How Much Does Therapy Cost in Ho Chi Minh City: in 2026?

The Vietnamese decision is not which clinic. It is which system. At the city psychiatric hospital an examination is 50,600 VND on the standard tariff, and a psychotherapy session (cognitive behavioural, psychodynamic, family or group) is 300,000 VND on that same hospital's on-request tariff. In private practice the hour runs from about 700,000 VND with a counsellor to about 2,400,000 VND with an English-speaking practitioner. Both routes exist here. The distance between them is a distance between tariffs, not a discount.

These are guiding estimates. Therapists set their own fees. The private figures are based on prices found advertised on multiple blogs, not official authoritative sources. Use with caution. The public figures are not estimates. They are the published tariff of Bệnh viện Tâm thần TP. HCM, applying from 9 September 2025.

Where and with whom	What it costs
Examination, city psychiatric hospital (standard tariff)	50,600 VND
Examination there, on request or after hours	120,000 to 170,000 VND
Examination with a specialist doctor there, on request	450,000 VND
Psychotherapy session at that hospital, on request	300,000 VND
Psychiatric consultation, private clinic	300,000 to 600,000 VND a visit
Counsellor or psychologist, private practice	about 700,000 to 1,800,000 VND an hour
English-language practitioner, private practice	about 2,400,000 VND an hour

The public route in Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh City's public route runs through Bệnh viện Tâm thần TP. HCM, the city psychiatric hospital at 766 Võ Văn Kiệt in District 5. It publishes its full price table, and that table is where the public figures above come from. Psychotherapy is on it: cognitive behavioural, psychodynamic, behavioural activation, family, group and relaxation work are each listed at 300,000 VND. The hospital lists those items only in its on-request column, so they are not priced through insurance there.

BHYT, the social health insurance, supports costs at public hospitals; some private clinics do not accept it at all, so ask before booking. A convention worth knowing: private fees often track the practitioner's academic rank and title, so the fee signals seniority rather than session length. Rank is not registration. Since the 2023 Law on Medical Examination and Treatment took effect on 1 January 2024, clinical psychology (tâm lý lâm sàng) is a titled profession requiring a practising licence, so it is fair to ask whether the person quoting you a fee holds one.

If you are paying privately

Ask the fee, the session length, whether the practitioner is a psychiatrist (a medical doctor who can prescribe) or a psychologist, and whether BHYT or your private insurance applies. Online sessions widen the pool and often cost less.

Sources

• Bệnh viện Tâm thần TP. HCM, Bảng giá các hoạt động khám bệnh: the hospital's own price table, applying from 9 September 2025 (Quyết định 1240/QĐ-BVTT).
• Ministry of Health, who must hold a practising licence under the 2023 Law on Medical Examination and Treatment, in force 1 January 2024.

Reviewed August 2026. The public figures are the city psychiatric hospital's own published tariff, quoted with the date it applies from. Private ranges are advertised figures, labelled accordingly. We do not publish city price lists we cannot trace to sources that charge them.