Why waiting times are rising
You will notice several times on this website that finding a therapy place is hard. The reasons do not lie with individual practices: the framework of outpatient psychotherapy in Germany is being fundamentally reshaped in 2026. Here I explain what has been decided, what is still open, what it means for you and what you can do now. Factually, with sources and with the transparency you are entitled to expect from a practice.
The key points
- A 4.5 per cent fee cut since April 2026, currently suspended. The Extended Valuation Committee lowered the fees for psychotherapeutic sessions by 4.5 per cent from 1 April 2026. On 9 July 2026 the Berlin-Brandenburg Regional Social Court provisionally halted this cut in summary proceedings. The main proceedings are still pending.
- The GKV Contribution Rate Stabilisation Act has been passed and is in force. The Bundestag adopted it on 10 July 2026 and the Bundesrat let it pass on 13 July without calling the mediation committee; it has applied since 30 July 2026. The rules that matter for psychotherapy take effect on 1 January 2027.
- From 2027 psychotherapy will be budget-capped again. It will no longer be paid in full but out of a capped pot. The statutory floor for the fee of a therapy session is abolished, as are the supplements for short-term therapy and for appointments arranged via the appointment service.
- Corrections have been announced but are not yet law. The governing coalition wants exceptions for children and adolescents, for people with severe mental illness, for urgent cases and for treatments begun in 2026. The Bundestag health committee heard experts on this on 9 September 2026. Nothing has been decided yet.
- For most adults the cuts remain. Even with the planned exceptions, the budget cap fully affects psychotherapy for adults, including group psychotherapy.
What changes from 2027
Budget cap. Until now every approved therapy session was paid at a fixed price, outside the capped budgets of the Associations of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (“extra-budgetary”). From 2027 psychotherapy returns to the so-called morbidity-based total remuneration. Health insurers then pay a fixed total amount that the regional association distributes among all practices. If more treatment is provided than the pot allows, the price of each session falls, or sessions above a limit are only partly paid. How this will be distributed in Bavaria is being decided by the regional association in autumn 2026.
Abolition of the fee floor. Since a ruling of the Federal Social Court in 1999, the fee for a therapy session had to be reviewed regularly to ensure it was appropriate. Parliament has abolished this review. Its justification is remarkably frank:
“… so that the specialist physician groups are not burdened by any obligation to make back payments.”
Justification for abolishing the appropriateness review · Committee document 21(14)97 (translated)Back payments were only a risk if the review found that too little had been paid so far. A protective rule was therefore abolished in the knowledge that it would take effect.
Further cuts. The supplement for the first sessions of short-term therapy is abolished, as is the supplement for appointments arranged via the appointment service or a GP referral. These supplements were meant to encourage practices to take on new patients quickly. There is one small relief: after a physician’s referral or a hospital stay, a separate medical report (Konsiliarbericht) will no longer be needed.
Announced exceptions and pending proceedings
After strong criticism from professional associations, chambers and the Bundesrat, the coalition announced that it would amend the law after the summer recess. According to the plans, the following would continue to be paid in full, outside the budget:
- psychotherapy for children and adolescents,
- treatment of people with severe mental illness within the coordinated care programme designed for them,
- “urgent” treatments; what counts as urgent is to be defined by the Federal Joint Committee,
- treatments that began in 2026, until they are regularly completed.
This is a step in the right direction, but it is not yet law. It is also open how narrowly “urgent” will be defined. For the largest part of care, psychotherapy for adults, the budget cap remains as things stand.
The National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians is suing against the fee cut of April 2026. The Regional Social Court has provisionally suspended the cut because its calculation basis was not valid. No final decision has been made.
What this means for you
Your entitlement vis-à-vis your health insurer remains, and approved treatments continue. The consequences show in access: if a practice is barely paid above a certain number of sessions, it offers fewer sessions to people with statutory insurance. Free places become rarer and waiting times longer.
The figures on future waiting times are projections from surveys, not official statistics. But they show how practices will respond to the new rules: not out of unwillingness, but because sessions above a limit no longer pay.
Your next steps
- Contact several practices at the same time, not one after another. Ten to twenty addresses are realistic.
- Use the appointment service on 116 117. It arranges appointments for an initial psychotherapeutic consultation and for acute treatment.
- Contact outpatient clinics. For psychoanalytic and psychodynamic psychotherapy in Munich these are above all the clinics of the MAP and of the Akademie für Psychoanalyse.
- Note every enquiry and every rejection with the date. This is the basis for the next point.
- Consider reimbursement. If no place can be found within a reasonable time despite a serious search, people with statutory insurance can apply to their health insurer to cover the costs of treatment with a licensed psychotherapist in private practice (Section 13(3) SGB V). The application must be submitted and approved before treatment begins. Insurers usually require the certificate from an initial consultation (PTV 11), proof that no timely place was available via the appointment service, and your list of rejections. Approval is not guaranteed; if in doubt, seek advice.
All the options in detail are in the guide to finding a therapy place, and clinics across Germany in the clinic finder. In an acute crisis you can reach the Bavarian crisis service around the clock on 0800 655 3000; in immediate danger, call 112.
Admission at this practice
Currently: I am currently unable to take on new patients.
Treatments that have already been approved are expected to continue into 2027 under the announced transitional rules. As I already treat considerably more people with statutory insurance than my half licence provides for, I will in all likelihood not be able to offer any further places in 2027. As soon as this changes, you will find it here.
It is not the practice that draws the line. It is the system.
Why I am involved
I am involved in professional health policy to help keep outpatient psychotherapy within reach for people with statutory insurance — out of the conviction that it is basic healthcare provision, not a comfort service. A remuneration floor is invisible as long as it holds; you only notice it once it is gone. I would prefer that you never have to notice it.
If you wish to explore the background, you will find source-based analyses on Couch & Agora (in German):
- The attack on psychotherapeutic care →
- The fee cut for psychotherapists — a chronicle →
- The BStabG balance sheet — what the measures cost the average practice →
- The abolition of the remuneration floor — Amendment No. 15 →
Further sources on the current state (in German):
- German Bundestag: adoption of the GKV Contribution Rate Stabilisation Act, 10 July 2026
- Hamburg Chamber of Psychotherapists: effects of the law on psychotherapy
- Federal Chamber of Psychotherapists on the hearing of 9 September 2026
- KBV: Regional Social Court halts the fee cut
- Stiftung Warentest: what the cuts mean for patients
As of 28 September 2026. I will update this page as soon as the legal situation changes.