Joint Statement by IPU and PHB Berlin

Regarding the 1 April 2026 fee reductions for Psychotherapy

In a joint statement, the International Psychoanalytic University (IPU) Berlin and the Psychologische Hochschule Berlin (PHB) have warned that the announced fee cuts for psychotherapists will further exacerbate the shortage of care in Germany. These cuts are hitting a system whose key reform measures remain incomplete—particularly because the funding of postgraduate training remains unresolved. In the long term, this development jeopardizes the quality and availability of psychotherapeutic care.

The announced 4.5% cut in psychotherapists’ fees further exacerbates a trend that has been emerging for years: the creeping erosion of psychotherapeutic healthcare in Germany. This decision is not an isolated measure—it is a message. And the message is dire.

Reform Without Funding

We are writing this statement from the heart of academic practice, where tomorrow's psychotherapists are trained. As private universities with psychology programs and a focus on clinical psychotherapeutic training, we have been observing these developments for years.

Since the 2019 amendment to the law, psychotherapy training has been integrated into university studies. While we as universities have invested considerable effort in creating new psychotherapy programs and implementing the legal requirements, policymakers remain dangerously inactive. The funding of postgraduate training following licensure remains unresolved to this day, over six years after the amendment.

We are releasing highly qualified graduates into a system that lacks sustainable financial structures for their legally mandated postgraduate training. Consequently, the corresponding positions cannot be funded.

Steadily Declining Care Structures

At our universities, we witness every day the potential and motivation of the next generation of psychotherapists. These individuals consciously choose a career path that serves the common good. What we currently have to offer them is an obstacle course. They are making an upfront investment—devoting time, money, and effort to a professional future that remains uncertain. If fees are reduced to the newly prescribed minimum, what signal are we sending to future students? We are conveying to the members of society who are crucial to mental health care that their commitment is increasingly being downplayed and called into question by politicians and health insurance associations.

As universities, we are close to all those affected—the students who will be the psychotherapists of the future, the faculty and researchers, as well as the patients in our university outpatient clinics. We see the growing need for psychotherapeutic care and the dedication of those who wish to take on this task professionally. At the same time, we observe a declining appeal of the profession as well as growing frustration that their efforts are not supported politically.

[Translate to English:] Ein Banner mit den Logos von PHB Berlin und IPU Berlin nebeneinander.

Those who want to ensure care must empower the people who provide it.

Instead, the impression is that the growing need for care is coming up against a system that neither provides sufficient stability for existing structures nor reliably integrates and supports the next generation of practitioners. In the long term, this trend jeopardizes the quality and availability of psychotherapeutic care in Germany.

""At a time when the demand for therapy slots has grown rapidly and patients are waiting months for help, this fee reduction is irresponsible. It makes establishing a practice as a psychotherapist less attractive, especially since it affects those who are already at the lower end of the pay scale in the statutory health insurance system. It sends entirely the wrong message to lower fees when demand is increasing instead of strengthening prevention and treatment. This is cutting costs in the wrong place."
– Prof. Jan-Hendrik Olbertz, President of IPU Berlin

"We are training a new generation of psychotherapists with great dedication – and at the same time, we have to release them into a system that offers them no reliable future prospects. As long as the financing of postgraduate training remains unresolved and the economic conditions continue to deteriorate, a fatal structural imbalance will arise. This not only jeopardizes the attractiveness of the profession but also, in the long term, the provision of care. Those who want to ensure care must empower the people who provide it."
– Prof. Siegfried Preiser, Rector of the Psychologische Hochschule Berlin (PHB)

The joint statement was submitted on March 26, 2026, as a letter to the relevant department at the Federal Ministry of Health, calling for the initiation of a review pursuant to Section 87(6), Sentence 2 of the German Social Code, Book V (SGB V).