Therapy sessions
Typical San Francisco fees: a licensed clinician $175 to $275, a psychologist $200 to $350, a pre-licensed associate $80 to $150, couples $200 to $350, and a low-fee clinic often $40 to $100. Set the reimbursement to zero if you have no out-of-network benefits.
Nothing here is saved or sent. Confirm any figure with the practice and your insurer before you rely on it.
Getting the reimbursement number right
The slider above applies your percentage to what you actually pay, which is optimistic. Real reimbursement applies the percentage to your insurer’s allowed amount, which in California is frequently well below Bay Area fees.
So if your plan reimburses 70 per cent and the allowed amount is $150, a $225 session returns $105 — an effective 47 per cent. To model that honestly, set the slider to the effective rate rather than the headline one.
Get the real figures by calling your insurer and asking four things: do I have out-of-network outpatient mental health benefits; what is the out-of-network deductible and how much have I met; what percentage of the allowed amount do you reimburse; and what is the allowed amount for CPT code 90837 in my area. Why each one matters.
The deductible, which this doesn’t model
Out-of-network deductibles are usually separate and often $1,000 to $5,000. Nothing is reimbursed until it is met, which means the first stretch is full price and the rest of the year is much cheaper.
Practically: if you’re starting in the autumn and have already met it through other care, your effective cost for the rest of the year may be a fraction of the figure above.
Three configurations worth pricing
Weekly with a licensed clinician. The default, and the most expensive.
Weekly with an associate. Set the fee to $100. Supervised, often excellent, and for a first course of therapy a genuinely reasonable choice rather than a compromise.
Fortnightly. Set sessions to two a month. Not ideal for a structured protocol, where weekly momentum matters, and considerably better than stopping — which is what people actually do when the weekly number becomes unsustainable.
The two things that change the number entirely
Training institutes and low-fee clinics, where fees start far below anything here. And an HSA or FSA, which makes therapy a pre-tax expense — a straightforward 20 to 40 per cent discount before any reimbursement at all.