Funny Girl, Serious Bills

Photo by Bernard Hermant on Unsplash

Lately, I’ve been listening to My Name Is Barbra, Barbra Streisand’s forty-eight-hour audiobook (yes, forty-eight!). My husband teases me for choosing Barbra’s lengthy memoir over Winston Churchill’s, but between her storytelling, songs, and sheer confidence, it’s hard not to be captivated.

One story in particular stood out: when Barbra felt nervous negotiating for higher pay, she would imagine she was playing a character who was asking for what she deserved. Even icons, it turns out, sometimes have to act brave before they feel brave.

That idea hit home as I’ve been reflecting on the complicated relationship between money and therapy - how it feels to charge for deeply personal, caregiving work, and how often therapists wrestle with guilt, burnout, and the tension between accessibility and sustainability.

In this essay, I explore:
💰 Why therapy is valuable and also expensive to provide
🧠 The emotional labor therapists hold (and why it’s hard to put a price on it)
💬 How caregiving work is often undervalued, especially when coded as “feminine”
🔥 The moral pressure therapists feel when setting rates
💡 Why financial sustainability is an ethical issue for clients and clinicians alike

Therapists don’t go into this work for the money. But if we want to stay in it for the long haul, if we want to care well for others and ourselves, we have to start having honest, nuanced conversations about value, justice, and sustainability.

Sometimes, as Barbra taught me, that starts with pretending to be a little braver than we feel.

Read the full essay on Substack!

If you’re interested in learning more about my counseling approach, visit my About Me page — or subscribe to my Substack for more reflections on therapy, courage, and the art of caring for others without losing yourself.