By Naazi Morad
As a mental health practitioner, my calling has always been to help people navigate pain, confusion, and emotional struggles with dignity and compassion. I entered this field because I was born to understand people — their minds, their behaviour, and their stories. With over 30 years of experience in corporate leadership and senior HR, combined with continuous study in mental health and coaching, I do not see clients as numbers. I see them as human beings with real pain.
Yet, one of the hardest challenges I now face is not the work itself — it is being valued for it.
My session fee is R350 per individual session and R750 for couples for two hours. This is far below the standard market rate in mental health care. I also prepare tailored worksheets, reflection tools, and structured guidance after sessions. I run a WhatsApp support group where I continue to motivate and encourage clients weekly. My work does not end when the session ends.
Still, I am often asked:
“Is the online session cheaper?”
“Can I get a special rate?”
“I’ll pay later.”
And sometimes, that payment never comes.
What makes this more difficult is seeing that the same individuals who struggle to honour a R350 session will later share stories of holidays, shopping, and luxury expenses — while the one person who sat with them in their darkest hour is forgotten.
This is not about wealth or poverty.
It is about values.
If you value your mental health, you must also value the time, preparation, and emotional labour of the person who walks beside you in your healing.
Mental health work is not casual conversation. It requires:
- Formal training and continuous study
- Emotional presence and psychological safety
- Confidentiality and ethical responsibility
- Tailor-made preparation and post-session worksheets
- Administration, compliance, and accurate record keeping
- Accountability to professional standards
- Deep compassion and human connection
- When clients do not honour their commitments, it places therapists in a position of emotional and financial strain. Compassion does not mean self-sacrifice without boundaries. Supporting others does not mean neglecting one’s own livelihood.
Behind every one-hour session are hours of unseen work — planning, documenting, reflecting, and ensuring that each client receives care that is responsible, lawful, and personalised.
I have reached a point where I must be honest:
I can no longer operate as a charity.
This is not “sadaqah” work — this is professional care.
Affordable does not mean disposable. Kindness does not mean free. Understanding does not mean being taken advantage of. Healing requires accountability. Trust requires honour. Growth requires responsibility. If you choose to invest in therapy, let it be a commitment — not only to your own healing, but to the professional who is helping you navigate it.
My heart will always remain with those who genuinely seek change. But my boundaries must now remain with my worth.
Because mental health matters.
And so does the person who helps you heal.
– Dhilnaaz Ramdin
Wellness Within Therapy
