The Problem with Billing for Therapy in Mexico

If only it was so simple...

The cross-cultural quirks of accessing therapy as an English speaker in Mexico.

One of the most common frustrations we hear from our clients—especially those used to streamlined international therapy platforms—is the manual payment process. That’s right: logging into your bank, adding us as a recipient, and transferring funds.

In countries like the U.S. and Australia, client admin for therapists is a breeze: intake forms, billing, and payments all flow through one secure, integrated CRM. It connects with banks, accounting platforms, and offers clients easy payment links or automated charges. The admin is minimal, the process is seamless, and both clients and providers are spared the headache.

At our clinic, we proudly offer therapy in English and work with international therapists who understand the complexities of cross-cultural life. But even with those global standards in place, we’re still rooted in Mexico—a country with extremely strict banking systems and, ironically, virtually no formal regulations around therapy services.

This contrast can create confusion for those expecting the same conveniences they might find elsewhere. In many countries, you can simply store your credit card and be automatically billed after your session. In Mexico, that kind of seamless integration is much harder to come by.

So while the therapeutic experience may feel international, the payment process remains uniquely...local. It’s one of those subtle—but significant—realities of cross-cultural therapy that we navigate together with our clients every day.

After countless hours (enough to earn a degree, truly), I’ve yet to find a single system that supports a privacy-compliant, Mexico-based practice serving international clients. Twice a week, our team of three administrators manually reconciles the invoices and payments received. It works—but it’s clunky, time-intensive, and people-dependent.

The core challenge? A collision of three needs:

1. Privacy-compliant CRM (not required in Mexico and therefore hard to come by local programs)

2. International payment support (for those that don't have a local bank account)

3. Full legal operation in Mexico (international CRMs will typically not integrate with Mexican banks or work in mxn pesos).

Local platforms like Doctoralia raise privacy concerns for me. International CRMs won’t link with Mexican bank accounts or with Stripe Mexico. I’ve now opened accounts with five banks (anyone who has a bank account will have an idea of how much time that amounts to). Promises were made. Integrations failed. 

So what’s the plan for 2025? We have largely built a system to make it as easy as possible for clients given the restrictions we're working with. But there's still room for improvement. I continue to search and hope for new developments. But the most likely solution with be that I build our own software. Perhaps something for 2026.