A search for free therapy returns three different things mixed together, and the mix-up is why people give up. Telling them apart is most of the work. Every phone number and program below was checked against its own website on 14 November 2026.
A licensed person, a set number of sessions
Real counseling with a trained clinician, paid for by someone else: your employer, your school, the VA, Medicaid, a state program. Almost always short-term, and almost always tied to who you are.
Peers, volunteers, crisis counselors
Open to anyone, with no paperwork, and some of it answers tonight. It is not treatment and does not pretend to be. For a great many bad nights it is exactly what is needed.
Trials, first sessions, assessments
A free first week is a price, just a delayed one. Before you give a card number, ask what month two costs and how you cancel.
Which free routes are open to you?
The full list is below. With JavaScript on, ticking a box moves the routes you can use to the top.
The free routes, one by one
Your job’s Employee Assistance Program
An EAP is a benefit many employers pay for and many employees never use: free, confidential, short-term counseling, separate from your health insurance. In March 2026, 62% of US workers had access to one (68% of full-time workers, 42% of part-time), according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
It is short. Your employer’s plan sets the number, usually a handful of sessions per issue, often somewhere between three and eight. Federal employees at NIH, for example, get up to six per issue. After that the counselor refers you on, and the next step is billed to insurance or to you.
How to start: ask HR or search your benefits portal for “EAP” or “employee assistance.” You call the EAP directly, and it is confidential. Ask how many sessions you get, and whether a partner or child in your household can use it too (often, not always).
Your college counseling center
If you are enrolled, your campus counseling center is almost certainly already paid for. In the latest national survey of center directors (2024–25), only 11.3% of centers billed students or insurance for any service at all. The average wait for a first appointment was 7.9 days.
It is short-term: students attended 5.6 sessions on average, and more than half of centers cope with demand by scheduling every other week. Part-time, online and summer students should check that they qualify.
New Jersey: students at participating colleges get free teletherapy around the clock through a state program with Uwill, available until the end of June 2027.
How to start: search your school’s name plus “counseling center,” or ask at student health. New Jersey students: the state’s page lists the campuses.
Vet Centers, Give an Hour and Military OneSource
Vet Centers offer free, confidential individual, group, couples and family counseling. In VA’s words: “You don’t have to be enrolled in VA health care or receive disability compensation to use these services.” Eligibility is tied to your service: service in a combat theater or area of hostility, military sexual trauma in any era, and several other kinds of duty all qualify. Not every veteran does, though VA says it looks “for reasons and means to qualify individuals rather than turn them away.” Family members can be seen when it supports the veteran, and for certain bereavements.
Give an Hour connects active-duty military, reservists, Guard, veterans and, in certain cases, spouses and caregivers with volunteer licensed professionals at no cost, when a volunteer is available. Military OneSource gives free, short-term, confidential counseling to active-duty, Guard and reserve members and their immediate families, and for 365 days after separation. It is for stress, grief, relationships and deployments; in its own words, it “does not provide diagnoses or treat diagnosed mental health conditions.”
How to start: Vet Center Call Center, 877-927-8387, any hour: it connects you to your nearest center, and you can talk with a fellow combat veteran. Vet Center eligibility · Give an Hour · Military OneSource 800-342-9647. In crisis: dial 988 then press 1, or text 838255. You do not need to be enrolled in VA anything.
Medicaid
Medicaid is the largest single payer for mental health care in the country, and every state’s program covers some outpatient mental health care. Which services, how many visits and through which plan vary by state.
What you pay is capped by federal rule. Some states charge nothing for a therapy visit; where there is a copay for someone at or below the poverty line it is a few dollars, and a provider may not refuse to see you because you cannot pay it. The hard part is not the price. It is finding a therapist who takes Medicaid and has an opening, so ask your plan for names of people confirmed to be taking new patients.
Many people who qualify do not know it. In most states an adult living alone qualifies on income up to about $22,025 a year (more in Alaska and Hawaii).
How to start: check whether you would qualify with the two-minute coverage check. You can apply any day of the year; there is no enrollment season for Medicaid.
Community health centers and CCBHCs
Federally funded health centers must give a full discount to anyone at or below the poverty line (they may still charge a small nominal fee) and partial discounts up to twice that line. Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics must serve “anyone who requests care for mental health or substance use, regardless of their ability to pay”. Neither requires you to have insurance.
Strictly, this is free only at the lowest incomes; above that it is a sliding fee. And not every health center has a counselor on site, so ask before you go.
How to start: findahealthcenter.hrsa.gov by ZIP code, and the CCBHC locator. Our sliding-scale calculator shows which discount band you are in before you call.
State programs for children, teens and young adults
A few places now pay for young people’s therapy outright, with no insurance asked.
Colorado — I Matter: up to 6 free sessions with a licensed therapist for anyone 18 or younger (21 or younger if receiving special education services), in person or by video. Young people 12 and older can start it themselves; for those 11 and under a parent or guardian does. Made permanent by the legislature in 2024.
New York City — NYC Teenspace: free therapy through Talkspace for any teen aged 13 to 17 living in the city, whatever their school, income or insurance. It is mostly messaging with a licensed therapist, plus one 30-minute live session a month. A parent or guardian has to give consent by email at sign-up.
Texas — TCHATT: free, short-term telehealth with licensed clinicians for students from pre-K to 12th grade, arranged through participating schools, with a parent’s written consent.
California — Soluna (ages 13–25) and BrightLife Kids (ages 0–12) are free to every Californian in those ages, with no insurance and no waitlist. They are coaching, not therapy. BrightLife Kids says so itself: “Therapy is not included as part of the free BrightLife Kids coaching program.” Useful, and worth knowing what it is.
How to start: imattercolorado.org · NYC Teenspace · Texas: ask the school counselor about TCHATT · Soluna · BrightLife Kids. Anywhere else, children often qualify for Medicaid or CHIP when their parents do not: 1-877-KIDS-NOW.
Hospice bereavement support
If the person you lost died in hospice care, that hospice owes you something most families never hear about. Every Medicare-certified hospice must run a bereavement program and make it “available to the family and other individuals in the bereavement plan of care up to 1 year following the death of the patient.” Medicare does not pay hospices separately for it, and it is provided at no charge to the family.
What it looks like varies: one-to-one counseling at some hospices, groups, phone check-ins or letters at others. And many hospices open their grief groups to anyone in the community, whether or not hospice was involved.
How to start: call the hospice that cared for them and ask for the bereavement coordinator. If hospice was not involved, call the hospices near you and ask whether their grief groups are open to the community.
Postpartum Support International
For pregnancy, the months after birth, loss and fertility struggles: a helpline where you leave a message and a trained volunteer calls or texts you back as soon as they can, between 8am and 11pm Eastern, every day of the week; and online peer support groups that PSI describes as “100% free forever.” Volunteers can point you to resources, including PSI’s directory of providers who know perinatal mental health.
It is not a crisis line, and the people answering are not therapists.
How to start: call 1-800-944-4773 (press 1 for Spanish, 2 for English) or text “Help” to 800-944-4773 (in Spanish, text 971-203-7773). Online groups.
The Trevor Project
For LGBTQ+ young people: trained crisis counselors by phone, text or chat, 24 hours a day, all year. The Trevor Project is “confidential and 100% free.” It is crisis support, not ongoing therapy.
How to start: call 1-866-488-7386, text START to 678-678, or chat at thetrevorproject.org/get-help.
Peer support groups: NAMI and DBSA
NAMI Connection is a free, confidential group for any adult who has experienced symptoms of a mental health condition, led by trained people who have been there themselves. NAMI Family Support Group is the same for adults with a loved one who is struggling. DBSA runs free online groups for people living with depression or bipolar disorder.
None of these is therapy, and DBSA says so plainly: its groups “do not serve as group therapy.” What they offer is different and real: a room of people who do not need it explained.
How to start: NAMI support groups (through your local affiliate) · DBSA online groups.
Warmlines and the NAMI HelpLine
A warmline is the thing most people wish existed and do not know does: a free, confidential phone line for when you need to talk and it is not an emergency. They are “staffed by trained peers who have been through their own mental health struggles.” Most states have one. Hours vary, and some limit how long a call can run.
The NAMI HelpLine gives one-on-one emotional support and help finding resources, weekdays 10am to 10pm Eastern (closed on federal holidays).
How to start: find your state’s warmline in Mental Health America’s directory. NAMI HelpLine: 800-950-6264, or text NAMI to 62640.
988 and Crisis Text Line
The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is free, confidential and open every hour of the year, by call, text or chat. It is not only for suicidal crisis. In its own words it is for “mental health struggles, emotional distress, alcohol or drug use concerns,” or if you “just need someone to talk to.”
Crisis Text Line connects you by text with a trained volunteer crisis counselor, any hour, free. A conversation usually lasts 15 to 45 minutes.
How to start: call or text 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org. Text HOME to 741741 (in Spanish: AYUDA).
211 and the SAMHSA National Helpline
Neither of these counsels you. Both know what exists where you live, including the free local services no national page can list: county clinics, church counseling programs, grant-funded groups. 211 connects you to local specialists; calls are confidential. The SAMHSA National Helpline is a free, confidential, 24-hour referral line in English and Spanish; if you have no insurance, it refers you to your state office for publicly funded programs, and can often point you to clinics that charge on a sliding scale.
How to start: dial 211, or call SAMHSA at 1-800-662-4357. Say: “I am looking for free or low-cost counseling near me.”
Research studies
Universities and the National Institute of Mental Health run studies that sometimes include treatment at no cost. For its own studies at the NIH campus in Maryland, NIMH says “in some cases, participants receive free study-related evaluations, treatment, and transportation to NIH.” University studies vary; each one’s consent form says what is covered. Some studies pay you.
Be clear-eyed about it. A study exists to answer a question, not to look after you. You may be placed in a comparison group, the criteria are strict, and the treatment ends when the study does. It is a poor fit if you need help now.
How to start: NIMH: Join a Study, or search your condition and city at clinicaltrials.gov.
Is free online therapy real?
Sometimes. Several routes above happen online: NYC Teenspace, Colorado’s I Matter by video, New Jersey’s student teletherapy, and many EAPs, which deliver sessions by phone or video. What they share is that someone else is paying for a particular group of people.
What we have not found is a national service that gives any adult open-ended sessions with a licensed therapist for nothing. If a site appears to promise that, look for the meter: a trial that converts to a subscription, or “free” meaning free to browse. If you find a real one, tell us and we will check it and add it.
And to be plain about ourselves: FeelBetterBot is free and online, and it is not therapy. It is an AI you can talk things through with at any hour. It does not diagnose or treat, and nothing on this page is a reason to settle for it if a person is what you need. Plenty of people use both.
If none of the free routes fits
Then the question changes from “free” to “how little.” The gap between free and full price is wide, and there is a lot in it: $30 sessions with supervised student interns (after a one-time $65 membership), university training clinics, clinics that must discount by income, group therapy.
A last thing
Looking for free help can feel like asking for something you are not owed. Most of what is on this page was built on purpose, by people who decided cost should not be what stands between someone and a conversation. The EAP is already part of your pay. The hospice is required to offer. The warmline volunteer signed up to answer. You are who these were made for.
If you want someone to talk to while you make the calls, I am here.
Sources
- EAPs: U.S. Office of Personnel Management, What is an EAP; access figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics National Compensation Survey, March 2026; NIH EAP FAQ (six sessions per issue). No national source states a typical session count; three to eight reflects published employer plans.
- Campus counseling: Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors, 2024–25 Annual Survey (488 directors).
- Vet Centers: vetcenter.va.gov and va.gov mental health pages; Give an Hour; Military OneSource confidential counseling page; Veterans Crisis Line.
- Medicaid: medicaid.gov behavioral health services; cost-sharing limits in 42 CFR 447.52 and 447.56.
- Health centers: 42 CFR 51c.303(f); CCBHCs: SAMHSA program page.
- Youth programs: imattercolorado.org; nyc.gov Teenspace page; Texas Child Mental Health Care Consortium (TCHATT); solunaapp.com; brightlife.kids; nj.gov higher education telehealth page.
- Hospice bereavement: 42 CFR 418.64(d)(1) and 418.204(c); community access per CaringInfo (National Alliance for Care at Home).
- Support lines and groups: postpartum.net; thetrevorproject.org; nami.org; dbsalliance.org; Mental Health America warmline directory; 988lifeline.org; crisistextline.org; 211.org; samhsa.gov National Helpline.
- Research studies: National Institute of Mental Health, Clinical Research Trials and You.
- All checked 14 November 2026. Programs change; if something here is out of date, tell us.