Resources

A website, a list, or a book isn’t a substitute for direct support. If you’re in crisis, or if something has surfaced that needs more than a page can hold, please reach out. The resources below are starting points. They aren’t the only places to begin. They are simply places where someone is waiting to help. Phone numbers, websites, and program details can change, and a listing here isn’t an endorsement. See Disclaimers.

If You Need Support Right Now

In an emergency, call 911
If you can’t keep yourself safe, or someone is in immediate danger, call 911 or your local emergency number, or go to the nearest emergency department.

988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline
Call or text 988 · Chat at 988lifeline.org

Crisis Text Line
Free, confidential, twenty-four hours a day.
Text HOME to 741741 · crisistextline.org

The Trevor Project
Free, confidential crisis support for LGBTQ+ young people, twenty-four hours a day.
Call 1-866-488-7386 · Text START to 678678 · thetrevorproject.org

Sexual Assault or Abuse

RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline
Confidential support twenty-four hours a day for people affected by sexual assault or abuse.
Call 1-800-656-4673 · Text HOPE to 64673 · rainn.org

Violence or Abuse at Home or in a Relationship

National Domestic Violence Hotline
Confidential support twenty-four hours a day.
Call 1-800-799-7233 · Text START to 88788 · thehotline.org

Substance Use, Addiction, or Mental Health

SAMHSA National Helpline
Free, confidential, twenty-four hours a day, in English and Spanish.
Call 1-800-662-4357 · findtreatment.gov

NAMI HelpLine
Information, support, and help navigating resources. This isn’t a crisis line. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Eastern.
Call 1-800-950-6264 · Text HelpLine to 62640 · nami.org

Child Abuse or a Child Who Isn’t Safe

Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline
Twenty-four hours a day, for anyone worried about a child, for parents, and for adults who were that child.
Call 1-800-422-4453 · Text GO to 1-800-422-4453 · childhelphotline.org

Victims of Crime

VictimConnect Resource Center
Confidential referral help for victims and survivors of any crime, by phone, text, or chat.
Call or text 1-855-484-2846 · victimconnect.org

Outside the United States

Canada
Call or text 988, the Suicide Crisis Helpline.

United Kingdom and Ireland
Samaritans, twenty-four hours a day: call 116 123. For adult survivors of childhood abuse in the UK, NAPAC: call 0808 801 0331.

Australia
Lifeline, twenty-four hours a day: call 13 11 14. For adult survivors of childhood trauma, the Blue Knot Helpline: call 1300 657 380 and press 1.

Anywhere else
Find A Helpline lists free, confidential crisis lines by country.
findahelpline.com

Family Addiction and Dysfunction

National Association for Children of Addiction
Education, advocacy, and resources for children and adults affected by a parent’s alcohol or drug use.
nacoa.org

Finding a Therapist or Other Professional Care

Finding a therapist can be its own obstacle course. Cost, insurance, geography, availability, identity, specialty, and simple human fit all matter. If one route doesn’t work, that doesn’t mean there is no route.

Directories

Psychology Today Therapist Finder
A large searchable directory with filters for location, specialty, insurance, and treatment approach.
psychologytoday.com/us/therapists

ISTSS Trauma Specialist Directory
A searchable directory of ISTSS member clinicians with an interest or specialization in traumatic stress.
istss.org

International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation
A professional society with a searchable directory of members who treat complex trauma and dissociation.
isst-d.org

Lower-Cost Care

Open Path Psychotherapy Collective
A nonprofit network of vetted therapists offering reduced-fee psychotherapy. Access requires a one-time lifetime membership fee.
openpathcollective.org

Community mental health centers
Available in many areas. They often accept Medicaid, serve uninsured patients, and set fees by income. To find one, search your county or city name plus community mental health, or use the federal government’s confidential locator for mental health and substance-use services.
findtreatment.gov

Federally Qualified Health Centers
Medical, behavioral health, and substance-use care, with fees adjusted by income and family size.
findahealthcenter.hrsa.gov

211
Dial 211 to connect with local resources: counseling, mental health and substance-use services, housing, food, and transportation.
211.org

University training clinics
Psychology, counseling, marriage and family therapy, and social work programs often operate clinics staffed by supervised graduate clinicians. Services may be free or substantially lower cost. Search your nearest university plus psychology training clinic.

Teaching hospitals and psychiatry residency clinics
Academic medical centers may operate outpatient psychiatry clinics staffed by residents under supervision. They can be a lower-cost route to psychiatric assessment and medication management.

Employee Assistance Programs
If you or a partner has employment benefits, check whether an EAP is included. These often provide a limited number of counseling sessions without requiring you to use your mental health insurance benefit.

Directories Created with Particular Communities in Mind

These can be useful when cultural experience, race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexuality, or another part of who you are shapes whom you feel safe talking to.

Inclusive Therapists
inclusivetherapists.com

Therapy for Black Girls
therapyforblackgirls.com

Therapy for Black Men
therapyforblackmen.org

Latinx Therapy
latinxtherapy.com

National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network
nqttcn.com

Military Members, Veterans, and Their Families

Veterans Crisis Line
For veterans, service members, National Guard and Reserve members, and the people who support them. You don’t have to be enrolled in VA benefits or health care. Twenty-four hours a day.
Dial 988 and press 1 · Text 838255 · veteranscrisisline.net

Give an Hour
No-cost mental health services for active-duty members, reservists, National Guard members, veterans, and in certain circumstances spouses and caregivers.
giveanhour.org

Peer Support and Survivor Communities

Peer support can be valuable, and a support group isn’t the same as psychotherapy or individualized medical or mental health care. Different groups also have different cultures. If one doesn’t feel useful or safe to you, try another.

Adult Children of Alcoholics & Dysfunctional Families
A peer-led recovery fellowship for adults affected by growing up in alcoholic or otherwise dysfunctional families. Meetings are available in person, online, and by telephone. Alcohol doesn’t have to have been present in your childhood home for the effects of family dysfunction to be relevant.
adultchildren.org

Survivors of Incest Anonymous
A peer-support fellowship for adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse and incest, with online and in-person meetings.
siawso.org

MaleSurvivor
A community for men who have experienced sexual abuse or sexual assault. Peer support, moderated community spaces, educational material, therapist information, and resources for partners and families.
malesurvivor.org

NAMI Connection Recovery Support Groups and NAMI Family Support Groups
Free, peer-led groups for adults experiencing mental health concerns, and for family members and others supporting someone with a mental health condition. These aren’t specifically trauma groups, but they can provide community when trauma overlaps with depression, anxiety, PTSD, or other mental health concerns.
nami.org

If You Want to Check Your Symptoms

A website can’t tell you whether you have PTSD, complex PTSD, depression, anxiety, a substance-use disorder, or anything else. These questionnaires can’t tell you that either. What they can do is give you another piece of information.

These are screening tools, not diagnoses. A score that concerns you means the questions may be worth taking to a qualified professional. A low score doesn’t mean nothing happened to you, and it doesn’t mean what happened didn’t matter. You don’t have to take all of these. You don’t have to take any of them.

PCL-5: PTSD Checklist for DSM-5
Twenty questions developed by the National Center for PTSD, asking about the symptoms DSM-5 describes. Widely used in clinical and research settings.
ptsd.va.gov

International Trauma Questionnaire
Twelve core questions covering PTSD and complex PTSD as ICD-11 defines them, the diagnostic system that recognizes complex PTSD as its own diagnosis. Free.
traumameasuresglobal.com

DES-II: Dissociative Experiences Scale
Twenty-eight questions about how often you have experiences like losing time, feeling unreal, or feeling detached from your own body. Widely used in clinical and research settings.
traumadissociation.com/des

PHQ-9 and GAD-7
The PHQ-9 is nine questions commonly used to screen for symptoms of depression. The GAD-7 is seven questions commonly used to screen for symptoms of anxiety. They’re often used together and are available free.
phqscreeners.com

One thing to know before you open the PHQ-9. Its final question asks about thoughts that you would be better off dead, or of hurting yourself. It is there because it belongs there. If your answer to that question is yes today, or at any other time, the resources at the top of this page come first.

AUDIT: Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test
Ten questions from the World Health Organization, asking how much and how often you drink, and what it has cost you.
who.int

DAST-10: Drug Abuse Screening Test
Ten questions about drug use and drug-related consequences other than alcohol. Widely available through health systems, university counseling centers, and other clinical resources.
ctnlibrary.org

Again, these are screens, not diagnoses. If you’re in crisis right now, the resources at the top of this page come first. The questionnaires will be here afterward.

Learning More

If what you want next is more information—not a directory, not a questionnaire, just somewhere trustworthy to keep reading—start here.

National Center for PTSD, US Department of Veterans Affairs
One of the most substantial public collections of information about trauma and posttraumatic stress: plain-language information about PTSD, evidence-based treatments, treatment comparisons, videos, research summaries, and free tools including PTSD Coach. Much of its material is available to everyone.
ptsd.va.gov

International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies
A professional organization devoted to traumatic stress research, treatment, education, and prevention. Public resources include Trauma Basics, fact sheets, treatment information, and resources for adults who experienced childhood trauma.
istss.org

National Child Traumatic Stress Network
Fact sheets, videos, webinars, and toolkits on childhood trauma, complex trauma, traumatic grief, abuse, neglect, and the ways early experiences affect development.
nctsn.org

Trauma Research Foundation
Publications, research, and educational programs on trauma, attachment, the brain and body, and developmental trauma. A research and educational organization rather than a clinical or referral service.
traumaresearchfoundation.org

Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University
Accessible research on childhood development, adversity, stress, protective relationships, resilience, and lifelong health.
developingchild.harvard.edu

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Adverse Childhood Experiences
Public health research and information about ACEs, including risk and protective factors, long-term associations with health, prevention, and positive childhood experiences.
cdc.gov/aces

Number Story
The Adverse Childhood Experiences questions, presented with context about what an ACE number does and doesn’t mean. An ACE score doesn’t measure everything that happened to you, determine what those experiences meant to you, or predict the life you’ll have.
numberstory.org

Blue Knot Foundation
An Australian nonprofit devoted to complex trauma, including childhood abuse and neglect, with survivor-oriented material on dissociation, memory, coping, identity, recovery, and trauma-informed care.
blueknot.org.au

The Finding Solid Ground Program
A skills program for complex trauma and dissociation, designed to be used alongside therapy. Published by Oxford University Press.
findingsolidground.info

If Sleep Is the Problem

Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia is the first-line treatment, and these are free ways to start it or to support it. None of them replaces working with a clinician, and each says so.

Path to Better Sleep
From the US Department of Veterans Affairs. Free, confidential, and online around the clock, with a sleep check-up and a digital guide to cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia.
veterantraining.va.gov/insomnia

CBT-i Coach
A free app from the Department of Veterans Affairs, built with Stanford School of Medicine and the Department of Defense. Designed to support work with a provider.
Apple App Store and Google Play · mobile.va.gov/app/cbt-i-coach

Insomnia Coach
A free self-guided app from the Department of Veterans Affairs, with a sleep diary, a weekly training plan, and sleep-behavior tools.
Apple App Store and Google Play · mobile.va.gov/app/insomnia-coach

One Last Thing

A website, a questionnaire, a research paper, a therapist, a support group, or a phone number doesn’t have to be the whole answer. Sometimes the next useful thing is simply finding one place that helps you understand one more piece of what you’ve been carrying. You can start there.

You aren’t alone. There are people waiting to help you. Take the first step when you’re ready.