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Free and low-cost options

Figures checked September 2026

If cost is what’s stopping you, you’re in the largest group there is — and the free end of the Australian system is bigger than almost anyone realises. Most of it needs no Referral 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 , no diagnosis and no treatment plan.

There are trade-offs, and they’re worth understanding before you choose. They’re set out below the numbers.

Free, right now, no referral

Every one of these is free, staffed around the clock, and open right now.

Crisis and emergency support has what each one covers, including the text and web chat options for when a phone call isn’t possible.

What you trade

The people are qualified and the approaches are the same ones used in private practice. What differs is continuity, choice, and how long you get.

A different person each time. Phone and chat services are staffed by trained Counsellor 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 , and you won’t get the same one twice. That works for getting through a hard night, or for thinking something out loud once. It can’t build the working relationship that most therapy runs on, and nobody is holding the thread between calls. A pattern that goes back fifteen years needs someone who remembers what you said in March.

A set number of sessions. Workplace programs usually run to three to six. Community health services often cap it as well. That suits a specific, current problem better than something long-standing. The good services will tell you when you’ve reached the edge of what they can do, and refer you on.

Less say in who you see. You’re generally allocated someone rather than choosing. The fit between you and your therapist does more to predict how therapy goes than the Approach (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 does, which makes that a real cost rather than a small one. If it isn’t working, asking to be reassigned is a reasonable request and services are used to it. Why who you see matters more than what they do explains why it’s worth pushing on.

Waiting. Community health services and headspace 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 centres often have queues, sometimes months long. University clinics are sometimes quicker, since they need a steady caseload for their trainees. Waits vary a lot between services and between areas, so it’s worth ringing two or three rather than assuming.

A brief, focused piece of work with a community health counsellor can be exactly the right thing. The question is matching what you need to what a service is built to do.

If you’re 12 to 25

headspace centres are free or low cost. They cover mental health, physical health, alcohol and drugs, and support with work and study. You can contact a centre directly.

eheadspace does the same by phone, web chat and email, free, from 3pm to 10pm daily, on 1800 650 890.

If you’ve served, or your family has

Open Arms provides free counselling to Australian veterans and their families, and to some reservists and peacekeepers. No referral, and the phone line is open at any hour on 1800 011 046.

It isn’t widely known, even among people who’d qualify. If anyone in your household has served, Open Arms is a good place to start.

Through your PHN or community health service

Your area has a Primary Health Network — a regional body that buys health services for the people who live there. Most of them fund free or low-cost counselling, delivered through community health services and local providers. What’s on offer and how you get in differ from place to place, so your GP (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 is the person to ask.

Community health services and neighbourhood houses run free counselling in many areas too, often with shorter waits than the specialist services.

University training clinics

Psychology and counselling schools run clinics where you see a student or a recent graduate, supervised closely. The fee is a fraction of the usual one, and some clinics don’t charge at all.

Your therapist is less experienced, and watched much more closely than one in private practice would be. Sessions are often weekly, and often available for longer than the ten sessions a Medicare 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 plan would Rebate 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 .

Through work

Many employers pay for an employee assistance program: a set number of free counselling sessions, usually three to six, which you arrange directly. Your employer pays for it and doesn’t get told what you said. Privacy arrangements differ between providers, so ask how yours works before the first session.

It’s worth checking even at a small workplace. The sessions are brief by design, so this suits a specific problem better than long-standing patterns.

Free and low-cost online courses

These are structured programs rather than chat services, and the better ones have real evidence behind them.

  • MindSpot — free, for anxiety, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and chronic pain, and can include support from a clinician
  • myCompass — free, for stress, anxiety and low mood, for adults 18 and over
  • The BRAVE Program — free, for anxiety in children and teenagers
  • MoodGym — $39 for a year’s access, for low mood and anxiety
  • This Way Up — free when a GP or therapist prescribes it for you, otherwise $59 a course, so it’s worth asking rather than paying

Most of them ask you to supply the momentum yourself, which suits some people and not others. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) explains the approach most of them are built on.

A counsellor can cost you less than a rebated psychologist

Counsellors generally charge less than Psychologist 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 , but Medicare doesn’t give a rebate for counsellors. So a counsellor’s full fee can come out lower than what you’d pay a psychologist after the rebate, or higher, depending on what each one charges. Work out what you’d actually pay in each case rather than assuming the rebated option wins.

Who does what sets out which professions Medicare covers and which it doesn’t, and how to get a Mental Health Treatment Plan covers the rebate itself.

Where next

If you haven’t decided whether you want therapy, would I benefit from therapy? takes the question seriously. Cost can shape where and when you start. It doesn’t settle whether therapy would help you.

Much of the free counselling in Australia is person-centred. It works differently from the structured therapies, and it’s worth knowing that before you walk in.