How Much Does Therapy Cost in Chiang Mai? 2025 Guide

What therapy costs in Chiang Mai in 2026

Thai nationals without other health coverage are treated free of charge at participating units under the Universal Coverage Scheme, known as the gold card, mental health included. Since the December 2024 reform it applies in any province with just a national ID card, no referral letter. For foreigners and anyone outside the scheme, hospitals set their own fees, and while private practice publishes no schedule, English-speaking practices in Chiang Mai that publish their rates charge about 2,800 to 3,700 baht a session.

These are guiding estimates. Practitioners set their own fees.

The gold card, and what changed in 2024

The scheme covers about 47.5 million Thais who hold no other health entitlement. Three things about it matter for mental health care in Chiang Mai, per the public broadcaster's reporting of the health security office's decisions:

• Mental health is inside the package. Psychiatric treatment runs through the scheme like other care, and the 2025 to 2026 package adds psychiatric consultation centres and a mental health hotline, with an alcohol cessation line following.
• The 30-baht name is history, not a price. The scheme's famous name survives from its early co-payment; the current reform is about access: "no referral letter required, only national ID card", in all 77 provinces since 2 December 2024.
• The route: register with the scheme, then present at a participating unit; psychiatric hospitals and hospital psychiatric departments in Chiang Mai participate. If you have social security or civil servant coverage instead, your scheme's own rules apply.

Outside the scheme

Foreign residents and visitors are not covered by the gold card. Public hospitals treat non-Thais at fees each hospital sets and publishes itself; ask the hospital's payment desk for its current schedule before treatment. Private hospitals and private therapy practices in Chiang Mai set their own fees, and no Thai body publishes a schedule for them; the reliable figure is the one the hospital or practice gives you, and the published examples below show the going range.

What practices charge

Among English-speaking private practices listing their prices: Counselling Thailand, with offices in Chiang Mai and Bangkok, publishes 2,765 baht for 60 minutes and 3,745 baht for 90 minutes, charged per session rather than per person; in the capital, Therapist in Bangkok lists 3,000 baht an hour. These are the practices' own published rates, read on 28 July 2026; they are examples, not a survey, and the working range they suggest is 2,800 to 3,700 baht for an individual session. Thai-language services, and care inside hospitals, can price differently; asking costs nothing.

If you need someone now

The Department of Mental Health runs a national hotline, listed at dmh.go.th. Our page listing verified crisis services covers Thailand.

Sources

• Thai PBS Policy Watch, the 30-baht-anywhere policy: the coverage population, the 2 December 2024 all-provinces decision, the no-referral rule, and the 2025-26 psychiatric additions to the package. Public-broadcaster reporting of the health security office's decisions, labelled as such. Read 28 July 2026.
• The practice rate pages linked in the text above: each practice's own published prices, read 28 July 2026.

Reviewed July 2026. Scheme facts are from the public broadcaster's policy reporting of official decisions, read at source in Thai on 28 July 2026; the health security office's own site was unreachable for a first-party read and remains on our verification list. The private figures are the linked practices' own published rates on the same date, shown as examples; the band is their working range, not an official price.