The sliding scale is one of the more misunderstood structures in healing work. Some clients see it as a discount. Some see it as charity. Others — this is the most painful one — do not see themselves as eligible at all, as if access to care were a prize you qualify for rather than a right.
Let me be clear about what the sliding scale at Folkway is and is not.
It is not charity. Charity implies a giver who has abundance dispensing to a receiver who lacks. That framing is hierarchical in ways that make my skin crawl. The sliding scale assumes that different people have different amounts of money and that this should not determine who heals.
It is not a discount. A discount implies that the full price is the real price and the reduced price is an exception. On a true sliding scale, all prices within the range are the real price. Someone paying $50 is paying what they can. Someone paying $150 is paying what they can. Both amounts are correct.
What I Actually Mean When I Say Sliding Scale
When I post a session as $50–$150 sliding scale, I mean: pay what you genuinely can without creating hardship for yourself. Not the number that sounds reasonable. Not the number that feels fair in the abstract. The number that allows you to keep your lights on and your refrigerator stocked and still receive care.
"We cannot heal from a place of financial precarity. The sliding scale is a way of keeping care accessible without asking people to harm themselves to receive it."
This requires some trust. I am trusting that clients are honest with themselves about their capacity. And I have found, over years of practice, that they generally are. People do not usually underpay out of greed. They underpay because they need to. That is information worth honoring.
On the Guilt of Paying Less
I have had clients apologize for paying at the low end of the scale. I always push back gently on this. The low end exists because I put it there. I set that range deliberately, knowing that some sessions would be paid at $50 and accounting for that in how I structure my practice. There is nothing to apologize for.
If you are reaching this page wondering whether the sliding scale is meant for you — it is. Whatever amount sits within the range that your budget genuinely allows is the right amount. The care will not be different. The attention will not be different. You deserve to be here, at whatever price makes that possible.