How We Charge

Many people wonder why counsellors and therapists charge what they do. Some of them think we charge too much! So we'd like to outline briefly some of the costs that are involved in training a therapist and maintaining a professional registration.

Basic counselling or therapist training can cost anything between $8K to $20K or more for a Masters degree. That's just to get started! Then on top of the usual costs of running an office (which we won't go into here) we have considerable ongoing professional costs in order to bring you the very best and highest qualified people.

To ensure the professional quality of our services we insist that all those who are part of our team be a member of one or more professional associations. You can see the memberships listed on our Meet the Team page. To become and maintain annual membership of a professional association, a counsellor or therapist is required to demonstrate that they have been individually supervised by a more senior therapist for up to 15 hours each year. The cost of this can range between $70 and $200 per hour. Our associations also demand that we undertake up to five days a year of Professional Development to ensure that our skills are current. The cost of this is an average of $200 per day. Additionally we are mandated to take out Professional Indemnity Insurance.

Low cost
Amongst the therapists supervised by Judith are some graduate students who have recently completed their formal training. Some of these graduate students may be willing to take on a few low cost clients while they are gaining experience in the field.

Additionally, some of our Associates, as part of their service to the community, take on a percentage of low cost clients who otherwise would not be able to afford counselling.

Only those who otherwise would not be able to afford a counsellor or therapist, such as people who are unemployed or on a pension, are eligible to apply. If in doubt, please ask.

Judith Ayre Associate Psychologists. Psychological services are recognized by the government for rebates. Some of our Associates are qualified psychologists and they are able to offer rebates for their services.

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