I’ve been around the block when it comes to the holistic health and therapy world and I’ve seen the fees therapists charge vary greatly from nothing up to £250 and more for a 60 minute session, but what is the right amount for you to charge?
Well the average price for psychological therapies such as hypnotherapy is around £70 and its about half that price for physical therapies such as physiotherapy so most newly qualified therapists tend to place their fees around this mark, mostly because they believe this to be the going rate.
But is that right for you? How do you decide?
Well as a self employed therapist you can basically charge what you like…
Your business, your rules!
A better question might be, can you attract clients that will pay your fee?
And this is where things get interesting because if you look like an average therapist, have an average website, average content and provide a service similar to other therapists, people will expect to pay the average fee.
If however you offer something different, unique and it’s perceived as better than average, you can charge more and people will be happy to pay it. It’s all about perceived VALUE!
So if you want to charge more than the average for your services, you’ll probably need to offer more. This is where a good business and marketing strategy comes into its own.
When I started out using hypnotherapy, even though I thought I was pretty good, I was very much the average therapist with an average website charging the average fee and was pretty much one of the crowd; indistinctive from the others and not attracting many clients. That didn’t work for me so I decided to change things…
As well as updating my website, making it look more professional, re-writing the copy and adding much better, higher quality content than my competitors, I doubled my fee (and advertised it) and instantly stood out from the crowd. I went from being another therapist on a website to an expert in my field and began to be perceived as such.
I then offered a better, higher value service to match the perception which included a guarantee that I could help clients to resolve their issues quicker and that they’d be no charge if I couldn’t help. Yes, I was charging more but adding value to what others were doing; in effect I was saving my clients time and money and helping them to be free from pain quicker!
From a marketing, business and personal perspective, this worked very well for me and my clients.
So when you’re thinking about what to charge give some thought to being different (charging less as well as more) and what you’re willing to do to offer extra value. Even if your fees stay the same (the average) the extra perceived value may pull in extra clients.
Of course there will be other factors involved in what you can charge such as your skill level, what you do, your location, how often you need to see your clients and the competition etc. however in general, people will pay what it’s worth to them and they do that through the filter of their perceptions.
So if you want more clients, better clients and higher paying clients, take a look at your marketing and how you and you’re business are perceived and think how you can offer more value.
There’s certainly nothing wrong with being the average therapist if you’re achieving your goals, however if it’s not working for you, it might be time to change things.