Free tool · about 2 minutes
What therapy costs in BC after insurance
The BC Association of Clinical Counsellors’ 2026 fee guide recommends $140 to $175 per 50 minutes for individual counselling with a Registered Clinical Counsellor, and $155 to $205 for couples and family counselling. Here an individual session is $140 and a couples session $175, each 50 minutes, after a free 15-minute consultation. MSP does not cover private counselling, so what you pay depends on your extended health plan, and this works it out from your plan’s own numbers.
Updated
Questions the estimate cannot answer can go to a counsellor in a free 15-minute consultation, before you pay for anything.
Why the answer is never a single number
Counselling in BC private practice is not covered by MSP, MSP vs extended health sets out what the public plan does and does not pay for. What you actually pay therefore depends on an extended health plan, and those differ per employer rather than per insurer, which is why no website can honestly quote you a figure.
Two questions decide it. First, does the plan cover a Registered Clinical Counsellor specifically. A plan can cover a psychologist and not an RCC, and that is the detail people most often discover after a first session rather than before it. RCC vs psychologist vs social worker explains why the designations are not interchangeable. Second, what are the per-session and annual maximums, since an annual cap usually binds before the per-session rate does.
This practice does not direct-bill, so you pay the practice directly and claim it back, extended health coverage in BC covers how that works. If cost is the constraint rather than a detail, low-cost counselling in BC and EFAP vs private counselling are worth reading before paying anybody: a great many people already have a free entitlement they have never used. Full numbers are on fees and coverage.
Common questions
Why can no website just tell me the price?
Because the session fee is the part that is knowable and the part you pay is not. Extended health plans are negotiated per employer, not per insurer, so two people with the same insurer on the same card can have different counselling coverage. The fee is published on the fees page; what it costs you after reimbursement is a fact about your plan, which is why this asks you for it rather than guessing.
Does MSP cover counselling?
Not in private practice. MSP covers physician-delivered mental-health care, your GP, and psychiatry on referral, but not sessions with a Registered Clinical Counsellor. This is the single most common misunderstanding people arrive with, and it is worth settling before you budget anything.
My plan covers a psychologist. Is that the same thing?
No, and this is the detail people most often discover after a first session rather than before it. Registered Clinical Counsellor, registered psychologist and registered social worker are separate designations, and a plan can name one and not the others. Ask specifically whether "Registered Clinical Counsellor" or "RCC" is listed, not whether the plan covers "counselling", which is a word insurers use loosely.
Which cap actually binds, per session or per year?
Usually the annual maximum. A plan paying $120 per session with an $800 annual cap does not fund seven sessions at a comfortable rate; it funds under seven sessions and then stops. Working out how many sessions the annual figure buys is more useful than the per-session number, and the estimator does that rather than reporting a percentage.
Do you direct-bill?
No. You pay the practice directly and claim it back, and a receipt with the registration number on it is issued each time. That means you need the money at the point of booking even when the plan will return most of it, a real constraint, and one worth knowing before booking rather than after.
What if the answer is that I cannot afford it?
Then that is worth finding out here rather than three sessions in. A great many people already hold a free entitlement they have never used, an EFAP through work, a student counselling service, a community agency with sliding-scale places. The low-cost counselling page and the EFAP comparison cover those, and they are the right first stop if cost is the constraint rather than a detail.
This is one of six free counselling tools, from which kind of counselling fits to what it costs after extended health and what a stress leave pays. Each runs in your browser and none asks for an email address.
Who you would talk to
Taking new clients and seeing people across BC by secure video. Each is a Registered Clinical Counsellor; the registration is on the profile and can be checked on the BCACC register.
Camille Granda, RCC, CCC
English and Tagalog · Trauma, Anxiety and chronic stress, Grief, loss and life transitions
In her words: “I want sitting with me to feel like the biggest belly breath you have ever taken.”
Savneet Singh, RCC
English and Punjabi · Anxiety, Depression, Trauma and attachment
In her words: “Comforting, safe and supportive, is what I aim for.”
Individual sessions are $140 for 50 minutes, after a free 15-minute consultation; card at booking. All fees · How to check a counsellor’s registration
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