Insurance Cover and Tax Relief

Insurance Cover and Tax Relief 2020-09-19T18:35:47+00:00

Insurance Cover and Tax Relief

Irish Health Insurers usually cover up to 8 sessions (sometimes more) of psychotherapy and counselling per year, once your therapist is registered with ICP, IAHIP or IACP. This is the case for all accredited therapists on our team at LifeChange, so depending on your specific insurance policy, you should be able to reclaim some or all of the cost of therapy if you are insured with VHI Healthcare, LAYA Healthcare or Irish Life Health Insurance.

If you have health insurance, before you begin therapy or counselling at LifeChange, you should check directly with your individual health insurer and make sure they cover a particular therapist. If you look on our website under ‘Counsellors’ you can pick a counsellor / therapist with one of those credentials (ICP, IAHIP, IACP) after their name and check with your provider do they cover sessions with that therapist.
It has come to our attention recently that in order to cover psychotherapy and counselling fees, some health insurers are requesting that a therapist be a member of the ‘Psychological Society of Ireland’ (PSI), however psychology per se is a separate and distinct discipline to psychotherapy and counselling and generally most psychotherapists and counsellors are not members of PSI. Please consult with your health insurer further on this.
Income tax relief on Counselling and Psychotherapy fees of up to 20% annually is available to individuals, including PAYE employees, the self- employed and those with other sources of taxable income. This is in the form of qualifying ‘health expenses’ as defined in section 469 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997. You may request a receipt of annual fees paid from your individual therapist at LifeChange.