It’s logical that someone in need of therapy would want to discover if their health insurance will cover it. Mental health services are in the unusual position of dealing with sensitive mental issues.
Going to the doctor for a sinus infection and having the doctor’s office submit a claim to your insurance may not make you feel self-conscious. You may have mixed feelings about seeing a therapist and having to deal with a third party (your insurance company). Some folks are already stigmatized enough. Clients who pay out of pocket are assured that only the therapist is aware of what occurs during the session.
You are a person, not a number or label.
Insurance companies treating our clients as diagnoses irritates us as counselors. Therapists are required by insurance companies to give their clients a mental health diagnosis. This means that in order for a client’s insurance to pay, he or she must be issued a diagnostic number.
Many of our clients are dealing with difficult life issues and require someone to listen and offer assistance rather than a diagnosis. Clients may find counseling intimidating due to the stigma associated with mental health disorders. A diagnosis may limit your work options in the future.
Your confidentiality is important to us.
Clients will not only be obliged to have a mental health diagnosis, but that diagnosis will also be visible to a third party. This means that information that is generally discussed privately between the therapist and the client may need to be shared with the insurance company.
The diagnosis will be recorded in the client’s medical records. When the client applies for something regulated like the armed forces, fire department, or police force, this will raise red lights. A diagnosis may have an impact on the cost of life insurance as well as your ability to get it.
Clients are more invested in their therapy.
Clients who pay for their sessions improve more than those who do not directly pay, according to the findings. Because the client is paying, they are more motivated to complete their study and receive a good deal.
Quality/limitations of care.
Insurance companies want a diagnosis within the first two sessions, which is a short period of time to get to know someone. Insurance companies can refuse to reimburse a client if they do not believe they need therapy or if their diagnosis is not “serious” enough. This means that an insurance company employee who does not know the client can tell you how well or poorly you are doing.
The amount of appointments approved by your insurance company may potentially limit your therapy. Insurance companies have the power to limit the number of visits you receive as well as the content of those visits, lowering the quality of care.
No filing means a fresher therapist.
It takes time and effort to work with insurance companies. We don’t have somebody to process claims because we don’t have an office. This reduces overhead and gives you more time to engage with a therapist who is solely focused on your treatment rather than being distracted by insurance verifications, authorizations, and other administrative tasks.
Therapists who do not file insurance claims can devote more time to their patients. Your therapist can focus on being a better therapist rather than an administrator by spending less time processing insurance paperwork.
How do Christian counselors get paid?
Christian counselors can set a standard rate per session depending on what others in their region are charging for similar services. You can also conduct research and create your own sliding scale based on the client’s financial situation. When a client’s insurance reimburses them for their session fees, I’ve seen it happen. On payment, you must give your client a genuine receipt that they can submit to their insurance company for reimbursement. Although not all insurance carriers do this, some do, so your client should verify with their provider. You’ll find that many people who prefer a Christian Counselor are willing to pay you directly rather than work with someone who doesn’t understand their faith.
In our Christian Counselor certification course, we go over fees and client management in further detail.
Can I charge for biblical counseling?
Christian counseling fees vary, as they do with any outpatient therapy. The cost is determined by a variety of factors, including your counselor’s degree and amount of expertise. Another consideration is where you live.
In-person counseling sessions might cost anything from $60 to more than $175 per hour. For online counseling, you may expect to pay anything from $65 to $175 every week.
What is the difference between a Christian counselor and a biblical counselor?
We’ve already talked about how biblical counselors and Christian counselors are licensed differently. This, however, is simply one of the distinctions. The most important issue is their interpretation of Scripture.
What is our source of authority?
The notion of the sufficiency of Scripture is one of the major contrasts between biblical counseling and Christian counseling.
The Westminster Confession of Faith declares the sufficiency of Scripture as follows:
It comes from Scriptures like 2 Peter 1:3-4, which says that God has provided us with all we need to live a virtuous life.
When a counselor is trying to help someone who is hurting, they will eventually turn to some source of knowledge for help. In the counseling process, this source of truth (from outside of oneself) is regarded as authoritative. It gives guidance and direction.
But, when dealing with human problems, what gives this authoritative source of truth?
The Bible is the source of knowledge for the biblical counselor who believes in the sufficiency of Scripture. The “Bible + psychology” (known as integrationism) or just psychology is commonly the source of information for Christian counselors (which is secularism).
This is not to claim that the Bible solves all difficulties, such as “how do I repair a flat tire?” but it is our authority on matters concerning leading a holy life.
This isn’t to say that psychology can’t provide useful observations. However, because we have the authoritative truth in Scripture, as biblical counselors, we can successfully provide counsel to hurting individuals without any knowledge of psychology.
What is the nature of the problem?
Another significant difference between biblical and Christian counseling is our understanding of the “issue” that must be addressed in counseling.
When a person visits a counselor, they have a problem to solve. However, how should we approach the issue?
Spiritual notions like God, Satan, the Holy Spirit, and sin have no place in secular psychology. As a result, they are unable to understand situations from a spiritual standpoint.
Instead, the secular psychological explanations for our difficulties usually fall into two categories: nature and nurture.
The nature explanation for difficulties states that the issues you’re having are caused by biological issues. Many of your troubles, according to this viewpoint, are caused by your DNA. If this viewpoint is right, you won’t be able to solve the problem; instead, you’ll have to learn to live with it or seek medical assistance to correct it.
The nurture argument, on the other hand, claims that your troubles are caused by your surroundings. To put it another way, your troubles are a result of your upbringing or the beliefs you were taught. As a result, you must either retrain your thinking/behavior or change your environment.
While biblical counselors think that biological causes play a role in some difficulties and that your upbringing and surroundings have an impact on you, we also believe that this does not explain the true nature of most problems.
According to the reality given in Scripture, we must consider the possibility that many of our issues are caused by our own sinful hearts, rather than our DNA or upbringing.
Our hearts have been tainted by sin, according to the Bible, and this corruption will affect the way we think, behave, and interact to others.
So one of the biggest differences between biblical and Christian counseling is where we tend to gravitate when attempting to discover the underlying source of the problem.
What Is The Solution?
If our knowledge of the nature of the problem is incorrect, and our authority source is incorrect, the solution we propose will be incorrect as well.
Without initially establishing the proper diagnosis, no counselor, whether biblical or Christian, can deliver a beneficial remedy.
That isn’t to imply that Christian therapists don’t provide useful advice. However, relieving some of the symptoms does not always imply that the fundamental problem has been solved.
Understanding the underlying essence of the problem is the only way to truly solve the problem. And looking at the challenges through the lens of Scripture is the only way to grasp the genuine nature of man’s greatest concerns.
Remember that psychology and secular therapy approaches are all founded on an unstable foundation that rejects God’s existence, the presence of sin, and the power of the Holy Spirit. Even if the counselor is a Christian, his secular approaches will not be able to effectively fix the situation.
Should you pay your pastor for counseling?
The price you pay the preacher is partly determined by how much time he spends preparing for your ceremony. You may be obliged to attend premarital counseling if you are getting married in a church. A minimum of $300 should be paid if you receive many counseling sessions. A minimal payment of $100 to $150 would be acceptable if there is no counseling and little planning.
How do pastoral counselors get paid?
- Connecticut ($51,048), Massachusetts ($48,806), Vermont ($51,048), and California ($51,048) are the states with the highest salary for Pastoral Counselor.
- Sacramento, CA ($46,974), Buena Park, CA, Rowland Heights, CA, Anaheim, CA, and Irvine, CA are the highest paying cities for Pastoral Counselor.
- Pastoral Counselors on the lower end of the scale, the bottom 10%, earn around $29,000 per year, while those in the top 10% earn around $53,000.
- The highest-paid quarter of the workforce earned $46,000, while the lowest-paid quarter earned $33,000.
- Pastoral Counselor wages are highest in the professional, health care, and non-profit sectors.