At her private clinic, psychologist Ooi Sze Jin caps her schedule at about four clients a day – not due to low demand, but because seeing more would compromise the quality of care.

Each of her sessions lasts about 60 minutes. But beyond that hour is another stretch of work: reviewing case notes, planning interventions and writing up documentation. 

"One client session can take closer to two hours of work in total," the founder of mental health social enterprise A Kind Place said.

Earlier in her career and at a previous workplace, Ms Ooi saw up to nine clients a day, a pace she described as exhausting. 

"If a therapist does that every single day, they will burn out. And they cannot be the best therapist because their minds are already clouded." 

Even though therapy fees can run into the hundreds of dollars per session, much of that does not translate into take-home pay. 

"It doesn't go all to us … we have to pay our staff, rent, marketing," she said, noting the overhead costs of running a practice. 

Across the system, the pressures look different but are just as challenging. 

Having worked in hospital, primary care, and community and prison settings, senior counsellor Roxanne Koh said that demand for mental health care services has risen sharply in recent years.

She is a senior counsellor at Filos Community Services, a community-based social service agency that provides subsidised mental health support outside the hospital system...