How Much Do Therapists Make? A Look at Therapist Salary and Pay

On average, recent data shows that therapists in the United States typically make around $59,350 to $100,580 per year. These numbers are based on available national data, and they represent medians, not guarantees. 

A therapist’s actual earnings can vary significantly both above and below this range based on a number of factors, including their location, employer, experience, and license type. 

How much do therapists make? 

Whether you’re a new therapist trying to understand the average salary in your field, a student considering a career as a therapist, or a professional simply interested in learning more about earning potential in different industries, you may have questions about how much a therapist can make.

With any profession, the topic of salaries can bring up a lot of questions. When it comes to therapists’ salaries, in particular, those questions often seem to multiply, as working in this field can involve different license types, levels of education, work settings, specialties, and employment types. 

In the following sections, we’ll explore these questions and their answers in greater detail. 

How much do therapists make a year?

According to May 2025 data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the annual median wage for therapists ranges from $59,350 to $100,580 per year nationally. This range captures the low and high end of annual median wages for different types of therapists throughout the country, including mental health counselors, social workers, marriage and family therapists, and clinical and counseling psychologists. 

The annual median wage differs for each type of therapist; we’ll explore these numbers in more detail later on.

Again, it’s important to remember that these numbers reflect medians, not guarantees. When looking at a figure like salaries that can have extreme outliers, the median can be useful as it gives us the exact middle number when the values are arranged in order from smallest to largest. 

Since it’s calculated in this way, the median ensures that unusually high or low values don’t skew the middle number in either direction. However, the median is still just the middle number; actual salaries can vary. 

How much do therapists make an hour?

Now, looking at this on a different time frame, how much do therapists make per month or per hour? To get a monthly range, we can divide the annual median wage by 12, so on a monthly basis, this translates to about $4,946 to $8,382 per month nationally.

And based on BLS data for May 2025, the hourly median wage for therapists ranges from $28.53 to $48.36 per hour nationally. 

As with the annual median wage range detailed above, this range represents the low and high end of hourly median wages for various types of therapists throughout the country. 

Actual rates can vary above and below these numbers. It’s also important to note that these estimates from the BLS do not include self-employed therapists, whose hourly pay can differ based on how they set their session fees. 

Therapist salary by type and industry

The wide range of median wages for therapists makes it clear that the typical salary for a therapist can vary depending on what type of therapist they are, among other factors. So, this brings up another question: how much do marriage and family therapists make compared to clinical psychologists and other types of therapists?

In addition to varying by therapist type, salary can also depend on the industry a therapist is working in.

For example, for marriage and family therapists, some of the industries with the highest annual median wages include:

• Religious organizations (e.g., churches, monasteries, and religious temples): $104,600 annual median wage
• State government, excluding schools and hospitals (e.g., state-run agencies and services): $92,150 annual median wage
• Local government, excluding schools and hospitals (e.g., municipal and county operations and departments) : $86,850 annual median wage

Meanwhile, some of the industries with the highest annual median wages for clinical and counseling psychologists include the following:

• Other ambulatory health care services: $131,970 annual median wage
• Employment services: $129,860 annual median wage
• Local government, excluding schools and hospitals: $126,650 annual median wage

Therapist salary by state

So far, we’ve explored national medians for therapist salaries, but how do these salaries differ from one state and area to another? 

For instance, how much do therapists make in California in cities like San Francisco vs. nonmetropolitan areas? And how much do therapists make in Texas in cities like Houston versus more rural areas? 

Location can significantly impact therapist salary, which often varies based on dynamics like local cost of living and demand. 

To illustrate this, let’s look at median therapist salaries in a few different locations, first across a few different states: 

We can also see variation within states, as illustrated with a few examples below:

*Source: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics Maps. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

What can affect how much therapists make

All of these figures make one thing very clear: therapist salary can vary widely. A clinical psychologist in San Francisco might make around $170,000, while a marriage and family therapist in Houston might make around $45,000. 

What explains these huge variations in ranges? There are a variety of different factors, some of which we’ve already explored. To summarize, the main factors that can influence a therapist’s income include: 

• Licensure and education: The data shows that clinical and counseling psychologists tend to earn more than other types of therapists, which suggests that having a doctoral degree (PhD or PsyD) and corresponding license (i.e., Licensed Psychologist) may open up higher-earning roles. 
• Location: As detailed above, a therapist’s state and area can significantly impact their salary, with therapists in higher-cost-of-living cities tending to earn higher-than-average salaries.
• Work setting and employer: Industry and employer can also affect salary, as different settings like hospitals, schools, and agencies can all pay differently. 
• Experience: Like many other professions, years of experience as a therapist can also impact salary, with more experienced therapists typically earning more than newer therapists. 
• Specialty and caseload: A therapist’s specialty and caseload may also impact income, particularly if there is a high demand for that specialty and few other therapists nearby with that specialty. This may be especially true for self-employed therapists. 

How much do online therapists make?

Now, how much do licensed therapists make if they work remotely?

The BLS doesn’t have separate data for therapists who provide their services virtually, but data from Glassdoor, ZipRecruiter, and Salary.com (largely gathered from employer job postings, user-submitted salaries, and other sources) suggests that the median pay for virtual therapists can range from around $66,000 to $96,000 a year. 

However, as with other ranges, actual pay may vary both above and below this range and can depend on a variety of factors, such as location, caseload, specialty, and platform.

A platform like BetterHelp connects therapists with clients for online sessions, which can make it easier to build a flexible schedule and a steady caseload from a comfortable setting. 

For therapists trying to decide where and how they want to work, that scheduling flexibility can be one appealing part of online care. BetterHelp also handles all the onboarding, processing, and credentialing, so therapists can increase their caseload without worrying about overhead costs and added paperwork.

Many therapists are likely very familiar with the research demonstrating the effectiveness of online therapy for clients with various mental health concerns, but another dynamic worth noting is that some research shows that providing online therapy instead of in-person therapy may also reduce the risk of burnout for therapists themselves. 

Working as a therapist can be incredibly fulfilling and rewarding, but it can also be emotionally draining, and taking care of your own mental health can be crucial. When you work as a therapist with BetterHelp, you also get a free BetterHelp membership, so you can get convenient therapy for yourself as well. 

How much do self-employed therapists make?

So how much do mental health therapists make if they work for themselves?

As with online therapists, there isn’t a ton of data available on earnings for self-employed therapists specifically, as the BLS doesn’t have separate data for therapists who run their own independent practice. 

However, one source of data on this topic comes from the company Heard, which surveyed 1,950 self-employed therapists. 

Their report found that for therapists running an independent practice, the median revenue in 2025 was about $80,000, and the median profit was about $55,000. That said, data is limited, and actual earnings can vary.