Hygeia Counseling Services is a member of Barter Systems Inc. This means you can spend your barter credits here — something that currently no other therapist in the Baltimore area offers and only one or two in the Washington, DC area offer.
It also means that if you are a small business owner and strapped for cash (who isn’t in this economy?) you could look into joining Barter Systems as a way to get business you might not have otherwise (if your customers are out of cash) and use those credits to then buy what you want (like therapy).
Barter Systems is an exchange — meaning that the thousands of local businesses belonging to the exchange can spend their credits with each other. This is important in that its more like a local currency than actual barter. Therapists are highly discouraged from bartering directly with their clients (“mow my lawn and I’ll see you for therapy”) because it’s worried that the quality of therapy may be impacted if the services provided (lawn mowing for example) are poor. It’s also a “dual relationship” — a topic for another time and something therapists also try to avoid. So no barter ever takes place directly between myself and a client.
Anyway, if you are a member of Barter Exchange, please consider spending your credits here.
