How much does therapy cost in Maryland?
Takeaway: Are you interested in finding mental health care, but struggling to comprehend the financial aspects of therapy? In this blog post, I demystify the average cost of therapy in Maryland, discussing hourly rates, cost influencers, and the value it can bring to your well-being. Let’s dive in!
Choosing to begin therapy can be a big decision. Figuring out the financial aspect of therapy can be an added layer of stress while navigating the process. While looking for mental health services, you likely will see a large range of costs and different types of clinicians. Some therapists take health insurance, some use out-of-network benefits, and some are private pay only. Having an understanding of why therapists charge different rates, the average price of therapy in Maryland, and how to find a therapist that is the right choice for you, helps ensure you feel comfortable in making the right choice for your time and financial investment.
Factors that influence the price of mental health services
Therapist's Specialty
Therapists who have specialties tend to cost more than therapists without specialized training. In order to get specialized in providing care for a specific mental health condition, or to implement certain techniques, therapists need training and education outside of graduate school. Specialized training also tends to extend past the typical licensure timeframe of three years after graduate school, adding additional schooling requirements before being fully licensed.
Private Practice versus Community Mental Health Clinics
The type of agency you receive mental health services from also affects the cost of the care. Private practices are small business that focus on providing therapy services including individual therapy, family therapy, or couples therapy. Private practices tend to have therapists specialized to treat specific issues. The therapists also tend to have smaller caseloads, allowing them to spend more time preparing and giving treatment to their clients. Community mental health agencies tend to be bigger agencies with a number of different services for clients. Community mental health agencies tend to accept insurance from a variety of sources, including plans offered by the Affordable Care Act. These agencies can also provide low cost therapy for those in need. Community mental health agencies tend to offer more affordable therapy, but their clinicians tend to have higher caseloads.
Insurance versus Cash Pay
If the provider you see takes insurance, your cost may be lower due to insurance covering a portion of the session cost. If the therapist you see is an out-of-network provider, your initial cost may be higher upfront. With out-of-network care, you pay the cost of the session, then typically receive reimbursement from your insurance for a portion of the session fee. If you are completely private pay, that means you are paying for the full cost of the session without reimbursement and will likely experience the most cost.
Mental Health Coverage Through Insurance
Unfortunately, just because you have health insurance, it does not mean that you will have mental health coverage. Each plan and the coverage will have unique mental health benefits. If you opt to use your insurance coverage, your plan may cover the entire cost of your sessions, you may have a copay, or you may not have any coverage. Some insurance coverage only kicks in after a deductible is met. Furthermore, some insurance only covers therapy for a certain period of time. The coverage can be influenced by the mental health diagnosis, the progress made in therapy, and the duration of the treatment plan.
Therapist Level of Licensure
The experience of your clinician also goes into pricing. The more experience your therapist has, the more expensive therapy will be. Therapists can practice and work with clients after graduate school before they become fully licensed. During this time the have an intermediate license called a graduate license and these clinicians are under supervision to ensure they are giving high quality care. Clinicians with graduate licenses tend to offer more affordable therapy. Clinicians who are fully licensed have completed the time, supervision, testing, and requirements to deliver therapy services independently without supervision. Therapy costs with these clinicians tend to cost more than with therapists who are not fully licensed.
In-Person versus Virtual Sessions
One of the biggest costs in determining the cost of sessions is the therapist's office. If your therapist has a physical office location, this will increase the cost of therapy. Some clinicians offer virtual only sessions, which can keep costs lower.
Type of Therapy Sessions
Different therapy interventions can also influence the cost of sessions. Generally, therapy sessions are about 50 minutes long and most pricing is based off of this model. However, some providers opt to offer 45 minute sessions in an effort to lower costs. Group therapy sessions are also another option of lowering the cost per session. If your mental health professional offers sessions longer than 50 mins, you would also expect the cost for be reflective of the extended time.
The cost of Therapy in Maryland
Maryland has a large range of economic diversity across the state, which will impact the cost of therapy based on the region. Accessibility to therapy in Maryland also varies for in-person sessions since some parts of the state are more rural and others are metropolitan. While therapists who are licensed in Maryland can provide therapy services anywhere in the state, most clinicians base their prices off of the area where their practice is located. For example, if a clinician is located in an area where costs of running a business are high, their price per session may be higher than a therapist in another area. Insurance companies can also base their coverage based on physical location, so this may impact whether or not therapists accept insurance.
At Balanced Thoughts Therapy, we strive to provide fair pricing for our clients while ensuring they receive quality care. Below are some of the average prices of therapy in Maryland based on location as of 2023. These average rates were calculated by averaging the rates of 10 therapists within the area for a singular individual therapy session. The therapists selected varied across specialty, gender, and included clinicians who offer both virtual and in-person sessions. When searching for a therapist, you may take into consideration whether or not their pricing is in line with the average cost for the area. Some therapists offer sliding scale options which means they may adjust the price of their sessions based on your income.
Rockville - $150 per individual therapy session
Baltimore - $145 per individual therapy session
Frederick - $140 per individual therapy session
Ocean City - $135 per individual therapy session
Annapolis - $118 per individual therapy session
Hagerstown - $120 per individual therapy session
College Park - $140 per individual therapy session
Germantown - $135 per individual therapy session
Columbia - $137 per individual therapy session
Bethesda - $170 per individual therapy session
Potomac - $185 per individual therapy session
Is mental health treatment usually covered by insurance?
The answer to this question can be complicated. Many times yes, some (but not all) insurance plans provide some coverage for therapy. However, insurance companies get to dictate for how long they will provide coverage and if they feel your mental health diagnosis should qualify for coverage. Many people find that they want to extend their time in therapy past what insurance will cover. Furthermore, by participating in your insurance company's plan, you have to receive an official diagnosis to qualify for coverage. Many people wish to avoid receiving a diagnosis, and therefore opt to pay out-of-pocket for sessions.
The middle ground that many clients choose to opt for is using their out-of-network (OON) benefits. When using OON benefits, insurance companies tend to have less oversight on the duration and frequency of therapy. This allows clients the ability to engage in the therapeutic process with reduced concern that insurance will stop paying for sessions. ONN benefits also tend to help alleviate therapy costs by giving the client some reimbursement for the expenses they pay out-of-pocket.
Balanced Thoughts Therapy participates with a small selection of insurance companies. For clients who do not have these plans, Balanced Thoughts Therapy operates as an out-of-network provider. This means that clients pay for sessions out-of-pocket, then receive a receipt for therapy called a superbill that they can submit to insurance for reimbursement.
Is therapy worth it?
It's natural to want assurance that therapy will be worth your time and financial investment. Therapy is also a deeply personal process, so before you begin sharing vulnerable aspects of yourself, you likely want to ensure there will be benefit. Furthermore, when working through issues, therapy can bring up difficult memories or emotions. No one wants to experience these things if there is no benefit.
Therapy is an evidence based intervention to help address a multitude of mental health issues. Evidence based interventions are those that have been researched and have been found to be more effective than no intervention or a placebo intervention in treating symptoms or conditions. Ensuring you have a therapist who is knowledgeable in these interventions is an important component in making therapy worth your investment. Other influencing factors include your rapport with your therapist, your willingness to implement change, and therapeutic interventions being realistic to your life and your capacities at the time. If all of these components come together, therapy can help address many issues. Here are a few:
Gain Insight into Self
Many people enter therapy not understanding why certain patterns reoccur in their lives or why they feel stuck in cycles they can't stop. People also often enter therapy to deal with feelings of shame, low self-esteem, or disliking certain parts of themselves. Therapy can help increase understanding of our decision making keeping us stuck in cycles, improve our self-esteem, and integrate our self-perception into a place of acceptance.
Improve Communication
Issues with communication can appear as having trouble setting boundaries, self-advocating or expressing needs. These issues can also appear through frequent conflict, using passive aggression, or impulsivity resulting in harshness towards someone else. While in therapy, you can learn to increase your ability to express yourself assertively, empathetically, and effectively rather than perpetuate these patterns that do not serve you.
Increase Distress Tolerance
If you struggle with avoidance when emotions or situations become overwhelming, you may struggle with distress tolerance. This may look like patterns of procrastination, over-focus on easier, less impactful feelings, or engaging with distractions. Low distress tolerance can also take the form of defensiveness in relationships, outbursts of anger, or self-sabotaging behaviors. Therapy can help you figure out the skills to be able to build distress tolerance and experience emotions that may have previously been overwhelming.
Reduce Anxiety
Anxiety can effect your thoughts, your functionality at work or school, create avoidance behaviors, impact your body, and affect your relationships. Despite how pervasive the effects of anxiety can be, it often gets characterized as a normal experience. While it is true that we all experience anxiety at certain times, when anxiety because out of proportion to the stressor, is chronic, and difficult to control, the anxiety is potentially occurring at the level of a disorder. Therapy works to treat the functional issues caused by anxiety by helping you regulate your somatic experience, understand your triggers, and feel empowered to use coping skills.
Lessen Depression
When experiencing depression, it can feel like there is little hope that the feelings of emptiness, apathy, or sadness will dissipate. While depression can be difficult to navigate due to the nature of the disorder affecting energy, motivation, and one's sense of self-efficacy, therapy can help. Therapy can help you understand the patterns of depression, help you learn to cope and lessen its effects, and process the difficult emotions and thoughts that can exacerbate depressive symptoms.
Improve Emotional Regulation
If you feel like it is difficult to tolerate your emotions, predict the patterns of your mood, or experience frequent or rapid highs and lows, you may struggle with emotional regulation. Issues with emotional regulation can occur when you are under stress, are struggling with a mood disorder, are in a high pressure environment, or in a difficult relational dynamic. Therapy can aid with figuring out the underlying source of the emotional dysregulation, develop coping skills to improve emotional regulation, and implement techniques to help change last over time.
Conquer Stress
Stress can come in the form of one impactful event happening in your life. It can also happen over time as we gain more responsibilities, become more busy, and feel more pressure. Stress can hugely impact our physical health and also exacerbate mental health issues. Learning how to cope with stress, eliminating stressors that don't serve you, and learning how to relax are all skills that can be learned in therapy to combat the effects of stress.
Improve Family Dynamics
The dynamics we have with our families can be some of the most complex we experience. This can be true for your family of origin, which is the family you grow up with, and with your created family. Your created family can include your partner or spouse, your children, people you live with, and your close friends. The dynamics within families are often complex and nuanced. Therapy can help unravel these complexities and examine the role that you play in the family. Therapy can also help you identify and work towards changing your family role into one that feels emotionally safe.
Tips for Choosing a Therapist
Ensure your therapist is specialized in your needs
For you to feel like you are getting the proper support for your issues, look for a therapist who has a niche in the issues you are looking to address. There are various mental health conditions and life stressors that can bring someone into therapy. Since therapeutic issues can be so broad, mental health professionals tend to specialize in a few issues that they know in-depth. This does not mean you are limited to only discussing these few issues, but it does mean your therapist will have in-depth knowledge about the core issues you want to work through. Be cautious of the "do it all" therapists because many times while their knowledge may be vast, it may not be deeply specialized. You deserve therapy services specialized to you.
Ask about the kinds of interventions they provide
Even within specializations, each therapist will have a different therapeutic style and approach. When seeking treatment, think about how you have historically been able to process emotions, learn new information, and establish emotional safety best. Some clients respond well with more structured sessions often used in cognitive behavioral therapy. Other clients do well with more emotive and creative interventions like those used in art therapy. Most therapists use a combination of techniques depending on your needs. Ask about the kinds of techniques they use most frequently and how those look within a therapy session. Finding a therapist that can be flexible with your needs is a great way you can feel supported. No matter their approach, ensure the therapist you work with is offering evidence based therapy options.
Think about the goals you want to achieve
Being able to reflect on your therapy goals will help you select a clinician who will be able to help you achieve the outcomes you desire. Some clients begin therapy to gain a sense of understanding about themselves, their interpersonal dynamics, or their mental illness. Some clients are more solution focused and are looking for coping skills through a more solution focused lens. When looking for a therapist, ensure that you both have clarity about the goals you want to work on and that you both feel good working to achieve these goals.
Find someone who makes you comfortable
Individual therapy is highly impacted by the interpersonal dynamic between you and your therapist. Finding someone that makes you feel safe, understood, and supported is an essential piece in doing therapeutic work. You have to feel as though you trust your therapist in order to disclose important information that may be difficult to share. You also have to feel a sense of trust in order to take their guidance. Looking at a therapist's website, their online listings, and having a phone consultation before starting therapy can be a great way to get a sense of how comfortable you feel with the therapist.
Ready to see what therapy can do for you? Get in touch to start your journey of healing today.
If you struggle with issues related to your mood, anxiety, interpersonal issues, stress management, or navigating family dynamics, Balanced Thoughts Therapy can help you. I have specialized in treating these issues and my clients experience the change they want to see.
Therapy Services at Balanced Thoughts Therapy
Therapy sessions are communicative, ensuring that we are working on what feels good for you in a way that is realistic for your life. I generally pull from modalities such as Emotion Focused Therapy to help you understand how you feel, why you feel that way, and how to make those feelings tolerable; Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to help you examine your thoughts separate from yourself while still attending to the underlying need of why they are being expressed; and Mindfulness Therapy to help you tackle the somatic elements of what you experience and gain more insight into yourself. Together we balance processing patterns, thoughts, and emotions with building coping skills that you can use outside of session.
Working Together
If you are interested in working together, please fill out the contact form on this website. I will get back to you with some times where we can schedule a 15-minute complimentary consultation call to see if we would be a good therapeutic fit. If you've made it this far in the article, I'm hoping we will be and I look forward to hearing from you!