Should therapists publish their fees online?

Yes, in most cases, and the reasoning is specific to this profession.

Someone reaching out about therapy has usually spent weeks working up to it. They are already doing something that feels vulnerable. Asking a stranger what it costs adds a second layer of discomfort, and a meaningful share of people simply do not send the message.

What to publish:

• The session fee. A single number for a standard session.
• Your insurance situation. Which panels you accept, or that you are out of network and provide superbills for reimbursement.
• Your sliding scale policy, if you have one, including how to ask for it. Making people guess whether reduced fees exist is worse than not offering them.

The common objection is that publishing the fee loses inquiries. It does. Those inquiries were not going to become clients, and each one costs several emails to discover that.

For a practice limited by clinical hours rather than by demand, fewer better-matched inquiries is the correct trade. And clients who arrive already knowing the fee tend to start therapy without the financial ambivalence that otherwise surfaces in session three.