A professor of mine in my doctoral program at Widener who was in his eighties charged hundreds of dollars for forty five minute sessions, did not accept insurance, and one "joked" to a room that was over two thirds women that he doesn't see female clients because they can't afford him
Meanwhile the american psychological association continues to fight against its members being held accountable in any way through duty to warn, and another professor of mine, another eighty plus year old with tenure who was a previous head of their ethivs committee, very bluntly told us we were all inccorrect in our ethics class when we pushed back and said we SHOULD be held accountable
Also you don't NEED to be a member of the APA to be a licensed clinician and you only NEED to use the DSM because insurance companies won't work with you at all if you don't, but you wouldn't know that based on how the APA acts
Also don't forget that diagnostics take as long as they do and are so expensive because diagnostic psychologists know their skills are in demand and overcharge and under utilize insurance in order to line their own pockets
Pretty much the entire line that you don't go into psychology for money is a lie. That's what almost everyone is there for. And they make it specifically difficult for practitioners to offer affordable services. They push people and funding away from accessible community mental health for their own profit and help to ensure there are no resources for the burnt out clinicians being run into the ground to provide at an affordable rate.
And that's not even getting into all of the systemic racism and queerphobia and whorephobia baked into the system
