How Much Does Therapy Cost in Los Angeles?

Starting therapy is a big, brave step in taking charge of your mental health (if you’d like more guidance, check out our comprehensive guide on how to start therapy).

Along with all the emotional implications that come with starting therapy, there are some very real, logistical things to consider as well, like how much therapy costs in Los Angeles (or wherever you are).

In this post, I’ll list out the average session fees of therapists in Los Angeles, explain ways to pay for therapy, why therapy costs what it does, and if therapy is worth the price tag.

Let’s dive in!

So what’s the average cost of therapy in LA?

When therapists set their rates, a lot of factors inform those numbers (I’ll explain those later). Session fees between therapists can vary by hundreds of dollars, but going into your therapy search, it’s helpful to have an average session fee in mind.

Note that there is some variety in average session fees since some data (including our own here) also includes rates of therapists who accept insurance. When a therapist accepts insurance, they often end up getting reimbursed by an insurance company for less than their actual fee. TLDR: therapists are underpaid by insurance companies, so they struggle to make a living wage when they work directly with your insurance company. Surprising to no one, this isn’t good for therapists or clients.

So TLDR, we researched fees of what actual therapists in Los Angeles are charging. Based on averages from 25 local, LA therapists, here are their average session fees based on specialty.

Note that this is an average, so your therapist’s fees might be higher or lower.

Remember that therapists must disclose their fees to you. The No Surprises Act, which passed in 2022, requires all healthcare professionals to provide you with a Good Faith Estimate.

Read more about what a Good Faith Estimate is here.

Session fees for Best Therapists

Knowing the average session of a therapist in Los Angeles is helpful, but what if you want better-than-average therapy?

Welcome to Best Therapists–we’re a therapy directory that vets therapists for quality so you can focus on fit.

• Average session fee on Best Therapists: $199 per session*

*as of August 16, 2023

Because our therapists’ quality of care is higher, their fee is a bit higher than average, as well.

Our therapists pass a rigorous verification process and are truly some of the best therapists out there. All therapists on our directory have active licenses, stellar peer reviews, high ratings on other platforms like Google Business and Healthgrades, a commitment to providing trauma-informed care (i.e., no racism, sexism, homophobia, etc.), and are currently accepting clients–no waitlists here!

We also screen for burnout. Therapists on Best Therapists see no more than 20 clients per week, meaning they’re fully emotionally available to you. We know it’s not overworked therapists with intense caseloads who are at fault here, but we believe that therapy-seekers get the best care when their therapists can show up as their best self; and that means no burnout.

How do therapists calculate their session fees?

Therapists calculate their session fees based on a few factors.

• Business expenses. If your therapist is in private practice, they’re running a business! Every business comes with expenses, and a therapy practice is no different. These expenses can get pretty high, especially if a therapist has an office space.
• Administrative work. To keep their practices running, private practice therapists do way more than just therapy. They’re also running the administrative side of their practices, which includes things like formatting therapy notes and marketing.
• Student debt. Many therapists go into tens of thousands of dollars of debt to become therapists. Their session fees need to help them pay off their loans.
• Additional education and licensing. Once you become a therapist, there are additional requirements to keep your license, and these cost money.
• Cost of living. Some cities are expensive to live in. Therapists need to charge fees in accordance with their city’s cost of living.
• Experience. Therapists that are more experienced typically charge higher fees. This is no different from any other industry.

Therapists have lives, too–there are many other more personal factors that also affect their fee!

How can I pay for therapy?

There are a few ways to pay for therapy.

Pay for therapy with help from a therapist or organization

If finances are a major concern for you, you can pay less (or not at all) for therapy through organizations that supplement the cost of therapy. For example, one mental health fund that supplements therapy is the BIPOC Therapy Fund.

Some therapists also offer sliding scale therapy–meaning that they lower their session fee to better match your finances. Note that not all therapists offer sliding scale spots.

Pay for therapy with insurance

Many people opt to pay for therapy by seeing therapists that are in-network with their insurance providers. While this is a totally legitimate way to pay for therapy, I have to caution you against paying for therapy in this way.

Remember when I mentioned that insurance companies reimburse therapists at really low (sometimes laughable) rates? These reimbursement caps from insurance companies force therapists to take on large caseloads to make a living.

Large caseloads = burnout, which typically results in lower quality care for you.

My advice is this: if you can make the investment, opt for private pay or go through your out-of-network benefits.

Pay for therapy with your out-of-network benefits

All insurance plans have out-of-network benefits.

Out-of-network benefits are typically the amount of money your insurance company will reimburse you for services from out-of-network providers. For therapy, this reimbursement rate can be as high as 80%!

This approach is my top recommendation, because you get high quality care and save money on therapy. Not sure what your benefits are? Use our free out-of-network mental health benefits checker.

Pay for therapy out-of-pocket

Finally, you can pay your therapist directly without involving your insurance company through what’s known as “private pay.” While it’s the most expensive way to pay for therapy, it’s also the simplest.

Is therapy really worth it?

We’re pretty biased here at Best Therapists, but, uh… hell yeah. I’m living proof of the power of good therapy! (And yes, I'm completely healed and perfect now, obviously 😉).

Here are a few reasons to start therapy (if you need any beyond a stranger-on-the-internet’s vote of confidence).

• Change your thinking patterns. Harmful thinking patterns keep us stuck. You might be thinking about things wrong, and your therapist will point these fallacies out to you. Change how you think, change how you feel.
• Heal your trauma. All of us have trauma. A therapist helps you relate to your trauma differently, so you no longer feel like your trauma is running your life.
• Identify and understand your emotions. Did you know that most people are only able to identify three emotions? That’s a seriously limited lexicon. Therapy helps you learn how to identify emotions and understand how to change them.
• Improve your relationships. Relationships are the greatest source of joy and pain in our lives. In therapy, you’ll learn how to improve your relationships, which can improve your mental health.
• Change your life. After high quality therapy, you’ll feel like a new person. The major transformations you’ll go through will change your mental health and how you relate to yourselves and the world.

These are only a few of the reasons to start therapy–I’m sure you’ll uncover more of your own!

Ready to find your soulmate therapist?

At Best Therapists, we believe that everyone deserves a change to find their soulmate therapist.

If you’re ready to work with a top-rated therapist in Los Angeles, start your search on Best Therapists today!