How to find a therapist

Finding a therapist in Australia means working out roughly what you’re looking for, finding someone who’s actually taking new clients, and checking that they’re registeredRegistered For psychologists, psychiatrists and occupational therapists, registration with Ahpra is required, and using the title without it is an offence. Counsellors and psychotherapists can register with their national associations, which is voluntary. More in the jargon decoder Close.

The checking takes two minutes. Finding someone with a spare appointment is the hard part, and there are ways to make it easier.

Start with what you want to be different

You don’t need a diagnosis or a plan. One sentence about what you’d like to change makes everything after it easier. It narrows the search, it’s the first thing you’ll be asked on the phone, and it’s what a therapist uses to work out whether they’re the right person to help.

Would I benefit from therapy? works through that question if it hasn’t settled yet.

Ask your GP

Your GPGP (general practitioner) For most people, where getting help starts. A GP can write a Mental Health Treatment Plan, prescribe medication and refer you on, and some are trained to deliver a small number of structured therapy sessions themselves. More in the jargon decoder Close knows which local therapists are taking clients, who works with what, and who charges less. None of that is in any directory. It’s the reason to start here even if you don’t want a referralReferral A letter from a GP, psychiatrist or paediatrician that you need for the Medicare rebate. You can see a psychologist without one if you pay the full fee. More in the jargon decoder Close.

A GP can also write a Mental Health Treatment Plan, which brings the cost of seeing a psychologistPsychologist Someone trained to assess mental health problems and treat them with therapy. It takes at least six years of study and supervised practice, and they're registered with Ahpra, the national regulator. Psychologists can't prescribe medication. More in the jargon decoder Close, a mental health social workerMental health social worker A social worker with an extra mental health accreditation. They're trained in therapy, and in the practical things around it, such as housing, money, family services and the systems people get stuck in. More in the jargon decoder Close or a mental health occupational therapist down.

Ask for names rather than one name. It’s quicker to leave with three options than to come back for another referral when the first person can’t take you.

Where to search yourself

Psychologists. The Australian Psychological Society runs Find a Psychologist, covering thousands of psychologists around the country. You can search by suburb or postcode, by area of practice, by the kind of client someone works with, and by the languages they speak. Everyone listed is registered with Ahpra and belongs to the society.

CounsellorsCounsellor Someone trained to help people talk through and work on difficulties. The title isn't protected in Australia, so it's worth checking a counsellor's training and registration. Medicare doesn't give a rebate for counsellors. More in the jargon decoder Close and psychotherapistsPsychotherapist Someone trained in therapy, often for longer-standing patterns. Like counsellor, the title isn't protected in Australia, and Medicare doesn't give a rebate for psychotherapists. More in the jargon decoder Close. The ARCAP register is the national register, run jointly by the Australian Counselling AssociationAustralian Counselling Association (ACA) One of the two national associations for counsellors and psychotherapists. It sets training and supervision standards, and takes complaints. More in the jargon decoder Close and the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia. It’s searchable by state. Division A covers people registered through PACFAPsychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA) One of the two national associations for counsellors and psychotherapists. It sets training and supervision standards, and takes complaints. More in the jargon decoder Close, and Division B covers people registered through the ACA. Both set requirements for qualifications, supervision and ongoing training. Since the titles themselves aren’t protected, that registration is most of what you have to go on. Who does what explains what that means in practice.

Mental health social workers. The Australian Association of Social Workers keeps a directory of accredited mental health social workers, who are covered by MedicareMedicare Australia's public health insurance scheme. For mental health, it gives rebates on sessions with psychologists and some other professionals, usually through a Mental Health Treatment Plan. More in the jargon decoder Close under a treatment plan.

PsychiatristsPsychiatrist A medical doctor who has specialised in mental health. Psychiatrists can diagnose, prescribe and do therapy, though many spend most of their time on medication and diagnosis rather than weekly sessions. More in the jargon decoder Close. You need a referral from a GP, so that search starts at your GP’s rather than online.

Free services with no referral. Medicare Mental Health runs free centres you can walk into without an appointment, and a phone line on 1800 595 212 from 8.30am to 5pm on weekdays. Free and low-cost options has those, along with headspaceheadspace A national youth mental health service for anyone aged 12 to 25, with centres around Australia and support online and by phone. It's free or close to it, you don't need a referral or a parent, and you can book it yourself. More in the jargon decoder Close for people aged 12 to 25, Open Arms for veterans and their families, community health services and university clinics.

Commercial directories. Sites that list therapists with photographs and profiles are advertising rather than registers. Practitioners pay to appear, and nobody checks their training on your behalf. The filters are genuinely useful — approachApproach (modality) The kind of therapy someone uses, such as CBT or psychodynamic therapy. You'll also see it called a modality. More in the jargon decoder Close, fee, telehealth, availability — so build a shortlist there, then check each person on the registers below.

Check they’re registered — it takes two minutes

Psychologists, psychiatrists and occupational therapists are on the public register of practitioners kept by Ahpra, the national regulator. Type in the name. The register shows whether someone is registered now, what kind of registration they hold, and whether any conditions have been put on their work.

Counsellors and psychotherapists are on the ARCAP register if they’ve registered with either national body. If someone isn’t listed, ask which association they belong to and what they trained in. A qualified practitioner will answer without hesitating.

Mental health social workers are accredited by the Australian Association of Social Workers rather than by Ahpra. Check its directory instead.

When nobody has an appointment

Ringing several practices and finding that most have closed their books is an ordinary experience in Australia at the moment.

The federal health department’s own workforce study, published in April 2026, put the gap between demand for psychologists and supply at 57.3% in 2025. It projects that gap reaching 96.6% by 2038 (Psychology Supply and Demand Study).

Some things that help:

• Ask to go on cancellation lists. A practice with a long wait can still have a slot next week when someone pulls out.
• Ask about telehealth. It opens the search to the whole state or the whole country, and it’s often where the availability is. It suits most kinds of therapy, though some people prefer to meet face to face.
• Ring instead of emailing. Receptionists know things websites don’t, including who else in the practice has room and who down the road is taking people.
• Ask whoever says no for a suggestion. A practice with no room will often point you to another practice that has some.
• Widen the profession as well as the postcode. A counsellor, a mental health social worker or a mental health occupational therapistMental health occupational therapist An occupational therapist with a mental health endorsement. Their focus is on daily life, such as getting back to work, study and routine, alongside the therapy itself. More in the jargon decoder Close may be available this month when psychologists aren’t.
• Use the free services while you wait. Community health, university clinics and workplace programs take people who are waiting, and a few sessions now beats three months of nothing.

Seeing someone by video

Many therapists offer sessions by video, often called telehealth. It cuts out the trip there and back, which can make sessions easier to fit in when time or energy is short. It also opens your search to the whole state or the whole country.

Research comparing therapy by video with the same therapy in person has found very little difference in how people did (Fernandez and colleagues, 2021). Most of that research was on cognitive behavioural therapyCognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) A structured, practical form of talking therapy. It's built on a simple idea: what you think affects how you feel, and both affect what you do. More in the jargon decoder Close (CBT) for anxiety, low mood and trauma, so less is known about other approaches.

Medicare gives the same rebateRebate The amount Medicare pays back towards a session. It comes back to you after you've paid, so what you pay yourself is the fee minus the rebate. More in the jargon decoder Close for a session by video as in person, and those sessions count towards the same yearly limit (Department of Health, Disability and Ageing). Group sessions by video only attract the rebate for people in smaller country towns and remote areas. Some practices also offer sessions by phone.

Before your first session, ask the practice what you’ll need to join. It helps to have somewhere private, where you won’t be overheard.

What to ask before you book

Ring, or send a short email, and ask what you need to know before you spend a fee finding out.

• Are you taking new clients, and how long is the wait?
• Do you work with this kind of thing?
• What do you charge, and what will I pay after the Medicare rebate?
• Do you offer telehealth?
• What approach do you mostly use?

Questions to ask a therapist before you book has a longer list you can take with you, and what happens in a first session covers what comes next.

When you need something particular

For a few problems the specific treatment matters enough to ask about by name. Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are the clearest examples. Ask whether someone is trained in the approach, and also how much of their work is with that problem. Training in a method doesn’t tell you how often they use it. Research on therapists’ results finds that most do better with some kinds of difficulty than with others (Kraus and colleagues, 2011).

Profiles often say a therapist “specialises in” something. In Australia there’s no specialist registration in psychology, and Ahpra advises practitioners to write “substantial experience in” instead. So it’s a description rather than a credential. Asking how much of someone’s week is spent on the thing you’re bringing tells you more.

Language, culture and shared experience matter to plenty of people too, and both searches let you filter for them. Where the right person isn’t available locally, telehealth often finds them interstate.

If the first therapist isn’t right

Changing therapists happens often, and it isn’t a wasted step. You’ll know more about what you’re looking for than you did before, and you can say it out loud to the next person.

Telling a therapist you’re stopping is a courtesy rather than a requirement, and a phone call to the practice is enough. If you’re partway through a treatment plan, ask your GP or the new practice how the referral transfers before you book, rather than assuming it carries across.

Why who you see matters more than what they do explains why the fit is worth changing for, and what to weigh up before you do.