Why self-pay?

In a world where costs are skyrocketing it can feel impossible to pay out of pocket for health care.

We get it.

The thing is, we’ve found that the financial aspect of therapy isn't talked about enough. And that leads to various issues, misunderstandings, and misperceptions about what the therapeutic process looks like, and the possibilities it holds for deep transformational change. For folks seeking new therapists: resentment towards and avoidance of good-fitting clinicians that seem unaffordable. For folks who are in treatment already: anxiety about unexpected billing issues, or low motivation because the therapy is “free” (low or no copay) leading to canceled or missed sessions, or staying too long in treatment that goes nowhere.

So we’re taking the opportunity to share why we offer self-pay services, and to give you some insight into the thought and care we’ve placed into our financial model. The goal of this is to help you understand the value of what we offer. Because when we value something we approach it with attention and effort (which leads to growth and positive change), and when we don’t value something we tend to approach it with indifference or fear (which leads to scarcity).

We have found that, by working in a private practice setting that fairly sustains us without burning out, we can help clients move through therapy more effectively (read: deeper processing, more impactful and lasting change, in less time).

You can heal. You really can. We see it every day.

Many people require a few courses of therapy over their lifetimes, but therapy should not be a life sentence. When it's thought of in this way, it's hard to reconcile the value of self pay rates. However, we see therapy as a process with a beginning, middle, and end. Eventually, you learn to develop the tools you need to heal and flourish, and in a way become your own therapist! This understanding is not often discussed. We've worked with so many people who have worked with previous therapists for decades, where the primary purpose of therapy is for venting, and a positive relationship. Although there is certainly space for venting in therapy, and the relationship between client is therapist is deeply meaningful for both client and therapist, therapy should not become another routine in one's life. When it does, the deep personal transformational opportunities that can arise through intentionally devoting a  period of your life to healing, growth, and change are often missed.

Another aspect of the current financial model of therapy that isn't commonly talked about is that therapist burnout is a big issue. Do you know how many people have shared some variation of a theme about working with “bad” past therapists with us?

Sadly, we get it.

Noone is to blame.

Some reasons leading to these kinds of stories include:

• The emotional labor that a therapist is tasked to do is heavy and significant. Do you know that in 2023 a survey found that over 50% of therapists experienced burnout in the previous year?
• A good chunk of the therapy fee is never seen by the therapist but goes to keeping the lights on: rent, EHR, internet, Zoom, phones, admin time, etc
• Negotiated insurance reimbursement rates can be low, and require significant additional overhead to process.

Therefore, in many instances, clinicians who are taking insurance receive a very small fraction of their fee, which means in order to earn more they have to see more and more people. For some clinicians, this means seeing a lot of people to make a liveable wage. And even the most skilled and empathetic therapist has a limit to their emotional bandwidth, which, if exceeded === burnout, which makes it hard to offer the kind of transformational therapy work which we know is available to people, and which we are so passionate about.

None of this is to judge any other therapist, or to say that it’s wrong for another clinician to take insurance, or to run their practice however they see fit. Some clinicians have lower overhead, and they can avoid burnout more easily. We just wanted you to get to know us better and understand where we’re coming from at Owl Creek Counseling.

For us, self-pay allows us to offer our clinical gifts. Not sure how to say this in a way that doesn’t sound braggy, but: we have a lot to offer you. We continue to celebrate the shared successes of patients and clients who have worked with us and felt our therapeutic process to have impacted them in a significant and important way.

If you are concerned about our self-pay fees, please know we have put a lot of thought into our pricing model. We have kept the price per session as low as we have because we deeply value your mental and financial health needs. In a world where self-pay rates can reach $300 or more per session, we believe that our offerings are reflective of our mission to provide high quality, sustainable care, for the community that we proudly and lovingly serve.

We have put thought into ways that we can provide a variety of budget-conscious offerings for people who may not be able to afford the full self pay rate, including: reduced frequency sessions (monthly instead of weekly), short-term therapy packages (e.g., 4 or 8 session chunks), and group offerings (with fees as low as $20/session). Sliding scale offerings are not possible for us at this time.