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 answer now:
Crisis numbers in 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
- Lagos Lifeline, from Lagos State, 24 hours: Tel: 070 0000 6463, published as the toll-free line | Tel: 020 1410 6463 | WhatsApp: 090 9000 6463
- Asido Foundation, Ibadan: Tel: +234 902 808 0416 | Tel: +234 818 077 7458 | WhatsApp: +234 902 808 0416
- All crisis lines in Nigeria
The list includes clinical psychologists, psychologists and counsellors.
At a glance
- Who they work with
- Adolescents, Adults, Couples, Families, Organisations, Groups, All ages.
- Languages
- mostly English, then Yoruba 33%, French 4%, Afrikaans 1%, Spanish 1%.
Most of the practitioners listed here work in one city, and the grid below shows which. If that is where you are, start there. If it is not, the summary above sets out what the country's practitioners offer. You can also filter for practitioners who work by video.
What a therapist charges in Nigeria is not something anyone publishes. Private therapists set their own fees, and no Nigerian professional body issues a fee schedule, so pages quoting exact naira rates are quoting themselves rather than a source.
The public route runs through the federal neuropsychiatric hospitals and the psychiatric departments of teaching hospitals, and none of those publishes a fee either. The most reliable step is to ring the hospital nearest you and ask what registration and a therapy consultation cost.
What health insurance covers varies plan by plan, so check yours before booking.
Read How to think about the cost of therapy in Nigeria.
Who is allowed to practise
Nigeria regulates mental-health care in a mixed way. A psychiatrist is a medical doctor, licensed by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria. That council keeps the register of practitioners and holds the protected medical titles.
Occupational therapists and speech therapists answer to the Medical Rehabilitation Therapists Board of Nigeria, and psychiatric nurses to the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria. For a psychologist, counsellor or psychotherapist there is no statutory register to check, so ask about qualifications, supervision and any professional-body membership.
Search the registers by name at Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) or Medical Rehabilitation Therapists Board of Nigeria (MRTB). A current entry is that body's own published record of the person.
Therapists by profession and city
- Psychologists in Lagos
- Counsellors in Lagos
- Female Psychologists in Lagos, one filter on the full Lagos psychologists list
- Psychologists in Abuja
- Psychologists in Ibadan
- Psychotherapists in Lagos
- Male Psychologists in Lagos, one filter on the full Lagos psychologists list
Other cities with therapists listed (7)
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)