The popular ads for investor-based companies promise therapists $100,000 a year.
Let’s do the math together. To earn $100,000 a year a counselor would have to earn $2000 a week. Divide $40 into $2000 and get 50 sessions a week at $40. Why $40? That’s the average amount the counselor is paid for a session. Say the counselor works five days a week. Fifty sessions divided by five days would be 10 fifty-minute sessions a day. That’s way too many. The recommended for effective therapy is four a day. What does effective counseling entail?
Effective counseling entails listening to every word the client speaks. This is not like listening in conversation where you are thinking about what to say when its your time again. No, listening in effective counseling is very complicated. The therapist is listening to every word. He or she is hearing or understanding the meaning of the words. He is also understanding the meaning “between the lines”–a difficult skill to learn. She is comparing to similar words and meanings from other sessions before. He is remembering what he learned in college. She is calling to mind what she learned in continuing education courses since college. He is especially recalling hands-on training by psychiatrists and clinical psychologists. She is paying attention to her intuition. He is watching the patient’s body language–facial, eye positions, head movements, hue of skin on face and neck, body shifts, and odors if in person. To focus like that for 50 minutes is exhausting. How many could you focus on in a day while doing all those things? Four is recommended. To earn $100,000 you must focus on ten a day for five days.
OK, ten is too many upon which to focus. Do it for six days That’s eight, twice the recommend number. Way too many,. Let’s do 50 in 7 days. That’s seven sessions a day for seven days. When does the therapist have time to go to the bank, the doctor, the dentist, or spend time with his family?
But it gets much worse. You the patient are allowed to contact your therapist as many times a day as you like by text, email or phone. I’ve read many a text that takes an hour to comprehend, and an hour or more to respond. The company requires the counselor to respond within twelve hours–but get this–to the satisfaction of the client. What client knows what is a good response? The best sessions I’ve ever participated in as the client made me feel like I’d been beaten with a baseball bat. Great counseing! What ” I’ve-never-been-to-counseling-before-client” would know what a good response was? And if the therapist fails to please the client, the company won’t send new customers for awhile.
How many hours would the therapist spend on average to respond to every text, email or phone call in between sessions? Let’s be absurd and say four hours. $40 divided by 5 hours would be eight dollars for all that work. Now, what would $8 times 50 sessions be? $400 a week, not $2000. What self-respecting therapist with a master’s or PhD is going to work seven days a week for $400? Would you?
Good counselors today are going for the $100,000 because they are hungry, needing clients. These companies have taken their clients. How long will it take them to discover that $400 a week won’t do? Then they will quit counseling for something else. How long will it take for the best counselors to quit? In 1992 it took less than a year. I charge $190 and am worth every penny. Call me and get far more than you pay for.
Lane A Stokes, LPC CounselingServicesAtlanta.com 404-487-1956
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