From next Wednesday, psychotherapy sessions will be reimbursed in Luxembourg. Upon enquiry by our colleagues from RTL.lu, the National Health Fund (CNS) provided details of exactly how this will work.

The patient is not required to see a doctor first but can see a psychotherapist one to three times before seeing a doctor.

The doctor will check whether there are any contraindications to psychotherapy, i.e., whether the patient has any illnesses that should be treated first.

If there are no contraindications, the patient may be prescribed one or two sets of 12 sessions, depending on what the psychotherapist deems appropriate. If the therapy is not completed after 24 sessions, the patient will have to return to the doctor to determine whether there is still a somatic problem.

A therapy can be extended up to five times, meaning that a patient can be reimbursed for up to 147 sessions over ten years.