How Much Does Therapy Cost in Makati City, PH? 2025 Guide

What therapy costs in Makati in 2026

A private session in Makati costs roughly ₱1,500 to ₱5,000, depending on which professional you see.

These are guiding estimates. Therapists set their own fees.

Based on prices found advertised on multiple blogs, not official authoritative sources. Use with caution.

The more useful question in Makati is not what a session costs. It is who is going to pay for it, because the district you work in is full of private clinics, and the national benefit that covers psychotherapy is designed around hospitals rather than clinics.

The thing nobody tells you about the PhilHealth benefit

PhilHealth runs two mental health packages, and the difference between them matters enormously if you want talking therapy.

	General package	Specialty package
Per patient, per year	₱9,000	₱16,000
Psychotherapy included?	No	Yes
Follow-up visits	12 at most	12 at most
Also covers	Screening, assessment, diagnostics, psychoeducation and psychosocial support, and medicines under the mental health medicine access programme	Assessment, diagnostics, and the same medicines programme
Where you claim it	Rural health units, city and municipal health offices, level 1 and 2 hospitals, DOH mental health access sites	Level 3 hospitals

Read the bottom row again, because it is the whole point. Psychotherapy sits in the specialty package, and the specialty package is claimed at level 3 hospitals. A private psychology practice in Legaspi Village or Salcedo Village is not a level 3 hospital.

So if you are working in Makati and hoping PhilHealth will cover a course of talking therapy near your office, the honest answer is that it probably will not. The benefit is real, it is generous by regional standards, and it is claimed somewhere other than where you work.

Twelve visits is also the cap in both packages. At ₱16,000 across twelve sessions, the specialty benefit works out at a little over ₱1,300 a session, which is a real contribution, not a token one.

Which leaves your HMO

Makati is the country's principal corporate district, so more people here than almost anywhere else in the Philippines have mental health cover they have never used, sitting inside an employer health plan.

That is the route worth investigating first, and it is worth being specific when you do. Ask your HR department or your provider:

• Does my plan cover outpatient mental health, and is it capped by sessions or by peso amount?
• Do I need a referral from an accredited doctor before a psychology consultation is paid?
• Which practitioners near me are accredited with you?
• Is the consultation reimbursed, or billed directly to you by the clinic?

That last question catches people out. Many Philippine practices do not bill insurers directly, so you may pay in full and claim afterwards, which means you need the cash first regardless of your cover.

We are not naming HMO coverage levels here, because they vary by corporate plan rather than by insurer, and a figure we published would be wrong for most readers.

If you are paying privately

Professional	Typical session	What they do
Counsellor	₱1,500 – ₱3,000	Talking therapy for day-to-day difficulties.
Clinical psychologist	₱2,000 – ₱4,500	Assessment, psychotherapy, psychological programmes.
Psychiatrist	₱2,500 – ₱5,000	A medical doctor. Diagnoses and prescribes.
Online consultation	generally lower	Often the cheapest route to a licensed practitioner.

These are ranges observed across the Philippines, not a Makati price list. We have no evidence that therapy costs more in Makati than elsewhere in Metro Manila, and we are not going to imply one by publishing a premium we cannot show. Practitioners set their own fees, and two therapists in the same building may charge differently.

Who is qualified, and why the distinction matters

• Psychiatrist: a medical doctor, licensed through the Professional Regulation Commission's Board of Medicine. Can prescribe.
• Psychologist: registered with the PRC's Board of Psychology. Assessment and psychotherapy.
• Psychometrician: also PRC-licensed, but works under a psychologist's supervision. Administers and scores tests and prepares reports. Not qualified to provide independent psychotherapy.
• Counsellor: there is no mandatory government registration for counsellors generally, though many qualified practitioners belong to bodies such as the Philippine Guidance and Counselling Association.

In a district with this density of private practice, asking which of these four someone is, before the first appointment rather than after, is the single most useful question you can put.

If cost is the obstacle

• In Touch Community Services provides counselling and operates a crisis line on 0917 800 1123, with an office line on +63 2 8893 7603.
• The National Center for Mental Health in Mandaluyong, a short distance from Makati, runs adult, child and adolescent, forensic and crisis services. Its hotline, 0917 899 8727, is free, confidential and staffed around the clock.
• Hopeline on 0917 558 4673 is also currently operating.
• DOH mental health access sites across Metro Manila provide free medications alongside consultations and referrals; for a long-term condition the medication is usually the recurring cost, not the session.
• Online sessions widen the pool beyond Makati's own practitioners, which usually widens the price range downward.

Sources

• PhilHealth, Annex B: Mental Health Benefits Package (as at October 2023): the package rates, the twelve-visit cap, the psychotherapy split and the target facilities for each package.
• PhilHealth, Outpatient Benefits Package for Mental Health (Circular 2023-0018): eligibility and access points.
• Professional Regulation Commission, Board of Psychology and Board of Medicine: who is licensed to practise.
• In Touch Community Services, contact.
• National Center for Mental Health, contact.

Reviewed July 2026. PhilHealth package details are from the scheme's own published benefits annex, dated October 2023 and current at the time of writing. Private session ranges are drawn from prices advertised online rather than published fee schedules, because Philippine practitioners do not generally publish them.