Why is psychological counseling so expensive?

The "expensiveness" of psychological counseling is essentially caused by high hidden costs, misaligned supply and demand structures, and poor public perception of the value of services. There are both reasonable cost sharing and unreasonable premiums caused by chaos in some industries.

Many people around me who are consulting for the first time will be stunned when they see the quotation. An ordinary practicing consultant in second- and third-tier cities generally charges 300 to 800 for a 50-minute session. Senior consultants who specialize in first-tier cities can even charge 2,000 and above. At first glance, it sounds like "charge by the minute, more money than a lawyer." An Internet operator came to me before and complained to me, saying that he worked very hard and only earned 200 an hour. It would cost him most of a day's salary to find a consultant for an hour. It made me feel sick no matter how much I thought about it.

But if you really immerse yourself in the industry, you will know that the income of most consultants is far less exaggerated than what outsiders think. I know a consultant who has opened a personal studio in Hangzhou. She has been in the industry for 7 years and her current fee is 800 yuan per section. If an outsider calculates it, she takes 4 cases a day and it is 3200 yuan. Her monthly income is at least 50,000 to 60,000 yuan, but in fact she spends 4,000 yuan per month. To find a more senior supervisor to provide case guidance, it would cost at least 50,000 yuan a year to apply for various systematic trainings. Last year, I applied for a continuous training in trauma treatment, which cost nearly 70,000 yuan including air tickets and accommodation. All these costs had to be paid by myself, and no organization would reimburse me. Moreover, she didn’t dare to take on 4 cases a day, and she could take on 3 at most. It took more than ten minutes to write case records after each case, and she had to go to the supervisor alone for review when encountering complex cases. She was so emotionally exhausted at the end of the day that she didn’t even want to return news from her family after get off work. After deducting all kinds of costs, her actual monthly income was not much different from that of ordinary local white-collar workers.

Of course, this does not mean that all "expensive" prices are reasonable. I have also heard many complaints about the pitfalls of visitors. Previously, a young girl who just entered college found a consultant labeled as "10-year veteran" on a certain platform. She was charged 600 per session. After three consultations, she would only repeat "how do you feel" and "I understand you". She did not even complete the basic intake interview. In the end, the problem was not solved and she became more anxious. Naturally, she felt that the money was paying an IQ tax. At present, the entry threshold for the industry has not been completely unified. Many people have only taken the psychological counselor certificate, which has been canceled long ago. After taking a few online courses, they dare to come out to take cases. The fees also follow the market price of mature counselors. In this case, the "expensive" is indeed an unreasonable premium.

In addition to cost and chaos, the gap between supply and demand is also driving up prices. At present, there are only a few thousand counselors in China who have been systematically trained and registered in the registration system. The number of people with different levels of psychological service needs is at least tens of millions. Appointments for mature counselors are basically scheduled for one or two weeks later, and market pricing will naturally increase. This is a bit like going to see an experienced traditional Chinese medicine doctor. It seems like you only took a pulse and asked a few words for a few minutes. Behind it is the experience gained from reading medical records and sitting in clinics for decades. What you bought is not the dozens of minutes of chatting, but the intervention ability accumulated by the counselor who has spent tens of millions of years studying and doing hundreds or thousands of hours of cases in the past ten years. There is also the safe space in the consulting room that is completely non-judgmental and you can safely reveal any dark emotions - this kind of experience is almost impossible to get from friends and family.

There are now a lot of debates about pricing in the industry. Some people say that the price should be lowered so that ordinary people can afford psychological counseling. Others say that if the market price is forced to lower, it will only make the truly capable counselors unable to make money and leave the industry. In the end, the remaining ones are three-legged cats without systematic training. Instead, they will cost money and get hurt. In fact, not all psychological counseling is expensive. Many universities and communities now offer free public welfare consultations. Many novice counselors will offer low-priced consultations of 100 to 200 when they accumulate caseload time. If you just have temporary emotional distress and want to try it, there is no need to find a senior counselor who quotes thousands of dollars right away. Suitable services are more important than price.