# CBT--What is the cost?



## overitnow (Nov 25, 2001)

I am just curious about others' experiences with this. I once had a long term anxiety problem dealing with freeway driving. At one point I spoke with a therapist about CBT. He dealt with numbers of people who had had highway accidents, so had a track record around my problem. His estimate for treatment was $1000. Whenever I read of someone suggesting CBT for our problems, I always wonder just how much this will cost. Anyone have any hard figures?Mark


----------



## BQ (May 22, 2000)

Here in the US, if one has insurance coverage... which usually allows a certain number of office visits or sessions per year from a participating therapist... one usually may only have to pay the co-pay. If a patient exceeds that # of sessions I imagine a decent therapist will work some arrangement out with the patient. If one has no one participating in their insurance plan,.. one could make an appeal to the insurance company to go out of "network" to find one. Again.. usually there is a larger percentage to be covered by the patient when they seek treatment "out of network". (In my experience.. 30% is covered by us and the insurance company covers the other 70%.) Therapist's fees are usually in and around the same.. especially if they are in contract with insurance companies. Ballparking it.... in this area... ??? maybe in the neighborhood of 125... give or take.... per hour (which .... can be actually anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour.) (Obviously a therapist on Park Ave in Manhattan will be more than the one an hour out in the burbs..yada yada yada..)How many sessions needed?? Depends on the patient. And to be honest.. how hard the patient is willing to work.Most good therapists try very hard to work with their patients to get them the therapy they need. Even IF that means jumping through some insurance company hoops.Otherwise .. without insurance...there are many Mental Health Clinics that will accept payment on a sliding scale based on income.


----------



## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Generally CBT runs once a week for 3 or so months. Insurance tends to cover a full set of CBT even if they don't have enough coverage for someone doing other types of therapy that tend to be more ongoing for the long term. Mostly that is because CBT tends to be a limited number of sessions. Basically if you aren't better after 12 sessions or so they don't see that another 12 or 120 will do better. So you don't get the never ending therapy sessions you may get with other types of therapy.CBT often is available in a group setting or from some place that does a sliding fee scale so that can help people get it at less cots.Otherwise it generally is about the same as any other therapy session usually in the $100-200 an hour range. Group therapy tends to run more like $25-$100 dollars an hour because you have several people sharing the cost. If there is a University near you they sometimes have therapy sessions that are partly or wholly run by a student and those tend to be low cost as they can't charge the full amount, yet.For anxiety and phobias it tends to be quite effective so a lot of insurance considers it cost effective. You might pay out $1000 this year, but you save a lot more than that in medication costs and the health problems from wear and tear over the years. CBT focuses on the here and now and what to do to end the symptoms in the moment. You don't have to spend years trying to dig out which childhood incident that started it. It is about what you can do in the now to reduce symptoms now. So it looks at current thoughts and shifting them and current behaviors and changing them. If the patient can implement those techniques in the real world they can continue to do that long after the sessions end.


----------



## cherrypie09 (Jan 20, 2009)

CBT in the UK if for anxiety and depression, is free with a referral from your doctor to the mental health team.


----------



## miranda (Apr 16, 2004)

I have hard figures from my treatment, in your area, in CDN$ circa 5-6 years agoI saw a Registered Psychologist with a Ph D for approximately 20 sessions @ 125$. I just looked at the clinic's website and the cost has gone up to 160$ per session - 1 hour sessions if I remember. 150$ for just a Ph D and not a registered psychologist. In order for me to bill my insurance my therapist has to be an MD or have a registered number, I was also able to apply my non-insured portion against my taxes - if I remember correctly it has to be a registered pyschologist.I was prepared to pay upwards of 3+K as I had almost zero quality of life.hope that helps, M


----------



## overitnow (Nov 25, 2001)

Thanks for the info, miranda. It is good to know that for anyone with insurance this shouldn't be a problem, depending upon how many sessions, co-pays, etc. At the time I was having the driving problem, I was afraid of going to my MD because I was reluctant to have this attached to my driver's abstract. It took a couple of years, but I was able to eliminate the problem with continuing small exposures which eventually allowed me to drive in traffic again. Mark


----------

