How Do I Find a Therapist in Germany? How to Get a Therapy Spot

• Contact several psychotherapy practices and the appointment service center at the same time.
• Most psychotherapists respond late or not at all. If you wait for a response before contacting the next practice, you could end up wasting months.
• Contacting them by phone is usually much faster. Almost all practices list their office hours in their answering machine message: so call the practice, note down the hours, and call back.
• I'll say more about searching by email later.
• Document every attempt to contact the practice, including the practice name, date, time, and outcome. You may need these records later for a reimbursement application to your health insurance provider.
• Start close to where you live. If you don't find anything within that initial radius, expand it: neighboring cities, adjacent counties, video therapy.
• On the websites of the Associations of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, you can search specifically by location, approach, and available spots. The sites also list who is currently offering a consultation.

Taking the first step toward psychotherapy is often the hardest part. For many people, there’s another step that comes before that: to seek help at all.

Most psychotherapists with a statutory health insurance license are fully booked. This is especially true of those with whom people feel truly understood. So the question isn’t just how to find a psychotherapist in the first place, but: How do I find the one who’s exactly right for me?

Psychotherapy does not work primarily through methods. It works mainly through the therapeutic relationship. Psychotherapists know this. So make a connection quickly, and let the therapist know that, from your perspective, the chemistry is right. It’s not hard.

Make Full Use of Phone Hours

Psychotherapists in independent practice are required to offer phone hours. You can find the times on the answering machine or (rarely) on the practice’s website. Call, write down the times, and make use of them (yes, I’m repeating myself).

In these kinds of conversations, you have five to fifteen minutes, sometimes less. That’s enough. Pay attention to whether you feel taken seriously, whether good questions are being asked, and whether someone is really listening. This internal feedback is more precise and important than it may seem at first. It says more about the therapy that will follow than any list of approaches.

Say What You Liked

If you notice during a conversation that something is going well, say so. Not as a strategy, but as honest feedback: “I felt understood.” “Your questions helped me.” “I felt comfortable with you.” Say it in your own words.

People remember that.

After that, it's all about staying the course.

If Someone Is Fully Booked

Almost all of them are. In that case, ask: “Would it be okay if I got in touch again in four or six weeks?”

Quiet persistence pays off. Every month, patients complete their psychotherapy, and spots open up. Those who actively reach out to psychotherapists and have already established a relationship with them have a good chance of success.

I explain what works in psychotherapy here.

Some people write down their entire story of suffering. Page after page, intense, very personal. Then they send this email to many psychotherapy practices at once. The impulse is understandable: Those who are suffering want to be seen, want someone to understand how serious it is, and, of course, want a therapy spot quickly.

This is what it looks like from the other side. Psychotherapists are confronted daily with difficult situations, trauma, and acute crises. Long, highly intense emails sent without prior contact often end up unread in the trash.

I realize that it takes a lot of effort, especially when you’re already feeling down. My advice, nonetheless, is this: Call the practice and establish a personal connection. A quick phone call will get you closer to scheduling an appointment than even the best email.

The waiting time for a spot in psychotherapy near you depends mainly on where you live. An analysis from 2025 shows the extent: In some counties, the average waiting time is five days, in others over 150.

Anyone who thinks that a high concentration of therapists will solve the problem is mistaken. Bonn has a higher-than-average number of therapists in independent practice, yet it still has one of the longest waiting times in the country.

A few official statistics on the search:

Three professional groups, three different roles. Psychological psychotherapists have studied psychology and then completed postgraduate training, often lasting more than five years. Psychotherapy is their primary profession. Medical psychotherapists come from a medical background and have additionally earned a qualification in psychotherapy. Unlike their psychological colleagues, they can also prescribe medication. Psychiatrists diagnose, prescribe, and monitor patients medically; sometimes they also provide psychotherapy.

Anyone seeking psychotherapy, that is, talk therapy, needs a psychological or medical psychotherapist. Anyone who primarily needs medication is in the right place with a psychiatrist. For children and adolescents, there is a separate specialist qualification and there are separate practices; the therapist search of the Associations of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians lists them separately. Which complaints, symptoms, and conditions are treated depends on the specific approach and the therapist’s qualifications. When the topic is the professional role, leadership, career, or the balance between work and personal life, coaching is the right path.

Statutory health insurance (GKV) covers the costs of psychotherapy if three conditions are met: The psychotherapist has a statutory health insurance license; the Associations of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians grant it and maintain a list of addresses. The diagnosis has clinical significance, and the approach is recognized. The recognized approaches are behavioral therapy, depth psychology-based psychotherapy, analytical psychotherapy, and systemic therapy. You do not need a referral from your primary care physician.

In private practices, psychotherapy may also be covered by statutory health insurance (GKV) through the reimbursement procedure.

The Psychotherapy Consultation

Every treatment is preceded by a consultation lasting at least 25 minutes. It serves as an initial assessment of whether there are disorders in need of treatment, which complaints are most prominent, whether psychotherapy is the right course of action, and which approach is suitable. You can schedule an appointment directly with any psychotherapist who has a statutory health insurance license, or through 116117.

At the end of the session, the psychotherapist fills out the PTV 11 form. It includes the findings and recommendations. If treatment is required promptly, this is also noted on the form, along with a referral code. This code is the key to the next step.

What Happens After the Consultation

There are three possible scenarios.

In the most favorable case, the therapist has availability. In that case, you can schedule trial sessions directly, without going through the appointment service center.

The second scenario is more common: You receive a PTV 11 form with a referral code because you need psychotherapy promptly, but the psychotherapist has no openings. This gives you a legal right: the appointment service center must arrange an initial trial session within four weeks. If the rapport isn’t right, you’re entitled to a second referral. No more than two guaranteed referrals are provided. You can then arrange any additional trial sessions directly with the psychotherapists.

The third scenario: The psychotherapist does not recommend psychotherapy. Other forms of support are more appropriate: counseling, rehabilitation, self-help. The recommendation specifies which forms of support are appropriate. Online psychological counseling is one such option and begins without an application and without a waiting time. In this case, the PTV 11 does not contain a referral code.

Trial Sessions and Therapy Application

Two to four trial sessions precede the actual therapy. They serve the purposes of diagnosis, planning, and getting to know one another. Afterward, the psychotherapist needs a consultation report from a physician who rules out physical causes. Only then is the application submitted to the health insurance provider.

For short-term therapy of up to 24 sessions, no expert opinion is required for the treatment; the health insurance provider responds within three weeks. For applications for long-term therapy, the insurer usually commissions an external expert reviewer to decide on the approval. The response period is up to five weeks. If no response is received by the deadline, the psychotherapeutic treatment is considered approved.

If There Is No PTV 11 with a Referral Code

Without PTV 11 or the note “required promptly,” a referral via 116117 is not possible. In this case, contact the practice again: It may be possible to supplement the form afterward. If the psychotherapist stands by their assessment, continue your search on your own: online, by phone, or by email.

The 116117 System

The 116117 appointment service center is accessible nationwide by phone, through eterminservice.de, and via the app. It arranges three types of appointments: consultations without a code, acute treatment, and trial sessions. For the latter two, you’ll need a PTV 11 with a referral code. You can also contact a psychotherapy practice directly to schedule a consultation.

In conversations with my patients, it has become clear that the staff who arrange appointments at 116 117 vary widely in how well informed they are. It’s therefore worth learning about the process and your rights first. That’s exactly what you’re doing right now.

The guaranteed timeframes: consultation within four weeks, trial session within four weeks, acute treatment within two weeks. If an outpatient appointment cannot be scheduled, a hospital appointment must be arranged within five weeks.

116117 assigns you an available appointment. You have no say in who is assigned to that appointment. However, among the three therapists you might see there, there’s usually someone you’ll like.

For privately insured people, conditions have taken a turn for the worse in recent years, as statutory health insurers now generally pay a higher fee rate than private insurers. For the search, this means being prepared to pay extra for the treatment and making this clear to the psychotherapist quickly, in order to get a spot at all.

As a patient, you can contact psychotherapists directly. You cannot go through the appointment service center. This way, you get an appointment more quickly at many practices.

If a psychotherapy consultation reveals an acute crisis, so-called acute treatment can begin immediately, without an application to the insurer. It includes up to twelve sessions for treatment and stabilization; the therapist notifies the insurer using the PTV 12 form.

In the event of an immediate threat to life, such as after a suicide attempt or a serious act of self-harm, call 112. This is not an overreaction; it is the right thing to do.

Other crisis numbers:

• Telephone Counseling Service (TelefonSeelsorge), around the clock, free of charge and anonymous: 0800 111 0 111 or 0800 111 0 222. You can get immediate help there, even at night.
• On-Call Medical Service (116117): for psychiatric emergencies outside practice hours
• Regional Crisis Services: Many federal states operate their own numbers; Bavaria, for example, uses 0800 655 3000

You can also go directly to a hospital’s psychiatric emergency room. No appointment or referral is needed. There, doctors and nurses first help with stabilization: assessment, medication if necessary, and short-term safety. You will not receive long-term psychotherapy there. After such a visit, the transition to outpatient psychotherapy should be planned, ideally before the acute relief wears off.

A good overview of crisis contact points is offered by the German Depression Support.

Under Section 13(3) of Book V of the Social Code (SGB V), your health insurance provider must cover the cost of therapy with a licensed psychotherapist without a statutory health insurance license if the system does not provide timely access. The guideline figure is about three months of unsuccessful searching.

Reimbursement Procedure: Therapy Without a Statutory Health Insurance License

This so-called reimbursement procedure is the most important lever for people with statutory health insurance who cannot find a therapy spot in the regular healthcare system.

The process is bureaucratic. Still, it works.

• Have a PTV 11 issued to you at a psychotherapy consultation, with the note “required promptly” and a referral code. The session is arranged through 116117.
• Document at least three to five unsuccessful attempts to contact psychotherapists with a statutory health insurance license: practice name, date, time, and outcome.
• Find a licensed psychotherapist without a statutory health insurance license. Licensed psychotherapists are allowed to offer psychotherapy and to work in a guideline-based approach. Ask for written confirmation that a spot is available.
• Contact your health insurance provider before starting therapy and submit the application along with all supporting documents.

Insurers often reject initial applications. Don’t let that discourage you; you have the right to appeal. Many appeals are successful. Each insurer has its own documentation requirements. Clarify these before the first step, not afterward.

Paying for Therapy Out of Pocket

If you want to avoid the bureaucratic process, you can pay for psychotherapy entirely out of pocket. A session costs between 100 and 150 euros. For a long-term course of treatment involving 40 to 80 sessions, the total cost ranges from 4,000 to 12,000 euros.

The advantage: you can choose any practice, there is no approval process, and your diagnosis is not recorded by your health insurance provider. Under certain conditions, the costs can be claimed as an extraordinary expense for tax purposes.

Digital Health Applications as a Temporary Solution

Since October 2020, statutory health insurance providers have been covering certain digital health applications (DiGA). These are evidence-based apps that are listed in the directory of the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) and primarily address mental health issues: depressive episodes, anxiety, sleep disorders, and stress.

DiGA apps are not a substitute for psychotherapy. However, they do offer structured support, especially during the months between the search and the start of therapy. They bridge the waiting time; they are not a form of treatment. They are prescribed by doctors or psychotherapists.

Prevention courses under Section 20 of SGB V work in a similar way. Health insurance providers cover part of the fee, but only for certified prevention courses for exercise, relaxation, or stress management. This isn’t a substitute for therapy either. But it provides structure during the weeks leading up to the start of therapy, and you’re not sitting alone in front of an app.

You’re looking for help with your mental health. That’s your right, not a favor. Anyone who searches actively and stays in touch finds a spot. Often even with the very psychotherapist who felt like the right fit from the start.