When you’re in business long enough, you will consider raising your rates for a variety of reasons.

Note this post is relevant only for cash-pay private practices as insurance has a standard rate of reimbursement you signed up for through your contract.

Reasons To Raise Your Rate

• Inflation

• Moving from associate/provisionally licensed to independently licensed

• Standard 3-5% raise annually

• To see less clients for whatever reason (e.g. preventing burn out, highly sensitive therapist) 

• To save more money in retirement and future plans

• To pay off loans and debt

• To pay for therapy trainings and workshops (e.g. EMDR, IFS, ketamine assisted treatment training, sex therapy certificate). IFS training begins at $4,000, EMDR averages $1,500-1,900, and sex therapy certification ranges anywhere from $7,000-9,000.

Reasons Not To Raise Your Rate

• You don’t need to make more money

• You have a comfortable life at the moment

• You are able to take care of yourself financially, pay off loans/debt, and live the life you want

• You don’t feel comfortable just yet due to a variety of reasons including: 1) Recently graduated, 2) Lack of experience, 3) Impostor syndrome, 4) Wanting to work with people who aren’t able to afford a higher fee.

Tips For Raising Your Rate

• Let clients know with ample time (30 days is a good time frame, but 60-90 days is even better, so they can plan accordingly to save or find another clinician)

• Put the possibility of fee increases in your informed consent so it’s documented and known when clients start treatment with you

• Have current clients sign a new informed consent and fee agreement forms if you are raising rates on current clients

• Let clients know in session and follow up with an email or letter for their records (put in their file)

• Have a reason for why you are raising rates related to your value (1-2 sentence is fine, no need to over explain)

Questions To Ask Yourself When Raising Rates

• Do I want to raise my rate on current clients?

• Or just new incoming clients?

• Will reduced fee/sliding scale clients remain at their rate forever?

• What is my policy on reduced fee/sliding scale slots?

• What happens if a client at a reduced fee has a dramatic positive change in income (e.g. new job, big raise, etc.)?

• If I do raise my rates on current clients, do I want to raise them at once or month by month?

• What makes sense for me and my business?

• Do I want to incrementally increase my rate (e.g. 5-15 dollars) or a larger fee increase (e.g. more than 20 dollars)?

• What if a client is unable to afford my services due to the fee increase?

• How will I address this?

• Consider Social Work Code of Ethics and charging a reasonable fee (or your respective profession’s ethics)

• Have referrals for lower cost clinicians or insurance based clinicians if clients are unable to afford your new rate