Arbours Association

What Arbours Association does

Arbours Association is a UK-registered psychotherapy charity founded in the early 1970s by Dr Joseph Berke and Morty Schatzman, with intellectual roots in R.D. Laing's Kingsley Hall anti-psychiatry movement. The organisation operates as a community of approximately 70 Arbours-trained psychoanalytic psychotherapists serving individual clients in London, across the UK, and internationally, with both online and face-to-face delivery. It previously ran therapeutic communities as an inpatient alternative and a formal psychotherapy training programme, but both have been discontinued; only the direct-to-client psychotherapy service remains active.

The Arbours Psychotherapy Service is the sole product, offering initial online assessments at £60 and ongoing weekly psychoanalytic therapy sessions delivered by community therapists on a sliding scale: standard fees £60-90, reduced £50-55 for lower-income clients, and grant-assisted £10-30 (up to one year) via partnerships such as the Yellow Heart Trust for trauma and addiction clients. Sessions address depression, anxiety, psychosis, abuse, bereavement, relational, sexual, gender, and racial issues, as well as eating disorders and general mental health concerns. The underlying technology is the psychoanalytic/relational psychotherapy methodology rather than any software platform; the organisation runs a WordPress-based website and online referral form with no proprietary technology, mobile app, or API.

Commercially, Arbours is a private, non-profit charity with 9 operational employees and a self-sustaining community-practitioner model. Go-to-market is direct: clients contact the association by phone, email, or referral form, complete an initial assessment, and are matched to a therapist. Marketing is primarily referral-based and word-of-mouth through healthcare professionals and existing patients, with no paid acquisition channels disclosed. Revenue accrues from session fees (largely retained by individual therapists) and grant partnerships, with no public revenue, funding, or valuation disclosures.

Name

Arbours Association

Legal name

Arbours Association

Website

https://arboursassociation.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1970

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Arbours Association is a UK psychotherapy charity and community of approximately 70 Arbours-trained psychoanalytic psychotherapists providing weekly therapy sessions to individual clients in London, across the UK, and internationally, via online and face-to-face delivery on a sliding-scale fee model.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Others

Revenue model

1. Psychotherapy Sessions: Fees for ongoing psychotherapy sessions form the primary revenue stream. Clients pay per session with fees varying based on individual circumstances, ranging from standard rates to reduced rates and grant-assisted rates for those who qualify.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels2 records

Core offering

Arbours Association provides a psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Service delivered by approximately 70 Arbours-trained therapists to individuals experiencing emotional and psychological difficulties. Clients begin with a £60 initial assessment (held online by default) and are then referred to a therapist for ongoing weekly sessions, either online or face-to-face across London, the UK, and internationally, with sliding scale fees and grant assistance available.

Product overview

Arbours Association offers a single unified service: the Arbours Psychotherapy Service. This psychoanalytic psychotherapy service provides initial assessments (£60) and ongoing therapy sessions delivered either online or face-to-face across London, the UK, and internationally. Standard fees range from £60-90 per session, with reduced rates (£50-55) available for lower-income individuals and grant-funded options (£10-30) through partnerships with charities like the Yellow Heart Trust. The service is delivered by approximately 70 Arbours-trained psychoanalytic psychotherapists.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Arbours Psychotherapy Service

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Yellow Heart TrustcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerStrategic partnership with Yellow Heart Trust charity to extend services to people who have experienced trauma and/or are struggling with addiction. The Yellow Heart Trust provides financial grants (up to one year) to help individuals who cannot afford standard or reduced fees pay £10-30 per session, with the trust contributing the remainder of therapy costs.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Emerging players

• Relate: UK charity providing counselling services focused on relationships, sexual issues, and family therapy. Overlaps with Arbours in addressing relationship and psychosexual concerns among UK clients via fee-based counselling.

Broad incumbents

• Mind (UK mental health charity): Large UK mental health charity providing information, local services, and grants/signposting for therapy access. Comparable charitable mission around access to mental health support, though at vastly broader scope than Arbours.
• NHS Talking Therapies (formerly IAPT): Publicly-funded NHS service providing free talking-therapy (largely CBT) across England. Competes for the same patient pool (depression, anxiety) but as a state-subsidised incumbent offering lower-cost sessions.
• Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust: NHS mental health trust operating specialist psychotherapy clinics including psychoanalytic services, plus training and research. Broader mandate than Arbours but directly overlapping in psychodynamic therapy provision.

Others

• British Psychoanalytic Council (BPC): Professional and accrediting body for psychoanalytic and psychodynamic practitioners in the UK. Indirectly comparable as the membership/standards infrastructure that Arbours-trained therapists are typically affiliated to.
• Society of Analytical Psychology: UK training institute for Jungian analytical psychotherapy and a clinical service (the Balance Centre). Comparable therapeutic lineage and training-of-therapists model, though primarily Jungian rather than psychoanalytic.
• Institute of Psychoanalysis: Founded by the British Psychoanalytical Society; the UK's primary training and membership institution for psychoanalysis. Comparable through direct lineage and training orientation, though training-focused rather than direct-to-patient.

Regional players

• Metanoia Institute: UK-based psychotherapy training institute that also operates a low-cost counselling and psychotherapy clinic. Comparable therapeutic orientation (psychodynamic/humanistic) and UK-region service footprint to Arbours.

Direct peers

• Philadelphia Association: Long-running UK charity rooted in the Laing-influenced psychotherapy tradition, offering long-term therapy through a community of therapists. Operates the same community-of-therapists, low-overhead charitable model as Arbours.
• Westminster Pastoral Foundation (WPF Therapy): UK-registered charity providing affordable psychoanalytic and psychodynamic therapy at sliding-scale fees via a network of accredited therapists. Closest peer to Arbours in model, mission, and client pricing tiers.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/arbours-association

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Arbours Association