Letting Your Fees Reflect Your Values and Needs

Linzy Bonham  [00:00:00]: 

They might surprise you. They might say, good for you. That’s awesome. That makes so much sense. I was just thinking that it’s been a while since you raised your fee. They might say, oh, I don’t know if I can afford that. There’s your clinical material. Welcome to Money Skills for Therapists, the podcast that helps therapists and health practitioners in private practice go from money confusion and shame to calm clarity and confidence with their finances. 

Linzy Bonham  [00:00:28]: 

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by numbers or avoided looking at your business money, you’re in the right place. I’m Linzy Bonham, therapist turned money coach and creator of Money Skills for Therapists. Before we jump in, I want to remind you of something really important. Most of us highly skilled and competent therapists and health practitioners were never taught about money. Not in grad school, not in supervision, not anywhere. And yet here we are, running businesses that need to take care of us while we’re busy taking care of others. It is a lot of pressure. So if part of you feels anxious about money avoidant or like a bit of a hot mess financially, I want you to know that you are not alone. 

Linzy Bonham  [00:01:04]: 

And I am here to help. Through my free live workshops each month, I teach practical financial skills to help you feel more grounded, calm and confident with your private practice money. You can see what’s coming up and save your spot to join live or register for the replay@moneyskillsfortherapist.com workshops. Let’s get started. Hello and welcome back to the podcast. Today I’m going to be talking about something that as therapists, we talk about a lot. This is a topic that gets a lot of oxygen in our field because it’s something that is really challenging for us and that is raising fees. Today I’m going to talk through a very practical approach to raising fees. 

Linzy Bonham  [00:01:42]: 

This is what I did as a clinician. This is what I trained myself to do after doing it other ways that we’re not as successful. And this is what I always advise my students to do in my program. Money Skills for Therapists specifically, is where we tend to, you know, have this come up as an issue when you’re in solo practice and you’re just working on this piece of announcing to your clients that you’re going to have to be charging more money for the work that you do. So let’s start with the fact that when we raise our fees, it needs to be numbers first. So often I see with therapists, our response when we know we need to make more money is like, okay, I’LL raise my fee by $5. I’ll raise my fee by $10. Like, we pick a number that feels small enough, and then we hope that that number is going to make the difference. 

Linzy Bonham  [00:02:30]: 

But it’s so, so, so important as we are setting up our practices, as we’re thinking about our fees, to make sure that we’re setting numbers that actually come from somewhere, Numbers that are actually going to get us where we want to go. So if you are at the point in your private practice where you’re realizing, I’m not making enough money, I’ve come to capacity, I can’t see more clients. That’s not the thing that can change. I need to be making more. And, you know, you need to raise your fee. The first thing to do is sit down and do some math. I’m not going to get into the math and big details today because today I’m going to talk more about how to actually have the conversation with your client, but stopping and being with your numbers. In terms of if you raised your fee to this amount and you saw X amount of clients a week, how much money would you actually be bringing in? How much money are you spending on operating expenses? Because that’s going to come out before you get paid. 

Linzy Bonham  [00:03:17]: 

And also, how many weeks a year are you not working? Because none of us are working 52 weeks. So it’s, it’s always a temptation when we’re doing math for business to be like, okay, I see 18 clients a week. 18 times 50, 2 times 150. This is what I’m going to make. Nobody works that much. So spending some time to think about how many weeks of the year are you working with this new fee at the amount of clients you actually want to see what would be coming in the door. Subtract what it costs to run your business and what is left is the money that will be available to pay you. Pay taxes and like, put any money aside for retirement or having a profit fund in your business, right? What’s left after business expenses has to do the job of paying you and paying taxes. 

Linzy Bonham  [00:03:57]: 

So start with numbers. First, notice how much you actually have to raise your fee to start to get to the salary that you need to see. Notice how much you actually have to raise your fee to get to the salary that you need to see. Let’s start with a real number. I have found that when you raise your fees, you are going to have the same feelings whether you’re raising your fee by $5 an hour or $50 an hour. So knowing that no matter what, this is going to kind of be uncomfortable. It’s going to bring stuff up. You’re going to maybe have doubts, you’re going to maybe feel guilt. 

Linzy Bonham  [00:04:26]: 

All these things are going to happen. No matter what. You might as well raise your fee by the amount that you actually need rather than going through this process, having all these conversations with clients, feeling your feelings, and then realizing two months later that you’re actually not where you need to be and that this has made you slightly more money, but actually hasn’t solved your problem. So that’s number one. Start with numbers first. Identify the fee you actually need. Step two, and I feel very strongly about this as much as possible, you should always announce your fees increase in session with clients. Our temptation when we need to announce something, when we need to set a boundary as therapists, is to send out a letter. 

Linzy Bonham  [00:05:05]: 

I’m just going to email a letter to all my clients. Then they know I’m going to be a little bit controversial here. But I’m going to say, if you’re an active clinical relationship with somebody, this is like the coward’s way of raising your fee. That was harsh. But really, this is like the way of trying to bring up a boundary without actually having to be present with that person and have the hard conversation. As a therapist, partly what we are modeling is how to have hard conversations, right? We are showing up in relationship with folks, especially with mental health therapists. We are showing up in relationship with our clients as role models to how to do hard things, how to be direct, how to express feelings in a way that is respectful. Money is a clinical issue. 

Linzy Bonham  [00:05:51]: 

When you let your client know that you’re raising fees, they’re gonna have feelings, and that’s great because they’re working with you to be able to work with their feelings and work with their stories. Money is deeply emotional, right? For us as clinicians and for our clients, money hits on questions of enoughness, safety, worth, right? Like freedom. Money is so, so emotional. And when you bring up to your clients that you know you’re going to be raising your fee, they may have feelings. They will have feelings of some kind. Whether or not those feelings are big, feelings that warrant exploring, or whether it’s just a small amount of surprise or whether they say, I’m happy for you, because that also happens when we raise our fees. I’ve raised my fees before and had clients say, good for you. Yeah, you’ve been undercharging. 

Linzy Bonham  [00:06:38]: 

So we also don’t know what that emotion is going to be. But by Having that conversation in person, by making that announcement in person, we give our clients the chance to actually absorb and we create the opportunity to start to talk about money in the clinical relationship. So when you do have this conversation with clients in person, you can give them a letter later. I would give them a letter. You know, after you have the conversation, give them a letter so they have it in writing. It’s always good from a policy perspective to have a letter, but the letter comes second. When you’re having this conversation with your client and you’re letting them know that you’re increasing your fee, say the number and then stop talking. For instance, I just wanted to let you know that starting in February, my fee is going to be $175 an hour. 

Linzy Bonham  [00:07:21]: 

Stop talking. Our temptation as people pleasers, as people who are afraid of conflict, is to say the fee and then, and then start to give some sort of softening qualifier like, but if that’s too much for you, we can talk about it. Or like, you know, I know that might come as a shock to you. Da da. We try to get ahead of our clients feelings. Your job as a therapist is not to stop your client from having feelings, Right. It’s not to make it so that they never have feelings towards us. That might be feelings of like anger, frustration. 

Linzy Bonham  [00:07:49]: 

That’s actually not our job. Our job is to help them to be with and process and make sense of their feelings. Right. So you need to stop talking. Give them a moment to respond. They might surprise you. They might say, good for you. That’s awesome. 

Linzy Bonham  [00:08:03]: 

That makes so much sense. I was just thinking that it’s been a while since you raised your fee. They might say, oh, I don’t know if I can afford that. There’s your clinical material. Because you actually don’t know that they can’t afford that. They don’t maybe know if they can afford that. Right. But now both of you have the opportunity to notice that this is what comes up for them when something that presumably they value, that’s bringing a lot of value to their life becomes a little bit more expensive. 

Linzy Bonham  [00:08:32]: 

That that’s their first response. They could have literally 100 responses. This is where this is such rich clinical material that we get to be with, with our clients. Because your job as a therapist is to hold space for whatever that response is and for you to hold curiosity and allow them to be curious and allow them to notice that this came up. This is not something that needs to be figured out between you and your client during that first conversation. Always give Notice. A good amount of notice. I always suggest two months notice. 

Linzy Bonham  [00:09:00]: 

As somebody who’s raised my fee many times and also has shut down my therapy practice twice, lots of notice is really important because it gives you and the client. Well, not really you, actually, because it gives the client time to process. Their first response is not going to be their final response. So once you share that information, if their response is negative, if it’s like, oh, my God, I’m not gonna be able to see you anymore, or like, oh, so many things are so expensive. And now you’re becoming so expensive, too. This is where you get to say, you know, we have two months. My fee’s gonna go up in February. It’s November right now. 

Linzy Bonham  [00:09:34]: 

We have two months for you to think about it. We can talk about it in session. There’s lots of time for us to figure out what makes sense for you. And during those following two months, you’ll be able to revisit this in your regular clinical time with this person. It might be that over time, as you talk about it and as they process and settle and they come back and say, yeah, actually, I. I found the money. I thought I didn’t have it, but then I sat down and I talked to my husband. We realized, like, of course it’s worth it for me to keep coming here for an extra $15 an hour. 

Linzy Bonham  [00:10:02]: 

That’s like, no big deal. We spend like $300 a month eating out. You know, you’re giving them again, the space to process it. Or maybe that over the next two months, as you’re settling, you know, as they’re processing this information, they say, okay, I’ve realized that I can come twice a month, but I can’t come every week. And then you can make that part of your clinical plan. Okay, this is our adjustment. Now we get to plan working together biweekly, or worst case scenario, they decide to end therapy. And sometimes ending therapy is actually exactly what needs to happen in a therapeutic relationship. 

Linzy Bonham  [00:10:35]: 

Our clients are not supposed to see us forever. That is not what a therapeutic relationship is for. A therapeutic relationship is about helping someone move through specific issues that you are specifically specialized in helping them with. Get them out the other side and let them go live their life. Maybe they’ll see another therapist for somebody else. Something that I always held really closely when I was having these conversations with clients and when I was shutting down my therapy practices and I was actually saying, I can’t see you anymore, is that we are not the only person who can help our clients with whatever they’re dealing with. You’re the only person who can help them in the way that you’re able to show up with your specific flavor, with your specific skills and values and training. But you never know if the therapist down the road could actually help them work on something that you’ve totally missed clinically or that is not your area of expertise. 

Linzy Bonham  [00:11:29]: 

Maybe they came to you for grief work and they’ve done a lot of great grief work. And now that the fee is going up, they’re realizing, I’m feeling pretty good actually around this loss. I’m really grateful for the work that we did. And then in a couple months, they might start working with somebody else on body image. Right? We are not the be all end all. And when we allow ourselves to believe that we’re the be all end all, we’re putting ourself into a codependent relationship with that person, that they need us no matter what, and they don’t. So if you raise your fee and they make the decision as an adult that $200 an hour doesn’t make sense for their budget. What they’re the work they’re doing with you does not warrant them paying you $400 a month to come see you twice a month. 

Linzy Bonham  [00:12:08]: 

That’s a decision that they’re making and they will go and make other good decisions for themselves in the world. And you can wrap up your clin. That is not the end of the world. It actually can be a very important part of somebody’s healing. But this will be something that sits between you for the next two months. So in this conversation again, you’re going to say your number. You’re going to stop talking. You’re going to remind them and yourself that you have a couple months to figure out what makes sense, that you could change the frequency of your sessions, that maybe you’ll end your work together. 

Linzy Bonham  [00:12:36]: 

You can always refer them to a great colleague who also specializes in similar things but is charging less money. That is all remains to be seen, but it’s not something that you need to solve and fix when you’re first having this conversation. The final piece of fee raises. This is something I didn’t do as a therapist when I was in private practice, and I wish I had is do it annually so often with fees, because this is something that we avoid. We know when we avoid something, it gets worse. So if you have been charging $120 a year for eight years and suddenly you realize, oh my God, to afford my life, I have to start charging $200 an hour. Now you’re having to raise a fee by $80 at once, right? If over that same period of time you had raised your fee just about 10 bucks a year, you would be in pretty much that same place. But your change to your clients is incremental. 

Linzy Bonham  [00:13:27]: 

It becomes normal. I know many therapists raise their fee in January. It’s like it’s a new year. You know, my fee is up by know my fee goes up this percentage every year. If you can peg your fee increase to the cost of living increases that. Everybody understands that. We all know that life gets a little bit more expensive every year. We know that gas and groceries and hydro, everything gets a little bit expensive every year. 

Linzy Bonham  [00:13:46]: 

That’s why now bread costs $8. And even 20 years ago, I remember paying $3 for like our teal loaf of bread. That’s just inflation, right? And our numbers work with that. But if we do it annually, it just becomes a normal neutral part of our business practice. Our clients expect it. They’re not surprised by it. They’re used to it. Have to increase is usually a very small amount because you know next year you’re going to keep increasing your fee to keep up with that cost of living increase that’s happening for all of us. 

Linzy Bonham  [00:14:14]: 

And it doesn’t have to be this big huge change in your practice. It’s just a normal part of doing business. And all businesses raise their prices on regular basis. And we as therapists need to do the same thing because we’re living in the same economy as everybody else. So those are my practical steps. Just to summarize. First think about the numbers. Identify the fee that you actually need, not the one that’s just $5 higher. 

Linzy Bonham  [00:14:41]: 

Announce in session whenever possible. Then follow up with a letter so they have it. But this is a clinical issue. Bring it up clinically. If they’re an active client, you need to be talking about this in person. Say that number, then stop talking and give that two months notice. So this can be something that clinically you can work out between you and do it annually. That is my practical advice for raising fees. 

Linzy Bonham  [00:15:02]: 

It applies to all of us. If you haven’t raised your fees in a minute, if things are feeling tight, it’s time to sit down and look at your numbers and see what your fee actually needs to be. We support folks with raising fees on an individual basis. Aid money skills for therapists all the time. Sometimes when we sit down and we look at our numbers, we realize, okay, this is the variable that needs to change. I need to raise my Fees. This is the work that we do, the Money Skills for Therapist program with therapists in our group practice program, Money Skills Group Practice Owners. We support group practice owners with supporting their therapist with raising fees. 

Linzy Bonham  [00:15:34]: 

This, you know, is something that’s relevant in all levels of practice and I did want to share that. If you are a listener of the podcast, if you’re in my world, if you’re in our community and you enjoy what we do, if you tell a friend about one of our programs, Money Skills for Therapists, which is our solo practitioner program or Money Skills Group Practice Owners, and they decide to join us in the program because you, their wonderful friend who cares about them and wants them to be financially well, has told them about it, just have them share your name when they join the course and we will send you some literal money as a thank you. I know there’s so many of you listening who are supporters of the podcast, who enjoy what we do, who might not even take the course because maybe the courses are not what you need, but you have a friend who would really benefit. So if you tell them about MSFT Money Skills Therapist and they join, have them share your name, we’ll send you $200. If you have a friend who joins Money Skills for your practice Owners because you told them about me and the work that we do and they join, I’ll send you $500. That’s it. It’s very simple. I just want to plant that seed for you. 

Linzy Bonham  [00:16:35]: 

So think about all your friends who could benefit from support not just with raising fees, but also with building out skills and systems to really make money work for them in their practices, be able to pay themselves well, and regularly save for retirement. This is the work that we help therapists do because we really, really want you to be well, just as well as you help your clients be. Thank you so much for joining me today. I am Linzy Bonham, a therapist turned money coach and the creator of Money Skills for Therapists. If you are ready to feel more calm, confident and grounded in your private practice finances, attending one of my free upcoming workshops is the best place for you to start. Whether it’s saving enough for taxes, creating stability in your private practice, overcoming money shame, or building a practice that actually takes care of you financially, we’re bringing you a variety of workshops to help you begin to shift your relationship with money and get your private practice finances really working for you. Register today at the link in the show notes or@moneyskillsfortherapist.com workshops. I look forward to supporting you.