How much do you pay for therapy?

If you have terrible or no insurance like me, how much does your therapy session cost and how often do you go? Is it worth it for you? If so, why? Do you go even when you feel like you are doing great and don't have anything to say?

Hi Mahonia. In the past I have always used holistic counselors through churches who worked on a sliding scale fee. My payments were anywhere from $10/session to $20/session.

I had to pay $300 for my psych approval, because the psychologist my surgeon wants everyone to use wasn't in my network. She was very nice and I did feel we clicked, but my pockets aren't deep enough to pay that routinely. It's too bad, because I would have liked to continue for a bit with her.

I have a social worker friend who became a psychotherapist. She had to log a certain number of counselling hours to be fully certified, and worked for a group called Catholic Charities while doing so. I know they offer a sliding scale, but I don't know what the range is. Catholic Charities is all over the country, geographically.

Many communities offer group counselling sessions at sliding scale rates, as well. Some of these efforts are private, others may have county or state funding.

$100 and hour and I go twice a month.

Do you mean regular therapist appointments, or the court ordered ones?

Without insurance, my therapist is $80 for a 50 minute session. I do have insurance, and it is worth it for me. Whether it wouldi be worth it for me without insurance would depend on whether I could afford it or not.

It's hard to explain why therapy is worth it to me and, of course, the reasons for everyone would be slightly different. For me, I feel like the foundation of the House that is Gwen has a lot of cracks in it. Some are little, some are huge. Therapy has helped me to repair those cracks. Some can't be entirely repaired, but some can, and the foundation of House Gwen is so much more stable now than it was at the beginning of 2014. I'm not sure that I could have remained intact after my dad's death in 2016 if I hadn't done all of that foundation shoring work with my therapist in the two years prior.

I've found that "even when you feel like you are doing great and don't have anything to say," I still end up having things to say. Once in a blue moon I feel like a therapy session isn't super useful, but it's fairly rare.

I go once a month, but if I am not doing very well I up it to twice a month. Like Gwen, I have insurance(thank goodness) so it's just my co-pay. The clinic I use charges $75 for 50 minutes, but it does have a program you can apply for if you don't have insurance to pay by sliding scale.

$100/hr (insurance will reimburse me a little of it, as my therapist is in-network but has had too much trouble with insurance and refuses to file)

I go 2x a month, but we're looking at moving out to 1x a month. I go regardless of feeling good or bad, and we adjust what we're doing based on where I am physically and mentally. The only times I don't go is when I'm physically too ill to drive, or have something contagious.

Years ago I had terrible insurance and paid $50 a session, sliding scale, because I had Medicaid and my therapist didn't take it. It was $200-300/month, but it helped me lose 300 pounds, so...

Now my therapy copay is $40. I spend $160/month. Considering I used to spend sometimes $100/day on food, that's a bargain for me, anyway.

Also (for anyone in general), if your therapist is in a big hospital or a big medical network, they often have financial assistance for copays and stuff. They often also don't advertise this. Definitely check it out if you can't afford it.

I use Catholic Charities when I don't have insurance and pay on a sliding scale... usually between 10 and 25 a session.