The average hourly price of therapy is $65-$205. People normally go to therapy for one, one hour session every week. According to psychcentral.com, it takes a minimum of three to four months of therapy to see a difference in emotions and behavior. So this is a minimum of $1,300-$4,100 for the basic four months of aid. Most disorders such as paranoia and eating disorders can take upwards of 5-10 years to reach a ‘normal’ state of mind. That’s $16,900-$53,300 for five years of treatment. This is higher than the average annual salary in the U.S. in 2019. 

   “I only make around $60,000 a year, I want to help pay for my children’s college,” Pike said. “It just isn’t something I can afford to invest in.”

   These cruel acts that cause trauma are costing people thousands of dollars to reverse. So, it is important for people to realize that their actions have long lasting consequences, and those they harm have to pay the price just to feel normal.

   Student support Counselor Sharron Ray, states that there is proof that seeking counseling can help for both victims and those bullying.

   “There’s so much evidence that therapy works and there’s so many different kinds of therapy, so I think it’s very beneficial,” Ray said. “Most times bullies themselves are hurt and they’re seeking unhealthy ways to gain power, so having someone to talk to and work out their current or past pains could help them decrease their urge to bully people.”

According to mindwellnesscenter.gov, therapy is expensive because of the difficulty and intricacy of understanding the human brain and how it reacts to different stimuli. For those who are in need of affordable therapeutic treatment, centers such as Open Path collective, Talk Space and Open Counseling offer low cost online sessions.

“People underestimate what kindness can do,” Ray said.

   Ray dreams of a world where people are kind to one another and bullying is merely a painful mark in our history.

   “I hope that in years from now bullying won’t exist,” Ray said. “I hope that it will be a term that isn’t really in people’s vocabulary, and that people will look back and say, Can you believe they used to do this to each other? I don’t think that it will happen in our lifetime, but it would be amazing if it did.”