I wrote an article in August 2023 about accessing affordable mental health care, and now more than ever it is relevant to re-visit this problem. Many foreign language speakers in Finland would want to access therapy in their own language or with a foreign trained therapist, but are unable to afford the cost of private psychological therapy and psychotherapy.
Since we set up the company, the lack of subsidy for most of our clients (foreign language speakers in Finland) to see a psychologist or therapist has been a huge issue for prospective clients. Compass Psychology is a private psychology service and attending psychology sessions regularly is a significant expense for all clients, apart from those who are able to access us through health insurance schemes from workplaces and other organisations. Many clients contact us asking for KELA subsidised psychotherapy. This subsidy is available to those clients who have a psychiatrist’s referral (B-Lausunto) for rehabilitative psychotherapy for 1 to 3 years, and it provides about 56€ subsidy per session for weekly therapy.
We are not able to offer KELA subsidised therapy at this time, or even HUS subsidised psychotherapy. The reason for this is that the way psychotherapy is regulated in Finland excludes nearly all foreign educated therapists, due to the differences in how psychotherapy is taught in Finland compared to most other countries and the difficulties in getting registered as a foreign-trained psychotherapist in Finland. Therefore, although most of us are qualified to give free or highly subsidised psychology services in our home countries (through national health or health insurance programs), we cannot do that in Finland.
However, Compass Psychology is dedicated to finding ways to offer affordable therapy, and here are listed 5 ways in which you can potentially access more affordable mental health care:
1. Three of our practitioners, Hatty, Jenine and Saija-Liisa, are currently engaged in psychotherapy training to become registered KELA therapists in 2026 – 2029, meaning that they will be able to take on clients for KELA subsidised psychotherapy in future.
2. There is an association, Psychological Practitioners Finland ry, which works to reduce barriers to work for foreign-educated professionals working in Finland and improve access for foreign language speakers to services from these professionals. In 2026 this association will be running an English language training program in psychotherapy with the University of Jyväskylä to start training new psychotherapists in Finland. You can read more about PPF ry on their website here. You can read more about the Psychotherapy training program here. In future, students in this course will be able to offer therapy to three training clients at a time at a rate of 50 to 70€ per session.
3. There is a proposal to allow all registered psychologists to provide Step 1 (short-term) subsidised therapy, which would be a fantastic development. We hope that the Finnish Psychologists Union is successful in this proposal, as this would mean all the psychologists at Compass Psychology could offer short-term subsidised therapy in future. Read more about it here in Helsingin Sanomat, or here on the Psykologiliitto webpage.
4. You can learn from this flowchart how to navigate the public mental health services in Finland. While these services are free, it is often confusing and complicated to find the right service in Finland and difficult to know where to ask for help. You can read more about public services here. Additionally, there is a list of FREE services on the website of Psychological Practitioners Finland ry, for example short term therapy options available for free in the Helsinki region through Mieppi or Mieli Ry, or other charities such as Helsinki Missio.
5. We regularly have psychology student interns who can offer very affordable therapy to clients at a cost of approximately 29 to 44 Euro per session depending on frequency of sessions. Please email our info@compasspsychology.fi email address if you would like to book a session with our student interns. These students are in the final year of their clinical psychology training and are skilled in therapy and assessment. They are closely supervised by a registered psychologist and attend training regularly.