FAQ

I can only give you an estimate for your particular situation in person. It is a difficult question, because the answer depends on so many factors! In most cases, though, around 20 to 50 sessions is a realistic expectation. As a general rule, psychotherapy will be quicker the more you work on things in and between sessions, the more recently your problems began, and the fewer areas of your life they affect.

However long it takes for you, psychotherapy should always work towards an ending. It is a joint effort towards goals, aimed at putting patients back in a position, and giving them the confidence, to manage their lives on their own.

Psychotherapy makes sense when you are facing problems that are too much for you and for the support you have around you. You may notice this in different ways:

• Drive: you have no energy, or you feel constantly restless.
• Behaviour: you do things that harm you (aggression, addiction), or you do not do things that would be good for you (talking to people, going out, studying, looking for work, etc.).
• Thinking: your mind is constantly preoccupied with your worries and you can no longer settle.
• Feeling: you feel too little, or you are flooded by feelings such as anxiety or sadness.
• Body: your body reacts to stress, with digestive problems, headaches, a racing heart, sleep problems etc., without a clear medical explanation.
• Relationships: you are lonely, your relationships are superficial, or you are treated badly.
• Life: you are not living the life you want, you are dissatisfied, and you can neither change things nor accept them.

While there was indeed a controversy about this in the 1950s, the question has been considered settled for decades. It is an undisputed scientific consensus that psychotherapy works. Lambert (2013), for example, demonstrates its effectiveness with the combined evidence of an analysis of more than 500 meta-analyses. For many mental health conditions, such as anxiety disorders, OCD or post-traumatic stress disorder, psychotherapy is even the treatment of first choice, and there are now scientifically tested psychotherapeutic treatments for all relevant mental health conditions. Behaviour therapy in particular sees itself as a science-based approach to psychotherapy.

Reference: Lambert, M.J. (2013) Bergin and Garfield’s Handbook of Psychotherapy and Behavior Change. 6th Edition, New York, NY: Wiley.

In Austria, all three professions diagnose and treat mental health conditions. There is a great deal of overlap, but also differences in what each does and is responsible for. All three are required by their respective professional laws to work together.

Psychotherapists are trained under the Austrian Psychotherapy Act (Psychotherapiegesetz). The focus is on therapeutic conversation; in my case, using behaviour therapy.

Psychiatrists are medical doctors. They also take physical causes into account and can prescribe medication. Many also have psychotherapy training.

Clinical psychologists have studied psychology and completed training under the Austrian Psychologists Act (Psychologengesetz). They carry out psychological assessment, for example with tests, and treat mental health conditions. Since 2024, clinical-psychological treatment has been a service covered by health insurance: as with psychotherapy, a subsidy (Kostenzuschuss) is possible. Since 2026 there has also been a quota of places funded by the health insurance funds, which is allocated through the professional association BÖP.

I am both a psychotherapist and a clinical psychologist. In my practice this makes very little difference to you: the approach, the fees and the subsidy are the same. We decide which framework fits in the initial consultation. I do not offer places funded by the health insurance funds.

Ideally, you will have looked around my website to get an idea of who I am, and you are interested in therapy that you pay for privately, with partial reimbursement from your health insurance. (I do not offer places funded by the health insurance funds.)

The easiest way is to send me an email at daniel.weigl@verhaltenstherapeut.wien, in English or German, briefly describing your problem, what you would like from treatment and any other questions. I will then reply and, if I have a place available, I will be glad to invite you to an initial consultation.

If you prefer, you are also welcome to call me. If you could not reach me, I will reliably call you back.

In psychotherapy, the initial consultation gives us a chance to get to know each other. I explain how treatment with me works and the practical arrangements, and we get a first overview of what brings you. My initial consultations therefore usually run as follows:

1. I introduce myself, my qualifications and how I work. (about 5–10 min)
2. We go through the practical arrangements for treatment with me and the information I am legally required to give you. (about 10 min)
3. You give me some basic details. (address etc., 3 min)
4. We talk about what you would like from treatment: what is troubling you, what you would like to change, what you have already tried, what you hope for from me, etc. (about 30 min)

You may already be able to decide at the end of the consultation whether you would like to start psychotherapy with me. But please do not put yourself under pressure; it is actually a good thing to think important decisions through carefully. So you are welcome to say that you need a few days to think it over, or that you have decided against it. That is completely fine!

Please note that the initial consultation is charged; you can find my fees here. You can pay in cash (please bring the exact amount!) or by card.

Yes, in Austria, under certain conditions, and also for dependants you are legally obliged to support. You claim the costs as an extraordinary expense (außergewöhnliche Belastung) in your employee tax assessment (Arbeitnehmerveranlagung) or income tax return. Whether you actually get money back depends on the deductible (Selbstbehalt), so it is worth collecting all your medical costs for the year. You can find the conditions, a worked example and step-by-step instructions in my article Deducting psychotherapy from your taxes.

I cannot offer you a place for psychotherapy that is fully funded by the health insurance funds. Finding one is difficult but possible. In Vienna, the two organisations responsible for this are WGPV and VAP.

With psychotherapists who are listed on the Ministry of Health’s register of psychotherapists, as I am, you receive a subsidy (Kostenzuschuss) for the treatment of a mental health condition. The same applies to clinical-psychological treatment. The amount depends on your health insurer: currently the ÖGK (Austrian Health Insurance Fund) pays € 33.70 per session, the BVAEB € 50.20, the SVS € 50 and the KFA € 39 (as of 2026). More on fees and the subsidy

There are two requirements: first, you need to have a medical examination before the second psychotherapy session. The social insurance institutions want to rule out a physical illness causing the distressing symptoms; for example, an overactive thyroid can look like an anxiety disorder. It is enough to have your GP sign this confirmation (form in German). Second, you need an application for reimbursement, which I can prepare for you alongside the assessment if you wish. You then submit the medical confirmation and the application together to your health insurer, in person or online, by the 10th therapy session.

It can be more complicated if you have already made such an application during a recent psychotherapy and are now switching to me. In that case, please check the exact arrangements with your health insurer.

The subsidy applies if you are insured with an Austrian statutory health insurer (e.g. ÖGK, BVAEB, SVS). If you have foreign, private or international health insurance, I must ask you to check with your insurer how they cover psychotherapy in Austria; many plans reimburse psychotherapy. It is best to ask before you start.

In general, please let me know as soon as possible if you cannot make an appointment, so that I can rearrange my working day. If you cancel at too short notice, that is within 36 hours of the appointment, the full fee is charged. This applies regardless of the reason for cancelling.

Yes. As both a clinical psychologist and a psychotherapist, I am bound by a strict legal duty of confidentiality. This means I must keep the content of our work, and even the fact that you are in treatment with me, confidential. I only contact other people at your explicit request. If someone contacts me about one of my patients, I simply reply, without commitment, that I do not give out information about patients in general.

The only legal exception to the duty of confidentiality applies when higher-ranking legal interests are at stake. In practice, this typically means an immediate danger to life and limb or a risk to a child’s welfare. Even in these cases, however, I am legally obliged, whenever possible, to discuss the situation with you first and find a solution together. Fortunately, such problems are extremely rare in practice.

I am aware that, because the statutory health insurance system has catastrophically neglected its duty to provide care for mental health conditions, not everyone can afford to pay for regular psychotherapy themselves. Whenever possible, I nevertheless recommend weekly sessions: only then can we reach an understanding of your difficulties quickly enough, and make the subsequent treatment close-knit enough for you to really get the most out of it. Due to financial or other circumstances, however, I have also treated many patients at two-weekly intervals. That is certainly not ideal, but in many cases we were still able to make good progress. I would really advise against longer gaps, though: psychotherapy is then simply no longer present enough in your life to unfold its power to bring about change.

This applies only to the treatment phase of therapy. Once the main goals have been reached and the aim is to consolidate them, we agree on gradually longer gaps between sessions anyway, to encourage your independence and your gradual separation from therapy.