Reader,

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Q:

"I need to increase my fees, but I am fearful of excluding people if I do. An increase could have a devastating impact on clients. How have others managed to raise their fees in a decolonial way?"

A:

This is a conversation I’ve had so many times with colleagues, supervisees, and coaching clients. It’s something I even wondered myself when I had a baby private practice and a new coaching business. I wanted to create more accessibility to services and at the same time knew I had to increase my fees if I wanted to pay my bills.

Part of me was confusing the term “accessible” with “affordable”. Raising my fees meant my services were not affordable for some, but I realized I could still create accessibility in other ways.

Raising fees in a colonial way means raising feels in a consumerist, capitalist, greedy way. This means wanting to make more money for the sole purpose of having more. You keep it all, you invest it, you make more money, you buy more stuff, you feel you need more, you make more money, and the cycle continues solely for personal benefit.

Raising your fees in a decolonial way means that you have considered several factors:

• your needs: how much do you need at the end of the month to pay your bills? how much do you need to earn to feel that your business supports you? how much do you need to continue growing as a person/attain your next developmental stage in life?
• your wellness: how much do you need to make per session/client to figure out how many clients you can see a week/month without burning out and still love what you do?
• the services you provide: what is a fair price for the service you provide? does the cost take into account all expenses you have related to the service you provide, i.e. license, liability insurance, etc.?
• your community: how will you give back to your community? would raising your fees allow you to open another sliding scale or a pro bono slot? what’s the percentage of you monthly income that you can give back to the local native community as a way of paying rent?
• your current clients: how much heads-up should you give current clients about raising your fees? 1 month, 2 months, 3 months? will you offer current clients to slowly increase their fee for, let’s say, three months until they match your new rate? what are the very appropriate referrals you will share with clients that you are almost certain can’t pay your new fee, and in what ways will you support said clients as they transition to a new provider?

Have you managed to raise your fees in a decolonial way? Let me know so that I can share your experience with this community!

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With much appreciation,

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Silvana @ Decolonize Your Practice​

PS.

Join a Decolonized Consultation sessions this year. After December I will pause for an extended time of community-care and be back in February or March.

These are the next dates: Monday 11am PT - 2pm ET

• BIPoC clinicians sessions: Dec 4
• white clinicians sessions: Nov 20, Dec 11

These are the links to join:

➡️ Consultation sessions for BIPoC clinicians​

➡️ Consultation sessions for white clinicians​

The sessions are recorded and you get a limited time replay afterwards.

PPS.

Want your own 1:1 Decolonized Consultation session?

Book one here​

What is a Decolonized Consultation Session?

It’s a series of individual online consultation meetings to audit your site, your paperwork, your service/offering to make it more decolonized and affirming of clients who hold minoritized identities.

I’ll give you feedback, point out your strengths and areas for growth.

And finally, we’ll develop a plan you can use to decolonize each and every aspect of your service, treatment, offering, and/or business.

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Let's connect!