Fee increase letter generator
Tell your clients your fee is changing, clearly and without apologising for it.
Six to eight weeks’ notice is generous; four is the sensible floor.
Your message
Hi [Client's first name],
From 28 August, my session fee will be £80. Sessions already booked before then stay at £70.
I know fees are part of our working relationship, so if this change raises anything for you, we can talk about it in a session.
Thank you, as ever, for working with me.
Best wishes,
[Your name]
The advice the letter cannot carry
Review your fee once a year at a predictable time, and raise it by a little rather than correcting it by a lot. A practice that adjusts £5 each January never has to write a difficult letter; a practice that holds the line for five years eventually writes a £20 one, and that letter is genuinely hard to receive.
Announce the change to everyone at once, in writing, with the same date. Raising fees client by client as courage allows creates a practice where the people least able to object are paying the most, which is the opposite of what most therapists intend.
Decide your hardship policy before you press send. If someone genuinely cannot afford the new fee, you will want to know already whether you offer a reduced-fee place, a longer transition, or a well-handled ending. Improvising that decision inside the first uncomfortable reply produces the worst version of it.
Two mechanical points. Never raise fees by text; it deserves the same format as your other professional communication. And check your counselling agreement first: if it promises a month’s notice of fee changes, your effective date honours that, and if it names the fee, the agreement needs updating too.
Frequently asked questions
When the new fee starts, update it once in Bloom and every new booking, reminder and payment record uses it from then on, so nobody gets charged the old rate by accident.