In shortOnline psychodynamic therapy in English for people living in Riyadh: fully private, paid directly, designed around Gulf schedules and Gulf discretion.

The work

The work I do is relational and pattern-focused. I don't run intake checklists or assign homework between sessions; I pay attention to what happens in the session, the moments when something shifts or goes flat, and the recurring pattern underneath the presenting problem. Most people already know the story of their situation and keep landing in the same place. What's missing is someone watching in real time who can name what's invisible from inside it. More on how I work, and how I work with couples.

Therapy in Riyadh: discreet by necessity, scarce in English

Riyadh's mental-health landscape is changing quickly. Under Vision 2030 and the National Mental Health Programme, the Kingdom has widened services, licensed more clinicians through the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties (SCFHS), and pushed against the old silence around the subject. Telehealth is legal and established. What has not changed as fast is the experience of actually seeking help: research on care-seeking in Saudi Arabia keeps finding the same barriers in the same order, stigma first, then confidentiality, then the simple scarcity of the right clinician. For an English-speaking professional or an expat on a Riyadh package, the practical version is narrow: a short list of in-person clinics, most working in Arabic, most inside a system where you are never quite sure who else can see the file. Private depth work in English, with a therapist who keeps no local record, is a small category here, and it is usually exactly what people are looking for.

The Riyadh patterns

The city runs on a particular composure. The senior role you relocated for, often the reason the whole family moved. The compound that is comfortable and watchful at once, where the community that keeps you steady also knows your business. The marriage that came for one career and has been quietly keeping score since. The Western professional in energy, finance, consulting, or government advisory whose week looks impressive and whose evenings have gone hollow. The Saudi or third-culture client navigating a country rewriting its own rules in real time, which for many women has meant a role that expanded and intensified in the same decade. None of this is pathology. It is the cost of holding a demanding life together in a place where being unguarded has consequences, and where the instinct, reinforced everywhere, is to keep it handled and keep it private.

Why people in Riyadh pick online work with me

Three reasons, and in Riyadh the first one dominates. Privacy, absolutely and first: I hold no Saudi license, bill no insurer here, and write nothing into any record an employer, a clinic, or anyone else in the Kingdom can reach. Fit, second: my entire practice is people living outside their home country, so the texture of expat and compound life needs no explaining, and depth work in fluent English is the default rather than a special request. Logistics, third: my US East Coast morning is Riyadh's afternoon and evening, which puts sessions exactly where a Riyadh schedule has room. If what you need is medication, an in-person assessment, or a clinician inside the Saudi system, the Kingdom has growing and genuine options through SCFHS-licensed providers, and I will say so plainly rather than hold onto a fit that is not right.

Questions people ask from Riyadh

How much does private therapy in Riyadh cost?
Private English-speaking therapy in Riyadh and across Saudi Arabia generally runs from roughly SAR 300 to 700 a session depending on the clinician, with international or premium providers higher. My fee sits in that private-pay range, paid directly, with no insurer involved and nothing entered into a local record.
Is online therapy allowed in Saudi Arabia, and is it confidential?
Yes. Telehealth is legal and well established in the Kingdom, and sessions run over secure, encrypted video. Confidentiality is the core of why most of my Riyadh clients choose this route: because I work privately from outside the Saudi system, there is no local file, no insurer claim, and no clinic record tied to your name. What is said stays between us.
Are you a SCFHS-licensed psychologist in Saudi Arabia?
No. I am US-trained and work online, privately, in English, and I am not licensed by the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties. For anything that needs a locally licensed clinician, medication, a formal assessment, or in-person psychiatric care, you want an SCFHS-registered provider, and Saudi Arabia's options there are expanding quickly. What I offer is confidential, depth-oriented talking therapy in English for people who specifically want that.

What people bring to online therapy

The people I work with in English come for a wide range of reasons: anxiety, depression, stress and burnout, anger management, grief and loss, relationship difficulties, loneliness, self-esteem issues, procrastination, sleep problems, attachment patterns, self-sabotage, perfectionism, identity questions, and existential concerns. Online counseling makes this work possible from wherever you are, whether you need an English-speaking therapist, a virtual counselor, or simply someone who can work in your language at a depth that matters.

How it works

Sessions are online via secure video call. I work with individuals and couples (60 minutes). Before your first session, we have a free 15-minute call to see if this feels like the right fit for you.

Selected research on this approach

My work is psychodynamic and depth-oriented. These are some of the studies on the effectiveness of that kind of therapy. They describe research on the method in general, and are not claims about any individual outcome.

  • Shedler, J. (2010). The efficacy of psychodynamic psychotherapy. American Psychologist, 65(2), 98-109. doi:10.1037/a0018378
  • Steinert, C., Munder, T., Rabung, S., Hoyer, J., & Leichsenring, F. (2017). Psychodynamic therapy: as efficacious as other empirically supported treatments? A meta-analysis testing equivalence of outcomes. American Journal of Psychiatry, 174(10), 943-953. PMID 28541091
  • Leichsenring, F., Abbass, A., Heim, N., Keefe, J. R., Kisely, S., Luyten, P., Rabung, S., & Steinert, C. (2023). The status of psychodynamic psychotherapy as an empirically supported treatment for common mental disorders: an umbrella review based on updated criteria. World Psychiatry, 22(2), 286-304. PMC10168167