Why I'm Offering Pay What You Can Counselling
Having handed in all the written work required for my Masters, completed my 100 hours of counselling for people as a student and turned myself inside out for the best part of a year, I’m faced with the question of ‘what now?’. A question we are maybe all asking ourselves since it increasingly costs more just to live, since politics seems to be failing us as a way to make life better and since we’ve staggered out of a pandemic that came at us much faster.
I can’t say that I know where things are going to go next but I do know that a productive, prosperous country is one where we invest in people and their mental health. A report from the Mental Health Foundation last year outlined how re-setting national health services so that people are helped before things get worse, rather than waiting until a crisis happens, could save the economy in Scotland £8.8 billion and the whole of the UK economy £117.9 billion.
I believe, enormously, in the power of talking therapy to improve our health and wellbeing. Sitting with someone, daring to be authentic and talking about the things that matter produces long term health improvements and supports people beyond the therapy itself.
Which is why I want as many people as need therapy to be access it in a way that works for them, when they want it.
If the National Health Service is about the health of the nation, it has an important role to play in supporting out mental health. However most recent figures show that the Scottish Government missed its own waiting time standard for psychological therapies, with some people waiting more than four months to see someone.
For those who are seen, we don’t necessarily know what happens because not everyone who leaves the waiting list will be seen by a NHS counsellor. Voluntary organisations and charities are part of the provision of services, and sometimes student counsellors will be the people delivering the counselling.
Recognising that things can be better than they are, the recently published Scottish Government mental health and wellbeing strategy talks about the need for ‘person-centred’ approaches. This is not to be confused with Person Centred therapy, which is the specific type of therapy that I have just completed a Masters in.
The best definition I can find of ‘person-centred’ in the strategy is:
“A new way of person-centred working aimed at adults is being trialled called, Getting it Right for Everyone (GIRFE). This is a proposed multi-agency approach of support and services from young adulthood to end of-life care. GIRFE will help inform whole system working and define the adult journey through individualised support and services. It will respect the role that everyone involved has in providing support. The principles of GIRFE are intended to be central to care planning, providing a whole person approach and more say, choice and control in accessing the help, support and care for all adults when needed” (p.33)
I think this is a definition of jargon that uses more jargon.
At any rate, the strategy then hails the movement towards computerised cognitive behavioural therapy as progress. I don’t think it’s serious to talk about being person-centred while looking at ways to expand the use of AI chat bots for people who are looking for connection.
This might go some way to explaining why those who can afford to are paying around £50 an hour to leave the NHS queue and choose their own counsellor. Given that therapists have to pay for their own training, find their own placement and pay to get there (it has cost me £10,000 to qualify and I still haven’t paid for my graduation gown), that’s no critique of them but of the system that has allowed counselling to become a commodity that can be bought and sold.
As I start out on my journey, I want to do what I can to change this.
That’s why I’m offering therapy on a pay what you can basis. People can have counselling with me, for as long as it takes, and pay me whatever they can – all the way down to nothing. I’ll remove the barrier of cost for as many people as I can.
I’m doing this without personal wealth. I’m hopeful that as my consultancy work picks up again, I’ll be able to pay my bills and sustain myself from that – and hopeful that will give me time left over to keep going with this approach. And I’m hopeful that a nice landlord or someone with a room that could act as a therapy room will see the value in making it available for me. I’m also on PayPal, so that anyone who has the means and wants to can support me to do more.
Along the way, I’ll keep highlighting what other options are available to our governments so that people’s access to therapy doesn’t depend on approaches like this.