Setting your prices and explaining them

Setting a price is one of the least pleasant parts of running your own practice, because it is arithmetic and self-assessment at the same time. Many therapists start by looking at what others nearby charge and then pitching slightly below. It feels like the safe move, but it usually produces a full working day and an empty wallet. It is better to start from your own costs and only then compare with the market.

Add up everything that surrounds a single session. It is not just the hour on the table: preparing the room, changing and laundering linen, oils and disposables, rent or the share of your home used for work, travel, answering enquiries and phone calls, bookkeeping and taxes, insurance, courses and professional reading. Include the hours when the room sits empty, because nobody delivers eight full massages a day and no body would survive it. Once the costs are on paper, you can see the real floor below which the work makes no sense.

Then add your labour. A simple question helps here: how many sessions a week can you deliver well, sustainably, without wrecking your hands or burning out? Divide the monthly income you need by that number, add your costs, and you get a price that is sustainable rather than desperate. If the result is higher than the going rate nearby, that is not automatically a problem; often it just means the others never did the sums.

How you present the price matters as much as the number. State the session length and what it includes: whether the intake conversation is part of it, whether the clock starts at the booked time or when the client lies down. If there is a surcharge for travel, late evenings or an added treatment, say so up front. Clients almost never take offence at a price. They take offence at a surprise waiting at the end.

Discounts and packages work when they are deliberate. A block of sessions makes sense where the work genuinely happens in stages and regularity produces a result for the client. A constant stream of promotions does the opposite: it teaches people to wait for the next offer and erodes the value of your standard rate. If you want to make something more accessible, do it deliberately, for quiet hours or a specific group, and state clearly how long it applies.

Raising your prices is a normal part of practice, not something to apologise for. Give notice in advance, let regulars book at the old rate for a while, and explain the reason in one calm sentence: costs have risen, you have added a qualification, the service itself has changed. No long justification is needed. If a few clients leave, that is expected; most will stay, because they are paying for a person and a result rather than for the cheapest option on a list.

When you say the price out loud, one thought helps: you are not selling an hour, you are selling a safe, prepared space and undivided attention directed at one person. State the number clearly, without an apologetic tone, and then stop talking. The awkwardness that feels enormous to us usually does not exist for the client at all. What they need is clarity, not an excuse.