We are deeply entrenched in capitalism and therefore we exchange money for services. To resist this impersonal exchange, I offer a sliding scale based on your assessment of your financial livelihood. The honor system is the key here!
The sliding scale requires reflection on our privileges. Please take some time to consider your financial life and determine an amount of money that will be manageable for you. While we will discuss your financial contribution during our next session, you may change your financial contribution at any time. For example, perhaps you commit to Tier 3 but then a huge unexpected expense comes through. Simply talk to me and we will adjust your contribution as needed.
Your financial contribution funds my time and effort in session, may provide for others at lower tiers, emails, texts, and quick phone calls between sessions, and facilitative technologies (i.e., calendly, doxy.me, thinkific, computer, pandadoc, gmail, phone).
Here are my financial contribution guidelines for a 50-minute session (borrowed and modified from In Flow & Free):
Tier 1: In need of financial support = $30+
Choose this option if you need the utmost consideration and support for your financial situation. Perhaps you are a recent graduate and just started your first job at a non-profit. Perhaps you are starting up your private practice and your finances are unknown or unstable. Perhaps you are paying off your student loans. You need to be financially supported, as fully as possible, and this option creates a path for you to contribute what you can towards your own professional growth, while making sure to honor your financial constraints and limited resources.
Tier 2: In need of consideration for financial support = $50+
Choose this option if your financial reality is often precarious and not quite stable enough to commit more towards sessions. Perhaps you are making ends meet but still have a lot of bills to pay. Maybe an unexpected and urgent expense presented itself and has made a dent in your bank account. Maybe your cash flow is mostly stable, but sometimes deeply changed. Expendable income isn't available to you.
Tier 3: In need of some consideration for financial support = $75+
Choose this option if you know that even though you sometimes stress about money, that you have more stable resources and that you can consistently make your financial ends meet and still have a bit left over. This option is an honest and thoughtful way of committing to the wider community who may not have the same access to financial wealth and privilege that you may have. And you understand that having a “scarcity” belief system doesn’t necessarily reflect scarcity in your bank account.
Tier 4: Not in need of consideration for financial support = $100+
While this tier doesn’t necessarily reflect your emotional or spiritual state of well-being, choose this option if you have consistent and stable financial resources. In this moment you are fully aware of your financial privilege to support yourself and others. You are aware that committing to the cost of this session will not negatively impact your life in any momentary or lasting ways.
Interested in creating something similar for your practice? Consider visiting these websites for further reflection:
update 11.10.21
missed sessions - if you need to cancel a session, i leave it up to you to decide if you will cover the financial piece of the missed session, and if so, what amount you want to contribute for the missed time.