Thinking, talking and writing about earning a living as a therapist couldn’t feel further away from the reasons that drove me to become a professional within this field. Deeply caring for the wellbeing and the experiences of my clients will always lay at the foundational heart of my practice. However, it felt like a useful exercise to reflect upon what the sessional fee actually reflects…
Yearly registration to the HCPC and to BAAT
Time taken to reflect upon sessions and to write concise and appropriate notes
Time to construct reports and relevant reporting activities
Room hire costs and room upkeep costs
Art materials and client folders
Yearly Professional Public Liability and Indemnity Insurance
Income Tax to HMRC
Rigorous ongoing Continuous Professional Development
Weekly Supervision
Website and email hosting arrangements
Marketing – digital and physical
Setting up appointments and hosting initial Discovery Calls
Reading outside of sessions about specifics from sessions
Creating artworks and processing client material between sessions
Time spent thinking about my clients and the journey of our work together
Professional contact with peers and colleagues, as further spaces to reflect upon my practice
Time spent holding my clients in mind through the week
And time spent in individual one-to-one sessions – usually 50 minutes
and of course, none of the above takes into consideration the considerable investment of time and training required to become a state registered Art Psychotherapist; three years of intensive studying with hundreds of clinical hours undertaken. All of which was in addition to BA Fine Art, PGCE Art and Design, another Masters MA Fine Art and Contemporary Practice and then the MA Art Therapy. I can acknowledge the privilege in gaining these qualifications but next time you wonder about the sessional fee for therapy, I hope the above reflections, help to support you in seeing that a therapist’s work, is much more than the 50 minutes, spent with their client…