The girlfriend of one of my players characters was rescued from the Arcology and is understandably not the most mentally stable of people-

Now the charcater, being the kind hearted troll that he is, wants to get girlfriend back on her mental feet and has therefore located out a trusted (hah!) shrink.

The only problem is how much is this guy going to charge? Any ideas or inspiration? And preferably it will need to be tied to the doc's therapy skill.

Thoughts and ideas welcome

Renraku would probably pay for it and lots extra just to cover up what happened. (A renraku shrink so it's all in house.)It would probably include a lot of cyber stuff for therapy and less talking to a shrink.

My Elf has a day job as a shrink. Runs his own business. He specializes in treating people who pay cash because they don't want their medical treatment to show up on employment records. He'll treat her for 120 per hour, with hourly sessions once or twice a week depending upon how much help she needs. He has Psychology 6 and a great bedside manner, but since he's not a Psychiatrist he can't prescribe medications. If she needs medications she'll need a Psychiatrist or Physician to prescribe them.

Or a fixer contact...

Yeah I also think Renraku would take care of it. If she was a legit person within the Arc, it's covered. If she wasn't supposed to be there (in the sense she was shadowrunning, not that she was shopping and thus isn't a resident), well that might be a little different.

He's a Shadowrunner. Would you trust the corp shrink with your girlfriend's head?

"Why no, honey, nothing's wrong. I just think it would be best for us if you took that job for what they're offering. After all, Renraku are our friends..."

A lot of people would -- of course, shadowrunners are hardly the most sane or trusting people to begin with.

-Siege

Our team doesn't use the Extended Actions optional rule for Karma Pool use (SR3.246). If we did, she could get better a lot more quickly with my Elf than with a boring corporate shrink.

That's assuming my Elf would use Karma Pool to cut down on his income...

You know, the corps do not systematically screw everyone that deals with them.

Assuming that therapists have high lifestyles, work 40 hours a week (and 50 weeks a year), that they are taxed at 33% and have to spend half their income on things like rent, receptionist, maintaining the license to practice etc (but these can be written off as business expenses, so they are not taxed)...

high lifestyle cost / year : 120,000

hours / year = 40 * 50 = 2000 work hours every year

1000 hours spent covering business expenses.

667 hours (333 lost to taxes) spent earning money for self.

120000/667 = ~180 an hour... at a bare minimum.

Figure therapy would be aroudn twice a month for 4-8 hours a day (we'll guess 6) and you are looking at 2160 every month (an even 3000 is probably a better number), plus the cost of any medication (maybe another 500).

Also depends on how insurance, if any exists in the Shadowrun setting, (seemed to be referred to in SSG but didn't give too much info), you might be able to reduce costs like in real life.

Looking at my real life medical insurance plan, I could goto a shrink for your standard in-office psychotherapy session 24 times per year, with 90% coverage. My therapist (Hey, normal people can goto a shrink too, heh) charges about 150 an hour. I know real life dollar values don't translate directly to Nuyen, but yeah the 180 or so per hour sounds about right.

Thanks for the feedback people - the price's suggested give me an excellent starting point - I might even knock up a few rough rules but more than likely will just play it by ear

Just to confirm there is no way in heck that either the character or his lady want anything to do with a Renraku shrink as there's more than a little bad blood between them and the corp.

Which is really bad when the lady gets subjected to experimental deep hypnosis command implants...

-Siege

He's not a good shrink. It's a day job.

They may have to, but nothing ensures they will follow it.

-Siege

and psychotherapists do not take the hippocratic oath. many MDs don't either.

-Mike R.

Hmm.

Doesn't M and M have the rates, related to that memory altering thingamajigger?

CC, I think (in the Simsense section).

It is indeed Canon Companion that has the PAB's. Combine with virtual/Matrix conditioning, mindprobe, various illusions and dream alterations and chuck in a pillowcase full of drugs and you've got the recipe for a world class headfuck. Manchurian candiddate anyone?

Psychotherapists don't need to take any oath or have any training at anything at all. You can decide tomorrow that you're a psychotherapist, rent an office, and start taking patients.

Have fun finding one for your girlfriend that isn't a total quack.