The Ethics of Charging for Spiritual Services: Should Healing Be Free?

Should healing be free, or do healers deserve to be paid for their time and energy? This question lives at the heart of every spiritually aligned entrepreneur’s journey.

Whether you’re a Reiki practitioner, intuitive guide, yoga teacher, or holistic wellness coach, you’ve likely wrestled with this: Am I allowed to be paid for what I’m doing? Should I be paid for what I’m doing?

But maybe you’re not asking yourself the right questions. 

The History of Spiritual Labor and Fair Exchange

Spiritual work has always had value, even in cultures where it wasn’t directly linked to money. Traditionally, in many societies, healers were compensated, sometimes with food, land, services, or even protection. It wasn’t always financial, but it was always meaningful.

The idea that healing should be free is a modern misunderstanding, often stemming from power, discomfort with money, and our views of spiritual roles.  Many of us come from lineages where elders, medicine people, and spiritual leaders were honored for their work. They were sustained by their communities because their role was the community itself.

But the world has changed. We live in a world where rent is due every month, software must be purchased, and time must be managed. While the heart of healing is the service, the vessel it comes through, aka you, needs nourishment too.

The Real Issue: When Healing Becomes Inaccessible

Spiritual and wellness work becomes problematic when pricing creates distance between the healer and the community. Charging $1000 per person for a group ritual, or $400 for a 30-minute reading without offering context, sliding scales, or alternatives can signal a disconnect.

When healing turns into luxury branding with no foundation in service, it creates spiritual elitism, and it stops being about healing. We live in a time when wellness has been commercialized, colonized, and stripped from its cultural roots. For those of us offering soul work with integrity, pricing should reflect the value of the service and a commitment to accessibility.

The Sweet Spot: Pricing That Honors You and Your Community

There is a space where business meets spirit, where pricing reflects effort, preparation, training and honors culture and who we serve. This is where we build something sustainable and inclusive.

You deserve to be compensated for your time, your knowledge, your boundaries, and your energetic labor. Your work includes many hours of unseen spiritual upkeep, ancestral work, emotional holding, and intuitive channeling. That has weight, and it has worth.

That doesn’t mean you can close the gates to those who can’t afford it today. Pricing can include tiered options, scholarships, community days, digital tools, or even reciprocity-based offerings.  Am I saying all of these options are right for everyone? Absolutely not, but what I am saying is this about your pricing, and think about your mission. Are you helping who you want to help, or are you just out to make a quick dollar?

This is Bigger Than Just Business (But You Still Have to Make A Living)

The question should never be if healers and spiritual entrepreneurs should charge, the questions should be: What are we building together? How do I balance how much I charge with how I reach my community?

Are we creating a world where spiritual and holistic support are only for the wealthy or one where care flows through every layer of the community?  Are we showing our younger healers what it looks like to serve and thrive?

Spiritual entrepreneurship can be a form of activism. A way to reclaim heritage, help individuals receive the care that is not available to them otherwise, and build a legacy. And yes, it can also be profitable, if that profit is rooted in service and led by the soul.