If you are in immediate danger or thinking about harming yourself, get help now. Visit a nearby emergency service, hospital, or mental health clinic. If you are in crisis, these helplines can help:
Crisis numbers
- the United States of America:
- the United Kingdom:
- Samaritans: Tel: 116 123 (Free from any phone) | Tel: 0808 164 0123 (Welsh Language Line) | Tel: 18001 44 116 123 (Relay UK). 24 hours. The Welsh Language Line is open every day, 7pm to 11pm.
- Shout, text 85258: Text: 85258. 24 hours.
- India:
- Tele-MANAS: Tel: 14416 | Tel: 1-800 891 4416. 24 hours.
- Vandrevala Foundation Helpline: Tel: +91 9999 666 555 | WhatsApp: +91 9999 666 555. 24 hours.
- Canada:
- 9-8-8: Suicide Crisis Helpline: Tel: 9-8-8 | Text: 9-8-8. 24 hours.
- Hope for Wellness Help Line: Tel: 1-855-242-3310. 24 hours. For Indigenous people across Canada.
- South Africa:
- SADAG Suicide Crisis Helpline: Tel: 0800 567 567. 24 hours.
- Cipla Mental Health Helpline: Tel: 0800 456 789 (24 hours) | Text: 31393 | WhatsApp: 076 882 2775 (8am to 5pm). 24 hours.
- the Philippines:
- NCMH Crisis Hotline: Tel: 1553 (Nationwide) | Tel: 1800-1888-1553 (Nationwide) | Tel: 0919-057-1553 (SMART/TNT). 24 hours.
- Hopeline, suicide and emotional crisis line: Tel: 02-8804-4673 | Tel: 0917-558-4673 | Tel: 0918-873-4673. 24 hours.
- Australia:
- Lifeline 13 11 14: Tel: 13 11 14 | Text: 0477 13 11 14. 24 hours.
- Suicide Call Back Service: Tel: 1300 659 467. 24 hours. For ages 15 and over.
- Germany:
- TelefonSeelsorge, for anyone who needs to talk: Tel: 0800 1110111 | Tel: 0800 1110222 | Tel: 116 123. 24 hours.
- MuTeS, Muslim pastoral and crisis line: Tel: 030 443 509 821. 24 hours.
- Saudi Arabia:
- Psychological Consultation Centre: Tel: 920033360
- Ireland:
- Samaritans, for whatever you're going through: Tel: 116 123. 24 hours.
- Pieta 24-Hour Crisis Helpline: Tel: 1800 247 247 | Text: 51444 (Text HELP). 24 hours.
- Iran:
- France:
- 3114, the national suicide prevention number: Tel: 3114
- Spain:
- Línea 024 de atención a la conducta suicida, for people with suicidal thoughts and their families: Tel: 024 | Chat: www2.cruzroja.es. 24 hours.
- Teléfono de la Esperanza crisis line: Tel: 717 003 717 (Mobile number) | Tel: 914 59 00 55 (Landline). 24 hours.
- New Zealand:
- 1737 Need to Talk?: Tel: 1737 | Text: 1737 | Tel: 0800 1737 1737 (Call (0800 number)). 24 hours. Not a crisis team, and not a service for severe mental illness or distress. Offers brief emotional support.
- Depression Helpline: Tel: 0800 111 757 | Text: 4202. 24 hours.
- Sweden:
- Självmordslinjen, suicide helpline: Tel: 90101 | Chat: mind.se. 24 hours.
- Hjälplinjen, mental health support line: Tel: 90390 | Tel: 0202-90390 (Call (long number)). 24 hours. For people over 18.
- Switzerland:
- Die Dargebotene Hand, emotional support line: Tel: 143 | Tel: 0800 143 000 (English, 6pm to 11pm). 24 hours. Mainly for adults.
- Pro Mente Sana telephone counselling, for people with mental health problems and relatives: Tel: 0848 800 858. For adults. Weekdays 9am to noon; also Monday to Wednesday 4.30pm to 7.30pm, and Thursday and Friday 2pm to 5pm.
- Croatia:
- Telefon za psihološku pomoć (TESA), psychological counselling by phone: Tel: 01 48 28 888. Weekdays, 10am to 10pm; closed for a summer break.
- Linija pomoći Plavi telefon: Tel: 01/4833-888. Weekdays, 10am to 2pm.
- Japan:
- Anata no Ibasho chat (あなたのいばしょチャット相談), free anonymous counselling for anyone: Chat: talkme.jp. 24 hours.
- Inochi no Denwa (いのちの電話), suicide prevention helpline: Tel: 0120-783-556 (Freephone) | Tel: 0570-783-556 (Navi Dial (charged)). Freephone daily 4pm to 9pm, and 24 hours from 8am on the 10th of each month; Navi Dial daily 10am to 10pm, charged.
- Poland:
- Centrum Wsparcia, psychological support for anyone: Tel: 800 70 2222. 24 hours.
- Linia Wsparcia dla Funkcjonariuszy i Pracowników Służb Mundurowych, Ratownictwa Medycznego i ich Rodzin, for uniformed services and their families: Tel: 800 70 2430. 24 hours.
- Pakistan:
- Sehat Tahaffuz 1166, the national health helpline (with the Humraaz mental health service): Tel: 1166
- Taskeen Helpline: Tel: +92 316 827 5336. Appointment-based: a coordinator takes the call and books a session with a psychologist. Monday to Saturday, 11am to 11pm.
- Nigeria:
- She Writes Woman, toll-free and answered at any hour: Tel: 0800 800 2000
- SURPIN, Suicide Research and Prevention Initiative: Toll-free: +234-8000787746 | Tel: +234-908-021-7555 | Tel: +234-903-440-0009 | Tel: +234-814-224-1007
- Sri Lanka:
- Malaysia:
- MIASA_YSD-1800 Crisis Helpline: Tel: 1800 180 066 | WhatsApp: 03-9765 6088. 24 hours.
- Talian HEAL 15555, mental health crisis line: Tel: 15555. Every day, including public holidays.
- Bangladesh:
- Kaan Pete Roi, 3 PM to 3 AM every day: Tel: +880 9612-119911
- Lebanon:
- National Lifeline 1564: Tel: 1564. 24 hours.
- Vietnam:
- Đường dây nóng Ngày mai, free psychological support by phone: Tel: 096.306.1414. Wednesday to Sunday, 1pm to 8:30pm.
- Hy Vọng Sống (HOPE), suicide prevention helpline: Tel: 086 50 444 00. Every day, 12 noon to midnight.
- Botswana:
- BOFWA 24 Hour Youth Helpline: Tel: 16658. 24 hours.
- Cyprus:
- Cyprus Samaritans, emotional support for distress or loneliness: Tel: 80007773. Adults only; every day, 4pm to midnight.
- Portugal:
- Linha Nacional de Prevenção do Suicídio 1411, for suicidal thoughts and self-harm: Tel: 1411. 24 hours. Under-18s need a parent's or guardian's consent.
- SNS 24 psychological counselling: Tel: 808242424 (then option 4). 24 hours. Not meant for suicide risk: the line passes such a call to the emergency medical service at once.
- Egypt:
- The national psychological support hotline: Tel: 16328
- Oman:
- Uganda:
- Butabika National Referral Mental Hospital, 0800 211 306: Tel: 0800 211 306, toll free.
- Namibia:
- LifeLine/ChildLine Namibia 106 Gender-Based Violence HelpLine: Tel: 106 | Text: 081 398 5510. 8am to 8pm.
- Tanzania:
- Singapore:
- national mindline 1771, mental health helpline: Tel: 1771 | WhatsApp: +6566691771 (WhatsApp chat). 24 hours.
- Samaritans of Singapore 24-hour Hotline 1767 and CareText, emotional support for people in distress: Tel: 1767 | WhatsApp: 9151 1767 (WhatsApp (CareText)). 24 hours.
- Not a local line: helplines and suicide hotlines worldwide
How to find the right family therapist
This page lists practitioners near you who name families among who they work with and have appointments open. Filter the list, then read the profiles. Look for the exact title the person is registered under, and for family and systemic work named specifically. Look for experience with a family shaped like yours, and times that suit several people at once.
Read the exact title on the profile, then check that title on the register the practitioner is listed with.
Before you contact a family therapist
Family therapy treats the family rather than one person in it. The therapist looks at how members respond to each other, and works on the pattern the whole household is caught in, on the view that a problem is easier to see and to shift when the people it involves are in the room.
Families come about a child's behaviour or refusal to go to school, a teenager who has stopped speaking, arguments between parents and children, a step-family that has not settled, illness, bereavement, or one member's mental health difficulty that the whole house is arranged around.
Expect the therapist to ask for as many family members as possible to come to the first session, including the young children, because that is where the pattern shows itself 1. Expect that first session to be about agreeing what the problem is, which often takes longer than families expect: the adults and the children usually arrive with different accounts, and one job of the session is to make room for both 1.
Nobody is there to be blamed, and a therapist who lets one member become the problem is doing it badly.
Child Helpline International is a network of the helplines that children and young people can contact in their own country, free and in confidence. Its directory lists the member helpline for each country.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does family therapy do?
It treats the problem as something happening between people, not inside one of them.
That matters most when a family has decided which member is the problem. A family therapist watches how you all affect each other: who speaks, who is spoken about, what everybody does when things get tense. The therapist works on that with you.
The first session is usually everybody together. Later ones may be the whole family or a smaller group, parents on their own for instance.
When should we go?
If you are afraid of someone in your family, say so to the practitioner before any joint session is booked. Ask to be seen on your own first.
When the same trouble keeps happening and nobody can get out of it on their own.
Arguments that never end. A child or teenager whose behaviour has changed. Brothers and sisters who cannot stop fighting.
Two families becoming one after a new partnership. A change nobody chose: a separation, an illness, a death.
Also when one member has a mental health condition. The rest of you may not know how to help without making it worse.
What if not everyone will come?
Start with whoever will.
The most common objection is the fear of being blamed. Family therapy works on patterns, not on fault.
A therapist may also see part of the family, or individuals, before bringing everyone together. The integrative systemic therapy literature treats that as a deliberate choice about safety or privacy rather than a compromise 2. When one person changes what they do, the rest of the family usually changes in response. That is often what brings a reluctant member in later.
How do we choose a family therapist?
Look for training in family and systemic work specifically, not general therapy experience. The approaches you will see named are structural, systemic and narrative family therapy. Ask which they work in, and whether they have worked with what you are bringing.
Then the practical questions, because they decide whether it happens. Can they see several of you at a time that works? What does a family session cost against an individual one?
After the first session, ask each other whether everybody felt heard, including the person everyone else came about. If one of you felt put on trial, say so.
Can it be done online?
Many family therapists work online, and the profile says which. It can be the only way to get everybody in the same conversation when people live apart.
Everybody needs their own private place to talk. Young children are harder to engage through a screen, and so is a family that argues hard. Some therapists ask for a first session in the room.
What does it cost?
The fee is on the practitioner's own profile. Family sessions are often longer than individual ones, so ask for the figure and the length together.
Ask whether a reduced fee is available. A community service, a family service organisation or a university training clinic near you may see families for less, and we have written on how to find affordable therapy.
Where a health scheme pays, some will only do so if one family member carries a diagnosis. Ask before you start rather than after.
Related pages
References
[1] Carr, A. (2019). Family therapy and systemic interventions for child-focused problems: The current evidence base. Journal of Family Therapy, 41(2), 153-213. DOI
[2] Integrative Systemic Therapy in Practice, Requests for Family Therapy, p. 59.
Real choice. Authentic, independent, clinician-led care.
TherapyRoute is a clinician-led directory that champions independent practitioners who answer to you and their professional ethics. We don't take commissions, sell your data, or assign therapists by algorithm. You browse, compare, and choose.
Vincenzo (Enzo) Sinisi, Clinical Psychologist (HPCSA), Psychoanalyst (IPA/SAPA), Group Analyst (IGA)
TherapyRoute is not for emergencies and does not provide medical advice. All of our content is informational and cannot replace professional healthcare. In an emergency, contact a local emergency service. For immediate support, consider a local helpline.
