The recent discussion about the cost of therapy highlights a painful reality in our community: so many people need therapy but simply can’t afford it. Unlike other medical needs, where large communal organizations step in to provide financial assistance, no such system exists for therapy—because, frankly, it would be too expensive. But that doesn’t mean we should throw up our hands and do nothing.
Instead, we need to think about solutions that make therapy more affordable and accessible in a way that is actually sustainable.
1. Supporting Those Who Are Already Helping
A close friend of mine—a highly respected individual with a demanding job, a growing family, and a strong commitment to learning—once took it upon himself to help people in his shul afford therapy. He put up a small, anonymous sign offering assistance, and by the end of the day, his inbox was flooded. He quietly ran a system where he paid therapists directly for those who couldn’t afford it.
But recently, he told me he had to stop. Why?
• He needed guidance from Rabbonim who specialize in mental health issues—both to ensure he was allocating funds properly while maintaining anonymity and to protect against potential abuse. But getting access to the right Rabbonim was too difficult.
• He was doing this completely alone. The isolation of running the program without support became overwhelming.
• He lacked chizuk. He wasn’t sure if his efforts were really making a difference, and without feedback or encouragement, it became too hard to continue.
This is just one example, but it highlights a broader issue: there are grassroots efforts to help people afford therapy, but they lack the structure, backing, and guidance to be sustainable.
There are already small, localized organizations in different communities doing this kind of work. Instead of trying to create one massive fund, we should focus on expanding and strengthening these smaller initiatives. A national or international support system could help them with fundraising, marketing, administrative work, and general guidance—similar to how Hatzalah has many local branches, each serving its own community but backed by broader infrastructure.
This would provide practical support, Rabbinic and professional oversight, and much-needed chizuk to those doing the fundraising and distribution.
2. Expanding Practical Support Beyond Just Funding
Beyond financial assistance, families dealing with mental health challenges also need practical support—just like those facing physical illnesses. Organizations like Chai Lifeline and Bikur Cholim provide meals, babysitting, cleaning help, and transportation for families dealing with serious illnesses. But in the mental health space, this kind of support is often lacking.
There are two key solutions:
• Expand existing efforts. There is a wonderful organization in Lakewood called Kanfei Feiga that provides these services, but they need more funding and support to grow—and similar programs should be established in other frum communities.
• Improve access to resources. Many frum organizations already exist, but people don’t always know about them. Every community should have a 24-hour confidential hotline staffed by people with an intimate knowledge of local resources to direct individuals to the help they need. A good start is ChesedMatch, which has a directory of over 7,500 frum organizations, but we need a more community based solution to ensure people can easily find and access the right services.
3. Making Therapy More Affordable at Its Source
Another critical piece of the puzzle is making therapy itself more affordable—not just figuring out how to pay for it, but actually lowering its costs in a way that still allows therapists to make a parnassah. Some creative ways to do this include:
• Subsidizing Education & Training: Establishing a fund that helps cover the cost of social work and psychology degrees in exchange for a commitment to provide a certain number of subsidized sessions or accept insurance for a set number of years.
• Group Training Discounts: Therapists spend thousands on continuing education. A national organization could negotiate bulk rates and pass the savings to those willing to take on lower-cost clients.
• Subsidized Office Space: Providing rent-free office space for therapists in exchange for a certain number of reduced-rate sessions.
• Back-End Billing & Administrative Support: Many therapists avoid insurance because of the administrative burden. A centralized system that handles billing and paperwork for them could remove that obstacle.
• Health Insurance & Pension Fund: A fund that provides therapists with benefits—like health insurance or a savings plan for their children’s weddings—if they commit to a certain number of insurance or subsidized therapy hours per month.
• Gifting Program: Creating a nonprofit that provides tax-deductible gifts to therapists who take on a certain number of subsidized slots—giving them a financial incentive in a way that benefits both them and donors.
Finally, we should explore outside funding sources. Many major foundations shy away from funding yeshivas and other religious needs, but mental health is a universally recognized cause. If we present a plan that’s not just an endless money pit, but a well-designed infrastructure to systemically lower therapy costs, we may be able to secure funding from outside foundations and even government grants.
The Bottom Line
This is a serious issue that affects countless families. We need to stop just debating the problem and start working on solutions. By creating better funding structures, expanding practical support, and making therapy more affordable, we can ensure people get the help they need without breaking the bank.
Signed,
Daniel Steinberg
Lakewood, NJ
The views expressed in this letter are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of YWN. Have an opinion you would like to share? Send it to us for review.
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10 Responses
The therapy for life model also needs to be modified. Support should be given for a limited number of sessions. If the person can’t make progress then maybe they aren’t serious about getting better and are just looking for a friend to talk to. There needs to be structured programs that have an end to them with homework given. This needs to be real work and not a social session.
EXCELLENT points.
What about the Federation?
Where I’m from their “Jewish Family Services” department provides counselors for therapy & psych Drs for medication. They bill insurance if they can. If not, they have a sliding fee with many paying $0.
They purposely hirer Frum therapists to meet the needs & sensitivities of the Frum community.
This is one step closer to being actually actionable.
Although it is still just a call to action (ostensibly by others), at least it takes the time to understand some of what might make it work.
While there already are great organizations in this space such as Keren Ezer Lnefesh and you should absolutely support them, there is still place for more.
I will point out though that some of the ideas while well thought out and well intentioned, seem kind of childish.
For example, a therapist may pay a couple hundred to a couple thousand dollars every two years for continued education. The idea that subsidizing this (relatively minor) expense would induce them to give any meaningful discount fails on the math.
By the same virtue, while providing a scholarship that is conditional on working fora few years at a reduced rate or at a clinic that accepts insurance is a great idea in theory, most therapists already spend their first few years at a clinic or working for a reduced rate until they have enough qualification to go out on their own.
The issue already is that people feel the need to see a therapist in private practice instead of going to a clinic that accepts insurance.
The idea that you brought up that could help the most (assuming the numbers work) is to support the back end billing. Most therapists I know wouldn’t know where to start in terms of billing insurance, and when you add the cost of an administrative role to handle billing, it takes too big a portion of their earnings. (Remember, a medical biller with no experience can make $50,000 a year from day one)
A great way of accessing more afforadable therapy with highly trained, attuned, skilled and experienced clinicians- even those with many years in private practice, is to consider group therapy. At a fraction of the cost of individual or couples therapy, a process group provides outstanding and long term therapeutic outcomes that goes beyond where traditional individual trauma/anxiety ot couples treatment goes and offers magnified insight and interpersonal effectiveness. If therapy can feel like another mortgage payment, group therapy is more like a gym membership – so effective that one doesn’t need to rush through treatment prematurely because of lack of funding.
Those are all great ideas
In addition think a major help will be having an organization help people obtain single-case agreements with their insurance to cover therapy costs. This approach pays therapists up to $250 per session (I think), and with organizational support with the billing, it isn’t too much additional work for therapists to get paid that way.
There are existing companies that are very successful with getting single case agreements but I can think of two main problems with them
1. The initial waiting period before insurance reimbursement can be several months, leaving many individuals unable to afford therapy till that starts coming through on a steady basis
2. Organizations providing this service usually charge clients 25-35% of the session fee, which is understandable (they need to make money) but that can still be to expensive for some clients. Implementing a sliding-scale fee based on income level would make it more affordable while allowing the organization to generate some revenue and prevent abuse.
Donations to such an organization would go much further in helping people access therapy compared to direct payments to individual therapists.
All approaches to crises should follow the model of this writer
A) sign your name
B) Give practical advice-not kvetches
C) either show examples or do-it-yourself of people rolling up leaves to fix the issue, not just pie-in-the-sky ideas from armchair advisors
Author: A Few More Thoughts on Making Therapy More Affordable and Sustainable
Beyond the ideas outlined in the main letter, there are additional initiatives that could help bring real, lasting change:
1. Dispelling the “Expensive Means Better” Myth
There is a widespread but incorrect assumption that the more a therapist charges, the better they must be. While some high-cost therapists are excellent, many top-tier therapists charge reasonable rates or accept insurance. A targeted marketing campaign could help correct this misconception—highlighting what actually makes a therapist effective, rather than just focusing on price.
2. Recognizing and Supporting Therapists Who Accept Lower Rates
Many successful initiatives in our community thrive because they publicly highlight and appreciate those who contribute. Programs like Adopt-a-Kollel, Torasu Bumnaso and Chasdei Lev have marketing and PR campaigns that showcase the individuals and donors involved, which in turn strengthens their mission.
• We should do the same for therapists who commit to lower-cost or insurance-based sessions, giving them the same level of public appreciation and recognition.
• A structured PR effort—including awards, public praise, and acknowledgment within the community—could make the decision to accept lower rates more appealing.
• Additionally, we could offer virtual assistants to therapists who participate in this program to help with scheduling and billing—removing a major administrative burden and making it easier for them to take on lower-cost clients.
3. Encouraging Part-Time Therapists from Financially Stable Backgrounds
Not everyone who has the talent to be a great therapist needs therapy as a source of parnassah. Encouraging individuals who are already financially stable to enter the field part-time could help increase the number of skilled therapists available, reducing pressure on the system and helping keep costs down.
4. Building an Army of Trained Paraprofessionals
Many people need structured support before, between, and after therapy sessions—but full therapy rates may not be necessary for every interaction. A well-organized system of trained paraprofessionals could provide much-needed assistance, ensuring that individuals receive ongoing guidance without overburdening the limited supply of therapists.
5. Establishing a Fund to Help Therapists Supplement Their Income
Many therapists would be more willing to take on lower-paying clients if they had a stable way to supplement their income. A communal fund that helps therapists build side businesses—whether through investing in passive income opportunities, creating courses, or developing other revenue streams—could make it more financially viable for them to dedicate more hours to affordable therapy.
Would love to hear other thoughts and ideas.
Great points here.
I want to also point out that the person who tried to raise funds for those in need of therapy couldn’t continue because of lack of support and chizuk. This is the root reason why mental illness festers. Our society has lots of ideals–a mother who is at home raising a large family and supporting-financially and emotionally- a husband’s Torah learning (somehow both at once), a husband who learns Torah, a home free of technology and external influence–and yet when push comes to shove, there is an extreme lack of support and chizuk for these ideals, to the point that people can be shamed for not being able to live up to them, and yet turned down and twisted into a pretzel when seeking support from normal sources outside of therapy. Someone else mentioned that people often get stuck in therapy as a lifestyle–but it’s not because they aren’t serious or not trying–there is just unclarity about the role of therapy and where they should get support outside of therapy. Many people, choosing not to stray from the path, would rather (very subconsciously) be labeled as someone with mental health issues instead of setting out to solve problems on their own, which would mean getting internet in their home to find a proper parnassa, a mother going out to work long hours to afford what her family needs, a husband leaving Torah learning to support his family–and possibly going to college. My husband is now depressed because he was told as a young bochur not to think about parnassa, not to get trained in anything and most certainly not to get a degree. Now, as a father of a large family, and I’m worn thin from responsibilities, he needs to help out with parnassa, but he hasn’t got a clue how to start now, when we are desperate and with kids relying on him. And those in leadership positions, instead of giving him support and chizuk, including helping him find a job, just find it easier to label him as emotionally unwell and incompetent, and he has bought into that, and there we go, another case down the tubes (this is without talking about the lack of support and chizuk I have, raising a family and worrying about parnassa with a mentally ill husband–there is zero support). So basically, I am saying that another solution to the therapy problem is creating organic support and chizuk within the tapestry of the community, and thereby therapy would be for extreme cases or for those wanting to learn emotion processing tools (which can also be given as courses…). Creating a system where our ideals match the reality on the ground, where perhaps people can pay memberships to have a relationship with a rav and/or rebbetzin (like a monthly shul membership which would allow for each couple to meet with the rav/rebbetzin 15 minutes a month and longer a few times a year), more support and chizuk for men needing to support their families, and perhaps having a system where learning boys are trained in something when they are younger so they aren’t totally lost when the time comes to make money. More chizuk and support systems for mothers like helplines where they can talk to older, experienced mothers after the birth of a baby, places where mothers can socialize more easily in the winter, subsidized classes and shiurim…just some ideas how to give the community the support and chizuk it needs without therapy as the only (expensive) solution