Most answers to "private practice therapist salary" come from job boards: estimates of what practices pay the therapists they hire. That helps if you're weighing a job offer. It says little about what an owner keeps after costs and taxes. This guide collects the public numbers that do exist, each one dated and linked: Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) wages by occupation, IRS and Census figures on self-employed mental health practices, American Psychological Association (APA) surveys, and research on what insurers pay. You'll see what each source measures and what it leaves out, the figures for LCSWs, LPCs, LMFTs and psychologists, and a worksheet that turns your own fee, caseload and costs into a take-home estimate.
Every figure here describes a large group of therapists. None of them predicts what you will earn, and this article doesn't try to.
The short answer, with sources
- Employed therapists (BLS, May 2025):the median annual wage was $59,350 for mental health counselors, $66,940 for marriage and family therapists, $60,280 for mental health and substance abuse social workers, and $100,580 for clinical and counseling psychologists. These figures leave out the self-employed.
- Sole proprietors (IRS, tax year 2023):328,355 tax returns for offices of mental health practitioners and social therapists reported average business receipts of about $58,600 and average net income of about $29,800, counting losses. The 78.8% that made a profit averaged about $40,200 in net income. These averages include part-time and side practices, and they come before self-employment tax and income tax.
- Practices with no employees (Census, 2024):249,151 mental health practices with no paid staff took in $56,403 each on average. 60.7% took in less than $50,000, and 16.7% took in $100,000 or more.
- By license:no public source reports what owners take home by license. The license sections below give employee figures and the Medicare payment rule for each license.
Where the numbers come from, and what each one misses
Five kinds of source show up when you research therapist pay. They measure different things, which is why their numbers don't line up.
BLS wage data: employees only
The BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey is behind most "median salary" figures, including the ones in the Occupational Outlook Handbook. It is large, but it counts employees only. In the BLS's own words, "Self-employed people are not included in the estimates" (BLS, OOH FAQs).
So a BLS median for therapists describes therapists on a payroll: in hospitals, agencies, schools and group practices. It includes therapists employed by private practices (the BLS industry "offices of other health practitioners" covers them, along with chiropractors, optometrists and physical therapists), but never the owner. The BLS does estimate how many work for themselves: 11% of marriage and family therapists and 23% of psychologists are self-employed (BLS, Marriage and Family Therapists; BLS, Psychologists).
Two more limits:
- Occupations aren't licenses.The BLS groups mental health counselors with substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors, who "typically need at least a bachelor's degree, although some positions require a high school diploma" (BLS, Counselors), so the figure isn't LPCs only. Social workers are split by the setting they work in, not by whether they hold an LCSW.
- The latest wage data are for May 2025.OEWS also publishes state and metro area tables, which are the best public source for employee wages where you live (BLS, OEWS tables).
IRS Statistics of Income: owners who file Schedule C
The IRS publishes totals from sole proprietors' tax returns, covering "business receipts, deductions, and net income reported by an individual taxpayer on Schedule C" (IRS, SOI nonfarm sole proprietorship statistics). Its industry list has a line for offices of mental health practitioners and social therapists. The latest year is tax year 2023, published in March 2026.
This is the closest national measure of owner profit. A single-member LLC that hasn't chosen to be taxed as a corporation also reports on the owner's Schedule C (IRS, Single member limited liability companies), so many one-person PLLCs are counted. Its limits:
- It publishes totals, so you can work out averages but not medians. A few large practices pull an average up; many small side practices pull it down.
- It counts every return, including therapists whose practice is a few evening clients next to a salaried job.
- Practices taxed as S corporations or partnerships file different returns and aren't in it.
- Net income here comes before self-employment tax, income tax, and the owner's own health insurance and retirement savings.
Census Nonemployer Statistics: practices with no employees
The Census Bureau counts businesses "with no paid employees, that are subject to federal income tax" and have receipts of $1,000 or more, using "business income tax records that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) provides to the Census Bureau" (Census, About the Nonemployer Statistics Program). Industry code 621330, offices of mental health practitioners (except physicians), covers practices such as psychotherapists', clinical psychologists' and mental health social workers' offices (Census, NAICS 621330). The latest data are for 2024 (Census, Nonemployer Statistics: 2024).
Its strengths: it includes every legal form (sole proprietors, S corporations, partnerships and corporations), it splits the count into receipts bands so you can see the spread, and it has a file for each state. Its limit: receipts are gross. It shows nothing about costs or profit. Census also adds a little statistical noise to receipts to protect privacy; every receipts figure used here is flagged as changed by less than 2%.
Association surveys
- APA salary data for psychologists.The most recent APA salary report we found, published in 2017, used the National Science Foundation's 2015 National Survey of College Graduates. Among full-time doctoral psychologists providing professional services, "self-employed psychologists in non-incorporated businesses had the highest median salary at $120,000" (APA, 2015 Salaries in Psychology). The data are from February 2015 and aren't adjusted for inflation.
- APA Practitioner Pulse Surveys.Yearly surveys of licensed psychologists about caseload and insurance, not income. Their insurance findings are in the self-pay section below.
- Social workers, counselors and MFTs.In October 2026 we looked for a current national survey of private practice owners' income from NASW, ACA or AAMFT and didn't find one. If your association runs a member pay survey, check its date and who answered before you lean on it.
Job-board salary pages
In October 2026, most of Google's first page for this search is job-board salary estimates for "private practice therapist" jobs in one state or city. They describe jobs at someone else's practice. Use them to judge a job offer, not an owner's income.
What self-employed mental health practices bring in
These are the national figures on owners. Read them with the limits above in mind: the averages include part-time practices, and none of these numbers is take-home pay.
IRS: Schedule C returns, tax year 2023
For offices of mental health practitioners and social therapists (IRS SOI, Table 1, tax year 2023):
- Returns:328,355.
- Business receipts:$19.23 billion in total, about $58,600 per return.
- Net income, after subtracting losses:$9.79 billion in total, about $29,800 per return.
- Returns with a profit:258,846, or 78.8%. They averaged about $69,200 in receipts and about $40,200 in net income.
- Share of receipts left after business expenses:about 51% across all returns, and about 58% among the profitable ones.
The last line is the most useful one for planning. For every dollar these practices took in, roughly half was left after business expenses, before any tax.
Census: practices with no employees, 2024
249,151 mental health practices with no paid employees took in $14.05 billion, or $56,403 each on average (Census, Nonemployer Statistics 2024, US file). This is how their 2024 receipts spread out:
- Under $5,000: 13.1%
- $5,000 to $9,999: 10.6%
- $10,000 to $24,999: 18.8%
- $25,000 to $49,999: 18.3%
- $50,000 to $99,999: 22.5%
- $100,000 to $249,999: 14.5%
- $250,000 to $499,999: 1.8%
- $500,000 to $999,999: 0.4%
- $1 million or more: 105 practices
So the middle practice took in somewhere between $25,000 and $49,999, and 42.4% took in less than $25,000. That says a lot about how many practices are part time, and little about what a full-time practice brings in. The data can't separate the two.
By legal form
The same 2024 file splits practices by how they are organized:
- Sole proprietorships:235,860 practices, $53,306 average receipts.
- S corporations:9,614 practices, $100,781.
- Partnerships:2,654 practices, $157,086.
- C corporations and other corporate forms:1,023 practices, $92,181.
The data don't say why the averages differ, and they don't show that changing your legal form would change what you take in. If you're weighing a PLLC or an S corporation election, our guide to PLLC vs LLC for therapists covers what states require.
By state
Average 2024 receipts for practices with no employees, in the six states with the most of them (Census, Nonemployer Statistics 2024, state file):
- New York:19,404 practices, $71,574
- Massachusetts:9,457 practices, $70,241
- California:29,187 practices, $60,717
- Pennsylvania:9,702 practices, $56,056
- Texas:16,579 practices, $49,624
- Florida:19,999 practices, $49,037
Across the 50 states and DC, the average ran from $40,190 in Louisiana to $86,497 in the District of Columbia. A higher average can come from higher fees, more full-time practices or both; the data don't say which.
What these numbers can't tell you
- What a full-time owner earns.Neither source records hours or caseload.
- Take-home pay.IRS net income comes before tax and benefits; Census receipts come before any costs.
- The middle owner's income.Both sources publish totals and counts, not medians. The Census bands come closest.
- Anything by license.An LCSW's practice and a psychologist's practice fall under the same industry code.
- Group practice owners.Census leaves practices with employees out of these files, and the IRS includes them only if the owner files Schedule C.
Private practice salary by license: LCSW, LPC, LMFT and psychologist
For each license you'll find the BLS figures for employees doing that work, how Medicare pays that license, and what isn't known. The owner figures above cover all four licenses together.
LCSW private practice salary
- Employee wages (BLS, May 2025):the BLS has no LCSW category. Mental health and substance abuse social workers had a median annual wage of $60,280, and healthcare social workers $67,880. Across all social workers, the lowest 10% earned less than $42,790 and the highest 10% more than $100,090 (BLS, Social Workers). Both groups include social workers without a clinical license.
- Medicare:pays clinical social workers "at 75% of the PFS amount for CPs," that is, 75% of what a clinical psychologist is paid under the Physician Fee Schedule (CMS, Medicare & Mental Health Coverage, March 2026).
- Commercial insurance:in 2021 claims studied by RTI International, the median in-network payment for therapists' office visits (social workers, counselors and MFTs, grouped together) was 73.9% of what Medicare would have paid for the same service in the same area (RTI International, 2024).
- Not known:what LCSW practice owners take home. No national source reports it.
LPC private practice salary
- Employee wages (BLS, May 2025):substance abuse, behavioral disorder and mental health counselors had a median annual wage of $59,350. The lowest 10% earned less than $38,940 and the highest 10% more than $97,590. In offices of other health practitioners, which employ 20% of them, the median was $58,240 (BLS, Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors). The category includes counselors who don't hold an LPC.
- License names vary by state:LPC, LMHC, LPCC or LCPC, among others.
- Medicare:since January 1, 2024, mental health counselors can bill Medicare directly once they have at least 2 years or 3,000 hours of post-master's supervised clinical experience, and Medicare pays them "at 75% of what a clinical psychologist is paid" (CMS, Marriage and Family Therapists & Mental Health Counselors).
- Commercial insurance:the RTI figure above (a median of 73.9% of Medicare in 2021) includes counselors.
- Not known:what LPC practice owners take home.
LMFT private practice salary
- Employee wages (BLS, May 2025):median $66,940; the lowest 10% earned under $44,650 and the highest 10% over $123,730. In offices of other health practitioners, which employ 33% of MFTs, the median was $64,430. The BLS counts 11% of MFTs as self-employed and notes that "many marriage and family therapists work in private practice" (BLS, Marriage and Family Therapists).
- Medicare:the same rule as counselors. MFTs can bill Medicare directly since 2024 and are paid 75% of the clinical psychologist amount.
- Not known:what LMFT practice owners take home.
Private practice psychologist salary
- Employee wages (BLS, May 2025):clinical and counseling psychologists had a median annual wage of $100,580. Across all psychologists, the lowest 10% earned less than $59,080 and the highest 10% more than $163,380. The BLS counts 23% of psychologists as self-employed (BLS, Psychologists).
- Self-employed psychologists (APA, 2015 data):a median of $120,000 for full-time psychologists in non-incorporated businesses providing professional services, as described above. The data are more than ten years old.
- Medicare:pays clinical psychologists "at 100% under the PFS only if you accept assignment" (CMS, Medicare & Mental Health Coverage, March 2026).
- Insurance participation:in APA's 2025 survey, 38% of psychologists accepted no form of health insurance, 33% accepted traditional Medicare and 20% traditional Medicaid (APA, 2025 Practitioner Pulse Survey).
- Commercial insurance:in 2021, in-network office visits with psychologists were paid 105.1% of Medicare rates on average, and 18.2% of psychologist office visits were out of network (RTI International, 2024).
Why owner income isn't a salary
When you're employed, your employer pays for the office, the software, the billing, its share of payroll taxes and often your benefits, on top of your salary. In private practice, you pay all of that from what clients and insurers pay you. In words:
Take-home equals the fees you collect, minus practice costs, minus taxes, minus the benefits you now buy yourself.
Each part has its own catches:
- You're paid per session held.Weeks off for vacation, illness, holidays and continuing education earn nothing, and neither do open slots.
- Much of the work isn't sessions.Notes, scheduling, billing, email, consultation and marketing take hours every week. We found no national data on how many hours private practice therapists spend on this work, so track your own for a month. Our private practice therapist guide walks through an invented sample week.
- Missed sessions.We found no reliable national no-show rate for private practice therapy. Whether a missed session earns anything depends on your written policy and, for insured clients, your contracts. Medicare "does not pay for missed appointments," but CMS allows a missed appointment fee for Medicare patients when your policy "applies equally to all patients (Medicare and non-Medicare)" (CMS, MLN Matters MM5613). Our therapy cancellation policy template covers the wording.
- Not every bill gets paid.Insurance pays after a claim is processed and can deny it. In APA's 2024 survey, 52% of psychologists who didn't take insurance, or had recently stopped taking a form of it, named "concerns about payment reliability such as delays in payment and refund demands" as a barrier (APA, 2024 Practitioner Pulse Survey).
- Business costs.Rent or a home office, software, malpractice insurance, license renewals and CE, card fees, an accountant and marketing. In the IRS figures above, about half of receipts went to business expenses. Our guide on how to start a private practice lists the start-up costs, and professional liability insurance for therapists explains what drives that premium.
- Self-employment tax.An employee pays 6.2% for Social Security and 1.45% for Medicare, and the employer pays the same again (IRS, Topic 751). An owner pays both halves as self-employment tax: 15.3%, made up of 12.4% for Social Security and 2.9% for Medicare (IRS, Self-employment tax). It's "generally" charged on "92.35% of your net earnings from self-employment," and you can deduct half of it (IRS, Topic 554). The Social Security part stops at a yearly limit, $184,500 for 2026 (IRS, Topic 751). No one withholds it for you: sole proprietors "generally have to make estimated tax payments if they expect to owe tax of $1,000 or more," spread over four payment periods a year (IRS, Estimated taxes).
- Benefits.Health insurance, retirement savings, disability cover and paid time off are now yours to fund.
Self-pay vs insurance: what the data show
We found no national data comparing the income of self-pay practices with in-network practices. Here is what is known about each side.
Insurance
- Many psychologists stay out of network, and pay is the reason they name most.In APA's 2025 survey, 38% of psychologists accepted no health insurance. Among those who didn't accept insurance, or had left a panel in the past year, 75% named insufficient reimbursement as a barrier, 57% administrative issues and 43% payment reliability (APA, 2025 Practitioner Pulse Survey). In the 2024 survey, 34% accepted no insurance (APA, 2024). These surveys cover psychologists only.
- In-network rates for behavioral health office visits are lower than for medical visits.In 2021 commercial claims, in-network office visits with behavioral health clinicians were paid 102.5% of Medicare rates on average, against 124.8% for medical and surgical clinicians. For therapists (social workers, counselors and MFTs), the median was 73.9% of what Medicare would pay (RTI International, 2024).
- The contract sets your rate.In network, you're paid what the insurer's contract says for each service, not your posted fee. Medicare's amount for each service code and area is public in the CMS Physician Fee Schedule search.
- Medicare pays by license:100% of the fee schedule for clinical psychologists, and 75% of the psychologist amount for clinical social workers, MFTs and mental health counselors (CMS, March 2026).
Self-pay
- You set the fee and collect it from the client.There are no claims, but your client pool is the people who can pay that fee, or who have out-of-network benefits and file their own claims. In RTI's 2021 data, 11.3% of therapists' office visits were out of network, against 2.8% for physician assistants (RTI International, 2024).
- Good Faith Estimates are required.Uninsured and self-pay clients must get a written estimate of expected charges, and "self-pay" includes clients who have insurance but don't want a claim filed (45 CFR 149.610). Our Good Faith Estimate template for therapists shows a filled-in sample.
- Reduced fees change your average.If some places are on a sliding scale, your average fee per session sits below your full fee. Our sliding fee schedule for therapists shows how to work out how many reduced places a practice can carry.
Mixed practices
A practice can combine one or two insurance panels with self-pay places. In the worksheet below, each way clients pay gets its own line, so you can see what a mixed caseload brings in per session on average.
A worksheet to estimate your own take-home
Every line is a number only you can fill in, and the formulas are written in words. Where you can't know a number yet, try two values and see how much the result moves, then come back after a quarter with real ones. For the capacity math (how many sessions you can hold, write up and recover from) and a break-even point, use the worksheets in our business plan for private practice first; this one picks up from there.
How to fill it in:
- Lines A to C come from your schedule. The capacity worksheet in the business plan guide breaks them down.
- Line D comes from your records once you have three months of them. Until then, run the sheet with two different guesses to see how much the line matters.
- Lines F1 to F4 come from your own fee, your sliding scale and each insurance contract. Medicare rates are in the CMS fee schedule search.
- Line T follows the IRS rules above. If you also earn wages from a job, those wages count toward the Social Security wage base first. An extra 0.9% Medicare tax applies above income thresholds that depend on your filing status (IRS, Self-employment tax). If your practice is taxed as an S corporation, the math is different, so ask your accountant.
- Run it twice: once with the caseload you hold now and once with the caseload you're aiming for. The gap shows how much of the result depends on filling slots rather than on fee or costs.
- Change one input at a time. If take-home per hour worked is lower than you need, see which input moves it most: fee, filled share, weeks, missed sessions or costs. Adding sessions beyond what you can sustain is the fix that doesn't last; our article on therapist burnout explains why.
Compare a job offer with private practice, line by line
A salary and a practice profit aren't the same kind of number. To compare them, add to the salary what the employer pays on your behalf, then set that total beside line R.
This doesn't tell you which to choose. It puts both numbers on the same footing, so the choice is about the things the numbers can't show: control over your hours and caseload on one side, a steady paycheck and less admin on the other.
What changes private practice income
Every factor below works through the worksheet's inputs. None of them comes with a sourced national figure for how much it changes owner income, and we say where that's the case.
Location
Fees, rent and the share of clients with out-of-network benefits differ from place to place. In the Census data, average receipts for practices with no employees ranged from $40,190 in Louisiana to $86,497 in DC in 2024. For employee wages where you live, use the OEWS state and metro tables. We found no national, sourced table of self-pay therapy fees by state; the practical check is what licensed therapists with similar training charge near you.
Caseload and weeks worked
Paid sessions are slots, times the share filled, times working weeks, times the share not missed. Each multiplies the others, so a small change in one moves the total. There is no standard full-time caseload for private practice. Set one you can keep up week after week, including the notes and admin around it.
Fee and payer mix
Line G is your average across every way clients pay: full fee, reduced fee, each insurance contract and Medicare. A mixed caseload averages somewhere between your lowest and highest rate, weighted by how many sessions each brings.
Niche
We found no national data on how a specialty changes owner income. What a clear focus can change is the inputs: who looks for you, what fee they can pay, whether they want to use insurance, and how they find you. Track each inquiry's source and reason in your own records. Our guide to marketing for therapists includes a 30-day plan.
Telehealth
Telehealth can change your cost line (an office, a shared room or none) and who can book you, within license limits. HHS states that health professionals "must meet the licensure requirements of the state where they are located and be licensed or legally permitted to practice in the state where the patient is located" (Telehealth.HHS.gov, Licensure for behavioral health). Compacts are widening that for some licenses; see which Counseling Compact states are live. We found no national data comparing the income of telehealth-only and office-based practices.
Legal form and taxes
Your legal form changes how profit is taxed, not what clients pay. The Census averages by legal form above show differences between groups, not the effect of switching. An accountant can tell you whether an S corporation election fits your numbers.
What isn't known
Plainly, here is what no public source we found in October 2026 can tell you:
- What private practice owners take home, nationally, by license.
- The median owner's income. The IRS and Census publish totals, counts and bands.
- What a full-time owner earns, because neither tax-based source records hours or caseload.
- Typical self-pay fees by state or license, from an authoritative survey.
- A national no-show or late-cancellation rate for private practice therapy.
- How many hours a week owners spend on work outside sessions.
- What group practice owners (practices with employees) earn.
- Whether self-pay or in-network practices earn more, like for like.
If a page gives you one confident number for any of these, ask where it came from.
How this works in TranqBay
TranqBay is practice software for therapists in private practice. It doesn't set your fee or do your taxes, and we make no claim about what it does to income. It covers several of the tools in line L of the worksheet:
- A practice website, so clients who look you up find your services and how to book.
- Online booking, so clients pick a time from your website.
- Video sessions that are end-to-end encrypted and HIPAA-ready. TranqBay provides a Business Associate Agreement that applies when you accept the Terms, with no separate document to sign. Read the Business Associate Agreement before you add it to your vendor list.
- Session notes in BIRP, DAP, SOAP or GIRP format, or a blank note in your own words. The structured formats are part of the advanced note templates, which some plans include.
- A form library of ready-made templates you send to a client for a session, including intake, consent to treat, telehealth consent, release of information, the PHQ-9 and the GAD-7. The client fills them in online and the answers wait with the session. TranqBay doesn't score the forms.
Your hours, services and fees are the first inputs in the worksheet. On practice.tranqbay.health you can see a sample booking page with services, session lengths and fees laid out the way a client would see them.
Frequently asked questions about private practice therapist pay
How much do private practice therapists make?
No national source measures owners' take-home directly. The closest figures: in tax year 2023, sole proprietors' returns for mental health practices averaged about $58,600 in receipts and about $29,800 in net income after losses, and returns with a profit averaged about $40,200 in net income (IRS). Those averages include part-time practices and come before tax. For employed therapists, BLS May 2025 medians were $59,350 for mental health counselors, $66,940 for MFTs and $100,580 for clinical and counseling psychologists.
What is the LCSW private practice salary?
No source reports what LCSW practice owners take home. For employees, the BLS reported a May 2025 median of $60,280 for mental health and substance abuse social workers and $67,880 for healthcare social workers. Medicare pays clinical social workers 75% of the clinical psychologist amount.
How much does an LPC make in private practice?
There's no national figure for LPC owners. Employed mental health counselors (a BLS category that also includes substance abuse counselors) had a May 2025 median of $59,350, and $58,240 in offices of other health practitioners. Since 2024, Medicare pays mental health counselors 75% of the clinical psychologist amount.
Do therapists make more in private practice?
The public data can't answer that like for like. BLS wage figures cover employees only, and the IRS and Census owner averages include many part-time practices. To compare for yourself, use the job offer worksheet above, which adds an employer's payroll tax share and benefits to the salary before comparing it with practice profit.
How much do private practice therapists make per session?
Self-pay fees are set by each therapist, and we found no authoritative national survey of them. In network, the insurer's contract sets the rate. Medicare's amounts are public in the CMS Physician Fee Schedule search; counselors, MFTs and clinical social workers are paid 75% of the clinical psychologist amount.
How much of each session fee does a therapist keep?
In the IRS tax year 2023 figures, about 51% of receipts were left after business expenses across all mental health practice returns, and about 58% among profitable ones. That is before self-employment tax (15.3%, generally on 92.35% of net earnings) and income tax. Your own share depends on your costs, which line Q of the worksheet adds up.
How many clients does a private practice therapist need?
There's no standard number. It depends on your fee, payer mix, costs, missed sessions and the take-home you need. Fill in the worksheet with your target, or use the break-even worksheet in our business plan for private practice, which works backward from a pay target to sessions a week.
What taxes do private practice therapists pay?
Income tax, plus self-employment tax of 15.3% (12.4% Social Security, 2.9% Medicare), generally on 92.35% of net earnings, with the Social Security part capped at $184,500 for 2026. Half of the self-employment tax is deductible. If you expect to owe $1,000 or more, the IRS generally expects estimated payments over four periods a year. Practices taxed as S corporations work differently; ask an accountant.
Do therapists get paid for no-shows?
Only if your written policy says so and the client agreed to it in advance. Medicare doesn't pay for missed appointments, but CMS allows a missed appointment fee for Medicare patients if your policy applies equally to all patients. Commercial insurance contracts can limit what you may charge a plan member, so read yours.
Is a private practice therapist self-employed?
An owner is. A therapist employed by a group practice is an employee, which is who the BLS figures describe. If a practice pays you as an independent contractor, you're generally self-employed for tax purposes, and the IRS has tests for who counts as one (IRS, Independent contractor or employee).
Before you run your numbers
Fill in the take-home worksheet with numbers you can defend: your fee and contracted rates, a caseload you can sustain, honest weeks off and real cost quotes. Set the result beside a job offer using the second worksheet. Then check the result against the sourced figures above, knowing what each one measures.
Once you've settled your fee, services and hours, see how they would look to a client: practice.tranqbay.health shows the practice website designs and the booking page a client would use. If you're weighing whether to join, this page explains how joining TranqBay works. For more guides on fees, paperwork and notes, browse the articles for therapists.
Sources
Federal 14States 3Associations 3rti.org 1CMS 4HHS 1Regulations 1
Other federal agencies14
- 1U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook FAQsbls.govhttps://www.bls.gov/ooh/about/ooh-faqs.htm
- 2U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook: Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors (May 2025 wages)bls.govhttps://www.bls.gov/ooh/community-and-social-service/substance-abuse-behavioral-disorder-and-mental-health-counselors.htm
- 3U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook: Marriage and Family Therapists (May 2025 wages)bls.govhttps://www.bls.gov/ooh/community-and-social-service/marriage-and-family-therapists.htm
- 4U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook: Social Workers (May 2025 wages)bls.govhttps://www.bls.gov/ooh/community-and-social-service/social-workers.htm
- 5U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook: Psychologists (May 2025 wages)bls.govhttps://www.bls.gov/ooh/life-physical-and-social-science/psychologists.htm
- 6U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS tables (national, state, metro and industry, May 2025)bls.govhttps://www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm
- 7IRS, SOI Tax Stats: Nonfarm sole proprietorship statisticsirs.govhttps://www.irs.gov/statistics/soi-tax-stats-nonfarm-sole-proprietorship-statistics
- 8IRS, SOI Table 1: Nonfarm sole proprietorships by industrial sector, tax year 2023 (XLS)irs.govhttps://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/23sp01br.xls
- 9IRS, Self-employment tax (Social Security and Medicare taxes)irs.govhttps://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/self-employment-tax-social-security-and-medicare-taxes
- 10IRS, Topic no. 554, Self-employment taxirs.govhttps://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc554
- 11IRS, Estimated taxesirs.govhttps://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/estimated-taxes
- 12IRS, Topic no. 751, Social Security and Medicare withholding ratesirs.govhttps://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc751
- 13IRS, Single member limited liability companiesirs.govhttps://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/single-member-limited-liability-companies
- 14IRS, Independent contractor (self-employed) or employee?irs.govhttps://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/independent-contractor-self-employed-or-employee
State boards and laws3
- 15U.S. Census Bureau, About the Nonemployer Statistics Programcensus.govhttps://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/nonemployer-statistics/about.html
- 16U.S. Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics: 2024census.govhttps://www.census.gov/data/datasets/2024/econ/nonemployer-statistics/2024-ns.html
- 17U.S. Census Bureau, NAICS 621330: Offices of Mental Health Practitioners (except Physicians)census.govhttps://www.census.gov/naics/?input=621330&year=2022&details=621330
Professional associations3
- 18American Psychological Association, 2015 Salaries in Psychologyapa.orghttps://www.apa.org/workforce/publications/2015-salaries
- 19American Psychological Association, 2024 Practitioner Pulse Surveyapa.orghttps://www.apa.org/pubs/reports/practitioner/2024
- 20American Psychological Association, 2025 Practitioner Pulse Surveyapa.orghttps://www.apa.org/pubs/reports/practitioner/2025
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services4
- 22CMS, Medicare & Mental Health Coverage, MLN1986542 (March 2026)cms.govhttps://www.cms.gov/files/document/mln1986542-medicare-mental-health-coverage.pdf
- 23CMS, Marriage and Family Therapists & Mental Health Counselorscms.govhttps://www.cms.gov/medicare/payment/fee-schedules/physician-fee-schedule/marriage-family-therapists-mental-health-counselors
- 24CMS, Search the Physician Fee Schedulecms.govhttps://www.cms.gov/medicare/physician-fee-schedule/search
- 25CMS, MLN Matters MM5613: Charges for missed appointmentscms.govhttps://www.cms.gov/Outreach-and-Education/Medicare-Learning-Network-MLN/MLNMattersArticles/Downloads/MM5613.pdf