NDIS Therapy 2026: Every Funded Therapy, Every Rate, Explained

Therapy is where a lot of NDIS plans quietly run out of money. A participant is approved for a therapy budget, three professionals get involved, reports get written, someone drives an hour each way to a home visit, and by month eight the funding is gone. Understanding how NDIS therapy is priced and paid for is the difference between a budget that lasts twelve months and one that lasts seven.

This is the hub guide. It sets out every therapy the NDIS funds, the official 2026-27 price limit for each, which budget pays, how the funding rules work, and how to make the money last. Every figure comes from the NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27 published by the NDIA and effective 1 July 2026, which we downloaded and read directly rather than relying on summaries.

Quick summary: NDIS therapy in 2026

• Most therapy is funded from Capacity Building, Improved Daily Living, usually as a stated support, meaning the money is locked to therapy.
• Rates run from $156.16 to $252.99 per hour depending on the discipline. Psychology is the highest, counselling and the creative therapies the lowest.
• Billing changed on 1 July 2026. Every therapy discipline now has six separate claim items instead of bundled billing.
• Provider travel is capped at 50 per cent of the therapy rate, and it comes out of your therapy budget.
• Telehealth is charged at the full rate, but removes travel costs entirely.
• Therapy assistants cost far less, from $56.16 per hour, and can deliver much of a program under supervision.
• Two things are not paid from your therapy budget: assistive technology (Capital Supports) and behaviour support plans (Improved Relationships).

Every NDIS Therapy and Its 2026-27 Rate

These are the national price limits effective 1 July 2026. Providers may charge less, never more. Remote and very remote loadings apply on top of the national rate.

Source: NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27, Schedule 4: Therapy and Professional Supports, effective 1 July 2026. Current as at July 2026.

The Psychologist and Counsellor Gap Worth Knowing

There is a $96.83 per hour difference between a psychologist at $252.99 and a counsellor at $156.16, and the pricing schedule is explicit about who can claim under which item. The counsellor item notes:

“Paid unsupervised provisionally registered psychologists can claim using this line item.”

While the psychologist item notes that it “includes paid provisionally registered Psychologists operating under supervision”.

For participants this is worth understanding. If your goal is emotional support, coping strategies or wellbeing rather than clinical psychological assessment and treatment, a counsellor may achieve the same outcome and your budget will stretch roughly 60 per cent further. Ask what your goal actually requires before defaulting to the most expensive option.

What Each Therapy Actually Does

Occupational Therapy

Daily living skills, functional capacity assessment, assistive technology prescription, home modifications and sensory strategies. If your goal involves doing something practical more independently, an OT is usually the starting point. Read the full NDIS occupational therapy guide.

Speech Pathology

Communication in every form, including speech, language, communication devices and social communication, plus swallowing and mealtime safety. Read the full NDIS speech therapy guide.

Physiotherapy

Movement, strength, balance, pain management, mobility aids and positioning. Frequently funded for participants with physical disability, cerebral palsy, spinal cord injury or degenerative conditions.

Psychology and Counselling

Mental health support, emotional regulation, coping strategies and trauma informed therapy. Psychology is funded where it relates to disability rather than acute mental health treatment, which remains a health system responsibility. For participants living with psychosocial disability, this often runs alongside recovery coaching.

Dietetics

Nutrition, weight management, texture modified diets and mealtime plans. Frequently works jointly with a speech pathologist where swallowing is involved.

Exercise Physiology

Structured exercise programs for chronic conditions, functional strength and cardiovascular health. Distinct from physiotherapy, which focuses more on assessment and treatment of specific impairments.

Podiatry

Foot health, gait, footwear and orthotics. Particularly relevant for participants with diabetes, mobility limitations or lower limb differences.

Art and Music Therapy

Creative therapies delivered by qualified therapists working toward functional goals such as communication, emotional regulation and social participation. Both are funded at the counselling rate. Read our guides to NDIS art therapy and NDIS music therapy.

What Changed on 1 July 2026

The NDIA restructured how therapy is claimed. Every discipline is now set out as six separate support items:

1. Direct service, the session itself
2. Cancellation, for short notice cancellations
3. Non-face-to-face, for report writing, planning and resource preparation
4. Provider travel, capped at 50 per cent of the service rate
5. NDIA requested reports
6. Telehealth

Previously several of these were bundled together. The practical effect for participants is transparency: your statement now shows exactly what each claim was for. If you are plan managed or self managed, it is worth periodically reviewing whether non-face-to-face and travel claims look proportionate to the therapy actually delivered.

Which NDIS Budget Pays for Therapy?

Almost all therapy sits in Capacity Building, Improved Daily Living. Two consequences follow.

Capacity Building is not flexible across categories. You cannot move therapy funding into Core Supports for more support worker hours, and you cannot take Core funding to buy more therapy. Our guide to NDIS Capacity Building supports explains all nine sub-categories.

Therapy is usually a stated support. The plan names the amount and it can only be spent on therapy. This protects the funding, but it also means unspent therapy money cannot be repurposed for something else you need.

Two Things People Wrongly Assume Come From the Therapy Budget

Assistive technology does not. Equipment and communication devices are funded under Capital Supports. The therapist’s assessment comes from therapy funding, the device comes from Capital. See our assistive technology guide.

Behaviour support plans do not. These are funded under Improved Relationships, a separate Capacity Building sub-category, and are covered in our positive behaviour support guide.

How to Get Therapy Funded in Your NDIS Plan

The NDIA funds supports that meet the reasonable and necessary test in section 34 of the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013. A support must relate to your disability, be value for money, be likely to be effective, and be the NDIS’s responsibility rather than the health or education system’s.

Four things make a therapy request succeed.

1. Written evidence from a professional. A report describing your functional difficulties and what would change with therapy. Verbal explanations at a planning meeting rarely carry the same weight.
2. A goal the therapy serves. Therapy is funded to pursue plan goals. Frame the goal as the outcome you want and let the therapy be the method.
3. A specific and costed request. Number of sessions, over what period, for what outcome. Vague requests produce vague funding.
4. Evidence it is disability related, not acute health. This is where requests most often fail.

Our guide to the NDIS plan reassessment covers assembling the full evidence pack.

NDIS or the Health System? The Question That Decides Many Requests

The NDIS funds supports related to permanent and significant disability. It does not fund acute medical treatment, hospital rehabilitation, or clinical care the health system is responsible for.

In practice, therapy directly following an injury, surgery or acute illness usually belongs to the health system. Where the functional impact is ongoing and disability related, it becomes NDIS territory. If a request is refused on this basis, the effective response is evidence that the need is ongoing, functional, and connected to permanent disability rather than to a recent medical event.

Five Ways to Make a Therapy Budget Last

Coordinating Multiple Therapists

Many participants see two or three therapists. Without coordination they can duplicate assessments, give conflicting advice, and each write separate reports that consume budget.

Good coordination means shared goals, agreed roles, and one consolidated evidence pack for reassessment rather than three unconnected reports. This is one of the practical jobs of a support coordinator, covered in our guide to support coordination levels.

NDIS Therapy FAQ

What therapies does the NDIS fund?

Occupational therapy, speech pathology, physiotherapy, psychology, counselling, dietetics, podiatry, exercise physiology, audiology, social work, art therapy and music therapy, where they relate to disability and meet the reasonable and necessary test.

How much does NDIS therapy cost in 2026-27?

Rates range from $156.16 per hour for counselling, art therapy and music therapy, through $193.99 per hour for occupational therapy and speech pathology, up to $252.99 per hour for psychology and specialist behavioural intervention support. Therapy assistants are $56.16 or $86.79 per hour. Remote and very remote loadings apply on top.

Which budget pays for NDIS therapy?

Capacity Building, Improved Daily Living, usually as a stated support. Assistive technology comes from Capital Supports and behaviour support from Improved Relationships.

Can I choose my own therapist?

Yes. If your plan is self managed or plan managed you can use registered or unregistered providers. If your plan is NDIA managed you must use registered providers.

Can therapy funding be moved to another category?

No. Capacity Building funding is not flexible between categories, and stated supports are locked to their stated purpose.

Does the NDIS pay for therapy travel?

Yes, capped at 50 per cent of the therapy rate. For a $193.99 per hour therapist that is $97.00 per hour, claimed from your therapy budget.

What happens if I run out of therapy funding?

You can request a plan reassessment if circumstances have changed. Otherwise you wait for the next plan, self fund, or move to lower cost delivery such as therapy assistants and group programs. Planning the spend across the plan period is the better answer.

Why was my therapy request refused?

The three most common reasons are that the therapy was judged to be a health system responsibility, there was insufficient evidence of functional impact, or the request was not tied to a plan goal. All three are addressable with better evidence.

Is telehealth therapy funded at the same rate?

Yes. Telehealth is one of the six claim items and is charged at the full hourly rate for that discipline, but it removes provider travel costs.

Do I need a referral for NDIS therapy?

No. You need therapy funding in your plan and a service agreement with a provider. A GP referral is not required, although a supporting report from a GP or specialist strengthens a funding request.

How Centre of Hope Can Help

Centre of Hope is a registered NDIS provider supporting participants and families across Sydney and all of New South Wales. We do not deliver therapy ourselves, and that independence is useful: we have no reason to recommend one therapist over another except fit and availability.

Our support coordination team helps you find therapists with genuine availability, set up service agreements, track therapy spending so the budget lasts the plan, keep multiple therapists coordinating rather than duplicating, and assemble the evidence pack at reassessment so therapy funding continues.

For complex and multi agency situations we offer Level 3 Specialist Support Coordination. For participants living with psychosocial disability, our psychosocial recovery coaching team works alongside clinical supports.

Your goals. Your plan. Our support.

If you would like help making your therapy funding work harder, talk to our team on 0432 250 900 or get in touch here.

Centre of Hope Pty Ltd, ABN 89 669 596 936. Registered NDIS provider supporting participants across New South Wales.

Related Reading

• NDIS Occupational Therapy: Funding, Rates and Access
• NDIS Speech Therapy: Funding, Rates and Access
• NDIS Art Therapy Explained
• NDIS Music Therapy Explained
• NDIS Capacity Building Supports: All 9 Categories
• NDIS Price Guide: Every Rate Explained

This article is general information, not clinical or financial advice. Price limits are current as at July 2026 and are set by the NDIA, which may revise them. Always check your own plan and the current NDIS pricing schedule before making decisions.