Behavioral Health Valuation Multiples by Practice Type: 2026
We compiled private-market valuation multiples for US behavioral health practices from seven reports and guides by FOCUS Investment Banking, CT Acquisitions, Peak Business Valuation, and Psychiatric Times, published between September 2025 and August 2026, and paired them with deal counts from three M&A trackers. The result shows what therapy, psychiatry, autism, IDD, and addiction treatment businesses sell for as of the fourth quarter of 2026, by segment, deal type, and size.
Key Findings
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A psychiatry group with one office and a psychiatry company with a dozen offices can treat the same patients with the same medications, yet buyers price them very differently. In an August 2026 market update in Psychiatric Times, advisor Steve Grassa wrote that scaled outpatient platforms can command EBITDA multiples in the high single digits to low double digits, while smaller single-site practices often trade in the mid-single digits. That split between small and scaled practices shows up in every behavioral health segment we looked at.
Our analysts collected published EBITDA, seller's discretionary earnings (SDE), and revenue multiples from investment banks, M&A advisors, and valuation firms that report on private behavioral health sales, then sorted them by segment, deal type, and practice size. We left out public company trading multiples and take-private deals, since those follow stock market pricing. We also pulled deal counts from The Health Care M&A Report, Mertz Taggart, and The Braff Group to show how active buyers have been since 2023.
In the following sections, we compare platform and add-on multiples across five behavioral health segments, addiction treatment multiples by program size, mental health multiples from solo counseling practices to multi-state platforms, and deal volume from late 2024 through mid-2026.
Autism and Mental Health Platforms Command the Highest Behavioral Health Multiples
Private equity buyers pay two kinds of prices in behavioral health. A platform deal buys a large company that becomes the base for later purchases, and an add-on is a smaller practice folded into a platform the buyer already owns. FOCUS Investment Banking publishes both ranges for five behavioral health segments.
Behavioral Health EBITDA Multiples by Segment and Deal Type (2025)
Segment | Platform multiple | Add-on multiple | Platform midpoint | Add-on midpoint | Gap at midpoint |
Autism / ABA therapy | 12x to 15x | 5x to 9x | 13.5x | 7x | 6.5 turns |
Mental health / outpatient psych | 10x to 14x | 4x to 8x | 12x | 6x | 6 turns |
IDD care | 9x to 12x | 4x to 7x | 10.5x | 5.5x | 5 turns |
Addiction treatment / MAT | 8x to 11x | 4x to 7x | 9.5x | 5.5x | 4 turns |
Behavioral staffing and support | 8x to 10x | 4x to 6x | 9x | 5x | 4 turns |
Key Findings
Autism and ABA therapy platforms top the table at 12x to 15x EBITDA, a 13.5x midpoint. FOCUS's April 2026 benchmarks list ABA platforms lower, at about 8x to 12x+, with add-ons at about 5x to 8x.
Addiction treatment and behavioral staffing have the lowest platform ranges, both starting at 8x. Their add-on ranges, 4x to 7x and 4x to 6x, overlap with the add-on range of every other segment.
For an owner, the deal type moves the price more than the segment does. A mental health group valued at the 6x add-on midpoint would be worth twice as much per dollar of EBITDA at the 12x platform midpoint, and FOCUS's April 2026 figures kept outpatient mental health at the same 10x to 14x platform and 4x to 8x add-on ranges.
Addiction Treatment Center Multiples by Program Size and Level of Care
Addiction treatment covers everything from a single outpatient office to a multi-state network of residential programs. CT Acquisitions, an M&A advisor, publishes multiple ranges for five program profiles in its 2026 guide to selling a treatment center.
Addiction Treatment EBITDA Multiples by Program Profile (2026)
Program profile | EBITDA size | EBITDA multiple |
Single-site outpatient or IOP only | $300K to $700K | 3x to 5x |
Regional outpatient, IOP, and PHP | $1M to $3M | 4x to 7x |
Small residential or MAT operator | $2M to $5M | 5x to 8x |
Multi-site residential with continuum of care | $5M to $15M | 7x to 10x |
Multi-state accredited platform | $15M+ | 9x to 12x+ |
Key Findings
The low end of the range triples from the smallest program profile to the largest, from 3x to 9x EBITDA. Each step up in size and level of care adds one to two turns at the low end.
CT Acquisitions names Acadia, UHS, and the largest private equity-backed platforms as the buyers paying 7x to 10x for multi-site programs with $5M to $15M in EBITDA. Above $15M, multi-state platforms can clear 9x to 12x+ in a competitive sale.
For the owner of a small outpatient program, adding levels of care and locations moves the program into a higher band in this table. The deal counts later in this article show few addiction treatment sales closing in 2026, so these ranges rest on a thin market for now.
Mental Health Practice Multiples From Solo Counseling Practices to Multi-State Platforms
Small therapy practices are priced on a different measure of profit than large groups. Buyers usually price owner-run counseling practices on seller's discretionary earnings (SDE), which is profit before the owner's own pay, and price larger groups on EBITDA.
Mental Health Practice Multiples by Size and Earnings Basis (2025 to 2026)
Practice profile | Earnings size | Multiple | Earnings basis | Source |
Solo or small counseling practice | Owner-run | 1.94x to 3.14x | SDE | Peak Business Valuation |
Counseling center | All sizes | 3.37x to 5.40x | EBITDA | Peak Business Valuation |
Group practice, add-on profile | $500K to $1M | 4x to 6x | EBITDA | CT Acquisitions (FOCUS data) |
Multi-site outpatient group | $1M to $3M | 5x to 8x | EBITDA | CT Acquisitions (FOCUS data) |
Regional platform | $3M to $5M+ | 8x to 10x | EBITDA | CT Acquisitions (FOCUS data) |
Multi-state accredited platform | $5M+ | 10x to 14x | EBITDA | CT Acquisitions (FOCUS data) |
Sources: Peak Business Valuation, Counseling Center Valuation Multiples; CT Acquisitions, Behavioral Health Practice Valuation, updated July 17, 2026
Key Findings
The low end of the multi-state platform range, 10x EBITDA, is about three times the low end for counseling centers, 3.37x. The top of the platform range, 14x, is more than four times the top of the solo practice SDE range.
Revenue multiples show the same gap. Peak Business Valuation puts counseling centers at 0.40x to 0.69x revenue, and FOCUS's 2026 mental health update puts mental health and outpatient psychiatry practices at about 0.8x to 1.4x.
For a therapist who owns a practice, the earnings basis changes the math as much as the multiple. An SDE multiple applies to profit that still includes the owner's pay, so the dollar gap between a 3x SDE sale and a 5x EBITDA sale is smaller than the multiples suggest, and a practice that runs without its founder qualifies for the EBITDA-based ranges.
Behavioral Health M&A Deal Volume Rose in 2025, Then Slowed in 2026
Valuation ranges only hold up when buyers are active. Three firms track behavioral health deals, and each counts them a different way, so their figures appear side by side and are never added together.
Publicly Announced Behavioral Health Deals by Year and Quarter (2023 to 2025)
Period | Announced deals | Change |
2023 | 83 | Base year |
2024 | 73 | −12.0% vs 2023 |
2025 | 104 | +42.5% vs 2024 |
Q4 2024 | 23 | Base quarter |
Q1 2025 | 32 | +39.1% vs Q4 2024 |
Q2 2025 | 28 | −12.5% vs Q1 2025 |
Q3 2025 | 26 | −7.1% vs Q2 2025 |
Q4 2025 | 18 | −30.8% vs Q3 2025 |
Key Findings
Counseling and psychiatric care led 2025 with 52 announced deals. Substance use disorder treatment had 18, and autism treatment and IDD care had 11 each. The fourth quarter of 2025, at 18 deals, ran 21.7% below the fourth quarter of 2024.
The Braff Group's count shows the same split: more than 80 mental health deals in 2025 against around 70 in 2024, while SUD deals fell to 12 from 16. In the first half of 2026, Mertz Taggart counted 69 closed behavioral health deals, down 20% year over year, with mental health down 25% and I/DD and autism down about 14%.
Fewer buyers usually means fewer competing bids, and addiction treatment owners face the thinnest market, with 2 closings in the second quarter of 2026. If that pace holds, sellers in that segment are more likely to see offers near the low end of the ranges above.
For behavioral health owners, the data points to size and structure as the main levers on price. A practice that a buyer can treat as a platform, with several sites, accredited programs, and earnings that do not depend on the founder, sits in a higher price band than a single office, whether the service is therapy, autism care, or addiction treatment.
The broader trend favors mental health and autism services over addiction treatment. Mental health deal counts rose in 2025 and FOCUS's mental health multiples held steady into 2026, while addiction treatment had lower platform ranges and the sharpest drop in deals.
So if you own a behavioral health practice and are weighing a sale, the published ranges run from about 2x SDE for a solo counseling office to 15x EBITDA for a scaled ABA platform.
Sources
Signal Hill Strategies analysis of published private-market valuation multiples and deal counts for US behavioral health practices, conducted November 5, 2026
FOCUS Investment Banking, Behavioral Health EBITDA Multiples (2025 Update)
FOCUS Investment Banking, Behavioral Health Valuation Benchmarks 2026, April 11, 2026
FOCUS Investment Banking, Mental Health Practice Valuation (2026 Update), December 18, 2025
CT Acquisitions, How to Sell an Addiction Treatment Center, updated June 6, 2026
CT Acquisitions, Behavioral Health Practice Valuation, updated July 17, 2026
Psychiatric Times, Psychiatry Mid-Year Market Update 2026, Steve Grassa, August 6, 2026
Becker's Behavioral Health, Behavioral health M&A trends in 2025: 4 things to know, January 21, 2026
Methodology
We collected published private-market valuation multiples for US behavioral health practices from investment banks, M&A advisors, and valuation firms, and read each source page on November 5, 2026.
Public company trading multiples and take-private transactions were excluded.
Ranges are shown as published. Midpoints are the average of the low and high ends of each range, and the gap at midpoint is the platform midpoint minus the add-on midpoint. Open-ended tops such as 12x+ are shown as published.
SDE multiples apply to seller's discretionary earnings, which include the owner's pay. EBITDA multiples apply to earnings after a market-rate salary for the owner. The two are not interchangeable.
The mental health size bands in CT Acquisitions' guide are attributed by that guide to FOCUS Investment Banking 2025 data.
Deal counts come from three trackers with different methods: The Health Care M&A Report counts publicly announced deals, Mertz Taggart counts closed deals, and The Braff Group uses its own segment definitions. Counts from different trackers are never combined. For 2025 we use 104 announced deals, the total that matches the quarterly counts in the Becker's article.
Derived figures, including midpoints, gaps, percentage changes, and the first-half 2026 addiction treatment total of 8 (6 in the first quarter plus 2 in the second), were calculated from these data.
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