Group therapy for France, without the six-week wait.

DREES workforce mapping consistently shows psychiatrist density concentrated in Île-de-France, PACA, and the Rhône corridor, while Centre-Val de Loire, Bourgogne, and much of rural Occitanie are considered déserts médicaux for psychiatry. A resident of the Creuse or the Lozère may be an hour's drive from the nearest CMP consultation, and specialist child or adolescent psychiatry is even more thinly distributed. Overseas départements, Guadeloupe, Martinique, La Réunion, Mayotte, face additional structural gaps documented by ARS regional health agencies.

Six weeks is the commonly cited average, but the tail is longer. Investigations by Le Monde and France Info have reported CMP wait times of three to six months in some départements for a first appointment, and up to a year for child and adolescent psychiatry (pédopsychiatrie) in stressed regions. For someone in acute distress, the pathway defaults to hospital urgences or SOS Médecins, which are not designed for ongoing therapeutic work. The gap between crisis contact and sustained care is precisely where continuity fails.

The financial architecture matters. L'Assurance Maladie fully reimburses psychiatric consultations at conventionné secteur 1 rates, but many psychiatres practise in secteur 2 with dépassements, supplementary fees only partially covered by mutuelles. Psychologues in private practice are generally not reimbursed outside the Mon soutien psy envelope (12 sessions per year since 2024, at a €50 tariff patients often top up). Group therapy specifically is under-developed in the French system relative to individual analytic or CBT work, meaning even patients who reach a provider rarely encounter it as an option.

With 78.8% of France's population urban, provider distribution follows the demographic map, but not proportionally. Paris intra-muros concentrates a disproportionate share of English-speaking psychologues and psychiatres, priced at Paris rates. Move to a préfecture like Poitiers or Perpignan and the pool shrinks; move to a sous-préfecture or a rural commune and English-language options effectively disappear. Online delivery collapses this geography: the therapist your neighbour in the 6ème sees is the same therapist available to a family in the Cévennes.