How Much Does Therapy Cost in Manila, PH? 2025 Guide

What therapy costs in Manila in 2026

Privately, a session in Manila costs roughly ₱1,000 to ₱5,000 depending on which professional you see.

But Manila is not an ordinary city for this. The Philippine General Hospital, the national university hospital, is here, and its own published service charter lists no fee for a psychiatric outpatient consultation. Public psychiatric care in Manila costs somewhere between nothing and a few hundred pesos, against a private range starting at ₱1,000. That route is set out below, and for many people it is the answer rather than the fallback.

These are guiding estimates. Therapists set their own fees.

Private session figures are based on prices found advertised on multiple blogs, not official authoritative sources. Use with caution.

The Philippine General Hospital, and what "free" actually means

PGH publishes a Citizen's Charter setting out every service it provides, what it costs, and how long each step takes. In the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, the fee column reads "None" for every step of an initial consultation, every step of a follow-up, and every step of an emergency referral.

What you need to bring

• A Blue Card, obtained from the Main Outpatient Department on the ground floor.
• A referral from Primary Services, for a first consultation. Follow-ups need the Blue Card and your patient chart instead.

What the day looks like

The charter is unusually honest about time, and it is worth knowing before you go. You enlist your name at the clinic, which takes a couple of minutes. Then you wait, and the charter allows an hour for that. The consultation itself is scheduled at an hour and a half: a psychiatric interview and physical examination, an explanation of the findings and the plan, any prescription or laboratory requests, and then follow-up scheduling.

An hour and a half is a serious consultation. Many private appointments are shorter.

What "None" does and does not cover

We want to be precise here, because it would be easy to overstate. The charter's fee column covers the steps of the consultation itself. It does not tell you that a visit to PGH costs you nothing overall.

Medication and laboratory tests are charged separately, and for a long-term condition the medication is usually the recurring cost rather than the appointment. Psychotherapy sessions, as distinct from psychiatric consultation, may also be charged; figures of a few hundred pesos a session are commonly quoted for public hospital psychotherapy in Manila, and we have not been able to confirm those at source.

So the honest statement is this: the psychiatric consultation itself carries no listed fee, and everything around it may. Ask at the Outpatient Department what your particular course of care will involve.

It is worth pairing with the Department of Health mental health access sites, which provide free medications alongside consultations and referrals, with more than forty locations across Metro Manila.

If you are paying privately

Professional	Typical session	What they do
Counsellor	₱1,000 – ₱2,500	Talking therapy for day-to-day difficulties.
Licensed psychologist	₱1,500 – ₱3,500	Assessment, psychotherapy, psychological programmes.
Psychiatrist	₱1,500 – ₱5,000+	A medical doctor. Diagnoses and prescribes.
Online consultation	from ₱500	Generally cheaper than in person.

Manila's university belt and hospital district sit at the lower end of the city's private range, and the business districts of Makati and Bonifacio Global City at the upper. We are not publishing a price list by district, because we have no evidence that would support one.

Your PhilHealth benefit

PhilHealth's Outpatient Benefits Package for Mental Health gives members and dependants aged 10 and above ₱9,000 a year for general mental health services and ₱16,000 for specialised care, covering initial assessments, follow-up consultations, diagnostic tests and psychosocial support, with follow-up visits capped at twelve a year in both packages. Psychotherapy sits in the ₱16,000 specialty package only, not the general one.

The general package is claimed at accredited facilities: rural health units, city and municipal health offices, level 1 and 2 hospitals, and DOH mental health access sites. The specialty package is claimed at level 3 hospitals. A private practice is not automatically accredited under either, so ask before your first appointment.

Who is qualified, and why the distinction matters

• Psychiatrist: a licensed medical doctor, licensed through the Professional Regulation Commission's Board of Medicine. Can prescribe.
• Licensed psychologist: master's or doctorate, licensed by the PRC's Board of Psychology. Assessment and psychotherapy.
• Licensed psychometrician: also PRC-licensed, but works under a psychologist's supervision. Administers and scores tests, conducts intake interviews, prepares reports. Not qualified to provide independent psychotherapy.

The psychologist and psychometrician distinction is the one worth understanding before you pay. Both are licensed and both are legitimate, but they are not doing the same job.

Other free and low-cost routes in the city

• Government hospital psychiatric clinics generally accept walk-ins during clinic hours and most require no referral, though PGH does ask for one for a first consultation. Bring medical records, your PhilHealth ID and Member Data Record, and a valid ID.
• The National Center for Mental Health in nearby Mandaluyong 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 and In Touch Community Services on 0917-800-1123 are both currently operating.
• University clinics attached to psychology programmes see clients at reduced fees, assessed individually.

Questions worth asking before you book

• Are you a psychiatrist, a licensed psychologist, a licensed counsellor or a psychometrician?
• What is the fee, and how long is the session?
• Is the first consultation charged differently?
• Are you PhilHealth accredited?
• Are you accredited with my HMO, and how many sessions does my plan cover?
• Is an online session cheaper?

Sources

• UP-Philippine General Hospital, Citizen's Charter Handbook 2024 (5th Edition), Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine: the fee column, the Blue Card and referral requirements, and the published processing times.
• UP-Philippine General Hospital, Rates and Fees: the accommodation-class pricing structure, under which outpatient rates are the lowest tier.
• PhilHealth, Outpatient Benefits Package for Mental Health (Circular 2023-0018).
• Philippine Information Agency, free mental health medications in Metro Manila.
• National Center for Mental Health, contact.

Reviewed July 2026. PGH fees are from the hospital's own 2024 Citizen's Charter and cover the consultation process; medication and laboratory tests are charged separately. Private session figures are drawn from prices advertised online rather than published fee schedules, because Philippine practitioners do not generally publish them.