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Ann Arbor, Michigan
Steady Ground
HomeFeesCliniciansGroupsFirst visitHelp nowGive
Ask for a first appointment
Steady Ground
HomeFeesCliniciansGroupsFirst visitHelp nowGive

2140 Packard St, Suite 3, Ann Arbor, MI 48104

(555) 014-3380

intake@example.org

Ask for a first appointment

What it costs

Your fee, worked out in the open


Every client pays by the same published table. Find your household income below and that is your fee, before any conversation about hardship.

Fees last reviewed by our board in July 2026.

Fee table, 2026–27

Per 50-minute session, for a household of two

Add $8,000 to each income band for every extra person in your household. Couples and family sessions are charged once per household.

From 1 August 2026

Sessions with supervised interns are $5 to $40 on the same table.

Ask for a first appointment
  1. Household income under $20,0001$10
  2. $20,000 to $34,999$25
  3. $35,000 to $49,999$40
  4. $50,000 to $69,999$55
  5. $70,000 to $89,999$75
  6. $90,000 and over2$95
  1. 1Or $0 if $10 would keep you away. Ask; we won't make you justify it.
  2. 2Still below the area's private rate of about $160. The difference funds the $10 sessions.
Steam rising from a hot cup

Front desk, second floor

Tea and coffee are free in the waiting room, and the chairs face the window, not each other.

No paperwork to start

We take your word for it for the first three sessions

You tell Hana your household income on the first phone call and that sets your fee. After your third session we ask for one document, such as a pay stub, a benefits letter or last year's tax return, and we shred it once it's checked.

If your income changes, tell your clinician or the front desk and the fee changes from your next session.

  • Medicaid and Blue Care Network accepted, with no copay
  • Receipts for HSA and FSA accounts on request
  • Missed sessions are never charged the first two times
  • Payment by card, cash or check at the front desk

Money questions

What people ask about fees

Do I have to prove my income?

Not for your first three sessions. After that we ask to see one document, once, and we don't keep a copy.

What if I can't pay $10?

Say so on the first call. About forty clients a year pay nothing, and their sessions are funded by gifts to our Session Fund.

Do you take insurance?

We accept Medicaid plans and Blue Care Network. With other insurance we give you a receipt to claim back, and you still pay by our table.

Is a cheaper fee a lesser therapist?

No. Every client is offered the same clinicians. Interns are an option at a lower fee, and they are supervised weekly by a licensed clinician.

Will my fee go up if I keep coming?

Only if your income goes up. There is no cap on how many sessions you can have.

Know your fee? Ask for a time.

We'll confirm the fee on the first call before anything is booked.

Ask for a first appointment
Steady Ground
  • Home
  • Fees
  • Clinicians
  • Groups
  • First visit
  • Help now
  • Give

A nonprofit counseling center on Packard Street. Licensed therapists, fees set by household income, nobody turned away for inability to pay. 2140 Packard St, Suite 3, Ann Arbor, MI 48104 · (555) 014-3380

© 2026 Steady Ground CounselingWebsite by Greater Purpose Web

Design notes

Why Steady Ground looks the way it does

Steady Ground is a sliding-scale counseling center, so the site has one job above the rest: let a nervous person ask for an appointment in under a minute, then answer the money question honestly. Everything else is reassurance and logistics.

Built for
Adults, couples and parents in Washtenaw County who need therapy but can't afford private rates, many of them reaching out for the first time.
Navigation
Centred masthead. The name sits centred like a printed masthead; pages run underneath. Signals heritage and calm.
Pages
Home, Fees, Clinicians, Groups, First visit, Help now, Give
Hero
a short action form as the hero: the one thing most visitors came to do (request a ride, ask for help, register a child) can be done before they scroll, with reassurance beside it. Variants: a = headline, reassurance and a photo on the left with the form as a raised card on the right; b = a tall photo carrying the headline, with the form and reassurance on a plain panel beside it; c = headline beside a photo, then the form laid out as one horizontal booking bar

Typography

Castoro is an old-style serif drawn by Tiro Typeworks with soft, open curves; it reads like a paperback you'd lend a friend, which is the tone a first-time client needs. We set it at a modest 1.2 scale and never in capitals. Hanken Grotesk carries the forms and fee tables at 18px, because the person filling them in may be reading through anxiety or tears.

Color

The palette comes from the Huron River on a gray March morning: spruce-green water, pale lichen paper and a lamp-amber accent used sparingly for links and highlights. There is no clinical white and no alarm red anywhere, including on the crisis page. The dark theme deepens the river rather than inverting it, so evening visitors get the same quiet room.

Layout and navigation

A centred masthead with the pages underneath feels settled and unhurried, like the sign on an established practice. Seven pages, each named for the question a client is actually asking: what will it cost, who will I see, what happens at the first visit, and what do I do if it can't wait.

The hero

The first screen is the appointment request itself, kept to four fields. Most people who look up a counselor have rehearsed the phone call several times and still not made it; a short form they can finish on the bus lowers that bar. Beside it sit plain promises about callbacks, cost and privacy.

Calls to action

The nav action is "Ask for a first appointment" because asking is the hard part and booking comes later. "Work out your fee" answers the second fear directly. "I need help right now" appears on every page, set in the same calm style as everything else.

Photography

No staged therapy-couch photos and no clients' faces. The hero is a boardwalk through wet woodland, which is what the center's name means, and the river and lake pictures elsewhere are all within a short drive of Packard Street. Clinicians appear in real portraits, and groups are shown as empty chairs or from a distance.

Accessibility

Body text is 18px with long line height and every form field has a visible label and an optional tag rather than asterisks. Contrast is checked in both themes. Crisis numbers are plain text links that work with a screen reader and a single tap.

Type system

  • DisplayCastoroCastoro is a bookish old-style serif with soft, open curves; it reads like a well-printed paperback rather than a clinic sign.
  • TextHanken GroteskA plain, generous grotesque at 18px so forms and fee tables are easy on tired eyes.

Colour and contrast

Every text pairing is checked against WCAG 2.2 in both themes.

Light theme

PairingSampleRatioWCAG
Body text on pageAa13.77:1AAA
Body text on cardsAa15.11:1AAA
Secondary textAa5.49:1AA
LinksAa6.44:1AA
Button textAa7.34:1AAA
Accent label textAa4.65:1AA
Text on dark bandsAa13.77:1AAA
Muted text on dark bandsAa7.46:1AAA
Text on brand bandsAa7.34:1AAA
Muted text on brand bandsAa4.94:1AA

Dark theme

PairingSampleRatioWCAG
Body text on pageAa14.56:1AAA
Body text on cardsAa13.09:1AAA
Secondary textAa6.61:1AA
LinksAa9.18:1AAA
Button textAa9.82:1AAA
Accent label textAa9.47:1AAA
Text on dark bandsAa15.8:1AAA
Muted text on dark bandsAa8.0:1AAA
Text on brand bandsAa9.82:1AAA
Muted text on brand bandsAa5.8:1AA

Designed by Greater Purpose Web. Names, people and events are sample content.