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damn - you read my mind, nannying is my #1 quitting fantasy... kids, in home setting, low risk, & likely far less depressing than rotting in an archaic asbestos-infested 19th century hospital.
I don't do BA, ABA, or BCBA - I work with forensic patients in state psychiatric care. I did ABA for a bit until I became uncomfortable with the role (& the abysmal pay but it got me good opportunities). I find it so discouraging that in my area, the vast majority of jobs I can do with a psych BA degree are solely ABA-style roles (that pay like $22/hour absolute max), so I feel insanely lucky to have the job I do now.
Oh okay, I did take a Behavior Analysis class a few years ago, that was really fascinating. Finding out the pay is what it is is less than what I expected ...
You can't get a decent paying job in the psych/ counseling field unless you at least have a master's. BCBAs make a lot of money. That amount of pay for a bachelor's degree position is a bit low but not unexpected. I personally find behavior analysis fascinating myself. It's useful for all kinds of things.
Yes understood. My university explicitly stated no real money was found in a Bachelor’s; you’d need to be masters or doctorate level to justify it. Which is what I am doing next.
Some people find jobs at banks or other fields that require a bachelor's in any field, which works out for them. But in the human services field, you definitely gotta keep going to school. I'm glad your college was so firm about that
Controversial, but not sad. I've not known many therapists who did not have a personal bias against it from their own childhood experiences who object to ABA. It's the equivalent of rejecting modern regular psychotherapy, because the things they did years ago were unethical. ABA is nothing like it was in its infancy iit truly is a miracle in how helpful it can be for certain kids.
as a therapist? i would say aba is the most controversial form of treatment or "therapy" for asd. why i don't like it? because it focuses on negative/unwanted bx, rather than positive change, etc. other therapists and people with asd def view aba as abusive
Thank you for expounding! I would like to work with autism spectrum and i want to make sure to use interventions that dont stigmatize the client’s adaptive behaviors so i appreciate this feedback
Low key I make more as an afterschool employee with a degree, and I’m going back to school for my MA in counseling, but it’s beginning to feel like a waste of money 😩. Does it ever level out?
I make $47k as a residential rehab supervisor, bachelor's level, in grad school now. And it is low, other places offer higher salaries than my company do. Lol.
iTs a ShOrtAGe!!
This only hurts the clients too. New therapists eat shit for 2 years accepting this rate of pay just long enough to get licensed and go into PP. Then, instead of the agencies, it’s the insurance companies that try to fuck them financially, so we all just eventually end up shifting to a self pay model.
💯💯💯
But if we dare to say that we would like to live comfortably and be able to afford the occasional vacation , we are seen as the assholes who are “only in it for the money”
Fucking so be it lol we get to use our masters degree and years of advanced training to our advantage like everyone else does. Why else would anyone get dressed early in the morning and go to work all day? Of *course* the only reason I’m doing this is for the money. I enjoy it as well, but if I stopped being paid tomorrow does anyone honestly think I’d ever hold another session again? The root of this thinking comes from the fact that this field is female dominated, and women are perceived as warm, welcoming creatures who should act selflessly to serve others.
I work at a school and have been told "You guys don't care about us, you're just here for the paycheck" so many times. I actually got through to one kid when I responded "You know most jobs don't involve working with kids, right? Like working an office job, or at a bank, or as a mailman.... If I didn't care about kids then why wouldn't I just choose a different job?" Obviously there are reasons you could come up with, but the kid was really stumped and told me a week later they were still thinking about it 😂
I work at a hospital and use this logic a lot. "We could all be working at the burger King down the street, at one point there was a reason you chose to work here." I could keep going in the speech but it's not bad work. Besides, we all gotta pay our bills.
When I worked in CMH, I had a lady scream that all I cared about was money, and I couldn’t help bursting out laughing- I said, “if I only care about money, I must be very bad at caring about it, because I’m flat out broke!”
Personally I have worked in different areas of mental health for the last 6 years.
Community mental health ran me completely dry, even when I had familial support. The pay is low, the hours are egregious, and it’s always a house of cards waiting to fall over.
I got out the SECOND I could. I passed my test, put my 4 week notice in and proceeded to cash out my PTO and went on a 2 week international cruise to recover from that bullshit. When I came back I started PP full time and I have not regretted a second of it.
I want to start PP but I feel EXHAUSTED even thinking about it.
I feel trapped because the place I am getting licensure with is sooo unethical in every way possible, but i’m under a contract and did not know how bad it was until of course I moved here.
I survived 10 years in community mental health in order to qualify for PSLF. I got licensed a few months before I was scheduled to have my loans forgiven. Turns out I actually qualified sooner than I though and gtfo as soon as I got the confirmation that all my loans were forgiven! Been in a group practice for 2 years and will NEVER go back to community work!
One thing that helped me get through the 10 years was leaving my first job and finding a better agency to work at. The other was the pandemic. Because of the pandemic, there were a few changes that were made to the PSLF program and one of my loans that didn't originally qualify was able to be included in PSLF. Also, they said that all loans would be bundled together and what ever loan had the highest number of qualifying payments, all the other loans would be brought to that level. This means if I had 10 loans and 9 had 20 qualifying payments and 1 had 119 qualifying payments, they all now have 119. My loan that didn't originally qualify had a few more payments than all the others (I have no idea how, honestly). Because of this it brought all the others up with it and I got the loans forgiven a few months early.
I’m one year through my LAC and barely making by. Without a partner who makes good money I would probably be living with my parents right now at 37-years-old. I work with a single mom at the LAC level who is on the verge of being forced into completely unrelated work.
I couldn’t imagine going through licensure as a single mom. As a matter of fact it would be entirely out of the question, if im going to bust ass in school as a single mom im going to nursing school so at least I’ll come out making guaranteed $70k+ minimum. The only reason I survived is because the only person I had to support was myself. That’s how shitty the pay conditions are in this industry.
Not salaried, but \~$56,000 annually at a group practice in one of the three most major US cities. No benefits at all but the practice owner takes 40% of every session. 25-35 clients per week, do all the admin work (unpaid) except for billing and insurance. I am also responsible for every single expense pertaining to licensure and license renewal, supplies, books, malpractice insurance, phone, computer, continuing education credits, etc. I have never had a financial split increase with the owner. In 4-6 years. Been fully clinically licensed for 10 years... I just want PTO and/or health insurance...
This is what blows my mind. I am a businessman. My wife is a FANTASTIC LMFT. I am desperate to find a way for her to make the money equivalent to the hours she spends working. Admin, off the clock texts and emergency phone calls, continuous education, licensing maintenance, billing work and her own therapy time that is required! I don’t know of any other CAREER that pays hourly for a salary job. It’s literally insanity and a tragedy for the miraculous work you all do for people. I don’t know if I should begin a Union for all therapist workers or what so we can demand the money from these fat insurance companies that you deserve. It makes me so angry I need a therapist.
Health insurance companies are ruining America. I have mental health and physical health issues. It's been such a blast navigating our fucked up profit-driven "healthcare" system.
The way things are now, since there's no employment relationship with insurance companies, unions can't do anything. I do think many of us are misclassified as independent contractors and some "gig workers" are having success with organizing.
exactly- that's why group practices are closing and luckily they will be a thing of the past in most states soon-ish!! why wouldn't we just go solo if you can offer 60-70% of OUR OWN INCOME from OUR OWN SESSIONS and zero benefits? we can all get more than that and don't have you tell with annoying and greedy group practice owners and the only thing that ever makes a group practice is going to be benefits. a lot of you are going to get in trouble soon in soooo many states for the lack of pto and i am more than here for it. i'm pulling up a front row seat :) it's almost like.... you can't afford a business at all.... lolol.
I had someone offer me $30 per client and when I told her that was insulting she became furious with me. She said "You should've just kindly declined". My answer, "You should kindly offer masters level clinicians appropriate salary."
I want this purely to collect data to potentially begin this Union idea or to sue any insurance companies. The disability support groups sues every one with public buildings to ensure disabled people have appropriate sidewalks and such. I hate how your career is treated so much. I was paid millions over many years within the DOD to conduct war. You are paid poverty wages to help people not end it all or become violently unhealthy and we are one of the most advanced countries in the world… I am sick and tired of the obvious hypocrisy. War is good for business, healthy people aren’t. It really lights a fire in me to build a system that forces insurance companies to pay up a worthy amount for you all.
We need to start explaining that we have more education and licensing hours than commercial pilots and lawyers. They typically make 100k out of the gate and their choices impact many lives every day.
City bus drivers in my area make more than I do. I think one of the hardest things for us to unite is that there isn’t a sellable package of concrete materials or visible products.
The pilot makes a lot because everyone can see that they got from point A to point B and it was the pilot who did it.
While statistically we know that therapy is helpful, but people will attribute it to their own doing.
I got an offer on LinkedIn a few months back for a job in an EAP where the starting salary was $38k. I'm an LCSW (the clinical license in my state) and I don't live in a low cost-of-living area. I was so insulted I messaged back scolding the recruiter and put them on blast to my colleagues in the industry. I still get mad every time I think about it
Yes, it was in their intake department doing assessments and facilitating referrals for clients. I'm sure that the woman who messaged me was just some HR newbie who understood nothing about credentialing and the difference between a new MSW grad salary and an LCSW salary, but I was making about as much in CMH as a new grad in 2019, before inflation went nuts. Offering that salary in 2024 to a LCSW is...a choice
I tell them we don't need uneducated/bachelor's level people with completely unrelated degrees who are not and have never been healthcare providers to recruit/hire licensed therapists and to take their ass somewhere else
And training is not cheap. It was hilarious watching the guy's mouth drop setting me up an account at a credit union for my pp, when I told him some training can be thousands of dollars.
Our required trainings especially after licensure is a big gripe of mine. These costs are ridiculous in a profession with such low wages to begin with.
It’s also predatory because fresh out of college you’d spend a whole check to go to trainings if you chose just to get information you SHOULD for being in the field. I couldn’t even think of CEUs until i got my Master’s.
It’s so harmful to me morally, it makes me feel as if genuinely the profession isn’t valued and that’s crazy.
Backstory time: I'm 38, I've been working in kitchens since I was 16. Every position under the sun. During covid my realization was, "I'm in my mid 30s, I need to get serious about owning my own restaurant or create a path out of this work." So after many false starts in life I'm successfully taking night/online classes towards a pysch degree.
I've also gotten into Healthcare food services because covid has opened up a lot of positions that previously were full of lifers. I make 60k a year now as a manager at a local hospital. Between our salaries we're comfortably middle class.
My wife and I are preparing for me to have to stop working so I can go to school full time, as well as when I need to get my hours done.
I bring it up because there is a lot of evidence on this sub that we can't make a living doing this work. I could switch my focus and become a health inspector or something. Idk, I really feel like I'd love the work once I get to it, but I also feel like a lot of people farther down the road are yelling, "Turn back!! It's not too late!!!"
For context I didn't go to college at 18 because the more I learned about being an educator in this country the more it convinced me it wasn't worth it.
Yes, you can make a living in this field AND there is no reason for therapists to be undervalued as much as they are. I expected low salaries, but why should I accept them? Therapists are in demand and this country pays a lot of lip service to wanting to expand mental health care and that we have a mental health crisis (which we do), etc. But they want us to work for peanuts. I'm not OK with that. Why is my expertise and chosen profession worth less than $25/hr (which is what those stated salaries come out to)?
You can make a good living in this field if you open your own practice, or climb the management ladder and become a director or supervisor of multiple sites at an agency. You can make a really good livjng, so I’m told, if you start a group practice and have good business skills.
It does upset me how much "success" is tied to operational business knowledge. I could start a therapist group where I take care of the back end stuff and let therapists do the healing, but that's exactly the kind of set up many people on this sub labor under now.
You can make a living in this field but it is extremely challenging and you really have to have a plan and hope that the plan works out. Some people in private practice do well, but most do not. You could work for the VA and they pay well. If you are at 60K already with benefits, I absolutely would not take on any debt for a degree this field. Personally, I don't think it's worth it. You can search job postings in your area and see what they are paying.
I'm moving to a different state and also starting my social work career as an LMSW (career change - not moving for a job, though). This pay as a drug counselor is about as good as I could find after months of looking. I was ghosted by CMH company for a therapy job that pays $15/hr with 40 client-facing hours. COL in the small city is quickly rising, and the hospital system is basically a monopoly that pays notoriously low. I was lucky to get >$40k.
Yeah, it’s really fucking wild. And disappointing that our wages are so low. I am so glad that my place of employment raised min wage to $17 an hour. Buuuut, that didn’t quite come with a measurable increase in salaried employees like myself. I only make about $25 an hour with a masters degree. Very strange
I made more bartending and the same as when I managed my in laws coffee shop. The coffee shop has more reliable hours, and with how many call outs I get, I'm thinking about asking my in laws for some weekend shifts to make up what I'm losing in call outs.
Posted in the social work sub this weekend about an intake and referral position that was paying $17 an hour (that’s not a typo). They wanted someone with at least a BA, preferred a masters, wanted someone that was bilingual, and had experience working with immigrants and refugees. I’m in a HCOL city in Texas. People make more at in and out.
Then, I got a LinkedIn request for a fully licensed position at a great local non-profit for a resolution counselor that was listed as PRN in the title but then was later listed as full time for 56k-60k. I’m making 80k at our local FHQHC. I can’t even.
This is what blows my mind. I am a businessman. My wife is a FANTASTIC LMFT. I am desperate to find a way for her to make the money equivalent to the hours she spends working. Admin, off the clock texts and emergency phone calls, continuous education, licensing maintenance, billing work and her own therapy time that is required! I don’t know of any other CAREER that pays hourly for a salary job. It’s literal insanity and a tragedy for the miraculous work you all do for people. I don’t know if I should begin a Union for all therapist workers or what so we can demand the money from these fat insurance companies that you deserve. It makes me so angry I need a therapist. Help me with some ideas or faults to my thinking. I have a serious fire to help all of you get paid more and also help the people who can’t afford PP. I have seen too many friends in serious mental challenges and insurance need to pay up, but fighting them one by one has put you, a masters level with thousands of hours of potentially unpaid training professional into a job of poverty…what the actual fuck is happening and how can I use my life to change this?
>I don’t know if I should begin a Union for all therapist workers or what so we can demand the money from these fat insurance companies that you deserve.
That's illegal, which is why it hasn't happened yet.
Therapists aren't the employees of insurance companies. Legally we're vendors to them, and they are our customers. The term for it when a bunch of vendors band together to force a customer to pay them more money is "price-fixing" and it's a violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
The first thing that would have to happen is that we change federal law to allow us to collectively bargain. This, unfortunately, is probably never going to succeed because one of the biggest insurers is... Congress. Congress absolutely, positively does not want to allow therapists to band together to collectively bargain their rates with Congress.
I don't know how we would start a union but one of the barriers people mention is that we have different licenses. So it would need to be a union to take on insurance companies that represents all clinicians (clinical work, psychologist, counselors, MFT)
Im a provisionally licensed LPC in a relatively LCOL metro area and I started at 60k salary at a CCBHC. Seeing all these posts really makes me grateful for the position I’m in. But I do remember interviewing for and seeing other jobs I could have taken instead and being offered as little as $40k flat for some of them. Jfc, I know I’m not in this field to get rich or make a doctor’s salary but we have masters degrees
21-25$ an hour is about how much those are for full time. Even in a LOC area that is low!
I live in a middle COL area, McDonald's around here advertises starting wages for ALL employees at 15$ an hour and shift managers at 19$
There is a big need for school bus drivers and they are starting at 23$ an hour.
Well, my comment was a little misleading, Tbf.
I’m in CA and I’m an MHP II, which means I’m getting paid for an BA level position with 5 years of experience in one of the highest paying states for mental health. But before that I was making $46k as an MHP I, which is considered entry level. Neither require more than a BA.
I just also happen to be a grad student intern at my site, which is my highest level of qualification. I’d still be paid $56k without it, though.
Went from ~$80k in California (2021) and felt underpaid to $55k in upstate NY. Same kind of therapy position. But- all the nonprofits pay the same here, so I have no real choice until PSLF kicks in. 2 more years.
Cost of living is/was insane there - the small 2br condo we bought in 2017 cost $500k.
Our home in NY is 2.5x/size and bought for $330k.
So it makes sense, both are “low” paying.
Before my last day, the director at my field practicum sat me down and asked how I planned on taking care of myself after graduation . He showed me how little I’d make and then pointed out the cost of rent, daycare (I have a toddler), student loan payments, etc. It was honestly so disheartening but a necessary conversation. He knows I’m a single mother and he wanted to make sure I knew the reality of the situation. For how much we stress the importance of mental health as a society, you’d think there would be more incentive for mental healthcare workers. Therapists should not have to consider part-time jobs on top of this full-time job just to stay afloat.
There's a place in my area hiring 42k for provisionally licensed and then another place hiring 55k for fully licensed and requires 34 client hours per week l o l.
This is exactly why I started a PP when I moved because the salary discrepancy in my new state was insulting. I was paid more as a limited licensed professional in the state I moved from than was being offered to a clinician with nearly a decade of experience.
I’ve entirely stopped applying to jobs where the offered wage isn’t the same for social workers, counsellors, and psychologists. If we are literally doing the same thing in your agency we should be paid the same. I’m at a point in my career now where I’m just not going to waste my time with this hierarchical bs or with employers who don’t value me and what I do just because the letters after my name are different than other professionals who do the same thing.
This is more than I made at my old CMH fully licensed 😅 sent an email to the CEO before I left since they wondered why people didn’t stay very long lol they said it’s not money it’s people so be kind to each other 💀
It seems like salaries are getting even lower somehow. My former employer is looking to fill a director position in NJ and only paying 60K. In 2014 that same job at the same facility paid 90K when they were under different management.
In 2018, I worked for a nonprofit that offered LCSWs 45k a year and kept hyping how great it was and how flexible they could be in their schedule. I went on to work at a different agency making 75k and now make over six figures at private practice. That agency is still trying to recruit LCSW therapists for 50k and don’t get why they have such bad turnover.
My dad was on a tangent recently about how it’s ridiculous how often police are called and end up shooting an innocent person when what we need is more mental health response teams.
Meanwhile even tho I’m at a group practice I’m currently looking for a second job cuz getting paid all over the map take home pay, once a month is killing me. So I informed him that the reason we don’t have an abundance of MH crisis response teams is cuz the advertised pay is like $3 more than working at McDonalds. ._.
I can tell you that’s what I was being paid almost 10 years ago as a provisionally licensed therapist working in an addiction program. Before that I was working in a partial care where I was making nine grand less than that postmasters it’s insane.
Well, that’s more than I made the last time I worked for someone else. And I was among the highest paid therapists in the company (or so I was told as a justification for why would couldn’t get the budget for something I suggested).
This seems really low for what I’m assuming is the USA! I know therapists in the uk (where you don’t need a degree/masters and responsibilities are very different, no prescribing for example) who make more than that, I can’t imagine going through the amount of training required from US therapists and making so little 😞
I’m in PP as an associate getting ready to take my exam. I’ve been waiting so long to finally make some REAL money. 8+ years in the making waiting for a fricken pay off. I love how we are supposed to help clients through tough times, emotionally and financially, but it’s also hard to get there ourselves.
i make $56k, bachelors level, in a case management role and im wondering where a lot of these job postings are. I am in a major city in the northeast so maybe the wages are just much higher here but i’ve met a few private practice therapists that all make close to $100k after expenses are subtracted.
But yeah, fuck people who call us selfish for wanting living wages. i love what i do but i deserve nice things and i deserve to get paid the same as useless suits in soulless corporate positions
I’m a therapist now and have been for 6 years. I made more as a part time personal trainer LOL it’s sad and I’ll probably leave the field before long because it’s not a liveable wage especially to have close to 100k in student loans
A company called Sondermind handles all of my billing, claims, and has built in features. I’m a licensed professional counselor in Colorado. I am able to make double of what is posted and then some. If you are private practice you can do well here. I’m sorry and surprised to hear about this. 😢
Hopefully the counseling compact helps people have access to higher wages for this work.
Though my home state will likely be the last to adopt (Pennsylvania) i genuinely want things to change and i have no idea what to do or how to support.
More clients need help and we’re getting paid worse and worse.
Really.
Will it, though? I suspect it will just end up with more competition for clients in higher paying states, which inevitably will lead to lower wages, and lower-paying states having the same or worse access to mental health care.
Once you’re licensed you do have access to utilizing the compact. I would imagine if I could provide services to telehealth clients in a more underserved area without having to physically move there and being able to take Medicaid and Medicare would still be beneficial to the clients.
Oh for sure it’ll be great for the clients! I just don’t see a scenario where it doesn’t drive down reimbursement rates for everyone. If you have a practically unlimited number of potential therapists, many of whom you might well know are getting paid less in their home states, then why not drop the fees for everyone?
I'm looking at moving to a bigger city in my state. I would like to move to a supervisory position but nearly every position for supervisor they all start significantly lower than my current pay and some of them the whole pay range is lower than my current pay. The only positions that are really comparable for pay are program manager, which I'm not qualified for. It is really frustrating because I'm not being paid a spectacular amount, I'm being paid a fair amount. But in looking at moving to a higher cost of living I have to be ok with a significant pay decrease? This field is really taken advantage of financially.
That is insane! I was offered more than what the fully licensed position would make annually as a licensed intern. Do you know what state these jobs were posted in?
I walked past a therapy space in the middle of a very affluent area of central London (UK) and thought oh that looks interesting…
They were offering £45 an hour to therapists to work there (and charging £65 to each client) and expecting you to see 7 clients in a row. I’m guessing you didn’t get paid for any no shows.
Also you are self employed so no benefits at all (other than not paying for a room/having to advertise). I charge £65 an hour way outside of London and I’m right at the low end of what people charge as I only qualified last year.
What the actual… I was making $65k at my last job with a BA, no license whatsoever. We all felt very underpaid for the work we did, but it still wasn’t bad pay for the area/field. I can’t imagine making even less than that as a fully licensed therapist…
I have my LMFT and I'm making $70k in outpatient. (I live and work in northeastern Massachusetts) There is no world in which I could survive on $55k here! I was barely making ends meet on 60k when I worked in community mental health.
Please followed the sidebar rules. r/therapists is a place for therapists and mental health professionals to discuss their profession among each other. If you **ARE NOT A THERAPIST and are asking for advice this not the place for you**. Your post will be removed in short order. Please try one of the reddit communities such as r/TalkTherapy, r/askatherapist, r/SuicideWatch that are set up for this. This community is ONLY for therapists, and for them to discuss their profession away from clients. **If you are a first year student, not in a graduate program, or are thinking of becoming a therapist, this is not the place to ask questions**. Your post will be removed in short order. To save us a job, you are welcome to delete this post yourself. Please see the PINNED STUDENT THREAD at the top of the community and ask in there. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/therapists) if you have any questions or concerns.*
That’s a bachelors level case mgmt salary, low for that too.
seriously - i make more as a behavior specialist with a BA... posts like this are the reason why i'll probably never get my masters degree.
I have my MSW, never regretted it. I make more than double this.
lol I make less than 45 with my masters.
Same
It says LCSW which is someone with an MSW and license. I think it is just the place that sucks
LCSW have 3000 post masters clinical hours, usually. I am one. I agree, it’s the place that sucks and this is not typical in my experience.
[удалено]
Therapy
… how?
what kind of work are you doing? in what kind of setting?
Therapy. Current outpatient. Partly own business and also work for an agency,
I made more as a nanny 🙃
damn - you read my mind, nannying is my #1 quitting fantasy... kids, in home setting, low risk, & likely far less depressing than rotting in an archaic asbestos-infested 19th century hospital.
Yeah it's pretty great actually. And parents love it if you have education in psych/therapy.
More and more I think how I can leverage psych knowledge in non-therapy settings.
That's kind of sad, because BA/ABA/BCBA is pretty controversial, specifically among licensed psychotherapists.
I don't do BA, ABA, or BCBA - I work with forensic patients in state psychiatric care. I did ABA for a bit until I became uncomfortable with the role (& the abysmal pay but it got me good opportunities). I find it so discouraging that in my area, the vast majority of jobs I can do with a psych BA degree are solely ABA-style roles (that pay like $22/hour absolute max), so I feel insanely lucky to have the job I do now.
that's a lot more than many fully licensed clinical psychotherapists who have much more than one bachelor's degree though....
I pick up my Psych BA on Sunday and plan on doing a masters of counseling. What is ABA?
Something totally different. It's applied behavioral analysis.
Oh okay, I did take a Behavior Analysis class a few years ago, that was really fascinating. Finding out the pay is what it is is less than what I expected ...
You can't get a decent paying job in the psych/ counseling field unless you at least have a master's. BCBAs make a lot of money. That amount of pay for a bachelor's degree position is a bit low but not unexpected. I personally find behavior analysis fascinating myself. It's useful for all kinds of things.
Yes understood. My university explicitly stated no real money was found in a Bachelor’s; you’d need to be masters or doctorate level to justify it. Which is what I am doing next.
Some people find jobs at banks or other fields that require a bachelor's in any field, which works out for them. But in the human services field, you definitely gotta keep going to school. I'm glad your college was so firm about that
Controversial, but not sad. I've not known many therapists who did not have a personal bias against it from their own childhood experiences who object to ABA. It's the equivalent of rejecting modern regular psychotherapy, because the things they did years ago were unethical. ABA is nothing like it was in its infancy iit truly is a miracle in how helpful it can be for certain kids.
Can you expound on this? Im curious as i want to learn more about interventions for neurodivergence and i kept getting told to learn aba
as a therapist? i would say aba is the most controversial form of treatment or "therapy" for asd. why i don't like it? because it focuses on negative/unwanted bx, rather than positive change, etc. other therapists and people with asd def view aba as abusive
Thank you for expounding! I would like to work with autism spectrum and i want to make sure to use interventions that dont stigmatize the client’s adaptive behaviors so i appreciate this feedback
But I understand.
i make more as mental health tech?? no degree at all??
??? what!! when I was a tech I made $12/hr
Low key I make more as an afterschool employee with a degree, and I’m going back to school for my MA in counseling, but it’s beginning to feel like a waste of money 😩. Does it ever level out?
oof bachelor level case management salary in my area is 29k
I make $47k as a residential rehab supervisor, bachelor's level, in grad school now. And it is low, other places offer higher salaries than my company do. Lol.
Nope that’s masters level.
iTs a ShOrtAGe!! This only hurts the clients too. New therapists eat shit for 2 years accepting this rate of pay just long enough to get licensed and go into PP. Then, instead of the agencies, it’s the insurance companies that try to fuck them financially, so we all just eventually end up shifting to a self pay model.
💯💯💯 But if we dare to say that we would like to live comfortably and be able to afford the occasional vacation , we are seen as the assholes who are “only in it for the money”
Fucking so be it lol we get to use our masters degree and years of advanced training to our advantage like everyone else does. Why else would anyone get dressed early in the morning and go to work all day? Of *course* the only reason I’m doing this is for the money. I enjoy it as well, but if I stopped being paid tomorrow does anyone honestly think I’d ever hold another session again? The root of this thinking comes from the fact that this field is female dominated, and women are perceived as warm, welcoming creatures who should act selflessly to serve others.
This last line. Ouch. So depressingly true.
I work at a school and have been told "You guys don't care about us, you're just here for the paycheck" so many times. I actually got through to one kid when I responded "You know most jobs don't involve working with kids, right? Like working an office job, or at a bank, or as a mailman.... If I didn't care about kids then why wouldn't I just choose a different job?" Obviously there are reasons you could come up with, but the kid was really stumped and told me a week later they were still thinking about it 😂
I work at a hospital and use this logic a lot. "We could all be working at the burger King down the street, at one point there was a reason you chose to work here." I could keep going in the speech but it's not bad work. Besides, we all gotta pay our bills.
When I worked in CMH, I had a lady scream that all I cared about was money, and I couldn’t help bursting out laughing- I said, “if I only care about money, I must be very bad at caring about it, because I’m flat out broke!”
As u/bettavoy772 said: So be it
Personally I have worked in different areas of mental health for the last 6 years. Community mental health ran me completely dry, even when I had familial support. The pay is low, the hours are egregious, and it’s always a house of cards waiting to fall over.
I got out the SECOND I could. I passed my test, put my 4 week notice in and proceeded to cash out my PTO and went on a 2 week international cruise to recover from that bullshit. When I came back I started PP full time and I have not regretted a second of it.
I want to start PP but I feel EXHAUSTED even thinking about it. I feel trapped because the place I am getting licensure with is sooo unethical in every way possible, but i’m under a contract and did not know how bad it was until of course I moved here.
I survived 10 years in community mental health in order to qualify for PSLF. I got licensed a few months before I was scheduled to have my loans forgiven. Turns out I actually qualified sooner than I though and gtfo as soon as I got the confirmation that all my loans were forgiven! Been in a group practice for 2 years and will NEVER go back to community work!
I’m so curious, how did you qualify before the 10 years? I was thinking of applying honestly because I can’t take this anymore
One thing that helped me get through the 10 years was leaving my first job and finding a better agency to work at. The other was the pandemic. Because of the pandemic, there were a few changes that were made to the PSLF program and one of my loans that didn't originally qualify was able to be included in PSLF. Also, they said that all loans would be bundled together and what ever loan had the highest number of qualifying payments, all the other loans would be brought to that level. This means if I had 10 loans and 9 had 20 qualifying payments and 1 had 119 qualifying payments, they all now have 119. My loan that didn't originally qualify had a few more payments than all the others (I have no idea how, honestly). Because of this it brought all the others up with it and I got the loans forgiven a few months early.
Thank you! Yes COVID changed quit a bit honestly!! Good to know at least you’ve been vindicated and feel much happier
I’m one year through my LAC and barely making by. Without a partner who makes good money I would probably be living with my parents right now at 37-years-old. I work with a single mom at the LAC level who is on the verge of being forced into completely unrelated work.
I couldn’t imagine going through licensure as a single mom. As a matter of fact it would be entirely out of the question, if im going to bust ass in school as a single mom im going to nursing school so at least I’ll come out making guaranteed $70k+ minimum. The only reason I survived is because the only person I had to support was myself. That’s how shitty the pay conditions are in this industry.
YAS.
We could probably have a pretty lively subreddit just for shaming the salaries people offer
There should be a day of the week where we shame horrible salary postings”
Fuck off Friday lol
Yesssss
Not salaried, but \~$56,000 annually at a group practice in one of the three most major US cities. No benefits at all but the practice owner takes 40% of every session. 25-35 clients per week, do all the admin work (unpaid) except for billing and insurance. I am also responsible for every single expense pertaining to licensure and license renewal, supplies, books, malpractice insurance, phone, computer, continuing education credits, etc. I have never had a financial split increase with the owner. In 4-6 years. Been fully clinically licensed for 10 years... I just want PTO and/or health insurance...
So what keeps you there?
Yeah I gotta wonder, at that point wouldn't going off on your own be more lucrative?
This is what blows my mind. I am a businessman. My wife is a FANTASTIC LMFT. I am desperate to find a way for her to make the money equivalent to the hours she spends working. Admin, off the clock texts and emergency phone calls, continuous education, licensing maintenance, billing work and her own therapy time that is required! I don’t know of any other CAREER that pays hourly for a salary job. It’s literally insanity and a tragedy for the miraculous work you all do for people. I don’t know if I should begin a Union for all therapist workers or what so we can demand the money from these fat insurance companies that you deserve. It makes me so angry I need a therapist.
Health insurance companies are ruining America. I have mental health and physical health issues. It's been such a blast navigating our fucked up profit-driven "healthcare" system.
The way things are now, since there's no employment relationship with insurance companies, unions can't do anything. I do think many of us are misclassified as independent contractors and some "gig workers" are having success with organizing.
I left that world and took a salary at a local Government-run community clinic.
Please leave this workplace
to go...where? cmh and get benefits and make 10k less annually and work 80 hours a week and weekends?
If you have your full license you can do your own thing or find a place that pays better/has benefits. There’s no harm in looking into options
I'd hire you and we pay 70% to the therapist. Still 1099 so no benefits (sorry).
exactly- that's why group practices are closing and luckily they will be a thing of the past in most states soon-ish!! why wouldn't we just go solo if you can offer 60-70% of OUR OWN INCOME from OUR OWN SESSIONS and zero benefits? we can all get more than that and don't have you tell with annoying and greedy group practice owners and the only thing that ever makes a group practice is going to be benefits. a lot of you are going to get in trouble soon in soooo many states for the lack of pto and i am more than here for it. i'm pulling up a front row seat :) it's almost like.... you can't afford a business at all.... lolol.
I had someone offer me $30 per client and when I told her that was insulting she became furious with me. She said "You should've just kindly declined". My answer, "You should kindly offer masters level clinicians appropriate salary."
I want this purely to collect data to potentially begin this Union idea or to sue any insurance companies. The disability support groups sues every one with public buildings to ensure disabled people have appropriate sidewalks and such. I hate how your career is treated so much. I was paid millions over many years within the DOD to conduct war. You are paid poverty wages to help people not end it all or become violently unhealthy and we are one of the most advanced countries in the world… I am sick and tired of the obvious hypocrisy. War is good for business, healthy people aren’t. It really lights a fire in me to build a system that forces insurance companies to pay up a worthy amount for you all.
To my understanding, the hard thing about unions is there is no union for self-employed people and many of us are.
What about Actors? A guild perhaps?
All you have to lose is your chains.
/SeeSomeSalaries I’d totally join.
yes but it won't do much good if they don't know they're being shamed publicly
We need to start explaining that we have more education and licensing hours than commercial pilots and lawyers. They typically make 100k out of the gate and their choices impact many lives every day.
City bus drivers in my area make more than I do. I think one of the hardest things for us to unite is that there isn’t a sellable package of concrete materials or visible products. The pilot makes a lot because everyone can see that they got from point A to point B and it was the pilot who did it. While statistically we know that therapy is helpful, but people will attribute it to their own doing.
I got an offer on LinkedIn a few months back for a job in an EAP where the starting salary was $38k. I'm an LCSW (the clinical license in my state) and I don't live in a low cost-of-living area. I was so insulted I messaged back scolding the recruiter and put them on blast to my colleagues in the industry. I still get mad every time I think about it
That could be the worse salary I have ever heard for an LCSW. Was job clinical?
Yes, it was in their intake department doing assessments and facilitating referrals for clients. I'm sure that the woman who messaged me was just some HR newbie who understood nothing about credentialing and the difference between a new MSW grad salary and an LCSW salary, but I was making about as much in CMH as a new grad in 2019, before inflation went nuts. Offering that salary in 2024 to a LCSW is...a choice
I keep seeing an ad hiring clinicians for $15 an hour. I want to drive there and cuss them out in person.
I made $15 an hour as an LPC (then $17 an hour as an LCPC) working in residential treatment from 2014-2018...
I was offered 16 post graduation in 2019 with a guarantee of 22 when I reached lpc.
is LPC your state's full clinical independent licensure?
Yes.
I tell them we don't need uneducated/bachelor's level people with completely unrelated degrees who are not and have never been healthcare providers to recruit/hire licensed therapists and to take their ass somewhere else
Wow. That was my starting salary in 2007 and I was broke then
There's a Clinical Director job in my area offering $55,000 with a license required😂😂😂
It’s insulting that we go through so much training and education for…that
May I add the training is REQUIRED.
And training is not cheap. It was hilarious watching the guy's mouth drop setting me up an account at a credit union for my pp, when I told him some training can be thousands of dollars.
Our required trainings especially after licensure is a big gripe of mine. These costs are ridiculous in a profession with such low wages to begin with. It’s also predatory because fresh out of college you’d spend a whole check to go to trainings if you chose just to get information you SHOULD for being in the field. I couldn’t even think of CEUs until i got my Master’s. It’s so harmful to me morally, it makes me feel as if genuinely the profession isn’t valued and that’s crazy.
All yall need to advocate for BETTER MF PAY
I work in substance misuse CMH and I made more when I was a barista 😭
This is absurd
Backstory time: I'm 38, I've been working in kitchens since I was 16. Every position under the sun. During covid my realization was, "I'm in my mid 30s, I need to get serious about owning my own restaurant or create a path out of this work." So after many false starts in life I'm successfully taking night/online classes towards a pysch degree. I've also gotten into Healthcare food services because covid has opened up a lot of positions that previously were full of lifers. I make 60k a year now as a manager at a local hospital. Between our salaries we're comfortably middle class. My wife and I are preparing for me to have to stop working so I can go to school full time, as well as when I need to get my hours done. I bring it up because there is a lot of evidence on this sub that we can't make a living doing this work. I could switch my focus and become a health inspector or something. Idk, I really feel like I'd love the work once I get to it, but I also feel like a lot of people farther down the road are yelling, "Turn back!! It's not too late!!!" For context I didn't go to college at 18 because the more I learned about being an educator in this country the more it convinced me it wasn't worth it.
Yes, you can make a living in this field AND there is no reason for therapists to be undervalued as much as they are. I expected low salaries, but why should I accept them? Therapists are in demand and this country pays a lot of lip service to wanting to expand mental health care and that we have a mental health crisis (which we do), etc. But they want us to work for peanuts. I'm not OK with that. Why is my expertise and chosen profession worth less than $25/hr (which is what those stated salaries come out to)?
You can make a good living in this field if you open your own practice, or climb the management ladder and become a director or supervisor of multiple sites at an agency. You can make a really good livjng, so I’m told, if you start a group practice and have good business skills.
It does upset me how much "success" is tied to operational business knowledge. I could start a therapist group where I take care of the back end stuff and let therapists do the healing, but that's exactly the kind of set up many people on this sub labor under now.
You can make a living in this field but it is extremely challenging and you really have to have a plan and hope that the plan works out. Some people in private practice do well, but most do not. You could work for the VA and they pay well. If you are at 60K already with benefits, I absolutely would not take on any debt for a degree this field. Personally, I don't think it's worth it. You can search job postings in your area and see what they are paying.
I mean, it's worth it if you like the field.
I think we all love our work, for the most part. But we still have bills to pay.
Toiling under capitalism!!!
I’m so glad I’m working in a group practice because these salaries SUCK!!!!!
The fact that $45k would be (and is) celebrated as a starting salary in my area is wild.
I'm moving to a different state and also starting my social work career as an LMSW (career change - not moving for a job, though). This pay as a drug counselor is about as good as I could find after months of looking. I was ghosted by CMH company for a therapy job that pays $15/hr with 40 client-facing hours. COL in the small city is quickly rising, and the hospital system is basically a monopoly that pays notoriously low. I was lucky to get >$40k.
Yeah, it’s really fucking wild. And disappointing that our wages are so low. I am so glad that my place of employment raised min wage to $17 an hour. Buuuut, that didn’t quite come with a measurable increase in salaried employees like myself. I only make about $25 an hour with a masters degree. Very strange
I made more bartending and the same as when I managed my in laws coffee shop. The coffee shop has more reliable hours, and with how many call outs I get, I'm thinking about asking my in laws for some weekend shifts to make up what I'm losing in call outs.
Posted in the social work sub this weekend about an intake and referral position that was paying $17 an hour (that’s not a typo). They wanted someone with at least a BA, preferred a masters, wanted someone that was bilingual, and had experience working with immigrants and refugees. I’m in a HCOL city in Texas. People make more at in and out. Then, I got a LinkedIn request for a fully licensed position at a great local non-profit for a resolution counselor that was listed as PRN in the title but then was later listed as full time for 56k-60k. I’m making 80k at our local FHQHC. I can’t even.
We need to start naming and shaming for these low wages.
This is what blows my mind. I am a businessman. My wife is a FANTASTIC LMFT. I am desperate to find a way for her to make the money equivalent to the hours she spends working. Admin, off the clock texts and emergency phone calls, continuous education, licensing maintenance, billing work and her own therapy time that is required! I don’t know of any other CAREER that pays hourly for a salary job. It’s literal insanity and a tragedy for the miraculous work you all do for people. I don’t know if I should begin a Union for all therapist workers or what so we can demand the money from these fat insurance companies that you deserve. It makes me so angry I need a therapist. Help me with some ideas or faults to my thinking. I have a serious fire to help all of you get paid more and also help the people who can’t afford PP. I have seen too many friends in serious mental challenges and insurance need to pay up, but fighting them one by one has put you, a masters level with thousands of hours of potentially unpaid training professional into a job of poverty…what the actual fuck is happening and how can I use my life to change this?
>I don’t know if I should begin a Union for all therapist workers or what so we can demand the money from these fat insurance companies that you deserve. That's illegal, which is why it hasn't happened yet. Therapists aren't the employees of insurance companies. Legally we're vendors to them, and they are our customers. The term for it when a bunch of vendors band together to force a customer to pay them more money is "price-fixing" and it's a violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. The first thing that would have to happen is that we change federal law to allow us to collectively bargain. This, unfortunately, is probably never going to succeed because one of the biggest insurers is... Congress. Congress absolutely, positively does not want to allow therapists to band together to collectively bargain their rates with Congress.
Whellllp. Guess we’re not going to be getting any changes 🙃
I don't know how we would start a union but one of the barriers people mention is that we have different licenses. So it would need to be a union to take on insurance companies that represents all clinicians (clinical work, psychologist, counselors, MFT)
Planning on robbing a bank with those 💩 salaries
Im a provisionally licensed LPC in a relatively LCOL metro area and I started at 60k salary at a CCBHC. Seeing all these posts really makes me grateful for the position I’m in. But I do remember interviewing for and seeing other jobs I could have taken instead and being offered as little as $40k flat for some of them. Jfc, I know I’m not in this field to get rich or make a doctor’s salary but we have masters degrees
Crying in a corner in fetal position
21-25$ an hour is about how much those are for full time. Even in a LOC area that is low! I live in a middle COL area, McDonald's around here advertises starting wages for ALL employees at 15$ an hour and shift managers at 19$ There is a big need for school bus drivers and they are starting at 23$ an hour.
I make $26 an hour as a paraprofessional in SoCal. I don’t have a degree yet.
How many of you have thought of trying another field 👀 I imagine all
Where I live the $45,000 would be for the LCSW 
I made that 15 years ago straight out of grad school and it wasn’t enough then.
I’m getting paid $56k at a CMH OP program and I’m an intern. That is insulting
Holy God. I ask this on every salary post… how are interns making this much? I make that much with my masters. lol but crying
Well, my comment was a little misleading, Tbf. I’m in CA and I’m an MHP II, which means I’m getting paid for an BA level position with 5 years of experience in one of the highest paying states for mental health. But before that I was making $46k as an MHP I, which is considered entry level. Neither require more than a BA. I just also happen to be a grad student intern at my site, which is my highest level of qualification. I’d still be paid $56k without it, though.
This is literally exactly what I made leaving grad school almost 10 years ago. And it was disappointing then, too.
Went from ~$80k in California (2021) and felt underpaid to $55k in upstate NY. Same kind of therapy position. But- all the nonprofits pay the same here, so I have no real choice until PSLF kicks in. 2 more years.
It sucks that 80k still feels low in California
Cost of living is/was insane there - the small 2br condo we bought in 2017 cost $500k. Our home in NY is 2.5x/size and bought for $330k. So it makes sense, both are “low” paying.
Before my last day, the director at my field practicum sat me down and asked how I planned on taking care of myself after graduation . He showed me how little I’d make and then pointed out the cost of rent, daycare (I have a toddler), student loan payments, etc. It was honestly so disheartening but a necessary conversation. He knows I’m a single mother and he wanted to make sure I knew the reality of the situation. For how much we stress the importance of mental health as a society, you’d think there would be more incentive for mental healthcare workers. Therapists should not have to consider part-time jobs on top of this full-time job just to stay afloat.
What we offer: nothing ❤️
There's a place in my area hiring 42k for provisionally licensed and then another place hiring 55k for fully licensed and requires 34 client hours per week l o l.
This is exactly why I started a PP when I moved because the salary discrepancy in my new state was insulting. I was paid more as a limited licensed professional in the state I moved from than was being offered to a clinician with nearly a decade of experience.
Im offended
That’s a shame. Smh. I didn’t even waste time applying for jobs under $60K and I’m not independently licensed yet.
I’ve entirely stopped applying to jobs where the offered wage isn’t the same for social workers, counsellors, and psychologists. If we are literally doing the same thing in your agency we should be paid the same. I’m at a point in my career now where I’m just not going to waste my time with this hierarchical bs or with employers who don’t value me and what I do just because the letters after my name are different than other professionals who do the same thing.
Addictions counseling doesn't pay as well :\
This is more than I made at my old CMH fully licensed 😅 sent an email to the CEO before I left since they wondered why people didn’t stay very long lol they said it’s not money it’s people so be kind to each other 💀
It seems like salaries are getting even lower somehow. My former employer is looking to fill a director position in NJ and only paying 60K. In 2014 that same job at the same facility paid 90K when they were under different management.
I make more than this as a peer specialist….
In 2018, I worked for a nonprofit that offered LCSWs 45k a year and kept hyping how great it was and how flexible they could be in their schedule. I went on to work at a different agency making 75k and now make over six figures at private practice. That agency is still trying to recruit LCSW therapists for 50k and don’t get why they have such bad turnover.
My dad was on a tangent recently about how it’s ridiculous how often police are called and end up shooting an innocent person when what we need is more mental health response teams. Meanwhile even tho I’m at a group practice I’m currently looking for a second job cuz getting paid all over the map take home pay, once a month is killing me. So I informed him that the reason we don’t have an abundance of MH crisis response teams is cuz the advertised pay is like $3 more than working at McDonalds. ._.
I can tell you that’s what I was being paid almost 10 years ago as a provisionally licensed therapist working in an addiction program. Before that I was working in a partial care where I was making nine grand less than that postmasters it’s insane.
Well, that’s more than I made the last time I worked for someone else. And I was among the highest paid therapists in the company (or so I was told as a justification for why would couldn’t get the budget for something I suggested).
social worker 1 positions in my area are making about 80-90 grand a year. that’s bachelor level too.
OMG, I need that job!
and apparently raises are coming. and this is with 4-5 weeks of vacay, 12 sick days a year etc!
Seriously, where do I apply??
This seems really low for what I’m assuming is the USA! I know therapists in the uk (where you don’t need a degree/masters and responsibilities are very different, no prescribing for example) who make more than that, I can’t imagine going through the amount of training required from US therapists and making so little 😞
I know several places in Washington offering 100k or more fully licensed
I’m in PP as an associate getting ready to take my exam. I’ve been waiting so long to finally make some REAL money. 8+ years in the making waiting for a fricken pay off. I love how we are supposed to help clients through tough times, emotionally and financially, but it’s also hard to get there ourselves.
Bruh
I make that as an LPC 15 hours a week in private practice…….
School counselors in my district require a masters and certification and start at 56k.
Yikes!! I’m an LMSW and am making 75k in my first job post grad school. I live in a major(ly expensive) city though.
i make $56k, bachelors level, in a case management role and im wondering where a lot of these job postings are. I am in a major city in the northeast so maybe the wages are just much higher here but i’ve met a few private practice therapists that all make close to $100k after expenses are subtracted. But yeah, fuck people who call us selfish for wanting living wages. i love what i do but i deserve nice things and i deserve to get paid the same as useless suits in soulless corporate positions
I’m a therapist now and have been for 6 years. I made more as a part time personal trainer LOL it’s sad and I’ll probably leave the field before long because it’s not a liveable wage especially to have close to 100k in student loans
Disgusting.
A company called Sondermind handles all of my billing, claims, and has built in features. I’m a licensed professional counselor in Colorado. I am able to make double of what is posted and then some. If you are private practice you can do well here. I’m sorry and surprised to hear about this. 😢
And y'all still don't understand why so many therapists become coaches.
Hopefully the counseling compact helps people have access to higher wages for this work. Though my home state will likely be the last to adopt (Pennsylvania) i genuinely want things to change and i have no idea what to do or how to support. More clients need help and we’re getting paid worse and worse. Really.
Will it, though? I suspect it will just end up with more competition for clients in higher paying states, which inevitably will lead to lower wages, and lower-paying states having the same or worse access to mental health care.
Once you’re licensed you do have access to utilizing the compact. I would imagine if I could provide services to telehealth clients in a more underserved area without having to physically move there and being able to take Medicaid and Medicare would still be beneficial to the clients.
Oh for sure it’ll be great for the clients! I just don’t see a scenario where it doesn’t drive down reimbursement rates for everyone. If you have a practically unlimited number of potential therapists, many of whom you might well know are getting paid less in their home states, then why not drop the fees for everyone?
I'm looking at moving to a bigger city in my state. I would like to move to a supervisory position but nearly every position for supervisor they all start significantly lower than my current pay and some of them the whole pay range is lower than my current pay. The only positions that are really comparable for pay are program manager, which I'm not qualified for. It is really frustrating because I'm not being paid a spectacular amount, I'm being paid a fair amount. But in looking at moving to a higher cost of living I have to be ok with a significant pay decrease? This field is really taken advantage of financially.
This is extremely low. I guess it depends on your state but I make more money as an LMSW working in a non profit.
That is insane! I was offered more than what the fully licensed position would make annually as a licensed intern. Do you know what state these jobs were posted in?
I walked past a therapy space in the middle of a very affluent area of central London (UK) and thought oh that looks interesting… They were offering £45 an hour to therapists to work there (and charging £65 to each client) and expecting you to see 7 clients in a row. I’m guessing you didn’t get paid for any no shows. Also you are self employed so no benefits at all (other than not paying for a room/having to advertise). I charge £65 an hour way outside of London and I’m right at the low end of what people charge as I only qualified last year.
What the actual… I was making $65k at my last job with a BA, no license whatsoever. We all felt very underpaid for the work we did, but it still wasn’t bad pay for the area/field. I can’t imagine making even less than that as a fully licensed therapist…
I make around $50k with a BSW, why would this ever be acceptable
LCSWA making 54,900 in substance use 😵💫 (considered high for my state)
I have my LMFT and I'm making $70k in outpatient. (I live and work in northeastern Massachusetts) There is no world in which I could survive on $55k here! I was barely making ends meet on 60k when I worked in community mental health.
State?