Fees and insurance
Published openly, because being asked to enquire about the price of therapy is an unnecessary piece of friction at a point where you already have enough of them.
| Appointment | Length | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Initial assessment Adults, children or parents | 90 minutes | £180 |
| Therapy session Individual, or parent-based | 50–60 minutes | £120 |
| Extended session For longer exposure work, where agreed in advance | 90 minutes | £180 |
| Free introductory call | 30 minutes | No charge |
| Reports, letters and school liaison | By arrangement | Quoted before any work begins |
| Clinical supervision For qualified clinicians and trainees | 60 minutes | On enquiry |
Payment is by bank transfer after each session, or directly by your insurer where treatment is authorised. There is no joining fee, no minimum commitment and no package to buy up front.
Why the fee is what it is
It is a fair question, and one people are often too polite to ask. Private therapy in the UK runs from roughly £60 an hour to well over £300, and the number on its own tells you almost nothing. So here is what sits behind this one.
Who is in the room
“Therapist” is not a protected title in the UK. “Clinical psychologist” is. I hold a doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Washington, I am registered with the Health and Care Professions Council, chartered with the British Psychological Society, and board certified in Behavioral and Cognitive Psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology — a credential held by very few psychologists practising in the UK. That is roughly a decade of training before the decade of practice, and it is the main thing you are paying for.
The treatment is specific, and doing it properly is harder than it looks
Exposure and Response Prevention is not general counselling with some homework attached. Done well it requires knowing exactly which safety behaviours to remove and in what order, spotting the covert compulsions the person has not told you about because they do not know they are compulsions, and holding a course when someone is frightened and would rather not. Done badly it is unpleasant and it does not work, which is why a lot of people arrive here having already had “CBT” that did nothing.
The fee reflects more than the hour you see
Between sessions there is preparation, scoring and reviewing measures, designing the next exposure step, letters to GPs and schools, liaison with insurers, note-keeping to HCPC standards, indemnity, registration, continuing professional development and my own clinical supervision. A session fee that only covered the hour itself would not be a real number.
Short treatment costs less than cheap treatment
This is the part that matters most and gets discussed least. CBT and ERP are time-limited by design and I work towards you not needing me. A course of twelve to sixteen effective sessions is a smaller sum, and a much smaller cost in time and distress, than two years of open-ended weekly therapy at a lower hourly rate that never targets the mechanism. The honest comparison is not the hourly fee. It is the total.
And the case against paying me at all
NHS Talking Therapies is free, you can self-refer without a GP, and for many adults with anxiety it is a genuinely good service delivering the same evidence-based treatments. Waiting times vary a great deal by area and by specialism. For children, CAMHS is free but thresholds are high and waits can be long, which is the most common reason families end up looking privately.
If the NHS route looks right for you, I will say so on the free call and tell you how to access it. I would rather do that than take on work you did not need to pay for.
Insurance
I am recognised by BUPA, AXA Health, Aviva, Vitality, WPA. In most cases you contact your insurer first, they authorise a number of sessions and issue a code, and I invoice them directly so there is nothing for you to reclaim.
Two things worth knowing before you start. Some policies require a GP referral and some exclude pre-existing conditions, so it is worth a five-minute call to your insurer rather than an awkward discovery later. And insurers authorise a set number of sessions at a time, so if treatment needs to run longer we apply for an extension together.
Reduced-fee places
I keep a small number of appointments at a reduced rate. They are limited and I cannot always offer one immediately, but the only way to find out is to ask, and asking will not affect how I treat you or how quickly I reply. This is deliberate: I would rather the fee was a conversation than a closed door.
Common questions
How many sessions will I actually need?
It depends on the problem and how long it has been running, but these are not open-ended treatments. Specific phobias often resolve in a handful of sessions. Panic and health anxiety commonly take somewhere in the region of eight to sixteen. OCD, in adults or children, typically takes longer — often twelve to twenty. Parent-based work tends to run around ten to fourteen. I will give you a realistic estimate at the end of the assessment rather than after you have already committed, and I would rather revise it honestly partway through than let it drift.
Why is the initial assessment more expensive?
Because it is longer and it is where most of the thinking happens. The assessment runs 90 minutes rather than the usual 50 to 60, and behind it sits reviewing anything you send in advance, scoring and interpreting standardised measures, building a formulation, and writing up a treatment plan. Pricing it the same as a therapy session would either mean rushing it or quietly pricing that work into everything else. I would rather charge for it openly, once.
Do you take insurance, and how does that work?
I am recognised by BUPA, AXA Health, Aviva, Vitality and WPA. The usual route is that you contact your insurer, describe what is going on, and they issue an authorisation code and a number of approved sessions. You give me that code and I invoice the insurer directly. Some policies require a GP referral first and some do not, and some have an excess or a session cap — worth checking before you start, because it is easier to sort out at the beginning than halfway through.
What if I cannot afford this?
Ask me. I hold a small number of reduced-fee places and I would rather you raised it than quietly decided not to get help. It is also worth saying plainly that NHS Talking Therapies is free, is genuinely effective for a lot of people, and can be self-referred to without going through your GP. If that is the better route for you, I will say so on the free call — that call exists partly so you can find out whether paying privately is even necessary.
What is your cancellation policy?
Cancel or move an appointment with at least 48 hours notice and there is no charge. Inside 48 hours the full fee applies, because the slot cannot realistically be filled. The exception is genuine emergency or sudden illness — I am a human being about this and always have been, and I would rather you did not attend a session while unwell than force it because of a policy.
Do I need a GP referral?
Not to see me. You can get in touch directly and most people do. Some insurers require a GP referral before they will authorise treatment, so check your policy if you are planning to claim. If you would like me to write to your GP after the assessment I am happy to, with your consent, and for anything where medication may be relevant that contact is usually worth having.
Related pages
Not sure whether this is the right fit?
Start with a free 30-minute call. We will talk through what is going on, I will tell you honestly whether I think I can help, and if I cannot I will try to point you to someone who can. There is no obligation and no charge.