Free therapy in Pakistan — what is actually free, and how to get it

Most people in Pakistan who need mental-health care never get any — the figure most often cited is twenty-four million people needing care and nine in ten receiving none (J. Pak. Med. Assoc., 2025). Cost is not the only reason, but it is the one people name first. This page sets out what is genuinely free in Pakistan, what is cheap rather than free, and what each option is actually good for.

The landscapeWhat is actually free↑ contents

Four routes exist, and they are not interchangeable.

Swipe the table sideways on a phone.

None of these is a lesser version of the others. They answer different questions: who can I talk to tonight, who can treat me over months, and who can prescribe.

HereWhat is free on this site↑ contents

Everything except a private session with an independent professional. That includes our own team on the website and on WhatsApp, the library of questions people have sent us and the answers they were given, the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 self-tests, every self-help tool, and the free sessions the professionals themselves choose to give away.

We are self-funded. No investors, no grants, no advertising. The reason matters: the moment a paywall goes in front of mental-health support, the people excluded are precisely the ones with the least.

When you do pay a professional, the fee is theirs. We take nothing out of it, and what we arrange with professionals is between us and them.

The public systemGovernment hospitals and university clinics↑ contents

Every major teaching hospital in Pakistan runs a psychiatry outpatient department. The consultation is free or nominal; you pay for medicines. Go early, expect to wait, and take somebody with you if you can — not because you cannot manage, but because a crowded OPD at the end of a long wait is a hard place to remember what you meant to say.

University psychology departments are the quieter option. Where a department runs a clinic, sessions are given by postgraduate trainees working under a supervisor's eye. People hear "trainee" and assume second-best; in practice a supervised trainee with an hour to spare often listens more carefully than a consultant with four minutes.

ChoosingWhich one do you need↑ contents

• I need to talk to somebody tonight.→Our team, free, right now. No account, no form, Urdu or English.
• I think I might need medication.→A psychiatrist — the government OPD route is the cheapest, and several psychiatrists are listed here privately.
• I want to work on something over months.→Talking therapy. A university clinic if there is one near you; otherwise a listed psychologist, free slot or paid.
• I want one honest conversation before deciding anything.→A free session. That is largely what they are for.
• I cannot afford it and the free slots are gone.→Ask to be sponsored. Somebody who can afford it pays, your face is blurred and your documents are never published.

The other halfWhat is not free, and what it costs↑ contents

Private sessions cost money, and the figure is worth knowing before you go looking. Among the professionals listed here, fees run from Rs 1,500 to Rs 5,000 for a session of thirty to sixty minutes. Two of them practise abroad and price in euro and sterling. Each sets their own fee; there is no standard rate in Pakistan and anybody quoting one is guessing.

What that buys is continuity — the same person, who remembers what you said last time. That is the thing a free slot cannot usually give you.

The short answerHow to ask without explaining yourself↑ contents

You do not have to describe your finances, prove anything, or have the right words. Open the chat and say the thing as you would say it to a friend, in whatever language it arrives in. Nobody is assessed, nobody is ranked, and nobody is asked why they did not come sooner.