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Resident Counsellor Info.
This is an information page for Counsellors interested in joining our Resident Counsellors program. Note that by joining this program, you will be partnering with us as on a freelance-basis.
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We have various types of Resident Counsellors joining us - from those who simply volunteer, to those that use this program to fulfill full SAC registration, to those who also earn a full-time or part-time income from this.
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As part of Resident Counsellors, your profile will be featured on our website and clients can apply to speak to you.
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As we only have limited slots for Resident Counsellors and still need to cover our rental and operating expenses, we do have a Minimum Performance Criteria (MPC) that all Resident Counsellors need to reach each month, whether or not on a volunteer basis. In all transparency, this means we do need counsellors who are willing to offer a minimum level of commitment. Do take take time to read the below so you fully understand okay?
1. Resident Counsellor Fee Tiers.
We have a few Resident Counsellor fee tiers to choose from (i.e. how much Resident Counsellors charge their clients). As we are a social enterprise, we hope to keep our counselling fees affordable:
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$60 per hour - suitable for new counsellors with no base specialty
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$80 per hour - counsellors with some specialty, e.g. specialized client groups such as children, youths, couples etc, or with specialized modalities or approaches.
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$100 per hour - counsellors with known specialties and reputation.
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$120 per hour - highly in demand counsellors
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You can pick any one of these tiers and this will become your base hourly rate, unless there are further subsidies, described in the next section below.
2. Further Subsidies.
We have four further subsidies for special groups of clients:
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30% off for financial assistance / social service organisations - Clients need to show their Blue Chas Card OR referral letter from charity organization
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30% student subsidy - for undergraduates and below paying for their own counselling (based on student card, independence can be established on trust basis)
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20% Heartwork Subsidy - for FRONTLINE healthcare professionals and Teachers as a thanks for their service. Plus, alot of emotional distress due to work.
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10% private organisation partners - still TBC
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These subsidies are applied off your base rate, e.g. $100 after 40% subsidy = $60 per hour charge.
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We usually get a higher proportion of normal fees than subsidised fee clients. The choice to accept / reject clients still always sits with you.
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3. IASH Practice Charges
Currently IASH has the lowest industry-wide charge for client referrals and usage of rooms at our clinic. This practice charge amount depends on your fee charged to client - this being a minimum of $10 per hour or 20% of session charge.
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For example:
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If your session charge is below $50, e.g. your hourly is $60 but you see a 30% off client making it $42 an hour - IASH still needs to charge you $10 from this hourly fee.
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If your session is $50 per hour and above - IASH will then charge 20% for that session.
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Fees earned by you will be paid to you at the end of each month.
We do require you to keep a google spreadsheet of your own charges for accounting - this google spreadsheet will be provided to you on sign up.
Clients can either pay via QR code at the clinic or UEN number, such as in this link.
FYI for industry comparison, rental of independent therapy rooms (meaning you also source your own clients) involve charges anywhere from $40-75 per room.
Other private practices might charge you a monthly rental fee - e.g. the Relational charges $600 per month (where again, you source your own clients).
At IASH, we help to refer you clients directly and you can also use our spaces and social media to boost your counselling profile :)
4. Minimum Practice Criteria (MPC).
We all want to do this heart-work (thank you) and we get many counsellors wanting to volunteer with us. We are very thankful for this but we also need to make sure we can keep our practice going.
For this clinic to keep running, we need to break even on admin / finance charge & rental of clinic.
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We are also restricted by the number of counsellors we can take on board - no. of rooms / keys, as well as to avoid too many counsellor choices for new clients.
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The purpose of the MPC is to make sure the freelance counsellors we take onboard can provide a base level of commitment to the counselling practice as well as are genuinely interested in building your counselling reputation and own eventual client base.
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Our MPC is a minimum of $200 per month - this is calculated as the SUM of IASH practice charges each month, where a minimum of $200 needs to be hit.
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Examples to hit minimum $200 charge:
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E.g. 20% x Normal fee $100 = $20 per IASH rental per session. Need a minimum total of 10 x such sessions per month or 2.5 sessions per week to hit $100 minimum.
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E.g. 20% x Normal fee $60 = $12 per IASH rental per session. Need a minimum total of 18 x such sessions per month or 4-5 sesions per week to hit $100 minimum.
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E.g. 20% of lowest subsidised fee possible ($60 normal fee after 30% discount = $42 per session) = $10 charge. Need a minimum total of 20 x such sessions per month or 5 sessions per week.
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Q1. What happens if I don't hit the $200 MPC?
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If you do not hit the minimum $200, these will be deducted from your total fees collected from that month. For example, you did 4 x $60 sessions equating to a total of $240 for that month. As your IASH rental fee is only $48 (20% of $240) for that month, we will have to charge you the $200 MPC and your take-home fees earned for that month will be the remainder of $40.
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If your total earnings for that month falls below $200, then we will have to deduct from the next month (or you can pay out of pocket for that month). Consistent months of following below that our MPC then you might have to consider other ways to boost your client referrals.
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Q2. Can I just volunteer though?
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Yes you can, we do have Resident Counsellors who donate all their fees or even higher percentages (e.g. 50%) of their fees to IASH.SG who we are infinitely thankful for. This makes it easy for them to hit the $200 MPC each month.
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E.g. $60 per session x 4 and the MPC is easily hit
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If you choose to do this, know that you'll be helping people out there and helping to keep IASH alive too. Thank you!
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Q3. Counsellors using this program to fulfill SAC hours and supervision.
Part of the 600-hour SAC requirement is 1 clinical supervision per 10 hours. That can be very costly to pay out of pocket.
We have counsellors who may not hit our MPC but are still using the earning to cover supervision fees as well as have some additional earnings :)
E.g. Counsellor does 10 x $60 session per month = $600 total for that month. After MPC deductions, counsellor still takes home $400 for that month which can easily cover cost the supervision needed.
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Q4. For all new incoming joiners, don't worry, we know it takes time to get clients coming in as well.
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We waive the MPC in your first month onboard so you have the time and momentum to get started :)
5. Helping you source clients.
We will display your profile page on our websites for clients to enquire and submit a therapy request.
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Our learnings so far:
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Your profile picture matters.
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What you write in your profile matters too - clients use the write-up to help decide on a counsellor
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About 30% of our clients are price sensitive - they go for the lowest tier.
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After a few months, your client base builds up and clients will refer their friends to you. This can become a sustainable career as it is for some of our Resident Counsellors.
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Here's the hard truth though - it may take a while at the start to make private practice a sustainable career. People will probably be willing to try you out for a lower fee at the start, but if you're good they will introduce their acquaintances to you. And then your client base will keep growing and growing.
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To also build your reputation, we are happy to help you out with the below suggestions:
We also have two upcoming partnerships to boost IASH referrals:
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The Social Space (Employee Wellbeing Program 30% subsidy)
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Calvary Community Centre (C3) - referring youths 18 - 25 in March 2023 onward.
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Take your time, have a think :) Looking forward to doing good work together!
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With kindness,
IASH Resident Counselling Team.