Finding treatment you can afford

SAMHSA National Helpline

1-800-662-HELP (4357), 24 hours a day, every day, in English and Spanish. TTY 1-800-487-4889. You can also text your ZIP code to 435748. This is a referral service, not a crisis line and not treatment — you call, describe roughly what you need, and they point you to providers near you, including low-cost ones. It’s the single most useful number on this page for anyone who knows they need help but has no idea where to start.

FindTreatment.gov

The same referral information as a searchable map. Anonymous, no account needed. Better than the helpline if you’d rather not talk to anyone yet.

Open Path Psychotherapy Collective

A nonprofit network of therapists offering sessions at substantially reduced rates for people without adequate insurance. There’s a one-time membership fee, then a flat reduced rate per session. Worth checking before you conclude therapy is out of reach financially.

Psychology Today’s therapist directory

The largest searchable directory. Filter by insurance, specialty, and whether they offer sliding scale. Filter for occupational stress or burnout specifically — a therapist who works with workplace issues will save you six weeks of explaining why the job is the problem.

NAMI HelpLine

1-800-950-6264, weekdays, Eastern time. Peer support and resource referrals — people who have been through it themselves. NAMI is explicit that this is not a crisis line; use 988 for that. Good for questions like “is what I’m describing even a thing” and “what do I do about my insurance.”

211

Dial 211 for local help with the things that stack on top: rent, utilities, food, childcare. Financial pressure is often what keeps people in a job that’s harming them, and this is the layer most burnout advice pretends doesn’t exist.

What an EAP actually is

Most employers offer an Employee Assistance Program, and most people either don’t use it or misunderstand what it is. Plainly:

• It’s typically a set number of free counselling sessions — often three to eight — through a third-party company your employer contracts with. It is not ongoing therapy, and it is not your employer’s HR department.
• The counsellor is usually not employed by your workplace. Your employer generally receives aggregate usage data, not names or session content.
• Confidentiality has limits, and they vary by provider and by state. Standard clinical exceptions apply — risk of harm to yourself or someone else, abuse of a child or vulnerable adult, a court order. Some roles carry extra reporting obligations on top of that.
• If confidentiality matters to your situation, ask before your first session, in these words: “What specifically gets reported back to my employer, and under what circumstances?” A legitimate provider will answer directly. Get it in writing if you can.
• The sessions are also a fast route to a referral. Even if you don’t want counselling through the EAP, they can often get you to an outside provider quicker than you’d manage alone.

Find yours through your benefits portal or your insurance card.

Keeping Updated

We do our best to keep everything on this page updated, but sometimes things change. Please check the resources directly for updated services, hours, and contact information.