Frequently
Asked
Questions
Do you see clients in Person?
We are an online therapy group. This allows greater flexibility in who and when we can see our clients. No commute or parking is needed! We can meet each other from the comfort of where we are, and we have had great success with our clients working in this way.
FEES
What Are The Fees Ranges?
Our Fee
Individual Therapy Fees range from $180-$250. The cost depends on your therapist's level (Associate vs. Licensed), the type of therapy (individual vs. relationship therapy), how often you are scheduled with your therapist, and the number of session minutes.
Couple/Relationship/Family Therapy Fees range from $250-$365. The cost depends on your therapist's level (Associate vs. Licensed), the type of therapy (individual vs. relationship therapy), how often you are scheduled with your therapist, and the number of session minutes.
Community Fee
Individual Therapy Fees range from $130-$235. The cost depends on your therapist's level (Associate vs. Licensed), the type of therapy (individual vs. relationship therapy), how often you are scheduled with your therapist, and the number of session minutes.
Couple/Relationship/Family Therapy Fees range from $185-$250. The cost depends on your therapist's level (Associate vs. Licensed), the type of therapy (individual vs. relationship therapy), how often you are scheduled with your therapist, and the number of session minutes.
How Do You Come up with your fees?
We review our fees annually and only make shifts when needed due to external cost increases or other significant cost of living factors. We have licensed and associate clinicians to offer some fee diversity and access. Our fees also consider how often we work with clients and adjust accordingly (weekly vs. bi-monthly vs. monthly sessions).
We generally start with weekly with all new clients for 5-6 sessions to build relationships and then consider moving to a different frequency depending on what clinically makes sense.
We have two fee options: Our Fee and Community Fee.
What Does ‘Our Fee’ Mean?
This fee considers our community's market rate, provides a living wage and resources to our employees, and covers the current cost of doing business while remaining accessible to many people.
We ask that you consider the following: This fee often means that you can pay for “wants” and spend little time worrying about securing necessities. This means you have some financial security and access to basic needs and resources, you take vacation regularly, you have funds that allow you to make various choices each week, you may own property or have other investments, or you have personal savings. If any of these are yes, you would not qualify for a community fee/sliding scale. We know that situations can change and shift, so you are always invited to talk with your clinician about your situation and find a way to work together.
What Does ‘Community Fee’ Mean?
This fee is for attending to community members who need additional support. Each Kinship Clinician has a limited number of these slots.
Please consider the following around this fee: You are struggling to maintain access to needs such as health care, housing, food, and elder/child care and are living paycheck to paycheck or are in significant debt. We take you at your word around your situation and do not verify. As your situation changes, consider moving to our standard fee to make space for another community member.
Please note: We also want you to discuss your situation and fees with your therapist whenever you need them. These conversations are part of healing work and are essential.
Good Faith Estimate Information
You have the right to receive a “Good Faith Estimate” explaining how much your health care will cost. Under the law, health care providers need to give patients who don’t have certain types of health care coverage or are not using certain types of coverage an estimate of their bill for health care items and services before those items or services are provided.
• You have the right to receive a Good Faith Estimate for the total expected cost of any healthcare items or services upon request or when scheduling such items or services. This includes expenses like medical tests, prescription drugs, equipment, and hospital fees.
• If you schedule a healthcare item or service at least three business days in advance, ensure your healthcare provider or facility gives you a Good Faith Estimate in writing within one business day after scheduling. If you schedule a healthcare item or service at least 10 business days in advance, make sure your healthcare provider or facility gives you a Good Faith Estimate in writing within 3 business days after scheduling. You can also ask any healthcare provider or facility for a Good Faith Estimate before you schedule an item or service. If you do, ensure the health care provider or facility gives you a Good Faith Estimate in writing within three business days after you ask.
• If you receive a bill that is at least $400 more for any provider or facility than your Good Faith Estimate from that provider or facility, you can dispute the bill.
MORE ABOUT FEES AND INSURANCE
Let’s Talk About the Money….
Money is so hard for many of us.
Talking about it is even harder sometimes.
It can bring up shame, guilt, confusion, self-doubt, and many other things. My personal journey of jumping into my own money story was the turning point for creating steady and sustainable change in my business practices. But this hasn't been easy. The intersection of navigating what it means to work for myself, taking care of my employees and my family, my values, and having someone's mental health or wellness connected to all of this is not easy. Understanding class, capitalism, and the intersections of privilege and oppression within these systems is crucial. Ultimately, it's not just about money but how we value ourselves and one another.
At Kinship, we are integrity-minded and align with our core values of social justice, access, inclusion, and freedom regarding how healing can look. We offer excellent services in a culturally focused and accessible way. We are moving in direct opposition to the way mental health has shifted brought on by venture capitalist (VC) back options (Lyra, BetterHelp, Talkspace, Alma, Grow Therapy, Rula, Headspace, etc.) and the insurance sector that has fundamentally changed the way money intersects with mental health and healing.
If you want to learn more - Check out the following articles:
Headspace Axes 13% of Workforce, Transition Therapist Network to Part-Time and Contract Roles
Headway Hit with Class Action Over Alleged Disclosure of Patient Info to Google
Why Venture Capitalist Online Therapy Platforms Can Be Harmful to Clients.pdf
Kinship's stance and beliefs mean we do not accept insurance or work with VC-backed organizations. The way insurance industries stress the medicalization of healing or VC-backed organizations mine clients' data and use biased algorithms or promising quick fixes contradicts what we believe in and want to support with our labor. Unfortunately, many therapists, including myself, also can't afford to accept insurance companies' reimbursements or high client loads and low pay rates in VC-backed organizations while still providing the quality of care we believe our clients deserve. These billion-dollar industries work off the backs of therapists like myself and can provide bulk access that a small business like Kinship finds more complex and difficult to compete with. The challenge, between accepting insurance or not, means that we are creative in finding a balance between being paid what we are worth and creating access for a wide variety of clients.
