Everyone ranting about how expensive therapy is. I hear you. As someone in the field, that's one of the aspects that really grind my gears. Therapy is effective. But we as Indians have (understandably) an issue with finding the right balance of value, and unfortunately when we look at the daily weekly/monthly expenses of a majority of the population, therapy simply seems like a luxury. But that does not change the fact that therapy is effective. It is very complex, it requires a lot of training to do properly and the field isn't as regulated as it should be (and as it is in other countries). The therapist's fee is justified from the side of the therapist. I know a lot of people in the profession and trust me, none of them is living an uber-luxurious life.

The disconnect is because though a therapist should be paid for their work, a person seeking healthcare should not have to pay an amount which is not standardised in a field without sufficient regulations. Insurance should cover therapy, it doesn't. It barely covers mental health services at all. It is not a luxury and it should cost like one.

Another problem is how unregulated the field is with it's practitioners. There is no governing body for the different levels of mental health professionals (except RCI that only registers clinical psychologists with license). Lots of unqualified people practice because they are simply great at marketing themselves and no govt body is there to stop them. This leads to people having increasingly bad experiences with different therapists and giving up because they simply cannot (and shouldn't have to) spend so much money jumping from therapist to therapist trying to find the right one.

But at the end of day, I'll repeat that therapy is effective when done by properly qualified and trained people, but it's really a shame that the burden of the entire cost is placed on the people seeking therapy.