Theraphy360 blog
Most therapists set their rate once and leave it untouched for years. Here is a practical guide to arriving at a sustainable rate, communicating a change without apology, and pricing across multiple regions.
Most therapists set their rate once, feel mildly uncomfortable about it, and leave it untouched for years. The discomfort is real — but the logic that follows from it is costing you, your practice and your clients more than any price rise ever would.
Sustainable pricing is not about earning more. It is about earning enough to show up fully in every session, invest in your continuing professional development and run the administrative side of your practice without quiet resentment.
The pattern is consistent and understandable. Therapy training focuses on clinical skill, not commercial confidence. Most practitioners start by matching a local average or pricing low to attract the first clients. Both instincts are natural. Both calcify into habits that are hard to revisit.
Anchoring: the first rate you charge becomes the reference point. Any increase feels like a jump, even a modest one.
Conflation of fee and care: raising your rate can feel like it contradicts the values that brought you to the work.
Comparison to an outdated market: rates shared in supervision groups or training networks are often years out of date.
Geographical blur: online practice means your clients may be in London, Dublin and Sydney — but your rate reflects one of those markets.
Start from cost, not comparison. Add your practice overheads, CPD investment, supervision costs, platform fees and the hours of non-session admin per week. Divide by the number of paying sessions you can realistically deliver. That floor rate is not your public price — it is the minimum at which the work is sustainable. Your public rate should sit above it.
From there, three adjustments make sense:
Outcome premium: specialisms with demonstrable outcomes — anxiety reduction, insomnia protocols, smoking cessation success rates — command higher rates than generalist practice. Document your outcomes and your rate follows.
Market layer: if you see clients in multiple regions, a single rate leaves money on the table in higher-cost markets and creates friction in lower-cost ones. A regional pricing structure, like the five-currency model in Theraphy360, solves this without awkward conversations.
Review cadence: set a fixed date each year to revisit your rate, tied to your professional indemnity renewal or your CPD cycle. The review becomes routine, not reactive.
Most rate increases that fail do so because the communication is apologetic. A brief, confident letter sent four to eight weeks in advance, naming the new rate and the date it takes effect, is almost always received well — especially by long-standing clients who have seen the value of the work.
The letter does not need to justify the increase. Therapists who explain at length signal discomfort, and clients read discomfort as doubt. Name the change, give notice, and trust the relationship you have built.
A practice priced for sustainability is a practice that can serve clients well for the long term.
If your practice operates across the UK, Europe, North America and Australasia, a single GBP or USD rate creates invisible friction. Clients comparing your rate to local practitioners in their own currency will make unfavourable comparisons, even if your actual rate is competitive.
Theraphy360 supports five region and currency tiers out of the box, so you can price appropriately for each market without managing separate storefronts or invoicing in awkward conversions. The checkout shows the local currency. The settlement comes to you. The conversation never has to happen.