Therapy

Egyptians have finally embraced the concept of mental health and recognize that it’s just as important as the physical one and that for both, treatment is a must, not a privilege.

Even though therapy isn’t a luxury, the pricing can make it feel like it is. And this is exactly why we’ve dug deep to find out just why therapy is so expensive.

Times may have changed since the days of Abaseya’s Khanka, but stigma is still very much prevalent

It’s true, a good chunk of Egyptians deal with anxiety and depression but stigma hasn’t shifted for those who live with bipolar, psychopathic and personality disorders, among others.

This stigma may in turn make some professionals, thankfully a relative few, price their services at a higher rate. Another reason why therapy is expensive might actually be that until the last couple of years, mental health awareness wasn’t as common as it is now.

“When you go to one session and that session costs about 600, maybe 700 pounds,” one person tells us, “you’re going to be severely discouraged from going again.”

In a heavily fluctuating environment like this one, we can’t just say we want these things to be free of charge even if we do. And therapists understand these things.

“We’re on the patient’s side,” Dr. Wessam Ezzat says. “Some of us, myself included, offer free sessions to those who cannot afford them. Some religious institutes like churches and mosques can also get you some sessions on their dime.”

Since the therapists and the people are kind of on the same page when it comes to the pricing, there should be some kind of middle ground to the whole issue, right?

Well, the thing is, everyone isn’t on the same page, per se.

One therapist gave us an interesting, unexplored insight.

“If our patients don’t feel the obligation to pay, to take responsibility for that,” he said, “they won’t continue therapy. They won’t show up and that’s the first step — obviously, it should be within range but the elimination of pay in its entirety is difficult.”

On that point, we can’t really argue. It’s been proven time and again that people do actually continue things once they have invested in them, financially or emotionally. That can apply to therapy as well.

It’s true that private therapy’s price needs to be reigned in a little, but at the same time, therapists aren’t all that expensive.

There are still solutions at the end of the day, even to problems like these.

“In government-run hospitals, like El-Demerdash,” one man, Y.A, tells us, “you’re basically walking into a free session — sometimes it’s as cheap as five pounds and the therapists are actually great!”

So, why don’t people go then?

“They don’t know it exists,” he continues. “They’re usually dragged to the hospitals as a last resort and that’s not how it’s supposed to go.”

These public and affordable hospitals and practices aren’t known to everyone because of relatively non-existent publicity, but we’ve taken the liberty of finding a compiled and approved list by the General Secretariat of Mental Health.

Other services include many online platforms that can and will help you get better and more heard for a minimal fee when it comes to your own health.

What our community needs to do is spread awareness about the existence of alternatives to pricey counselors.

The government needs to help propel the services that already exist into the light and improve upon them, highlighting them in public campaigns and supporting them with as much funding as possible.

It’s not much to ask for mental health to be treated with the same degree of seriousness as physical health. In the end, it all adds to our public and private well-being.

It’s going to be a long road to awareness and progress, we know so we won’t sugarcoat it. At the same time, though, it’ll be a road that will actually lead us somewhere.

In the end, the fact remains that therapy’s importance will never diminish, whatever may change.