Psychotherapeutic treatment begins with the so-called probationary sessions (a type of “trial session”). The content of these sessions usually consists of five appointments to get to know each other, to narrow down the symptoms, to consider the diagnosis and indication for psychotherapy and to draw up an individual treatment plan. The psychotherapeutic treatment then begins. The length of treatment varies from person to person and can range from short-term therapy (24 sessions) to long-term therapy (60 sessions). Therapeutic sessions usually take place once a week for 50 minutes.

Costs
The costs for the probationary and psychotherapeutic sessions are based on the scale of fees for psychotherapists (GOP).

Privately insured persons
Generally, private health insurance companies cover the costs of psychotherapeutic treatment. Please contact your insurance company to find out whether the costs will be covered. Whether and to what extent the costs are covered depends on the individual insurance tariff. It is possible that only a certain proportion of the costs will be covered, meaning that co-payments are possible. Therapeutic treatment is also eligible for financial assistance.

German Armed Forces/Police
Psychotherapy is generally a benefit provided by the military welfare service for soldiers and police officers. You can make an appointment for an initial consultation directly. To be on the safe side, please ask the military medical service or the police medical service whether psychotherapeutic treatment is an option. A doctor’s referral is also necessary. For the initial consultation, soldiers require the medical form declaration of assumption of costs (San/Bw/0218).

People with statutory health insurance
As I am not licensed to work with statutory health insurance companies, I cannot bill them directly. If you are unable to obtain treatment in a statutory health insurance practice, you can use the cost reimbursement procedure to apply for the costs to be covered by statutory insurance. You can find out more about the reimbursement procedure here.

Self-payers
If you wish to cover the treatment costs yourself, billing will be carried out in accordance with the Fee Schedule for Psychotherapists (GOP, including analogous services).Currently, an individual session (50 minutes) is charged at €134.07.