What to Do If You Can’t Afford Psychological Therapy

What should people who do not have money to pay for psychological services do? Where can we find a free psychologist?

Often, people need free psychological help. People have situations in life when they realize the need for psychological help, but they are not able to pay for the services of a private psychologist. What can be done in such a situation? Does a good psychologist have to be expensive? Are psychologists a service for the rich?

How is the price of psychological services formed?

To begin with, psychological education is one of the most expensive and time-consuming. To become a practicing psychologist, you need at least 5 years of university studies and about 4-5 years of additional education, which are paid out of your own pocket. How many people are willing to spend 9-10 years of their lives, invest, according to various estimates, from 10 to 20 thousand dollars in their education? At the same time, there is no guarantee that the specialist will develop a sustainable practice. You will have to spend time and effort to find clients. Practicing psychologists say that no more than 10% of all those who have finished studying remain in the procession, the remaining 90% go to other areas.

In any city and country there is an average price for psychological services, i.e. some cost that clients are willing to pay to most psychologists. One way or another, psychologists start from this average price. Someone lowers the price, hoping to attract new customers, someone holds free first meetings, and someone increases the cost, feeling their relevance. These are the laws of the market. For example, in Georgia, the average cost per session is $70 – $150.

Psychologists have their own costs that need to be compensated. This can include the costs of education, the need to constantly improve their qualifications, receive supervision and go to their psychologists, the purchase of literature, the costs of an office, taxes that must be paid to work legally, marketing costs (site maintenance, advertising, participation in events). And psychologists also need money to live, relax, support their families, pay their bills.

Psychologists are not businessmen, they are artisans, they do not use hired labor, but sell their personal hours. The number of these very hours is limited astronomically, but they are much more limited physically and psychologically. The specificity of the work is such that it requires 100% involvement in the work, you cannot be distracted and switch over during the entire hour of working with the client, full presence and immersion in the process is required. Therefore, few psychologists can afford to work more than 8 hours a day. Even this figure is large, so more often you can find 4-7 hours a day. Novice psychologists say that even 5 clients a day seem a lot and hard. Multiply that by the number of work days and you can see the limits for that kind of work. Often, psychologists suffer from emotional burnout, when they start to work hard, ignore rest and recovery, do not monitor their balance, and as a result, are forced to then treat their own depression.

We would not compare the work of a psychologist with the hard work of a miner, but do not underestimate energy costs. After all, our brain consumes up to 20% of all energy.

Can you find a cheaper psychologist? Cheaper is worse, and more expensive is better?

Today in the USA you can find a men’s haircut from $10 to $200. In any case, you will be cut. There are people who are satisfied with their master and a haircut for $10, and there are people who are willing to pay $200 for this service. If you are not ready to pay the average price of $70 dollars for a one-time psychologist consultation, then you need to spend effort and find a psychologist at a lower price, which would suit you. Perhaps, you may have to change several specialists in order to find someone who suits you.

• You can find a psychologist in another city or another country using the online consultation opportunity. This is actively used by Americans. Even within the same country, prices for psychological services can vary greatly.
• You can seek help from novice psychologists who are ready to provide their services at a lower price in return for gaining experience. This is a good opportunity! A novice psychologist may have good preparation, a great desire to work and help, he or she is very attentive to each client because there are not many of them.
• To search for specialists, you can use aggregator sites, where there is a large list of psychologists. As a rule, these are small questionnaires, with contact information, with photographs, with links to personal sites and social network profiles, sometimes with articles by these specialists. There are a sufficient number of such sites, there are thousands of psychologists from different cities and different countries. Spending time, you will definitely find your specialist. There are sites that host carefully selected and verified specialists, after conducting a preliminary interview with them, finding out their professional competencies, checking their educational documents. So far there are few such sites, but there is an upward trend. An example of such a website is Find a Psychologist.
• You can ask to lower the price especially for you, indicating how much you are willing to pay now. Let’s say you liked a psychologist, and you are not ready to pay $70, but would be ready to pay $40 or $50. Meet with this psychologist, get to know him/her, perhaps you will change your mind at all to meet with him/her further, or perhaps you will say that you are ready would be with him/her to work on your problem, but you can pay a lower price. Perhaps you will also like the psychologist, and, seeing your motivation, feeling sympathy for you, he/she will lower the price especially for you, or offer some kind of compromise option. But you must understand that a psychologist is not obliged to do this, he/she is not obliged to help, this is not a doctor’s profession.
• You can take out online payday loans if you need psychological help urgently and have no time to save or search for checker options. According to the research, 12% of consumers regularly take payday loans in GA to pay for psychologist consultation. These are short-term loans designed to help you cover unexpected expenses like car repair, home improvement, debt consolidation, paying utility bills, moving expenses, etc. Money can be used for whatever needs. It is very easy to get access to fast cash. You only need to be a US citizen or permanent resident, have a steady income, and have a valid bank account in your name. You can apply for a loan online from the comfort of your home and get approved within a few minutes. If accepted, you should expect to have the money in your bank account as soon as the same day or the next day. Each city in Georgia has a various number of lenders providing short-term loans online. For example, there are 88 lenders issuing payday loans Augusta GA,  20 companies that issue payday loans Marietta GA, and only 2 lenders that are able to approve you for payday loans Hinesville GA. Follow the mentioned links to read genuine user reviews and use a convenient online calculator to know the approximate loan cost in advance. The pages also contain general information about payday loans in each particular city.
• You can monitor professional publics and groups on social networks, where specialists periodically publish information about discounts and promotions that they hold. I know that some colleagues take 1-2 free clients as a social burden, or cut prices during certain periods. This practice exists, but it is necessary to track information and be members of various groups, to subscribe to psychologists.
• Finding opportunities will take an effort. Don’t expect someone to provide or provide you with something. To do physical education, you do not need an expensive subscription and branded sports uniform, you need your desire! Everything else is an excuse not to change anything.
• You can choose group therapy: the format of group work when you are trying to solve your problems not one-on-one with a psychologist but do it in a group. It is much cheaper than individual consultations, and no less effective. The group has its limitations, and it will not work to deeply work out your problem, but nevertheless, you can achieve a tangible effect.

Choosing a psychologist is about choosing personal priorities in your life

There are situations when people complain that they do not have enough money for a psychologist, but at the same time they have enough money for expensive gadgets, recreation, buying things and going to restaurants. Sometimes, it is a matter of priorities: “What is more important for you now – to go to a psychologist to solve your problems or buy a new thing?”

Buying a new blouse can please you for a week, maybe a month, but your problems will remain with you. Things are not able to change the quality of life, they will not make you happy. Instead of investing in themselves and their own development, people are ready to spend money on anything.

Sometimes it’s worth making personal choices and prioritizing. You may have to give up something, and even if you sell or take out a loan, this is a better investment in yourself than in items.

A similar situation is observed with the consultations of married couples. There may be several specialists involved, so the fee is higher. Some people say: “expensive!” We would like to answer: “Guys, your family life is going to hell, everything is about to fall apart, and at this moment you are thinking how to save a dozen dollars. Any vacation for a family will cost tens or even hunderds of times more, only a joint vacation is not able to solve your problems.”

Is it possible to find a free psychologist? What to do when there is no money at all?

Where can I find a free psychologist?

• You can contact government agencies that employ psychologists in order to get the necessary advice. These can be centers of social protection, centers of out-of-school education, schools and kindergartens, medical institutions, public organizations, centers for aid to addicts, rehabilitation centers. Many of these places have excellent specialists with good training and good practice. They work there for various reasons (someone for the sake of seniority, someone by vocation). The state or a public organization pays for their work in the form of wages, giving US citizens the opportunity to apply for the necessary assistance.
• There are free psychological emergency hotlines where you can talk about your concerns over the phone: 1-877-726-4727, 1-800-662-4357.
• In some cities, there are free psychological centers. You should not be afraid that by applying for psychological help, you will feel embarrassed. Nobody will judge you. In some places, you can apply anonymously. Yes, this is a more difficult task – to find a good specialist for free. But no one promised that it would be easy.
• In professional groups on social networks, you can often find information that someone is completing their vocational training or specialization and is ready to take a client for 10-12 meetings for free in order to be able to describe your case anonymously in exchange. You get several consultations for free, and in return you give permission to describe the work with you to the psychologist, but your real name and biographical data will not be disclosed.
• You can describe your problem and post it on various psychological forums, where experts give comments. But don’t expect it to help you a lot, and the opinions of different experts can vary greatly. We are skeptical about written advice, and this is ineffective, as practice shows. But in any case, you should be aware of this possibility.
• You can find a specialist who conducts the first introductory consultation free of charge. This, most likely, will not solve your problems at once, but even one psychologist communication can help to formulate and understand the essence of the problem more clearly.

Do you see how many options you actually have? It depends only on you whether you take advantage of these opportunities or not. We understand that it is easier to explain to yourself that I have no money for psychologists than to find that very money or find budget opportunities for yourself. But then you shouldn’t complain that this world is unfair.