Is it worth it?
Yesterday on a facebook group I’m on someone questioned the prices homeopaths charge – and oh my goodness – everyone had a lot to say about it! One lady happily payed $350 for her appointments whilst the average in America seemed to be about $150 per consultation. One woman wrote in reply to that:
“It would make homeopathy so out of reach for so many people if everyone charged that amount, people struggling with ill health and desperate for help maybe only scraping through to put dinner on the table. At one time I lived that life and I can tell you $150 would have seemed like a million to us.”
There are currently almost 200 comments on this post with everyone giving their opinions of the exorbitant charge of going to a homeopath or the opposite, that it’s money well spent and worth every penny (or dime!) Whilst it’s true that many of us homeopaths struggle to know how much to charge, there are clearly some who are very good businessmen/ women and earn a very good living from it, being confident in giving value for money so have no hang-ups at all about their prices. Believe me, none of us are in it just for the money, there are far more proficient ways of earning money, but we do need to earn some, or the bottom line is we will end up leaving and getting other jobs and the world will be a poorer place for it.
The thing is – to qualify as a homeopath it cost me around £16,000 plus travel costs, books etc. Then I did a 3 year post graduate course which was my choice but a further expense, and it has definitely improved my ability to be a good homeopath. Do I place value on all that learning? On my ability to help others? Luckily I don’t have to support a family on what I earn, but some homeopaths do so their choice is to charge a realistic amount, or give up what they’re good at, what they’ve invested in and what they love, and go and get another job, and then, perhaps the remaining homeopaths would end up charging more anyway because they’d all be overused.
As well as all our studying costs, we need to now be able to pay our overheads – a consultation room, remedies, postage, insurances, marketing, further study etc. My charges are fairly modest, working out at approximately £30 to £40 per hour of someone being with me, although sometimes I need to work on a case afterwards because I’m not sure of the remedy and this, will of course bring my hourly rate right down – also included within that rate would be all of the above overheads. So, look at one of my days last week and see what you think:
First an early monthly appointment via Skype with a mother of a 6 year old boy on the autistic spectrum. His speech is improving each month, his aggression is much better and his high pitch screaming has disappeared. I’m really delighted with his progress, but his mum is losing heart. I reminded her of just how far he has come, but getting him to take supplements and remember remedies is taking its toll so she is taking a break for now. I do sympathise, and I’m confident she’ll be in touch again but it seems a shame not to build on the great progress we’ve already made. Charge for this was £35 because treating autism is slightly different and more involved, with extra remedies and support.
My second appointment is a lovely lady who suffers terribly with anxiety. I’ve treated her little boy (actually also on the spectrum) before and now she’s come for herself. It soon became obvious to me that she needed the same remedy as her son so I was able to confirm this over and over again during the consultation and send her off with a remedy. I expect her to do brilliantly and I’m looking forward to seeing the improvement. Normally I charge £55 for an initial consultation, but I’d seen her son and this was very simple so I charged £40.
After lunch I had a young lady return who I saw a couple of months ago. Anxiety was ruining her life she previously told me, and she was clearly very stressed about various things that couldn’t easily be changed, and anxious about so many things that she didn’t need to be anxious about. She suffered from palpitations, googled her symptoms all the while and felt she was going mad. I was interested in how she was now; I knew from her phone call that she felt the remedy had worked well so I was looking forward to hearing how much it had done. Today she kept repeating that she didn’t know how to thank me enough “I’m 100% better” she kept saying and has returned because she’s now not sleeping as well as she has done over the last couple of months and wanted to nip it in the bud before the anxiety returns. I charged her my normal £40 follow up fee and gave her a remedy.
Next, is a lady, who frankly I struggle with a bit. Her complaint is hair loss (she looks as though she has a beautiful head of hair to me – but I realise she puts a lot of effort in for that). She’s a young mother and this is her 4th visit. I honestly don’t feel as though I’m helping her much although I try very hard to find a remedy to suit her. Again I sit and listen to her problems and hear that she thinks the last remedy hasn’t done anything. I think I agree with her – I’m not necessarily looking for an improvement in her hair – which as I say, looks good to me anyway – I’m looking for a bit of a happier disposition on life, and I just don’t see it. I send her off without a remedy because I need to work on it more and come up with a 5th choice! Not that hopeful really, I feel I’m missing something, but I’ve tried hard and will continue to do so. I charged her £25 because I feel bad I haven’t helped her much already.
My last patient is a boy who I’ve been seeing perhaps annually for about 4 years. He’s now a teenager and always looks very sheepish and lets his mum do most of the talking. He’s lovely, and rather embarrassed as he admits his insomnia’s back along with his night time fears and paranoia. After checking a few things I repeat the remedy he had a year or so ago – he always does so well on it. I charge him my normal £25 child’s follow up fee.
A busy day for me, very few days are that busy in my practice but today a total income of £165, making my husband very happy! Quite often that might be what I earn in a week and of course I still have to pay all my overheads and expenses out of it. I believe that I’ve given good value for money. In all but one case I have (or I expect to) significantly improve my patient’s life, and in the one I haven’t really helped much yet, I certainly have worked hard enough on it!
Thankfully I’ve had more positive than negative experiences today and although it may not have left me rich, it certainly has left me happy.