Charging $150 for Work Worth $300: The Silent Killer of Your Practice
Charging $150 for Work Worth $300: The Silent Killer of Your Practice
Most solo practitioners think their biggest challenge is getting more clients.
It’s not.
The real problem — the one quietly draining your income, energy, and confidence — is this:
You’re charging $150 for work that’s actually worth $300+.
And the worst part?
You’re doing it with good intentions:
- You want to be accessible.
- You don’t want clients to feel financial pressure.
- You’re afraid raising prices will push people away.
- You believe “helping” means “discounting.”
But here’s the truth:
Underpricing is not compassion — it’s self-sacrifice.
And it’s slowly destroying the practice you’ve worked so hard to build.
Let’s break this down so clearly that you can’t unsee it.
1. Undercharging Isn’t a Small Problem — It’s a Structural One
When a therapist charges $150 for a session that should be $250–$300, the gap doesn’t just affect revenue.
It affects everything:
- Burnout
- Scheduling pressure
- Emotional bandwidth
- Client load
- Marketing decisions
- How long you can stay in practice
- Whether you can take vacations
- Whether you can turn down misaligned clients
Underpricing forces you into a cycle of more hours → less energy → less margin → more pressure → worse boundaries.
And ironically…
Your ability to serve clients deeply declines — because you’re drained.
2. You’re Not Charging for the Hour — You’re Charging for the Result
Most therapists price based on the 50-minute session.
But clients aren’t paying for 50 minutes.
Not really.
They’re paying for:
- Your 10 years of training
- Your frameworks
- Your emotional capacity
- Your regulation
- Your judgment
- Your lived experience
- Your diagnostic accuracy
- Your follow-up thinking
- The safety you create
- The feeling of forward momentum
When a session is transformative, it’s not because of “the hour.”
It’s because of you.
And that is not a $150 skill set.
3. The “Invisible Work” You Don’t Charge For
Every solo practitioner massively underestimates one thing:
The unpaid labor around each client.
Here’s what a “$150/hr” session really requires:
Before the session:
- Reviewing notes
- Preparing structure
- Emotional centering
- Maintaining your own regulation
- Admin, scheduling, intake forms
After the session:
- Writing notes
- Thinking about the client
- Sending follow-ups
- Reviewing treatment progress
Between sessions:
- Emotional residue
- Holding space
- Research
- Crisis messages
- Boundary repair
- Resourcing
This isn’t one hour.
This is 1.5–2.5 hours of emotional and professional bandwidth.
So when you charge $150, your effective rate is $60–$90/hr.
And that is not sustainable for the depth of work you do.
4. Here’s the Hard Truth: Underpricing Attracts the Wrong Clients
This one is uncomfortable — but it’s real.
When you undercharge:
- You attract high-need, low-resource clients
- You attract clients who don’t respect boundaries
- You attract clients who cancel last minute
- You attract clients who aren’t committed to the work
- You attract clients who drain your emotional capacity
Not because they’re bad people —
but because low pricing sends a signal:
“This service isn’t as valuable.”
And people treat it that way.
5. Your Practice Can’t Scale If You’re the Bottleneck
Therapy is personal.
Deep.
Emotional.
Human.
But your business still has to run like a business.
If your pricing forces you to:
- take too many sessions
- overfill your calendar
- never take breaks
- skip supervision
- skip self-care
- ignore burnout
Then your practice has no foundation.
Your pricing isn’t just a number —
it’s the infrastructure of your emotional health.
6. “If I Raise My Rates, Clients Will Leave.”
Some will.
And that’s okay.
Because:
- The right clients will stay
- New clients will come
- Your capacity will improve
- Your outcomes will improve
- Your relationship to the work will improve
- Your resentment will decrease
- Your energy will stabilize
Here’s what actually happens when therapists raise rates:
The quality of the practice improves.
The quality of the clients improves.
The quality of the work improves.
You become more present.
More thoughtful.
More grounded.
More available.
Because you’re not constantly overextended.
7. The Real Cost: You’re Paying to Run Your Own Practice
Underpricing leads to:
- Overwork
- Overfunctioning
- Financial strain
- Emotional exhaustion
- Resentment
- Depletion
- Fragile boundaries
- Lack of rest
- Constant anxiety about money
- No time for growth or CEUs
- No time off
- No “rainy day” fund
- No margin
You’re not just undercharging.
You’re subsidizing your clients out of your own health.
That’s not noble.
That’s not sustainable.
That’s not what your clients want for you.
And it doesn’t make you a better therapist.
8. The Fix: Charge for the Level of Transformation You Provide
A sustainable solo practice usually requires:
- $250–$300+ per clinical hour
- 12–16 clients per week
- Clear boundaries
- Cancellation policies
- No unpaid emotional labor
- No constant texting outside sessions
- Systems + structure
- Staggered caseload
- Built-in recovery time
This is how you protect:
- your mental health
- your income
- your presence
- your longevity
- your actual passion for the work
You’re not just pricing a session.
You’re pricing your ability to keep doing this for the next 10–20 years.
Final Word
Charging $150 for work worth $300 feels noble.
But it’s not sustainable.
Not for your energy.
Not for your practice.
Not for your long-term mental health.
Your clients don’t need you to be cheap.
They need you to be available, grounded, and fully resourced.
Raising your rate isn’t a money move —
it’s a health move.
And it’s the only way to build a practice that’s not silently killing the person running it.