Should I Offer Free Therapy?

Should we regularly be offering free therapy sessions? It's a question I've been mulling over ever since someone I deeply admire suggested it a few weeks ago. This is not the first time I've heard this idea, but it struck a chord because of who it came from.

I've always thought that if we make more, we have more to give. So I've encouraged making at least six figures, which is very do-able with a private practice model. But this person I deeply admire asked: do we need to make so much money? How much do we really need to make? And I can't stop thinking about it. In a culture where obtaining more is equated to success, intentionally making less seems, well, pretty radical.

I was thinking it may make sense to ground this thought experiment in numbers.

If I offer one free session a week, and work an average of 40 weeks a year (accounting for vacation time, sick time, client cancellations, etc.), and charge $200 per session, then 40 x $200=$8000. I don't know, $8000 looks like a heavy lift. Especially if you're offering it to more than one person.

I'm going to leave this right here and look forward to hearing your thoughts. I'll continue with my current conclusion in another post.

What do you think? Do you think it could be the norm that every therapist regularly offers free sessions? Financially, can we afford it? Do you already do this? Most therapists I know offer sliding scale spots, but this would be taking it a step further.