Money or heart: The ethics of psychotherapeutic help through the prism of earnings

Abstract

The debate on regulating psychotherapeutic activity in Slovenia focuses on issues of professional competence, accessibility, and user protection, but is increasingly influenced by the economic interests of stakeholders. This paper presents a combined quantitative and qualitative analysis of salaries and incomes in the helping professions, including psychiatry, psychology, clinical psychology, occupational therapy, and psychotherapy, with a focus on differences between the public sector and the private psychotherapy market. The data reveal statistically significant disparities in average incomes, variability (standard deviations), and institutional privileges that enable individual professions to generate cumulative profits (e.g. through ‚amphibious‘ practices and expert roles), often in non-transparent ways and without effective oversight. In private psychotherapy, incomes fluctuate but are generally controlled and lower than the cumulative incomes of public sector professionals with additional activities. The paper highlights systemic inequalities that reproduce the symbolic and economic capital of specific professional groups and underscores the need for legal regulation of the psychotherapeutic profession as an autonomous activity. Only legalization would ensure greater professional accountability, equitable public funding, and fairer access to psychotherapy for all citizens.