Medicare does not cover couples councelling, evening with a Mental Health Care Plan.
Extras cover that includes a benefit for psychology can be used to help with the cost of couples counselling sessions.
Only part of the cost will be covered by your health fund, but every dollar helps.
Private health insurance that covers counselling
All the extras policies below have a benefit for psychology, which can be used for couples counselling. The maximum claim limit and waiting period varies from fund to fund. All prices are based on a single individual with less than $93,000 income and living in Sydney.
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*Prices updated March 2024, in line with Finder's
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living in Sydney with a $750 excess.
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How does private health insurance cover couples counselling?
Mid-range and comprehensive extras policies can pay benefits paid towards consultations with a recognised psychologist or recognised counsellor, plus cover you for others services like dental, physio and optical. This can include:
Individual consultations
Couples consultations
Family consultations
Group consultations
Policy prices start from around $27 per month and come with an annual claim limit of around $500 to $750. You will generally have a 0 or 2 month waiting period. Some providers and programs may not be recognised by your health insurer – in which case, it won't not cover you, so make sure you check with them before you receive counselling.
Finder survey: Do Australians feel like their extras insurance is good value for money?
Response
Somewhat
46.14%
Yes
34.56%
No
19.31%
Source: Finder survey by Pure Profile of 1006 Australians, December 2023
Claiming couple councelling on a couple policy
You've got a few options to claim couples councelling on your extras. I contacted a couple of health funds to get a vibe of the general approach - this is the response I received from ahm that seemed to represent the majority of the fund's policies:
If your policy includes psychology consultations and the provider you see is registered with us, then for couple consultations, claims can be processed to either:
The member,
Their partner, or
Both the member and their partner; split the cost of service in half and pay half the benefit to each person. Separate receipts will need to be submitted for both parties to claim.
How much is couples counselling?
With extras insurance
Couples counselling costs range from around $120-$200 per session in Australia but you can claim around $500 to $750 back per year with extras cover. If you need several sessions, it's likely that you'll have some out of pocket expenses but there's generally no waiting period so you can start claiming straight away.
Without extras insurance
Couples counselling isn't covered by Medicare so you'll have to pay for it all yourself. Prices can vary depending on where you go. For example, Relationships Australia offers online counselling from $120/hr. However, if you're seeing a qualified psychologist, they could charge anywhere from $100/hr to $250/hr – New Vision Psychology charges $230 and $250 for a registered and clinical psychologist respectively.
Can you get free couples counselling?
Unfortunately, the answer is probably not. While mental health plans do exist under Medicare to assist people with mental health issues in seeking professional assistance, these are restricted to individuals.
Couples counselling, while inarguably a very difficult and mentally taxing process to go through, doesn't fall under this definition and won't be covered by a mental health plan. That said, there are a few limited situations where Medicare may be applicable – such as when one partner suffers from a condition like bipolar or depression and couples counselling may help to address it directly.
What to expect in a couples counselling session
It can be daunting to sign up to a group counselling session like this, but remember the entire point is to provide you with a comfortable and safe environment where you can navigate your relationship. According to Relationships Australia, here's what you might expect from your first session:
Establishing a basic working relationship and trust between you and your partner
Answering a variety of questions to figure out what's causing you and your partner concern
Answering a variety of questions to sort out what some of the underlying issues in your relationship might be
Establishing goals for what you hope to get out of counselling and what you hope to achieve in future session
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FAQs about couples counselling
No, Medicare doesn't cover couples counselling. Australia's public healthcare system only covers the services of a clinical or registered psychologist who provides counselling to an individual. You'll need a Mental Health Care Plan for this from your GP. Even if 2 people have a Mental Health Care Plan, it still doesnt' qualify for couples councelling.
No, you generally don't need a referral from your GP to receive any counselling services that are covered by extras insurance.
Couples counselling costs around $120-200 per hour but prices can vary depending on where and who you receive care with. How many sessions you end up needing depends on the couple involved, but you might expect a standard set of 10 sessions to cost up to $1,000-$1,200 on average, without any insurance. You might be able to pay less for couples counselling with a not-for-profit organisation like LifeWorks – prices are scaled depending on your annual household income.
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To make sure you get accurate and helpful information, this guide has been edited by Tim Bennett as part of our fact-checking process.
Gary Ross Hunter was an editor at Finder, specialising in insurance. He’s been writing about life, travel, home, car, pet and health insurance for over 6 years and regularly appears as an insurance expert in publications including The Sydney Morning Herald, The Guardian and news.com.au. Gary holds a Kaplan Tier 2 General Advice General Insurance certification which meets the requirements of ASIC Regulatory Guide 146 (RG146). See full bio
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Gary Ross has written 725 Finder guides across topics including:
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You save time. We spend 100s of hours researching health insurance so you can sort the gold from the junk faster.
You can trust us. We say it like it is. We aren't owned by an insurer and our opinions are our own.
