Practik 2025/26 UK tax year · Updated 2026-08-05
Earnings guides

What therapists actually earn, after tax

Gross fees are not income. These guides work out what different professions, fees and caseloads leave you once tax, National Insurance and practice costs come out.

Most guides to what therapists earn quote gross fees and stop there. Gross is not income: running costs come out, then income tax, then Class 4 National Insurance. These pages do the whole calculation, using the same engine as the Practik calculator, so the number at the end is what actually reaches your account.

By profession

How much does a private counsellor earn in the UK? → How much does a private psychotherapist earn in the UK? → How much does a private CBT therapist earn in the UK? → How much does a private hypnotherapist earn in the UK? → How much does a private massage therapist earn in the UK? → How much does a private acupuncturist earn in the UK? → How much does a private physiotherapist earn in the UK? → How much does a private osteopath earn in the UK? →

Working back from a target

If you know what you want to take home, these work out what it takes to get there.

How many clients to take home £30,000? → How many clients to take home £40,000? → How many clients to take home £50,000? → How many clients to take home £60,000? →

Run it on your own numbers

Every page here is a worked example. Yours will be different — put your own fee, caseload and costs in and get your own number.

Calculate my take-home →

How these figures are worked out

Every number is calculated with Practik's own engine on 2025/26 rates for a self-employed sole trader in England, Wales or Northern Ireland: income tax with the £12,570 personal allowance, plus Class 4 National Insurance. We assume 46 working weeks a year, which allows for holiday and sickness — a detail that flatters most published earnings figures when it is left out. Class 2 National Insurance is not modelled, as it is no longer payable by most sole traders.

Fee ranges cited on each page come from published consumer price guides and are named where they are used. They are context, not a claim about what any individual earns — the arithmetic after the fee is the part we stand behind.