Fees/Costs for Counselling

Private Counselling Fees.

Jump straight to the price list…

Counselling with Dean Richardson can be an incredibly liberating and helpful experience and when working with a qualified and experienced counsellor, such as Dean, both the client, the couple or the group and the therapist together can make life transforming experiences.

Private counselling is not free of charge and Dean’s investment in your therapy and commitment to you is appropriately matched by his professional counselling fees.

When deciding whether or not to consider Dean Richardson as your counsellor, consider the following:-

• Dean is a registered member of, and accredited by, the National Counselling Society which confirms his substantial experience, training, qualifications and adherence to the NCS’s Code of Ethics.
• Dean offers counselling to: Individuals, Couples and Groups.
• Dean arranges & attends a minimum of 30 hours additional professional development (CPD) per year which keeps his practice informed, reviewed and up to date.
• Dean arranges & attends a minimum of 90-minutes/month clinical supervision & more when work demands.
• Dean works with clients in both long-term/open-ended and short-term/brief therapies.
• Dean operates a sliding fee scale on a limited number of places. When available, this can make private counselling accessible to those on a restricted or low-income.

… click to read more about Dean Richardson.

How to pay for counselling.

Counselling fees are payable weekly and can be paid using these methods:-

• Cash (exact money please).
• Cheque (made out to “Dean Richardson”).
• Credit/debit card* (click here to pay by card)
• PayPal* (click to pay by PayPal)

I accept secured online payments service from PayPal. Payments using this method will include a small PayPal-admin fee on top of your session fee – and you will be shown the total amount before you authorise any payment.

Foreign Currency / Non-UK Clients.

I accept Skype counselling enquiries from people outside of the UK, whose primary language is English, and who wishes to work with someone trained in the British school of psychodynamic, systemic, cognitive behavioural approach and group analytic modalities.

Apart from arranging a mutually convenient time due to time-differences, payments for therapy services using PayPal may be convenient to you.  PayPal will make the necessary currency transformations on your behalf.  EG – you use my Online Payments page to begin paying a fee of, say, £49 – PayPal adds their commission charge (including any cross-border fees) and makes the necessary currency change (using a retail currency conversion value) presenting you with the final fee before you pay using your card.

Read more at PayPal:- https://cms.paypal.com/uk/cgi-bin/marketingweb?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=ua/UserAgreement_full&locale.x=en_GB#8. Fees

Fees for Private Counselling.

Affording Private Counselling.

If your income & savings make affording my private fees a struggle, I may be able to discuss altering my fee to something that you could responsibly afford.

Private counselling is not free of charge.  For people on a limited income who are frustrated with NHS or charitable counselling waiting lists, I take on a limited number of cases where I will discuss with you a reduction in counselling fee.

It’s important for you and I to discuss & agree a fee that you can responsibly afford. Whilst this may not always be straightforward, it can be surprisingly rewarding. When you are on a limited budget, discussing a fee with me will involve you being able to talk openly about your income and expenses: what you choose to spend money on, on what things do you have no choice, and what things might be prepared to give up (or reduce) for now (i.e. what are you prepared to spend less on, in return for me giving up a portion of my fee during our work together).

This negotiation isn’t intended to embarrass you, and many find the process helpful and, interestingly, therapeutic too.  See the right hand side bar and also read about my sliding scale…

Negotiating Counselling Fees: Sliding Scale & Concessions.

A “sliding scale” is where a therapist may be able to reduce their fees on a case-by-case basis.  The aim here is to be able to discuss openly about your finances in order for us to find a fee that you can responsibly afford and which I can accept.  This is available on  a limited number of cases and you are invited to participate equally in this discussion with me.

Individuals’ Fees.

If I am taking on additional cases where I can reduce the fee, our negotiated fee will be based upon your gross income+savings … deducting only your essential expenses.

It can be helpful to remember that counselling is a temporary essential expense – not a luxury – and if you are thinking about me giving up a proportion of my fee, you must also think about what non-essential expenses you’re prepared to give up during the time of our work.

To discuss a revised fee with me, firstly work out what you could responsibly afford to pay for weekly sessions.

For example: Add up your month’s gross income.  Then deduct taxes.  Deduct essential expenses that you must pay for (food, heating, water rates etc).  Think carefully before you deduct any expenses that are your choice/luxury (such as entertainment, going out/social expenses, beer/wine, holidays etc.).  You may also need to dip into your savings. If you’re choosing, say, to spend £30 on drinking a week, £50 on going to clubs each week and you then think you can’t afford counselling … then that spending might be something to have a think about.  I am inviting you to temporarily prioritise your spending during the time of our work; we can talk about this during counselling too as difficulties with money can reflect other difficulties in life.

So, after calculating what money you have to spend, divide it by 4 to work out what you can responsible afford to pay per weekly session. Be prepared to discuss this information openly during our initial sessions.

Couple Counselling Fees.

If I am taking on additional cases where I can reduce the fee, our negotiated fee will be based upon your combined gross income+savings deducting only your essential expenses.  You need to think about what non-essential expenses you’re prepared to give up for the length of our work, in return for me reducing my fee.

To discuss a revised fee with me, firstly work out what you can responsibly afford to pay each week (both of your incomes combined).

For example: Add up your month’s gross income.  Then deduct taxes.  Deduct essential expenses that you must pay for (food, water rates, heating, etc).  Think carefully before you deduct any expenses that are your choice/luxury (such as entertainment, going out/social expenses, beer/wine, holidays etc.).  You may also need to dip into your savings. If you partnership is choosing, say, to spend £50 on drinking a week, £100 on going to clubs each week and you then think you can’t afford counselling … then that spending might something to have a think about.  I am inviting you to temporarily prioritise your spending during the time of our work; we can talk about this during counselling too as difficulties with money can reflect other difficulties in life.

As part of the assessment for couple therapy, it will also be important for us to note how you and your partner deal with money matters, and we can talk in more detail about that after the fee has been agreed.

Whilst this may seem an involved process, negotiating a couple counselling fee with me during therapy can also be revealing & helpful with respect to your relationship problems.

After calculating what you can responsible afford to pay per weekly session, be prepared to discuss this information openly during our initial sessions.

Deposits for Counselling (First Session).

When arranging an initial appointment with me, I will usually invite payment of a minimum deposit of £30 (or 50% of your fee if your session fee is concessional).  This will usually be only for the first assessment session appointment.

Your deposit secures our first appointment together and is subtracted from your session fee, the remainder of which becomes due on the day of our appointment.  Your deposit is refundable minus a £15 administration fee if you cancel the appointment giving me more than 2 working days notice, otherwise the deposit is not refunded (e.g. by giving no notice for an absence).

Paying your deposit.

Methods of payment I accept for deposits are:-

• Paying online (which incurs a small admin fee )
• Sending a cheque made out to Dean Richardson – or postal order – to my Portsmouth address

Deposits need to be arranged before the session date in order to secure your appointment booking.

Cancellation Policy for Counselling.

Because my counselling methodology means weekly sessions, and by reserving your appointment each week I cannot make the session available for anyone else without sufficient notice.  Therefore, I operate a cancellation policy which I will discuss with you in full when we first meet.

A summary of which is:-

• Sessions cancelled with two or fewer days notice will be charged at the full fee.
• Sessions cancelled with more than two days notice will be charged at half the full fee.
• The first five sessions missed due to planned holidays will incur no fee.  Note: a ‘planned’ holiday is time away that has been planned in advance and is an actual vacation; it is not “I couldn’t make it that day, so I’ll take it as a vacation”.
• There is no charge for sessions missed due to public/bank holidays, or when I cancel a session or am on vacation, or the building in which we meet is closed, or if the Skype video conferencing service is not available to us both.
• Three consecutively cancelled sessions, or several persistently cancelled sessions over time, may invite me to prematurely terminate our counselling commitment if I have not been able to discuss this with you.