📋 Psychotherapy for loneliness: cost coverage
In brief
If loneliness turns into mental distress needing treatment, statutory health insurance covers the costs of outpatient psychotherapy – as individual or group therapy. The route there leads through a psychotherapeutic consultation hour, trial sessions and, depending on the scope of therapy, an application to the health insurance fund. The wait for a therapy place can, however, be several weeks to months.
Step by step
- Attend a psychotherapeutic consultation hourThe first step is a so-called urgent consultation hour (Akutsprechstunde) with a psychotherapist accredited by the statutory health insurance, often arranged through the appointment service centre (116117).
- Attend trial sessionsIn at least two and at most four trial sessions (probatorische Sitzungen) it is clarified whether therapist and patient suit each other and which approach makes sense.
- Start short-term therapy without an expert review procedureShort-term therapy (up to 24 hours, divided into two blocks of 12 hours each) can be notified to the health insurance fund without a complex expert review procedure.
- Apply for long-term therapy if neededLong-term therapy requires a formal initial application to the health insurance fund, which as a rule requires an expert review.
- Raise group therapy as an optionGroup psychotherapy is also a regular insurance benefit under the Psychotherapie-Richtlinie and, in cases of social isolation, can be a suitable complement or alternative to individual therapy.
Deadlines
- The waiting time for a therapy place varies greatly by region; the roughly 20 weeks in the BPtK survey are a nationwide average, not a guarantee for an individual case.
- Deemed approval under § 13 Abs. 3a SGB V does not apply without exception to every case constellation; when in doubt, the running of the deadline should be clarified with the health insurance fund or a patient advice service.
- An urgent consultation hour is not a way of skipping the waiting list for regular therapy but serves for initial assessment and crisis clarification.
- Group therapy is used less often than individual therapy in public perception, but it is a full insurance benefit and, for issues such as social isolation, is often particularly suitable from a professional point of view.
In depth · legal basis, figures and practice – for advisers and professionals
Course of treatment under the Psychotherapie-Richtlinie
The Psychotherapie-Richtlinie of the Gemeinsamer Bundesausschuss (G-BA, current version as of 19 March 2026, in force since 17 June 2026) provides for: a psychotherapeutic consultation hour, then if applicable acute treatment, trial sessions (at least 2, at most 4, regulated differently for children and adolescents) and then the actual guideline therapy as short-term therapy (2 blocks of 12 hours, up to 24 hours in total, without an expert review procedure) or long-term therapy (initial application requiring expert review).
Deemed approval
Under § 13 Abs. 3a SGB V, the health insurance fund must decide on a benefit application within three weeks, or within five weeks if an expert opinion is obtained; if it does not do so without sufficient reason, the benefit is deemed approved. This rule concerns in particular the application for long-term therapy, which requires expert review.
Waiting times
The Bundespsychotherapeutenkammer (BPtK) regularly surveys waiting times for a psychotherapy place; most recently an average of around 20 weeks (around 142 days) until the start of guideline therapy was reported nationwide, with marked regional differences between city states such as Berlin, Hamburg or Bremen and other regions. This figure comes from a practice survey by the BPtK, not from an official full census, and is labelled accordingly here.
Group therapy
Under the Psychotherapie-Richtlinie, group psychotherapy is a regular benefit of statutory health insurance and is applied for or notified in the same way as individual therapy; professionally it is often particularly suitable for issues with a social component such as loneliness or isolation, since the group setting itself already enables social exchange.
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