wrongly at that) I suspect there might be a bit of an anchoring effect going on.

I landed on $50 and then saw that so did you and I'm just about willing to bet that your 41-60 bucket will get the greatest number of hits.

Mostly because the average therapy fee is in the $100+ range and so, we tend to think in fractions of that (half is the automatic place folks land).

So, if I really gave it some thought (and didn't give in to this inherent bias), I'd have to think carefully about how I behave in a typical session (a foggy rage is usually how it turns out) and how current T responds to it -- in that case, yeah, 20 bucks would be it.

Then again, if I bring my A-game to the session then it usually works out much better (I'd double or triple current T's 20 buck fee for those times) -- so, I'd have to parse out what a typical session would look like with a range of responses that I could bring to it?

So, what would a typical session look at varying levels of quality of my input? Argh, I dunno.

Ah, yes, perhaps that should have been a poll option: “the therapist owes me money.”

I think my $50 came from the 50-minute hour. $50 is more like 1/3-1/4 of my therapists’ standard fees.

I guess basically I think sitting there breathing quietly and saying nothing offensive or outre is worth $1/minute.

But, to respond to another part of your post, so what if the client shows up in a foggy rage or on their A-game? Shouldn’t the therapist be able to deliver a certain base level of quality however the client comes in?

Considering that my sessions are 90 minutes long and also considering the geographical location (where everything is expensive), I'd say $150 for the average session. That's less than half what my therapist actually charges.

I pay my therapist £40 which is around $53. I think that's fair. I'd pay less on the weeks his own stuff gets in the way.

I see R once a week, and get more out of our sessions than I do with my music teacher. I pay him £20, so would gladly double that for her...though I am fortunate in that I do not have to pay for her time.

So, that would be $50, even though I don't know her rate.

My eight year old gives massages and only wants kisses and hugs for payment

if only life was that simple.

I said $21 -$40. That's what I pay now with insurance and I think it's fine. I would not(even if I could afford it) want to pay more. I'm sure that's less than she actually charges but I don't know what her actual fee is.

I think T is worth more than I pay him, probably, though still around the popular $41-60 mark. That's pretty much what most therapists charge per hour/50 mins in the UK.

T(wat) was sometimes worth his fee but also owes me for at least a few of my sessions with T - the ones which were entirely devoted to trying to work through the pain he caused me, at least.

It's actually really interesting to think about and really hard to quantify. Looking at how much we pay them per minute also really puts it into perspective...

My therapy costs 50 but I think it's only good for 20

This is such a tough thing to quantify and a fascinating thought experiment. Do I compare how hard I think she works relative to how hard I work at my job and scale my hourly rate accordingly, given that we have the same level of education and same local cost of living? If so, I'd land in the $41-60 range. Or do I rate her value as a service, in terms of the impact it has on my life? Then I would probably land in the $81-100 range. Sort of on the high side of what I would be willing to pay for a self-care thing (like a massage) but on the low side for something potentially essential to continued life functioning (like a medical appointment). This feels like another way in which therapy is sort of its own thing and fairly dissimilar from other structures or relationships in my life. But I am willing to make sacrifices in other areas of my life to pay for therapy if need be, which indicates to me that I am getting a decent amount of value from it.

Both of the ranges I quoted above are lower than my T's actual fee. She is an in-network provider with my insurance, though, and I have the sense that she would charge me less if I didn't have insurance and found her fee burdensome (which would indeed be the case). So I think she would put herself in maybe the $81-100 range.

I don't think that my sessions, even with my last T that I liked a lot and enjoyed the conversations thoroughly, are worth more than $30, given that I can (and do) easily have similar conversations with friends, colleagues etc, for free. I would not pay T1 a nickel for sessions now. The experience as a whole, with emails and long-term benefits though, considering how much work the T did... T1 maybe $20 and T2 $50 per week. (As a comparison, T2 charged $200 and that was a reduced fee.)

I pay my hair stylists between $150-250 every 4-5 weeks (not including tips), depending on what I have done, and the result and regular maintenance often have much more positive/satisfying effect on my mental state than therapy sessions in terms of self-care. Therapy is of course much more interesting but, again, I have plenty of smart, knowledgeable and supportive people I can talk with about psychology and personal things, including challenges and self-improvement. Including online communities that I have used over time. My Ts were really only useful in one specific area where the others cannot/do not provide similar and that's what I consider worthy of a donation. The other helpful aspect for me was simply just going to a place to talk about personal challenges weekly, preparing for it during the week, using that regularity to not let myself get back into bad habits. But I can find the same in local peer support groups, again, for free. Actually, much better, as it's not only one person sharing, giving feedback, perspective and support, but a variety. I can even talk about the hardest stuff with those people, actually more easily as usually they had similar experiences (hence the support group).

The limited value I found in the woman was that she stayed back and that I did not have to be polite to her when she was an idiot like I do with my friends - who mean well but still. OR when she treated me like I was an idiot - at least I could tell her off. Sometimes sparring with her was useful - practicing dodging her traps etc.
The amount I think it is worth is a lot less than the woman charged. But I think studies even show that those people always value themselves/have loftier beliefs about what they do more than anyone else/clients does/do.

I pay over $100 in cash now per session. She doesn't take insurance. I find that she and my sessions are well worth the cost. I would continue to pay her current fee even as a "donation."

i can't get past the choice that includes "a limb" in order to get back to answering the question...

If I put my nasty, negative transference aside here for a minute, and all other factors excluded, I'd donate $100/hr to the t I've been seeing. She's been very useful and is overall a very good therapist. I do pay her 100% out of pocket and this is close to her normal range anyway. She's actually a very reasonably priced therapist for the area.

T1 probably scores $60/hr, T2 about $35/hr, and T3 started out at $100/hr but dwindled down into the negatives. In fact, I want a full refund from that one. I think the most I would donate to any t is $125.

I thought about making it an organ or first-born child instead.

I don't honestly know how to answer this. Sometimes, I think there probably isn't enough money in the world to pay someone to sit in a room with me.

I also recall the first therapist I ever saw who charged $60 per hour and I thought that was a lot to charge for someone who was learning on the job.

Ok I'm past it now. I said I'd donate what I pay now. ($100) Most of the time that seems just right. Sometimes I feel like I should be paying more, but then there's also been many times when I think I should pay less, and then there have been those rare sessions that I've wanted to bill HER for... although they've all worked together for my overall good so I guess I'm back to the I'd donate the same as what I'm paying now....

My soul. I'll give him my soul.

I pay £50 out of pocket per fifty-minute session, which is pretty much the going rate in my area. That's $66 USD.

I think £50 is pretty reasonable, but if it were up to me, I'd pay about £40 -- the price of a good haircut. Even if he's only working with clients 20 hours a week he's still making £800, which is double my own salary.

I don't think his skills are worth more than double mine, and while our sessions are helpful, they're not THAT helpful.

I think some of them want that.