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Most of us therapists have a guilt-monster whispering in our ears that we have no right to charge very much for our services.
Who are you anyway? You’re no expert? Who would pay that much? You can’t even afford to pay that much!
Sound familiar?
All my years spent as an inner-city social worker with homeless, addicted, and severely mentally ill clients made my guilt-monster LOUD AS HELL.
It seemed only right that I ate ramen noodles for dinner every night and shopped exclusively at Goodwill. Why should I fare better than my clients? At least I had a bed and a roof.
And student loans.
And a car I had to pay for to drive around and pick up my clients on the streets.
And rent.
And insurance.
And a tremendous body of knowledge that I wasn’t even giving myself credit for, and a true ability to help people–if I could only learn to take care of myself first.
Which, if I’m being honest, took me a while.
I’m gonna fast forward here through SEVERAL years of personal work and personal investment and try to shortcut some money mindset work for you, as well.
I want you to think about your closest relationship. Really pause and picture it.
This might be the person or the animal who you love or have loved the most in your life. Whoever that person or creature is, just think about all of the great times you have had together.
Think about the memories. Think about the ways you have changed as a person as a result of having this other being in your life. Think about all the joy and growth you might not have had without them.
Now, I have an important question for you.
How much can I pay you to take that away?
Take that person out of your life completely, remove all the memories, remove all the growth that you’ve had as a result of them.
Come on, what’s your number?
Would you ditch them for a half a million? A million? 10 million?
My guess is that right now you’re thinking I’m crazy and internally saying Hell no, of course not, that relationship is priceless.
So if a client works with you, and as a result they are able to take in the priceless gift of a great relationship, haven’t you given them something far beyond what money can buy?
Doesn’t any amount of money you would charge for your services pale wildly in comparison to what they will have as a result of working with you?
And that’s just one niche. Let’s take another example. What if you went somewhere and paid for a business program and you knew that as a result of that program you would gain skills that you could use over and over again for the rest of your life to easily make six figures and beyond every single year.
In fact your skills would keep compounding over time the more you practiced them.
- • What would it be like for your financial worries to fall away as a result of your investment in that program and your own learning?
- • How many years of your life would you add if financial stress wasn’t an issue?
- • How many memories and family vacations?
- • What about the ability to send your kids to school anywhere they want to go, or hand them a down payment on their first house?
- • The ability to put your parents into a top-notch facility when and if the time came to do so?
All of those things would be priceless, so whatever amount of money you invested in yourself to learn those skills would be rewarded in perpetuity, right?
This is why when I hear therapists say they can’t afford to invest in a business program, I am internally jumping up and down and thinking I know I know, I used to feel that way too, but the reality is that you can’t afford not to!
The transformations you can help bring to other people are absolutely priceless, no matter what you choose to charge for them.
(The same goes for investments you make in yourself.)
The next time that guilt-monster starts whispering in your ear, remind him of your true worth, and the true value people can get from working with you.
Your work is not about the time spent
Your work is not about how many letters are behind your name.
Your work is about the priceless gift of a better and better LIFE that your clients get as a result of seeing you.
It is truly invaluable.
Remember that the next time you’re stressing about your fee.
And if you need more mindset help around this, check out my First Call, Full Fee Script! You can download it here, along with other practice-building resources!
