Therapy costs
The cost of therapy can vary depending on several factors, including the therapist’s expertise and qualifications. Our therapy rates are generally considered to be reasonable and competitive. While therapy costs can vary, investing in mental health support can have long-term benefits for overall well-being and quality of life.
How Much Does Therapy Cost?
At our practice in Perth, a session costs between $225 and $300 depending on who you see and whether you come alone, as a couple or as a family. Every rate is published below. Nothing is quoted on request, and nothing changes once you have booked.
We are Richard and Helena Boyd, and between us we have spent 21 years working with clients here. We put our therapy costs on this page because not knowing what something costs is a reason people delay getting help, and that delay is expensive in ways money is not.
Our Therapy Fees
All of our therapy sessions are full consultations of approximately 55 minutes.
That is the full session fee. Your first appointment costs the same as every appointment after it, with no separate intake charge and no loading for a longer first session.
What Your Session Fee Includes
You are paying for the hour and for the training behind it.
Session time covers what is happening now, emotional support and coping strategies you can use during the week, and the relationship patterns sitting underneath whatever brought you in. Because we work somatically, we also track what happens in your body as you talk, which is often where the useful information is and rarely where people expect to find it.
There is no add on pricing. Session duration, the work we do inside it and any planning between sessions are all covered by the one rate.
What We Work With
The same fee structure covers everything we offer, so what you pay depends on who is in the room rather than what you bring to it.
We work with trauma, anxiety, depression, grief and loss, addiction, anger, self esteem and the kind of low grade dissatisfaction that has no name yet. Individual sessions are the most common starting point. We also offer couples therapy and relationship counselling, and family counselling or family therapy where the difficulty sits between people rather than inside one person.
We see adults and young people, and clients come to us across the full range of mental health support needs, from a single difficult period through to patterns that have been running for decades.
Short term counselling on something specific and longer term work are charged identically, so nothing about our pricing pushes you toward staying longer than you need to.
How We Work
Our approach is Integrative Body Mind Psychotherapy, built on the principle that the body is the subconscious mind.
Alongside it we draw on Core Energetics and on Sensorimotor Psychotherapy for trauma work, which is where our specialised training sits. In practice that means we are not only asking what you think about something. We are watching what happens in your breathing, your posture and your voice while you say it, because that usually reaches the pattern faster than talking about it does.
This is the reason clients tell us our sessions feel different from talking therapy they have had before.
Our Experience And Training
When you are weighing up a fee, the training behind it is the thing worth asking about.
Richard is a Certified Somatic Psychotherapist and trauma specialist who completed his trauma training through the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute between 2011 and 2013, and holds an Advanced Diploma in Core Energetics. Helena works from the same integrative body mind framework. Between us that is 21 years of practice in Perth, in private rooms rather than a clinic model, which is why you see the same practitioner every time rather than whoever is rostered on.
We are members of our professional association and work under ongoing supervision, and we are happy to answer any question about qualifications before you book.
Rebates And Health Fund Claims
We would rather you read this before you book than discover it afterwards.
We are psychotherapists, not psychologists. Our profession is self regulated through the professional associations rather than registered with the Psychology Board, and that means we cannot offer medicare rebates, we cannot see you under a mental health treatment plan, and we do not currently offer private health insurance rebates. If a rebate is essential for your circumstances, your GP is the right place to start that conversation.
What we offer instead is direct access. No referral, no waiting list, no cap on sessions, no diagnosis on your record and nothing reported back to anyone.
In Person And Online Sessions
We see clients in person at our Perth rooms and online, at the same rate either way.
In person sessions suit the body based work best, particularly early in trauma work where being in the room together matters. Online suits people managing distance, shift rosters or a week that will not hold still, and many clients move between the two depending on what is happening in their lives.
Appointments run during standard business hours. If that is impossible for your work, ask us, because we can sometimes accommodate early or weekend appointments.
Booking Your First Session
Starting with us is deliberately simple.
No referral is needed and there is no waiting list. You can book directly online or by phone, and your first session includes a full intake and a plan for how we will work together. Many clients choose to have a short phone call with us first, at no charge, so you can hear how we work before committing to anything.
If cost is tight, raise it on that call. Concession pricing may be available where there is real financial hardship, and we would rather have that conversation than lose you to a number on a page.
Payment And Cancellations
Payment is taken on the day of your session by cash or EFTPOS. There is no invoicing in arrears and no deposit required to hold a booking.
Sessions are payable in full unless at least 24 hours notice is given, which is how we handle both cancellations and missed appointments. The reason is practical rather than punitive. Your time is held for you and cannot be filled at short notice. Full details are on our cancellations (/cancellations/) page.
Why Clients Choose Us
Price is one part of the decision, so here is what sits behind ours.
You see one of two experienced practitioners rather than a rotating roster, and the person you meet in the first session is the person you keep seeing. The methods are trauma informed and integrative rather than a single protocol applied to everyone. There is no waiting list, no diagnosis required, and the room is a safe, non judgemental space with no agenda about what you should decide.
You also get honesty about fit. If we are not the right people for what you are carrying, we will tell you in the first conversation and point you somewhere better.
What This Looks Like In Practice
These are composite examples drawn from our clinical work, with identifying details changed.
A man in his forties booked three sessions to get through a specific crisis and finished after four. He had assumed committing to therapy meant committing to a year of it. Nothing in how we charge required him to stay longer than the problem did.
A couple came for eight sessions of relationship counselling and then one of them continued individually. The overall cost was easier to plan for once they could see every rate up front rather than asking for a quote each time.
A FIFO worker on a two and one roster used online sessions while away and in person sessions when home. Same fee, same practitioner, no disruption to the work.
A woman in her fifties had spent two years comparing practitioners without booking anything, because most sites would not name a price. She told us later that seeing the number written down was what finally made the call possible.
