Private Therapy in Berlin: What Expats Should Know

Once you've found a therapist who actually speaks your language, the next questions are usually practical: how much does this cost, how often would I come in, and how long does something like this typically take? Here's a straightforward look at what to expect.

Costs: a general sense, not a surprise

Private therapy in Berlin, outside the statutory insurance system, typically runs somewhere between roughly €120 and €210 per session, depending on session length and format, with an initial consultation usually starting around €150. Couples work and more focused consultation formats are priced a little differently.

Rather than listing every variation here, you can find the full, current fee breakdown on my fees & process page, it's all laid out clearly in English, session lengths, formats, and what each one is best suited for.

Frequency: what's actually typical

Most ongoing work happens weekly or every other week, especially for deeper, longer-standing patterns or trauma processing. Shorter, more focused work (around 5 to 15 sessions) is also common for specific, clearly defined concerns, a difficult transition, a particular decision, a recent loss. Which rhythm makes sense for you is something we'd figure out together, not something fixed in advance.

Why it matters that I'm genuinely bilingual, not just "good at English"

Here's something worth being honest about: there's a real difference between a German therapist who speaks competent English, and a therapist who is genuinely bilingual and bicultural. It's not about vocabulary. It's about the things that don't translate cleanly: the specific shame in how a sentence is phrased, the dry humor that defuses a hard topic, the cultural assumptions baked into how someone was raised to handle conflict, express need, or talk about family. A lot of what actually matters in therapy lives in exactly that kind of nuance.

I grew up moving between German and English, not learning English as a school subject, but living in it. That means I'm not mentally translating what you say before I understand it, and I'm not missing the undertone beneath the words either. For emotionally precise work, especially trauma work, where the exact shape of a memory or a feeling matters, that difference is not a nice-to-have. It's often the difference between feeling truly seen and understood and feeling almost understood.

Starting the conversation

If you're weighing whether this is the right fit, a free initial phone call is a low-pressure way to find out, no commitment, no costs, just a conversation.

You can reach me by phone at +49 174 535 86 70, through my about page, or book directly online via Doctolib.