Peak States^® Research

Professional Standards

The ‘Pay (Charge) for Results’ Fee Structure Agreement
            The Institute uses a ‘charge for results’ fee structure, which means that the therapist charges for performance, not for time. (From the client's perspective, this is a 'pay for results' fee structure.) Therapists who are licensed by the Institute to use our techniques agree to use this principle. It is somewhat unusual in the field of psychotherapy, but it has several important advantages:
1) it encourages therapists to be as capable as possible;
2) it encourages the therapist to make clear and realistic criteria with their clients;
3) it minimizes the problem of unrealistic client expectations;
4) it discourages the problem of prolonging a client’s unnecessary suffering by becoming a ‘paid friend’;
5) it encourages therapists to refer clients to therapists who can heal the client;
6) it minimizes the problem of the client forgetting that they ever had the problem after it is gone (the apex effect); and
7) is ethically satisfying.
            In the initial session, the therapist and client come to a written agreement of what is to be worked on and what would constitute success. In some cases, the Institute sets a non-negotionable criteria for success for a given process – for example, some peak states processes are guaranteed to actually give the client the sensations of the state, the addict no longer has cravings, and so on.
            If the predetermined criteria for success are not met (or new criteria negotiated), the certified therapist does not get paid, and does not charge for the time spent. (In some cases, the therapist and client might negotiate payment for time spent on problems that have no known solution, but we strongly discourage this for basic level practitioners – this is close to a violation of Institute ethical guidelines, because advanced practitioners and research groups are much more qualified for investigating these sorts of problems.) Obviously, this means that some people won’t become clients, and some clients won’t generate income (or only partial income), and, in cases with dishonest clients, the client will get the service but the therapist will not be paid. However, this fee structure is not unusual – it is standard for most businesses, and the fees are adjusted to take these problems into account.
            Our intent is to make the Institute certification become a standard that clients will seek out (like a brand name with an exceptional reputation). However, in some circumstances this fee structure isn’t possible or isn’t appropriate to implement. For example,

• for health insurance company payouts (and they won’t allow a performance based fee structure);
  
• the client wants to try out one of the techniques that you know and doesn’t have any particular success criteria;
  
• the client is your student and the session is part of or supporting a training program.

Code of Ethics