how is anyone here affording what therapists and shrinks charge?

[Tegan_sky]

It astounds me that so many therapists charge minimum $160.00 and all the way over $200.00 an hour to talk to them. I had therapists for years, stopped in 2017. I was only paying my last therapist $40.00 an hour, didn't know how high that therapist was charging others, $130.00 an hour at the time. She had told me it was ok if I continued paying the old copay amount from when I had insurance. Then there are the shrinks who want $400.00 for a 30 or 40 minute visit. I hear people say "when I saw my therapist, etc." and all, I am nowadays just thinking "HOW are you paying those prices???"

I don't feel at all, that it is worth it to shell out such big money for some therapist to tell me, "Just remember mindfulness! Just remember to breathe!!" So many are useless and charge these prices.

So if you have therapists and/or a shrink, how are you affording the cost? Too, if you like, do tell me if you feel you are getting your money's worth.

 

[Seeking_Peace]

$200/hr, that's as much as a surgeon. If you don't have insurance everything cost a lot more. For ex, my Spine doc is $250 private and $60 with ins.

I always do private pay even though I can afford ins. I don't see docs enough to warrant ins.

 

[whatevs]

My parents pay for it. At the end of the day they have no option, the smart decision is to try to salvage me and not find a corpse in their house one day.

This is Spain so like 1.5nd world and psychologists 'only' charge from 60 to 100 dollars per hour. Psychologists have always been mostly useless to me as I am a vulnerable narcissist, schizotypal and have genuine physical illness that causes most of my grievance and dysfunction.

 

[DonTellMeToStayAlive]

My parents pay for it. But recently they have said that it is too expensive and have stopped paying for it So I haven't had an appointment with my doctor in a while. I will pay for it out of my pocket money next time i have an appointment.
I am in India, so my shrink charges ₹1400 (18$) for 20 minutes or ₹3000 (40$) an hour. It is much less than what doctors charge in america, but it is still a lot for my parents, so I understand when they don't want to pay for my appointments.. Even my doctor says that my diagnosis is hopeless, and he cannot help me much. But I want to look for some hope in appointments, or beg him to prescribe me something like amitriptyline, which will help me die..

 

[DynamicDepression]

Readings threads like these make me realize how fortunate I am to live in Sweden. I've never paid for therapy (it's free until you turn 20). After that, we have something called högkostnadsskydd which, among other things, means that therapy is accessible free of charge after you've spent 1150 SEK (roughly $115) on it in one year. As far as I know, private clinics are not included in this, but most people I know go to the ones operated by the state.

 

[Well-Edited Chaos]

So if you have therapists and/or a shrink, how are you affording the cost?

Here in Canada, a lot of companies will cover a portion of the cost of employees' medical expenses that aren't covered by provincial health care (the employee pays the rest). And if the amount paid out for all medical expenses is over a certain amount, the employee can claim that against their taxes. I've gotten tax refunds more than once b/c of my therapist and / or meds.

There are also a number of support programs like low-income or free counselling, sliding rate scales, etc.

 

[Negrathecat]

My insurance covers my therapy sessions but it's not the best. It took me 3 different therapists to finally find a good one that my insurance would cover.

 

[Niko66]

I usually just don't.

 

[Dead Ghost]

Public health is free, although it is saturated because there is only one - or there were in 2019 - one for each primary care center.
The one from the Adult Mental Health Center - public health, therefore free - is the same person I mentioned before and gives you a visit when you have a space.

As for private health insurance, I have covered 36 free visits a year with the therapist I want from those in your book.

And if we put ourselves directly outside of private insurance and public health, the last time I went I was charged 30 euros per visit, but if I had not received the disability pension I would not have dared to make the expense , because I went weekly and it meant a high monthly cost for me.

Spoiler: Original Text

El de la sanitat pública és de franc, tot i que està saturat doncs només n'hi ha -o n'hi havía el 2019- un per cada centre d'atenció primaria.
El del Centre de Salut Mental d'Adults -sanitat pública, per tant gratuïta- és la mateixa persona que he comentat abans i et dona visita quan té un espai.

En quan a l'assegurança mèdica privada, tinc cobertes 36 visites gratuïtes a l'any amb el terapeuta que jo vulgui dels que tenen en el seu llibre.

I si ja ens hi posem directament a fora de l'assegurança privada i la sanitat pública, l'últim que vaig anar em cobrava 30 euros la visita, però de no haver cobrat la pensió per discapacitat no m'hagués atrevit a fer la despesa, doncs anava setmanalment i suposava per mi un elevat cost mensual.

 

[FatalSystemError591]

Many therapists offer "reduced fee" or "sliding scale" fees. Anyone who is struggling to find a therapist, ask about those options. They obviously don't advertise it because they don't want people who can afford it to take advantage of it, but it's always worth an ask!

 

[todestrieb]

I can only afford a therapist because I live near a university that offers therapy to the community on a sliding scale. My medication is pretty cheap. Before I lost my husband I had him using Sesame telehealth, the visit was $30 without insurance.

Also, look for a local MHMR.

 

[BaconCheeseburger]

I'm in the UK and therapists usually charge £60/hour which is out of our budget right now.

We have free NHS counselling but it's six sessions of generic CBT where they don't actually help with anything. I've told doctors I've seen this service three times and think they're shit, and not one of them has disagreed with me.

I get that it's a service which requires payment but I wish it was more accessible.

 

[NoLightRemains]

Right now I have insurance that pays for it, bringing copays to $40. Before my recent move, I was able to find a clinic that had a sliding scale for uninsuranced folks and it cost me $40 a session then. I have had mediocre results/relief from therapy so far, so I likely would benefit from a provider with more trauma experience than just whoever I can find that is cheapest and had availability. These things can become very unaffordable very quickly.

 

[right:sun]

We have supposed free healthcare where I live, but so far I have waited one year to be able to see someone, a therapist or psychologist maybe, outside of getting medications. I will probably have to wait a few more months as I am getting sent around from place to place (nobody seems to want to deal with me.) But I cannot afford to go private.

 

[hellispink]

My insurance (government assisted) covers it. However, it only does it until I am 24 and if I meet the criteria of poverty guidelines. If I ever lost it, there is no way I could pay for it. A therapist here is like 250-300 for 45 minutes sessions. Cost of living is so high that is just unimaginable to think making that payment weekly.

 

[RedHarlequin]

Free healthcare in Germany, if you work it goes into taxes, If you don't for a while the documents can be sorted so, that your monthly pay for free HI is around 90 Euro. You should move here, if you don't mind working. If you hate work, you're gonna go insane here :)

 

[onlyanimalsaregood]

Like everyone said, it really depends where do you live. In my country we also have free consultations but they take to long to get one. So I usually have consultations by computer, I prefer.

 

[l0stc4use]

I pay for it but i'm still living with my mom so no rent. however some i jus don't pay lol idc if it catches up to me cuz i'll jus die

 

[BetweenRadioStations]

My grandmother pays

 

[ornitier199]

The fact that you have to pay to talk to someone speaks for itself.

and this is supposed to make me "happy" as they put it?

I have to pay someone, with money i dont have, and talk about... what?
What the fuck is talking going to solve in reality?

You're so easy to take the suffer's money and not give tangible results to real physical root of problems. talking wont fix a broken reality.

Then you turn around force me alive with abuse, shocking, pinning down, hitting slamming, injecting sedating, forcing food inside all for what? like that is going to make me say: "yeah this is 1000% good to do to me, I'm happy now, you were right to do this"

I've never spoken like this before, guess all those inflicted wounds are a start.

 

[la fin de tout]

My sessions were $40/hr. last year and they are now $140/hr. needless to say I have 7-8 past due invoices because I'm broke, but I still go because I desperately need someone to complain and talk to. The kicker is after a couple years of it I still want to CTB, but at least I'm not spilling my guts to anyone else risking more alienation.

 

[angrymob222]

It astounds me that so many therapists charge minimum $160.00 and all the way over $200.00 an hour to talk to them. I had therapists for years, stopped in 2017. I was only paying my last therapist $40.00 an hour, didn't know how high that therapist was charging others, $130.00 an hour at the time. She had told me it was ok if I continued paying the old copay amount from when I had insurance. Then there are the shrinks who want $400.00 for a 30 or 40 minute visit. I hear people say "when I saw my therapist, etc." and all, I am nowadays just thinking "HOW are you paying those prices???"

I don't feel at all, that it is worth it to shell out such big money for some therapist to tell me, "Just remember mindfulness! Just remember to breathe!!" So many are useless and charge these prices.

So if you have therapists and/or a shrink, how are you affording the cost? Too, if you like, do tell me if you feel you are getting your money's worth.

Yeah I haven't been happy with the system for several years now. And if you live in a small town it's even worse because there aren't a lot of options for who you can see for therapy. My boyfriend was straight up paying a 170 dollars per session just so we could go to couples therapy. I couldn't help pay for it because I couldn't work due to back problems and mental health issues. It was crazy! as far as my individual therapy goes, I've been lucky to be on state insurance. But the issue is that because I'm on state insurance, hardly any therapists will see me. So it took me a year just to be able to find someone that was out of town for therapy. It's just fucked either way. I think the therapy for me has been helpful, I was able to find an EMDR therapist and that seems to help with the PTSD. Nothing else really helped.

 

[PartlyHuman]

Have public healthcare but it doesn't offer therapy unless you're staying in a psych ward. Good public psychiatrists are hard to find and with punitive psychiatry legacy here I don't want to take the risk. One visit to private clinic would cost me at least two days of work so I can occasionally visit a psychiatrist without getting into financial troubles but therapy is not really affordable. Although I went to private therapist for some time anyway but she just moved to the city and didn't have much clients which is why she offered lower price + worked unofficially to evade taxes (also makes it cheaper).
I'm not sure how it works in other countries but I guess looking for a therapist that just starts career can make it cheaper.

 

[FailureGirl]

My current psychologist is funded due to my PTSD and panic attacks so I don't pay but i had a councillor like 6 years ago that was $40 per visit I think it may have been partly funded I can't remember. Unfortunately if it's not covered by funding here it'll usually cost around $120 an hour.

 

[JinZhin]

I simply don't, besides not having much budget for it, I don't see much justification for having any faith in psychotherapy.

 

[StrangePossum]

Until recently I was only able to get therapy because my college offered it for free. They are closed for the summer now though, so the only way I'd be able to afford seeing a new therapist is through my parents' insurance. Thankfully the insurance is pretty good and I'd only have a $10-$20 copay, but even then there are not a lot of "in-network" therapists that they will actually cover. Most of the specialists around here do not take insurance and charge $200+ an hour, which I'd never be able to afford. Another option for me could be to go to a sliding scale clinic, but those often have really long waiting lists, and the therapists there are all grad students which I'm a bit dubious of.

 

[rancidJLJL]

Im lucky enough to have a decent job and not much outgoings. Having seen several therapists when i was a kid funded by the state or school or whatever. It never really did anything for me. My friend has been trying to get me to see one that has "proper qualifications" but im not entirely convinced. Here in the UK anyone can just claim to be a counsellor without any training apparently so thats something to look out for!

 

[Pallf]

I'm on my parents insurance plan. When I age out of it I expect to stop going to therapy and try to deal with my issues on my own.

 

[eve2004]

In the high range of what's been posted here. It would be much cheaper for me to CTB today, plus he doesn't need the money, he's old. He's a brilliant therapist/doctor though.

 

[☆AwaitingEntropy☆]

I was able to go through insurance, stopped for a while because I wasn't sure the therapist was right for me. Now, when I've considered starting again, my insurance is being cancelled and I have to find something new... Which I cannot afford, much less therapy.