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.

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

Treatment is usually preceded by a consultation lasting at least 50 minutes in total. 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. The consultation may take place at a different practice than the later treatment, and initial consultations with several therapists are permitted because it is important that the chemistry is right. A separate page explains how to get your first appointment with a psychologist.

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 appointment for trial sessions within one week, and that appointment can be no more than four weeks after that week. If the rapport isn’t right, the service arranges an appointment with a different psychotherapist. That is as far as the rules go. 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.

Basic group psychotherapy care is a separate group offering for people who were recommended psychotherapy in the consultation: up to four times 100 minutes, without notification, application, or approval. It prepares for group therapy and does not replace the trial sessions.

Trial Sessions and Therapy Application

For adults, two to four trial sessions precede the actual therapy, including after acute treatment. They serve the purposes of diagnosis, planning, and getting to know one another. Decisions regarding further treatment should be made together with you after you have been informed. For the report on the physical assessment (Konsiliarbericht), the practice refers you to a physician after the trial sessions at the latest. The physician must send it to the practice no later than three weeks after the examination. The report is not required with a referral from a contracted physician or on the recommendation of a hospital after psychiatric, psychosomatic, or psychotherapeutic hospital treatment.

After the trial sessions, you submit the application for short-term or long-term therapy to your health insurance provider; the practice helps with this and provides the justification for it. Short-term therapy has two phases of up to twelve sessions each, and each phase is applied for separately. The insurer must decide on each of these applications no later than three weeks after receipt. If it has not reported a delay with sufficient reasons and a new date by then, the application is considered approved. Only you receive the decision on short-term therapy; pass it on to the practice right away. For short-term therapy, the insurer obtains an expert opinion only in individual cases. If an expert opinion is obtained, for example for long-term therapy, the insurer has five weeks to decide. You can file an appeal against a denial.

If There Is No PTV 11 with a Referral Code

Without a PTV 11, or without the note “required promptly” on it, 116117 does not arrange trial sessions. This does not apply if you are discharged from a hospital or a rehabilitation facility after treatment for a mental illness. You then need neither a PTV 11 nor a referral code. In all other cases, contact the practice again: It may be possible to supplement the form afterward. If the psychotherapist stands by their assessment, you can book a consultation with another practice, directly or through 116117. Or 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, unless you have been discharged from hospital or rehabilitation treatment for a mental illness. 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.

For a consultation, trial sessions and acute treatment, the appointment service center must arrange an appointment within one week of your request. The appointment can be no more than four weeks after that week, or two weeks for acute treatment, so at most five weeks in total, or three for acute treatment. If it cannot arrange an appointment at a practice within the first week, it must offer you an outpatient appointment at a hospital in the week after.

116117 assigns you an available appointment. You have no say in who is assigned to that appointment, and the practice only has to be within a reasonable distance. However, among the three therapists you might see there, there’s usually someone you’ll like.

A therapy spot does not have to be in a practice. You can call psychotherapy outpatient clinics at universities, hospitals, and training institutes directly, without a referral, and training outpatient clinics treat people with statutory health insurance. At training outpatient clinics, this takes place under the responsibility of professionals who are qualified to treat people with statutory health insurance.

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 600 minutes for treatment and stabilization, for example twelve 50-minute sessions, and the therapist notifies the insurer using the PTV 12 form. If short-term therapy follows later, these sessions are counted toward it.

In the event of an immediate threat to life, such as after a suicide attempt or a serious act of self-harm, call 112, or the local emergency number abroad. 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, 0800 111 0 222, or 116 123. 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 foundation Stiftung Deutsche Depressionshilfe.

Under certain conditions, you may be eligible for reimbursement of psychotherapy costs at a private practice. If the health insurance provider could not provide an urgent service in time, it reimburses, in accordance with Section 13(3) of Book V of the Social Code (SGB V), the costs of the service obtained on one’s own, to the extent that it was necessary. An unsuccessful search alone does not justify reimbursement, and the law does not specify a fixed three-month search period.

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. According to the Federal Chamber of Psychotherapists (BPtK), however, it is the last resort if the appointment service center finds neither a practice nor a hospital outpatient clinic.

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 private practice whose psychotherapist meets the requirements for entry in the physicians’ register (Arztregister): a license to practice psychotherapy and completed specialist training or a specialist qualification in a recognized 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.

According to the BPtK patient information, people who pay out of pocket are usually treated like the privately insured. If possible, agree on the type, duration, and costs of the treatment in writing before it begins. I think it makes sense to invest in yourself and, if necessary, to pay for the therapy yourself, online or in person.

I offer online psychological counseling. This does not include the diagnosis or treatment of mental illnesses. This counseling is not a substitute for necessary psychotherapy.

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.

In Berlin, two search portals let you filter by language, which helps if you are looking for therapy in English.

Psych-Info is the search service run jointly by the chambers of psychotherapists of Berlin and five other federal states. According to the Berlin chamber, most psychotherapists in Berlin are listed there. You can filter by language, English included, and by whether a practice has a statutory health insurance license, so private practices appear as well.

The search of the Kassenaerztliche Vereinigung Berlin lists all psychotherapists in Berlin with a statutory health insurance license, and it can also be filtered by language. A listing does not mean the practice has a free spot, so plan to contact several.

If you have statutory health insurance and live in Berlin, the appointment service arranges a psychotherapeutic consultation. For acute treatment or trial sessions, it needs a current PTV 11 from a psychotherapist that carries a referral code, unless you have been discharged from hospital or rehabilitation treatment for a mental illness. You can reach the service on 116117 around the clock or book online at 116117-termine.de. The time limits above are federal rules and apply in Berlin as well. The Kassenaerztliche Vereinigung Berlin states that treatment in a foreign language cannot be taken into account, so you cannot count on getting an English-speaking therapist this way.

In a crisis, the Berliner Krisendienst helps free of charge, around the clock and anonymously if you wish, for example on 030 390 63 10 (Berlin-Mitte) or the number of your district’s location. Its English page notes that conversations are usually held in German and that advice in another language usually needs some preparation time.

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.