Russia counts 1,320 psychotherapists for 3.5 million requests a year
- In his address to the XVIII Congress of Russian Psychiatrists in St Petersburg on 20 May 2026, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said that more than 3.5 million people in Russia seek psychological and psychotherapeutic help every year, as reported by Izvestia citing TASS.
- According to the minister's figures for 2025, Russian healthcare employed 9,668 medical psychologists, and the psychiatric service had 10,239 psychiatrists and 1,320 psychotherapists.
- In 2025, 7,327 specialists completed advanced training in Ministry of Health organisations and 781 gained a new specialty through professional retraining; 28 clinical guidelines in psychiatry were updated over the past five years.
- The minister said he had initiated the drafting of a procedure for providing psychotherapeutic care and named qualified staff as the key factor for the field, calling for more young specialists and better mentoring.
Mikhail Murashko gave the 2025 staffing figures for Russian mental health care in his address to the XVIII Congress of Russian Psychiatrists. The numbers here are the minister's, as Izvestia reported them citing TASS. I found no Ministry of Health press release carrying them.
A note for readers outside Russia. A medical psychologist is a psychologist employed by a healthcare organisation: a psychiatric hospital, a dispensary, an outpatient clinic. The post requires a degree in psychology, not in medicine, so a medical psychologist neither prescribes nor makes the psychiatric diagnosis. A psychotherapist in Russia is a physician, trained first in psychiatry and then in psychotherapy.
In 2025 Russian healthcare had 9,668 medical psychologists. The psychiatric service counted 10,239 psychiatrists and 1,320 psychotherapists. During the year 7,327 specialists went through advanced training and 781 retrained into a new specialty. Demand, in the minister's words, is more than 3.5 million people a year, and a procedure for psychotherapeutic care is now being drafted.
Who meets the 3.5 million
Put two numbers side by side. More than 3.5 million requests a year, and 1,320 doctors whose specialty is psychotherapy. Even with every one of them seeing clients full time, most of that demand never reaches a psychotherapist. In a state clinic it reaches the medical psychologist, of whom there are about seven for each psychotherapist. In practice this is the person who runs the individual sessions, the groups and the assessments.
The draft procedure will either write this down or leave it implicit: whether medical psychologists are named as providers of psychotherapeutic help, with what training and how much time per client.
For a colleague referring a client into the state system, the working assumption is that sessions will most likely be with a medical psychologist. Ask the clinic who leads them and how many are planned, and tell the client so before the first visit.
More than 3.5 million people a year seek psychological help in Russia, and the psychiatric service has 1,320 psychotherapists, so most of that work lands on medical psychologists.
The figures come from the minister's address as reported by Izvestia citing TASS; no Ministry of Health release with them was found. Psychiatrists and psychotherapists are counted within the psychiatric service only.