Reduced Cost Mental Health Services

Who We Are and What We Do

Who We Are

The X-Studio: A Mental Health Cooperative is a nonprofit that provides an alternative business practice model for graduate students and postgraduate students seeking practicum/internship experience and clinical supervision experience while providing reduced-cost mental health services to community members in need.

In partnership with Counseling Interns and Licensed Professional Counselor-Associates (LPC-A), we provide lower-income level clients with access to affordable mental health care.

A Counseling Intern is a counselor/therapist in training completing their practicum or clinical internship under the watchful eye of a supervisor and with the guidance of their professors. Student interns must complete their internship to receive their postgraduate degree and can offer reduced-cost sessions for all modalities. Please note that student interns will consult with their supervisors and potentially their professors about clients in a confidential manner.

A Licensed Professional Counselor-Associate (LPCA) is a provisionally licensed counselor/therapist who has completed a master's degree in counseling, passed necessary national examinations, and is working towards full licensure by accumulating supervised clinical counseling hours. LPC-A’s can offer reduced-cost sessions for all modalities.

The X-Studio does not include psychiatrists. Our counselors/therapists provide psychotherapy/talk therapy. They are not able to prescribe or manage medications. To find a psychiatrist near you, please use Psychology Today’s psychiatrist finder tool. 

Our clients cannot afford market rates for counseling/therapy, are uninsured or underinsured, and have a low annual household income. 

Underinsured are people who have health insurance that does not include affordable in-network mental health benefits. They have a high deductible and/or a copay higher than $30 per session for individual therapy (or higher than $80 per session for couples or family therapy).  

We do not accept insurance because our main objective is to bypass the insurance industry. The X-Studio’s purpose is for clients who are either uninsured or underinsured.  

While some clients can use their HSA or FSA money to pay, the X-Studio providers will not submit to an insurance company on your behalf or provide you with a superbill.

At this time we are not accepting Medicaid or Medicare. 

What We Do

Our nonprofit serves clients who lack health insurance or whose health insurance doesn’t provide adequate mental health benefits. These clients also cannot afford current market rates for counseling/therapy.

Our network of mental health interns and provisionally licensed mental health clinicians is dedicated to providing pro-bono and affordable in-office and online mental health care at reduced cost to community members in need who are facing financial challenges.

Our counselors/therapists offer reduced-cost mental health services to clients who are financially qualified and eligible for this service. This provides uninsured clients, underinsured, low-income, or experiencing other financial challenges to access quality mental health services.  This is an alternative we offer based on the client’s ability to pay. We consider their financial circumstances and offer a significantly reduced rate per session. 

Client Membership

Each client joins The X-Studio as a member. Their lifetime membership enables them to access affordable mental health services such as counseling, therapy, and more. 

An X-Studio Lifetime Membership enables clients to see a mental health provider in our network at a reduced cost per session, as long as they are still in need of low-fee mental health services. 

There are no recurring fees from The X-Studio. We only charge the one-time $65 membership fee which we use to support our nonprofit cooperative for graduate students and provisionally licensed mental health providers. 

Once a client has submitted their membership application they will submit their one-time $65 membership fee to The X-Studio via debit, credit, check, etc. upon receipt of our invoice. Then we’ll contact the client to schedule their intake session.

You can take breaks from counseling/therapy, and you won’t have to pay the membership fee again. 

The X-Studio is a nonprofit organization. We use the funds we receive from their one-time membership fee to sustain our operational costs, maintain our website, pursue potential grants and other avenues of funding, and support the next generation of mental health professionals. 

Mental health clinicians in private practice can charge upward of $150 per session. The X-Studio is a network of mental health providers working toward their professional careers who want to offer a lower rate to those in need while doing so.

We’ll never ask for a client’s financial records because we trust that if they are seeking our services, it’s because they can afford to pay our rates and they can’t afford to pay more.

Please note that if their financial situation changes for the better, or they obtain health insurance that covers therapy, they may no longer qualify for The X-Studio’s rate.

If they would like to work with a couples counselor/therapist, they and their partner just need to pay for one X-Studio membership. Similarly, if they would like to work with a family counselor/therapist, they just need to pay for one X-Srudio membership on behalf of the family.

The X-Studio relies on the membership fee to help us facilitate as much reduced-cost counseling/therapy in our community as possible. While we won’t refund a membership fee if a counselor/therapist is not the right match, clients are welcome to see any other counselor/therapist in our network without paying an additional fee. 

Their X-Studio membership will be theirs for a lifetime regardless of which provider they see.

If for some reason they are unable to set up an appointment with their new counselor/therapist, we will refund their membership fee as long as they request within 10 business days of submitting the payment.

To register as a client please go to  The X-Studio Membership Subscription and join as a client member.

Once you register to become an X-Studio member, you will receive a phone call or email from us to schedule your intake appointment.

Client Benefits

Counseling/therapy sessions at a significantly reduced rate.

A library of curated mental health resources.

Access to healing and well-being workshops, groups, events, and other psychoeducation resources on a variety of helpful mental health-related topics.

Access to counseling/therapy groups at a reduced rate.