How much can you charge as a healer?

There’s this idea that you shouldn’t charge high rates if you’re a healer.

Because:

• You’ve been given a gift, so you should share it freely
• Focusing on money will damage your connection to the source
• Money is irrelevant compared to how you can help people
• If you focus on money, you won’t be doing what you love
• What you’re doing is intensive enough, without doing fancy marketing
• It’s difficult enough managing your energy
• Money is an earthly concern, so not relevant to what you do

Let’s unpack these ideas in this blog, to see where the real concerns lie and where you could give yourself some grace. That will help you decide how much you can really charge as a healer.

Amazing gifts

You’ve been given an amazing gift. Truly. And that’s wonderful. And you should absolutely share it. But freely? You already know that someone can’t be fully healed unless they are ready. So, lets remove the word freely.

I’ve been given a gift, so I want to share it.

How does that sound? (we also got rid of the word ‘should’. I’m sure you know why that is).

How does that make you feel about how much you can charge as a healer?

Connection to source

There’s a big concern I hear about damaging your connection to source by charging money for what you do. And obviously you don’t want that. But are these two things really linked? This is a good question to journal about and to ask your guides.

I suspect that your concern is that by focusing solely on money you would damage your connection to source. Which is very reasonable. But who said anything about focusing solely on money. So, it’s a question of degree.

Let’s do another rephrase. Focusing solely on money will damage your connection to source. Which means you could safely include money in your focus. How much? You’ll have to decide that yourself.

Money is irrelevant

One of the funny things we do with our minds is creating comparisons. We start this as kids – she’s the pretty one, I’m the smart one. It’s part of the way that we create our identities. What we don’t do is question why we are comparing in the first place.

Let’s do that now. Why should you compare money to what you do? Would you compare a banana to what you do? (hopefully not). The two things are actually separate.

Let’s rephrase this one too: Comparing money to what I do is irrelevant.

You can take this further. Comparing a lot of money to what I do is irrelevant. 

Focusing on money

This is a big fear I hear about – if I focus on money, I won’t enjoy what I do as much anymore. This comes back to the sole focus again, but there’s something else to unpack in this statement too. What if you don’t focus on money at all? What happens then?

Here’s what I see happening too often. Healers having a chronically low income, which brings enormous stress and difficult choices. And that affects your enjoyment and your energy. Can you afford to not focus on money at all?

Try this instead:

I can focus on money AND on doing what I love.

That gives you space to discover what you can charge as a healer and still feel good about it.

Intensive enough

This is when things are already so intensive, that the thought of having to do marketing to earn more income, feels like an enormous mountain about to land on your head.

This is a sign of overwhelm.

One of the things that healers talk about a lot if overwhelm; there is just so much going on, in terms of energy, emotions, clearing, connecting exploring, and supporting others.

I’m the last person to tell you that this isn’t a lot. But (you knew a but was coming, didn’t you?) overwhelm doesn’t improve by itself. You need to fix the root causes, just like you would tell your clients.

One way you could experience less overwhelm is by working less. That would give you more time to get out into Nature, for relaxing, for integrating. That means either accepting you will earn less or that you have to charge more. (No-one ever said that healing was for the faint hearted. 😉 )

Charging more means that you will need to do more marketing. If you’ve been doing what you do for a long time, this doesn’t need to take years. But it does need some focus. So, you can then find the time and space to focus on yourself and your clients.

Managing energy is difficult

There’s a lot of time and loving energy that goes into managing your life as a healer. And, from what I’ve seen, it’s definitely something that you can improve, the better you know yourself. And I’m certain this has a beautiful knock-on effect for your clients.

I’ve heard this argument myself several times when people are on the brink of working with me to improve their messaging and copy. Here’s my take on this: things don’t improve unless you take action to improve them. That doesn’t mean forcing things, it means acknowledging that you need help and then taking steps (f you can’t acknowledge this, how will your clients? We’re a mirror after all).

Imagine, if your business was running more smoothly, how much lightness that could bring to you and your clients? Creating clarity in your business can help bring you that lightness.

Money is an earthly concern

A few years ago, a friend of mine had a problem. She’d lent some money to a friend of hers. Her friend was a very spiritual person and well-meaning and had chosen a path that led her away from suburbia and towards less ownership. 

The problem was that she wasn’t paying my friend back. My friend had lent her this money out of the kindness of her heart; she had worked for that money. Her friend told her money wasn’t relevant in the greater scheme of things (try that argument with the tax office!).

But money IS relevant in this life. We need it to pay for things. We need it to give us the space to think. To go on retreats. To create a beautiful garden that we can sit and contemplate in.

Ignoring money is like pretending we’re somewhere we’re not. It’s not an effective strategy.

Something else

All the healers I know have been guided to become healers as a reaction to a deep wound they have experienced. That is obviously a painful thing and as we all know, we work on healing our wounds, but they still have a habit of revisiting us from time to time, to gain another level of perspective.

Then there’s the next level of wounding that comes from telling others about your gifts and the negative feedback that you can get. As your confidence grows, the wounding gets less, but there’s always the risk that someone who doesn’t understand what you do and isn’t open to the unknown, will react negatively instead of engaging and asking questions.

That can make you hold back and keep yourself small.

Is that what the world needs from you?

I don’t think so.

So, take it slowly, give yourself grace. But please take steps, because we need you to speak up, so the world can listen.

Want to take some steps of your own?

Check out the Epic Copy Seekers membership. You’ll be writing copy at your own pace in a warm, supportive group, where no woo woo is too out there. Gift yourself some focused time for copy and then get back to doing what you love to do.