It’s one of the big questions when you are first setting up in business – how much should you charge your clients? We’ll take a look at the different ways of setting prices, and a few considerations you might like to take into account. First – let’s look at a few pricing myths.
Debunking pricing myths
‘I have to charge less because I'm only just qualified.’
There are several problems with this one, not least that since the advent of the voluntary regs you are likely to be as well trained as others already working in the industry, if not better.
- While it’s true that specialists may charge a premium because of their years of experience and extra training, that doesn’t mean that you should charge so little that your fledgling business can’t get off the ground.
- After all the time, money and effort you put in to get qualified, you deserve to be paid the going rate.
- Exactly when will be you be experienced enough to put up your prices in line with everyone else?
‘I have to charge less because I work from home.‘
While your overheads are certainly less working from home than from a hired office, your service is just as good, and the help that people get is just the same. You are also putting in the same time doing CPD, supervision, admin and preparation, which is not chargeable in the same way as session hours.
You don’t need to feel guilty that your business makes a profit.
‘I’ll get more clients if I charge less.’
This could well be true, although I remember putting my prices up (with some trepidation) when I had been qualified a couple of years, and finding I was busier than ever - sometimes a higher price is perceived as indicating quality. However, if you attract loads of clients who are shopping by price instead of looking for the right help, you risk getting only the least motivated people. Are they really the clients you want?
Of course, if it's early on in your career, you might decide that getting more clients in through the door to broaden your experience is worth it. If so, I'd advise deciding on a specific time limit or a number of clients after which you start to charge a living wage. It might be worthwhile having your long term prices on show, as well as the cheaper ones, and making it clear that this is a limited offer.
‘Potential clients won’t be able to afford me.’
While it’s fair to say that some people will find it difficult, that doesn’t mean you have to charge less for everyone whether they find it difficult or not.
I'd recommend volunteering for a charity or hospice, or having a specified number of sessions each week offered at a sliding scale of fees for those in genuine need. If you have more applicants than places, run a waiting list.
How to set your therapy prices
In some ways, opening a shop is easier than opening a therapy business. Yes, you have to buy space and stock, but when you’re selling a service, whose direct costs are often more about time and effort than items on a shelf, it doesn't always feel easy to set a monetary value on things. Despite this, there are a few approaches we can take.
Price structure
This one is pretty much down to personal preference, but you could:
- Charge a flat fee per session.
- Charge a flat fee per block of sessions.
- Offer clients a choice between paying as they go or in advance. Traditionally those paying in advance would expect some benefit – eg. £70 if you pay per session, £190 if you pay in advance for 3 sessions. If you give clients this choice ensure that, if everyone paid the lowest rate, you would make a profit. Consider the higher rates as a bonus.
- Design programmes for various presenting issues, which are charged by the programme.
Setting a price
Price matching - Hypnotherapists are like takeaways. We tend to congregate where the work is, so don’t let the fact that there are other therapists in your area put you off. Look at what the others in your area are charging for similar work. My advice at the beginning of your practice would be to set your prices around 2/3 of the way up the scale. Not the lowest, which tends to attract the least motivated clients, and not the highest, which tends to attract the fewest clients.
Cost-based pricing - Work out your overheads and add on the amount you’d like to earn. Divide that by the number of client hours you can offer, and you have your price. https://www.kensingtoncounselling.co.uk/treatments/counselling-fees has a nice little online calculator to help with this one.
Value-based pricing – If you have a specialism that will help you put a ‘what my service is worth to my client’ figure on your therapy, start with that. For example, if helping a businessman overcome a fear of flying will allow him to fly abroad and get new business worth £10K, then that's what it’s worth to him to have his phobia dealt with. Clearly, he would not benefit if he had to hand all that over to you, but 5% or 10% might be a place to start. Putting a figure on some therapy issues is harder than this, of course, but you could do some market research and ask people what it would be worth to them to get their problem sorted.
A few other thoughts on pricing your therapy
Local and personal factors – if you live in an area with high unemployment and low income you may not be able to charge as much as if you are in an affluent city centre or suburb. If you have a specialism that is most of interest to those who might be on a limited income, for example, cancer patients who are likely to be on benefits, then take that into account.
Of course, there is nothing to stop you from working from in more than one place. You can move at least part of your practice to an area where you are more likely to attract clients who can afford what you want to charge.
And before anyone heckles - yes, some people will travel to find the right therapist, and you may be able to attract affluent clients wherever you are. But a large number do pick by geography, and many online directories encourage this by listing therapists in 'distance from you' order when searched. It is often best to assume that most of your clients will be local until you learn otherwise.
Review your prices regularly, at least every 12-18 months.
- It keeps you in line with inflation.
- It avoids a huge jump when you suddenly realise that all your expenses have gone up annually, but your fee has been the same for the last decade!
- If you are busy, put your prices up. You will get fewer clients but the same income.
- If you are not busy, consider a promotion. Often, it’s better from a business point of view to add additional services for the same price than to drop your prices.
Extend your services - introduce some that don’t depend on selling your time by the hour, which has a natural limit set by the number of hours you can realistically see clients in a week. Recorded or email self-help courses and audios that can be downloaded, for example. Automate the delivery of these so that you can have income arriving in the business even when you are at home with your family. Payhip is the automation service I recommend but there are others.
Be open and confident in discussing your prices when the moment comes. If you sound hesitant or apologetic the client will more than likely move on. See the discussion on price and value in our article (below) on whether or not to publish your prices for more about managing this.
In conclusion, although pretty much every therapist on the planet started their journey to help people, this isn't inconsistent with running a viable and profitable business. Therapists need to pay for food, lighting, holidays, and the mortgage, just like everyone else. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with doing this by running a flourishing and successful therapy practice.
As we said above, if you want to bring financially disadvantaged groups into your practice you should absolutely do so, but you also need other clients who can pay a reasonable rate to allow you to run a successful business. If you go out of business, you won’t be helping anyone.
So – repeat after me…
It’s OK for therapists to make a profit.
It’s OK for therapists to make a profit….
Extra information on pricing
Should you reduce your prices in a crisis? https://hypnotherapytrainingblog.blogspot.com/2020/04/crisis-pricing.html
Should you publish your prices for all to see? https://hypnotherapytrainingblog.blogspot.com/2019/01/prices.html
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Author: Debbie Waller is an experienced hypnotherapist and hypnotherapy trainer. She is the author of The Hypnotherapist's Companion and Their Worlds, Your Words and a co-writer of the Hypnotherapy Handbook, all of which are available from Amazon.
Find out more about Debbie's services on
Yorkshire Hypnotherapy Training - multi accredited hypnotherapy practitioner training, taster days and foundation levels.
CPD Expert - accredited CPD and other therapy training (online and workshops options), expert and qualified hypnotherapy supervision
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