Is it legal for lay people to charge for Immanuel approach sessions?

As far as we know, it’s perfectly legal for lay people to charge for counseling/prayer sessions as long as you don’t misrepresent yourself. That is, it’s legal for you to offer your services as a lay counselor/lay minister, and to charge whatever fee you deem appropriate, as long as you make it clear that you are a lay person. If you misrepresent yourself as having training and/or degrees that you don’t actually have, you are guilty of fraud and can expect that somebody else will eventually figure this out and that you will then be in trouble of some kind or another. You can especially expect to get in trouble if you make fraudulent claims regarding professional training and licenses in the context of billing insurance companies. An analogy might be helpful. If I hear you mention that you need to get your oil changed and are trying to find a good garage, I can say “Hey, I’m not a mechanic, but I can change your oil for $15.00.” If you decide this is a good deal, I change your oil, you’re happy with the job, and you pay me $15.00, nobody will have a problem with this arrangement. I can offer to change your oil (and charge you for this service), even though I’m not a trained/certified/licensed mechanic, as long as I don’t misrepresent myself. However, I will get in trouble if I pretend to training and/or certification and/or licensing that I don’t actually have.

How do lay people providing Immanuel approach sessions identify themselves?

There is quite a bit of variability. For example, a lay person facilitating Immanuel approach emotional healing sessions might refer to herself as a lay minister, a lay counselor, a prayer minister, an Immanuel approach facilitator, an Immanuel approach prayer counselor, an Immanuel prayer minister, or an emotional healing facilitator. Note: if you are a lay person and you don’t include the word “lay” in the phrase you use to identify yourself, make sure to quickly and clearly identify yourself as a lay person in any descriptive material you provide.

Shouldn’t lay people offer IA sessions for free?

People are often puzzled/concerned, and sometimes even angry and/or offended that some lay people charge for Immanuel Approach sessions. The parallel they often describe as comparable is a family member or friend, or maybe fellow parishioner at church, who would charge to pray for some concern you might bring to them. I would offer the following thoughts:

We are trying to train lay people in every way possible, and I encourage them to offer Immanuel Approach sessions as a gift to their family, friends, and community as much as possible.

Those who are particularly good at it often get more training, and then spend more and more of their time engaged in Immanuel Approach related activities. Mostly, it’s just simple life logistics. If people spend an hour or two each week facilitating Immanuel Approach sessions with family and friends, everything works fine to do it for free. But if they want to make a lot of time available for Immanuel Approach work, there’s no magic—that time and energy has to come from somewhere (not to mention the money they spend on training and supervision). If they get paid for the time, it’s a lot easier to make space for it. If folks are expecting a lay minister to offer Immanuel Approach sessions for free, then they shouldn’t be surprised when the person says, “Sorry, I don’t have any more space. I’m currently using all the free time I have available, and don’t have time/energy for any more.”

My short summary is that some of the best Immanuel Approach facilitators out there are lay people, and they can make a lot more space in their lives for doing Immanuel Approach ministry if they charge for it.

I think a useful parallel is someone asking me to paint their garage. How would I feel if someone came up to me and said, “I need to get my garage painted, but I don’t want to pay a professional painter. I was wondering if you might come over for a couple hours every Saturday morning and do it for me? And, of course, since you’re not a professional painter, I would expect that you would do it for free.”

If you want free Immanuel Approach sessions, I would encourage you to take the initiative to form a practice group with family/friends, and then both give and receive Immanuel Approach sessions in that context.

What kind of fees do lay ministers charge?

Again, there is quite a bit of variability. People who offer Immanuel sessions for only a few hours/week and who are offering sessions to friends, family, and people in their small group usually offer the sessions for free. In contrast, people who are offering Immanuel sessions to the general public and who spend many hours each week facilitating Immanuel sessions tend to charge a fee. My observation is that it is very hard for people to make enough space in their lives to offer many hours of sessions to the general public without charging a fee. If the person who has some other source of income (a spouse, retirement income, etc) that provides for most of the families living expenses, they can charge a very small fee to cover the costs of training, consultations, supervision, and other small concerns. On the other hand, if the person is the primary provider for his/her family, he/she will need to charge substantial fees (similar to professional therapists). Some lay people facilitating Immanuel sessions ask for free will gifts (as opposed to charging set fees); but, unfortunately, the free will gifts they receive are often very meager.

One simple, practical issue here has to do with effectiveness. We know some lay people using the Immanuel approach who are getting better results that most professional psychotherapists. If you have developed your skill, grown your capacity, built your faith, and gotten rid of your own blockages to the point that people get exceptional results when you facilitate Immanuel approach sessions, they will generally be happy to pay substantial fees and you will be able to afford spending a large part of your time each week offering Immanuel sessions. In contrast, if you still have a long way to go with respect to skill, faith, capacity, and blockages, and people experience much more modest benefit from the sessions you facilitate, you will need to charge a lot less if you want folks to keep coming back.