Our Accessible Pricing Program is turning two years old! This program lets us hold space for folks regardless of their ability to pay for our services. Throughout 2025 we have kept our commitment to reserve 20% of our sessions for clients who choose their own rates on a pay-what-you-can basis.

We’re going to talk at length here about the program and how it works, but we’ll also cut to the chase and say that we’d love your support in helping us fund this program as it steps into its third year. If you are able to support us financially, you can make a donation here. Literally any amount helps. 

And if you’re unable to support us with a direct financial contribution, all you have to do is tell sweet folks to come book sessions with us at our regular rates! Every fifth session we book goes to someone in need.

The program continues to be impactful, both in broad ways out in the bodywork community, and here in our quiet treatment room. 

We’ve been honored to receive national attention from Associated Bodywork and Massage Professionals for our mission to expand community access to our care. When national press amplifies the message of what we’re up to, folks tend to reach out and ask questions about how they can step into making similar offers in their own communities, and we love that for all of us. 

We also know that many of our clients who use the program wouldn’t be able to receive this work anywhere else. There are real costs associated with holding space in a 1:1 container like this, and it’s been 15 years since there were serious efforts to get massage therapy covered by medical insurance (despite research [pdf] suggesting insurance companies would save $4.5 billion annually if they did). 

Aside from sweet press and grateful clients, it’s also true that we, the members of the collective who provide these sessions, also find it incredibly meaningful to be able to offer work to folks from across the spectrum of economic realities here in the city. Our clients who participate in this program mirror our own financial situations more often than not, and we’re grateful to hold space for them in this way.

So, how does it all work? At Cleveland Embodiment, 1 in 5 bodywork sessions are reserved as part of our Accessible Pricing Program. These sessions are scheduled by folks who have joined our waitlist, and we open those sessions at whatever pace the rate of our regular bookings allow for. The 20% model is great as opposed to just allotting a certain number of session each month, because when we're busy we have more resources to open our books to more sliding-scale clients. When we're slow, the system automatically slows down in a way that is self-regulating.

‍

‍

The chief downside to working with the program is that you have to wait until we reach out to you to be able to book your session, as opposed to being able to just come in at your own convenience. Wait times have ranged between 4-9 weeks throughout this year. This waitlist is one of the most important design features of our program, because it introduces friction for people who have capacity to pay for regularly priced sessions, and encourages them to do that instead.

We definitely get people who feel surprised by the bold decision to work on a true name-your-price model instead of more traditional sliding scale offerings that impose a range, use income-based parameters, or limit discounts to specific marginalized groups. But it feels important to us to let people determine for themselves whether or not they see themselves as a good fit for this offering. And most people do seem to be making intentional choices to pay what they can, sometimes paying a little more or a little less as they're able. Here's a breakdown of how much people paid for sessions within the program this year.

‍

‍

Overall client contributions cover about 40% of the associated cost of a given session, and we think that's pretty good, considering these funds are coming directly from the folks who are saying out loud that they would struggle to pay full price. An important feature of our program is that we pay the same hourly wage to our workers regardless of the revenue we bring in. That wage that's voted on and decided by our workers.

This is different than almost every commercial bodywork space you've likely been to. Most spaces pay their workers a percentage of total revenue, guaranteeing that each session is profitable, requiring their staff to rely on additional gratuity, coercing staff to push add-ons and upsells, etc.

Paying wages for donated sessions is, in many ways, really important to the success of the program. Clients are much less likely to reach for needed work if they feel like we were working for free. Our therapists would struggle to find the balance between taking full-price clients and helping out with the program for low (or no) pay. Our solution to both of these issues has been to pay full wages for time spent in these sessions. It minimizes all of the stress and pressure on clients and therapists, but it puts additional strain on the Collective's finances. Here's a breakdown of how we cover the cost of an average session in the program.

‍

‍

So again, the clients are covering about 40% of the cost of these needs-based sessions. Donations cover about 14%. And we pay the rest, which was about 46% in 2025. Donations generally come in from other clients who contribute to the program in lieu of traditional tipping in our space. Those donations all ultimately end up being paid out to workers in the form of wages as a part of this program, and we're sure grateful for that help. But we'd love to find ways other ways to lower our costs associated with running the program, whether that be an increase in community donations, exploring external grant funding, or some surprising third option. If you have the means to contribute, please donate here. And if you have other ideas for helping us cover the costs associated with running this program, we'd love to hear them.

-

Thanks so much for reading! We are excited to be stepping into our third year offering this program, and making sure people in Cleveland continue to have access to this important work, regardless of their ability to pay. If you're someone who want to engage with the program, please consider signing up. It takes just a few moments, to get put on the list, and someone will contact you when it's time to schedule.