Fee increase letter template for counsellors (free)

Clear, kind, and consistent with your agreement: a letter for telling existing clients about a fee rise.

Raising your fee with existing clients is a conversation most counsellors dread more than clients do. Done clearly and kindly, with proper notice, it rarely costs a client and it keeps the practice sustainable, which is in every client's interest. The letter below does the plain-speaking part; our raising your fees guide covers the when and how much.

Check your own counselling agreement first. If it promises at least one month's written notice of a fee change (ours does, and most do), honour it, and give more when you can. Six to eight weeks lands well.

The letter (works as email or print)

Subject: A change to my session fee from [date]

Dear [name],

I'm writing to let you know that from [date, at least one month away], my session fee will change from [current fee] to [new fee].

I review my fee [annually / periodically] so that the practice remains sustainable, and this is the first change since [date of last change / you and I began working together]. Everything else about our work stays exactly as it is.

If the new fee raises any difficulty for you, please do say, and we can talk it through in our next session. [Optional: I hold a small number of reduced-fee places and I'm happy to discuss whether one applies.] It matters to me that the work isn't interrupted by this.

There's nothing you need to do; the new fee simply applies from [date].

Thank you, as ever, for the work we do together.

Warm regards,

[Name]

Getting the delivery right

Tell clients in a session where you can, with the letter as confirmation rather than the announcement. Give every current client the same notice on the same terms, apply the new fee to new enquiries immediately, and resist over-explaining: one sentence of reason reads as confidence, three paragraphs reads as apology. If a client genuinely cannot meet the new fee, that conversation belongs in the room, and your concession policy, not the letter, is the place it gets resolved.

Keep it consistent with whatever your counselling agreement says about fee changes.

This is a template to adapt, not legal advice. Please have important wording reviewed by a suitably qualified person before you rely on it.