What Costs You Nothing
Before any fee is due, we examine together with you whether what we offer is right for you. The anonymous suitability test and the brief registration cost you nothing; within 24 hours, Dr. Dietmar Luchmann, LLC replies with an offer or a recommendation. You pay only once you have decided, after informed consideration, to work with us.
What You Pay
The costs arise in two stages: for the psychodiagnostic and probationary assessment, which all three paths share, and then for the psychotherapy proper — via video, in a day block, or in writing.
First Stage — the Psychodiagnostic and Probationary Assessment
Psychodiagnostics is the professional determination of what someone is actually suffering from; the probationary phase is the trial period that shows whether method and person are a good fit.
In a written dialogue, we explore your account of the problem in greater depth, analyze your learning history, and examine whether your self-diagnosis holds up against reality or must be corrected, and whether our cognitive psychotherapy is the right path for you.
Flat fee: USD 400.
Should it turn out that a different treatment is indicated, we will tell you so honestly — before you have paid for a single hour of psychotherapy.
Only the result of the psychodiagnostic and probationary assessment permits a sound estimate of how much time you will need in total in the second stage — and of which of the three paths is the right one for you.
Together with this result, the psychotherapist may offer you a flat fee in place of billing by the session, for example a fixed monthly amount based on the estimated effort. This spares you from paying for each session individually in advance; whether you accept the flat fee or pay session by session is up to you.
The psychodiagnostic and probationary assessment is the shared point of entry to our psychotherapy; its result determines whether you continue via video, in a day block, or in writing. The three paths are described on the page “Cognitive Psychotherapy via Video.”
Second Stage — the Cognitive Psychotherapy on One of Three Paths
You do the actual work on your thinking on one of three paths. They differ not in method but in channel, and therefore in the effort they require:
- Video-Supported Cognitive Psychotherapy (VCP), the standard path: USD 230 per 50-minute session, the written summary included
- Day-Block Cognitive Psychotherapy (DCP): USD 320 per hour of 60 minutes, plus expenses
- Written Cognitive Psychotherapy (WCP): USD 160 per working hour of 60 minutes
Valid upon registration through Psychotherapie.com and advance payment, per session or as an agreed flat fee. Depending on the country and the policy, some private insurers cover the costs.
The price differences reflect not the quality of the result but the effort required. The video conversation requires a session at a fixed time and, afterward, the written summary; the day block, an entire day, along with a meeting place and the journey there; the written word can be worked on in installments, with no fixed appointment and from anywhere.
The in-person day block, as Dietmar Luchmann has practiced it for more than 30 years, is the most demanding of the three paths: eight hours of concentrated work in a single day. How it unfolds is described in a physician’s report on his own therapy and in an article on cognitive psychotherapy for agoraphobia in Zurich. These are documented individual cases, not a promise of results.
The expected number of hours is estimated after the psychodiagnostic assessment. For reference: for panic disorder, the British guideline NICE CG113 recommends 7 to 14 hours in total.1
The following sample calculations for panic disorder are guided by this range. Each counts 7 to 14 units: for video, 50-minute sessions, the customary therapy hour; for the day block and the written path, 60-minute hours. The actual number may be lower or higher.
- Via video (VCP): USD 400 + 7 to 14 sessions × USD 230 = USD 2,010 to USD 3,620.
- In a day block (DCP): USD 400 + 7 to 14 hours × USD 320 = USD 2,640 to USD 4,880, plus expenses.
- In writing (WCP): USD 400 + 7 to 14 working hours × USD 160 = USD 1,520 to USD 2,640.
Even the most expensive of these paths, expenses aside, stays within the budget of a single annual vacation: the “vacation expenditure of the Swiss population” amounts to the equivalent of USD 6,303 per capita per year.2,3
Confidentiality and Terms
Because Dr. Dietmar Luchmann, LLC works exclusively with self-pay patients, it does not pass your data on to health insurers, other insurers, or authorities unless required to do so by law. Written communication is end-to-end encrypted (AES-256); the video sessions run without an account and without recording. Details are given on the Data Privacy page.
Before the psychotherapy begins, the general terms and conditions set out explicitly what applies to confidentiality, data flows, obligations to cooperate, liability, and fees. Anyone who reads them knows what he is getting into.
Whom We Accept
We accept anyone who wants to work on his own thinking and is able to do so. Whether that is the case is examined in the suitability test, the registration, and the psychodiagnostic assessment; you learn the result before you have paid for a single hour of psychotherapy. Anyone looking for a treatment he merely receives passively will not find what he is looking for with us.
Successful psychotherapy is a division of labor. The psychotherapist identifies the thinking errors that produce the suffering and provides guidance on correcting them — but the patient has to make the correction himself. The success of a psychotherapy therefore cannot be bought; what can be bought is guidance on the way there. What you pay for it, you now know. What your mental health is worth to you is for you to decide.4
1 National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE): Generalised anxiety disorder and panic disorder in adults: management. Clinical guideline CG113. June 15, 2020. [Recommendation 1.3.15: “CBT in the optimal range of duration (7 to 14 hours in total) should be offered.”]
2 State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO): Naturnaher Tourismus in der Schweiz [Nature-based tourism in Switzerland]. Bern: State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), 2002, p. 95.
3 Federal Statistical Office (FSO): Reisen der Schweizer Wohnbevölkerung 2021 [Travel by the Swiss resident population, 2021]. Neuchâtel: Federal Statistical Office (FSO), October 2022.
4 Luchmann, D.: The Value of Mental Health — Values Neglect and Psychotherapy. Psychotherapie. October 20, 2025.
Source 1 is a British treatment guideline for generalized anxiety disorder and panic disorder; it concerns the treatment of these disorders in general, not the offer on this page.