Get Better, Together
English-Language Group Therapy for Residents of China.
Grouport connects English-speaking residents across China with licensed therapists in small online groups of 6-12. Sessions run at $32 each, matching happens right away, and everything takes place over HIPAA-compliant video, so wherever you live between Shanghai's high-rises and the rural western provinces, you can join without a local referral, a psychiatric intake queue, or a trip into a Tier-1 city hospital.
Consistently Recognized as the #1 Online Group Therapy pick
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The State of Mental Health in China.
Understanding the landscape of mental health care access and the challenges
residents face across the state.
Mental Illness Prevalence
13.4% of Chinese adults live with a mental health condition each year, reflecting the ongoing need for accessible therapy options.
Wait Time
8 weeks the average wait to secure a first mental health appointment in China's public system, an interval during which symptoms often deepen.
Median Household Income
$17,800 median household income in China, shaping what households can allocate to private mental health care.
Percentage Who Need Therapy
91.7% of Chinese adults with a mental health condition do not receive formal specialist treatment.
Provider Shortage
68% of China's mental health workforce falls short of what is needed to fully meet population demand for specialist care.
Mental Health Providers per 100k Residents
39.6 per 100,000 mental health workers in China, a density that shapes availability, wait times, and access across the country.
These numbers come from the WHO Global Health Observatory workforce database, the World Bank's 2024 income indicators, and China's national epidemiological work published through The Lancet Psychiatry. Set against a population of 1.41 billion, even a 16.6% lifetime prevalence translates into hundreds of millions of people who will meet criteria for a mental disorder at some point, and the psychiatric workforce, though it has grown substantially since the 2015-2020 National Mental Health Plan, still concentrates heavily in coastal metropolitan hospitals rather than distributing across the country's 34 provincial-level regions.
UNDERSTANDING THE CHALLENGE
Understanding Mental Health Access in China.
The Problem
China's mental health system has expanded quickly over the last decade, but the underlying arithmetic remains tight. With 39.63 mental health workers per 100,000 residents, the country trails the OECD median by a wide margin, and the distribution is uneven in ways the national figure hides. Psychiatric beds and licensed psychotherapists cluster around Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and a handful of provincial capitals; entire prefecture-level cities in Gansu, Guizhou, and the western autonomous regions operate with a fraction of that per-capita ratio. Demand meanwhile keeps rising, particularly among urban knowledge workers and university students.
The Impact
For someone in China deciding whether to seek help, the 8-week wait for a first outpatient psychiatric appointment at a Tier-3 hospital is only the beginning. Many patients report several additional weeks between the initial intake, often a brief 10-15 minute medication-focused consultation, and any structured talk therapy, which is frequently referred out to private clinics charging ¥600-1,500 per session. English-language provision is thinner still: outside a small circle of international clinics in Shanghai, Beijing, and Shenzhen, finding a therapist who can conduct sessions in fluent English usually means either flying to another city or accepting a long queue at one of the expat-focused practices.
The Solution
Online group therapy re-slices the problem. Instead of matching one clinician to one patient in a specific building, a small group of 6-12 people meets weekly over video with a licensed therapist who has trained in evidence-based modalities like CBT, DBT skills, or interpersonal process work. The format costs less per person, scales past geographic bottlenecks, and, for the English-speaking segment of China's population, including expats, returnees, and internationally-educated professionals, bypasses the shortage of English-fluent local clinicians entirely. Grouport structures each group around a specific focus (anxiety, depression, relationships, grief) so members join people working on similar terrain.
68% of China's mental health workforce falls short of what is needed to fully meet population demand for specialist care.
Grouport's model is built around the friction points that make Chinese in-person care hard to reach. Matching happens in right away rather than 8 weeks. Sessions are conducted in English, so residents don't need to filter for the narrow subset of local providers who work in the language. There's no travel to a Tier-1 city hospital, no morning queue for a limited-number registration ticket (挂号), and no requirement to be physically present in a particular municipality's catchment area. Pricing is fixed at $32 per session on the $140/month plan, and the video platform is HIPAA-compliant, so the same clinical privacy standards used with US patients apply to members joining from Chengdu, Xiamen, or Ürümqi.
Access and Availability Across China.
Access to mental health care in China varies enormously depending on which of the country's tiers of cities you happen to live in. A resident of central Shanghai has options a resident of a rural county in Yunnan simply does not, and this gap has widened even as national spending on mental health has grown. Grouport was designed for the population caught in that gap, English-speaking residents anywhere in the country's 9.6 million square kilometers who need care they can actually reach.
Geographic Barriers
Extended Wait Times
Systemic Challenges
Urban-Rural Divide
Affordable Group Therapy Costs for China Residents.
Affordability and Income
At China's 2024 GNI per capita (PPP) of $17,800, Grouport's $140 monthly cost represents roughly 0.5% of the average annual income, and $32 per session sits well below what a private English-speaking therapist in Shanghai or Beijing typically bills for a single hour. Because groups run weekly, the effective per-person clinician time compounds, four facilitated sessions a month for a total that would cover perhaps half of one individual session at a Puxi expat clinic.
Hidden Cost and Barriers
The sticker price of in-person care in China understates the real cost. Traveling to a Tier-3 hospital in a major city can mean high-speed rail tickets, a day of lost work, and sometimes overnight accommodation for residents from smaller cities or rural counties. Registration ticket scarcity has created a secondary market where scalpers (号贩子) resell appointment slots at multiples of face value. And once inside, patients typically pay separately for consultation, medication, and any auxiliary services. Grouport's flat monthly fee absorbs all of that: no travel, no ticket queue, no add-on billing.
Immediate Availability
Grouport matches members to a group right after signup, a meaningful contrast with the standard 8-week wait for a first outpatient psychiatric appointment at a public tertiary hospital, or the multi-week queue for a slot at a well-known private clinic. For someone in the middle of a difficult stretch, the ability to be in a real clinical session by next week rather than mid-next month is often the deciding factor.
Talk therapy pricing in China stretches across a wide range. Public hospital outpatient consultations are inexpensive on paper, often ¥50-300 for a brief psychiatric appointment, but structured, sustained psychotherapy is rarely delivered in that setting. Private clinics and international practices typically charge ¥600-1,500 per 50-minute individual session, and English-language providers sit toward the top of that band. Against those numbers, Grouport's $32 per session ($140 for a full month of weekly groups) is materially different math.
How it Works
Choose your online therapy group
Choose your desired online therapy group and sign up for our weekly plan. Most of our groups are $35/session, but our skills groups are $25/session.
Personalized match
We’ll ensure you're matched to an online therapy group that best fits your mental health challenges and schedule. Don’t worry if you’re not entirely sure which group is right for you, as after signing up, a care coordinator can help make sure you get started in the group that’s right for you. We typically match you to a group right away!
Meet weekly with your group
Join your group over video chat at the same time each week for 60-minute sessions. You’ll meet with the same members & therapist with a group of up to 12 members. Additional membership perks can include weekly handouts, symptom tracking, and one-off workshops.
Mental Health Conditions We Treat in China.
Grouport runs groups covering the conditions that most commonly bring English-speaking residents of China to seek care: generalized anxiety and social anxiety, depression, grief and loss, relationship and communication difficulties, adult ADHD, trauma responses, and skills-based work drawing on DBT for emotion regulation. The format is small-group process therapy or structured skills training, matched to what each member is working on, including presentations that show up frequently among expats, returnees, and urban professionals navigating high-pressure work cultures far from family support networks.
Get Help for:
Anxiety Disorders
Mood Disorders
Trauma & Stress Related Disorders
Obsessive-Compulsive & Related Disorders
Personality Disorders
Eating & Body Disorders
Neurodevelopmental Disorders
Life Challenges
Relationship Issues, Codependency, Attachment Issues, Divorce, Loneliness, Anger Management, Self-Esteem, Grief & Loss, Chronic Illness, Gender Dysphoria, Infertility, Fertility Treatment & IVF Support, Pregnancy Loss & Miscarriage, Couples Issues, Parenting, Supporting a loved one, LGBTQIA Support
Other Disorders
Self harm
Self-Harm, Suicidal Ideation, Self-injury, Suicide Survival
Common Treatments
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Exposure Response Prevention (ERP), Exposure Therapy, Internal Family Systems (IFS), Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing (EMDR), Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT), Psychodynamic Therapy, Motivational Interviewing (MI), Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), Trauma-Focused CBT (TF-CBT), Narrative Therapy, Schema Therapy, Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT), Somatic Therapy, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), Prolonged Exposure (PE), Interpersonal Therapy (IPT), Behavioral Activation
Meet Our Therapists
Our therapists represent a wide range of clinical specialties & diverse backgrounds. They all undergo the most stringent credentialing process. Grouport therapists are caring, expert mental health professionals with years of experience helping people get the tools they need to see long-lasting change.
Grouport's clinicians are licensed therapists, LCSWs, LMFTs, LPCs, and psychologists, trained in group process work and evidence-based modalities. All sessions run in English. Many of our facilitators have direct experience supporting internationally-mobile clients, third-culture adults, and members navigating cultural transitions, which maps closely onto the reality of English-speaking life in China: bicultural families, foreign nationals on long-term assignments, returnees (海归) reintegrating after years abroad, and Chinese professionals working in globally-oriented industries. The therapist you're matched with is licensed, and continues to practices under clinical standards regardless of where their group members log in from.
a healthier future starts right here
Grouport’s Results
80% of our members start with moderate to severe mental health symptoms
70% of our members feel significantly better within just 8 weeks
50% of our members achieve remission levels within just 8 weeks
80%
of our members start with moderate to severe mental health symptoms
70%
of our members feel significantly better within just 8 weeks
50%
of our members achieve remission levels within just 8 weeks
Find your Group
Affordable Group Therapy & Care Options in China.
Group, individual, couples, family, IOP, and teen therapy — all online, all therapist-led. Mix and match care options to fit your needs — and get discounted pricing when you bundle.
Group Therapy
$35/session
billed at $140/month
Get Started
Individual Therapy
Couples Therapy
Family Therapy
IOP Therapy
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Teen Therapy
Meaningful Results
Check out how our services have helped our members see life-changing results
Stephanie
“Grouport is time flexible and affordable and if it didn’t exist, I don’t know where I would go. I had looked into other places before Grouport and there really wasn’t any option like it.”
Michael
“I highly recommend this to anyone who is struggling with anxiety or depression. The therapists are top notch and have made me feel really comfortable and my anxiety has improved tremendously in only a few sessions!”
Isabel
"I joined Grouport to work on myself and to heal. I’m learning so much at every session! The change I see not only in myself but in my fellow group members is abundantly encouraging and profoundly fulfilling. Group therapy with Grouport is a powerful healing tool."
Sheldon
“I was feeling very down at the end of 2020 and I was ready to do something drastic that I know I'd likely regret. The group definitely helped show me that there are people who feel the same way as I do.”
Nancy
“The therapy from Grouport is high quality and convenient. I am becoming much more self aware and am liking myself more. My relationships at work are better and I’m much happier.”
Emily
“I like the connection you can make with total strangers and the confidentiality it comes with.”
Danielle
"Grouport can help you with your issues. Their therapists are well trained to work with you on your issues. I felt my anxiety greatly improve after only a few sessions. I highly recommend it!"
Glenn
"Grouport's approach to DBT is a real strength. This approach provides tools and methods for working with difficult emotions and getting a handle on them. It has given me hope where other approaches have failed."
Common Questions About Group Therapy in China.
Yes. English-medium university students, young professionals at multinationals, and haigui returnees across Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, and Chengdu often prefer therapy in English and value the discretion of an overseas online service given concerns about mianzi and workplace disclosure. Grouport's weekly video groups of 6 to 12 members are led by licensed therapists over HIPAA-secure video for $32 per session. Sessions run on a scheduled cadence that fits China Standard Time, and you can join a group right away.
Private English-speaking therapy at international clinics and hospital VIP wings in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen typically runs ¥800 to ¥2,000 per 50-minute session, and these fees are usually out-of-pocket since Basic Medical Insurance rarely reimburses psychotherapy. Grouport's weekly video groups of 6 to 12 members cost $32 per session, roughly ¥230, and are led by licensed therapists over HIPAA-secure video. You can join right away, without traveling to a Tier 1 city clinic or joining a hospital waitlist.
Group Therapy Available Across China.
Counties
Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, Sichuan, Hubei, Fujian, Hunan, Henan, Hebei, Liaoning, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Guangxi, Anhui, Jiangxi, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Shanxi, Guizhou, Gansu, Hainan, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Qinghai, Tibet, Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR.
Cities
Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Chongqing, Wuhan, Nanjing, Tianjin, Xi'an, Suzhou, Qingdao, Dalian, Xiamen, Kunming, Changsha, Zhengzhou, Hefei, Fuzhou, Ningbo, Jinan, Harbin, Shenyang.
Zip Codes
100000, 100010, 100022, 100025, 200000, 200003, 200070, 518000, 518028, 510000, 510610, 610000, 610041, 300000, 300201, 110000
If you have an address in China, Grouport can serve you regardless of your zip code.
Ready To Get Started?
Let’s find the right therapist match for you, so you can get consistent & effective care.
