Therapy for Everyone: Low-Cost Therapy Options and Alternatives

Jul 14, 2020

In episode 51, Hannah Hearts Romance - who is a mental health professional by day and romance reader by night - helped me unpack the trauma presented in The Rakess by Scarlett Peckham. Unfortunately therapy wasn't an option in the late 18th century, and although we have much better options today, it's not always affordable or accessible for everyone due to cost. Here are some resources Hannah suggest for low-cost therapy options and alternatives to traditional therapy.

Open Path Collective: “A network therapist can sign up to offer sliding scale sessions. If you meet a certain income or financial need standard, sessions are approximately $35 to $65 a session, I think, depending on the therapist vs. $100+ per session.” Search to see if there are therapists in your area.

Local Universities: “Check to see if you are near a university that has a counseling program or psychology graduate program. because doing clinical practicum hours is a big piece of getting your graduate degree in counseling and you can almost always get really cheap counseling services through the on-campus clinics or through the clinics that partner with the universities. It does mean that you are probably seeing a student, who is under supervision. A lot of the times they're $5 or $10 sessions.”

Telecom options: “New platforms that you can get telecom counseling through, like Better Help and Talkspace. They're not necessarily my ideal because I really do believe that in-person counseling, if you are able to do it, is the best, and that just has to do with how we relate in our brains and being social animals. But if you just need a professional that you can reach out to when you need to, those are also great resources and they tend to be a lot cheaper than in person counseling.”

I then asked Hannah if there were any books she recommended if sessions were out of reach financially. Libraries will often have these books as well!

The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown. “I am a big Brené Brown fan. One that I think is really versatile, for a lot of different people, is The Gifts of Imperfection, which is a little, I mean, it's just a little book and it's got some workbook elements to it as well. And so it's really easy to follow on your own. I have used it in the past with clients, and have also just recommended that to people to do, because while some of her other books are more just talking, The Gifts of Imperfection is more interactive, asking you to do things and process things and do some of that. So, I recommend that one as a really good, accessible sort of entry-level book for everyone.”

Listen to Episode 051 with Hannah now