Need help now?
If you are in crisis or thinking about harming yourself, call or text 988 — the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, free and available 24/7. For treatment referrals and information, call SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357 (1-800-662-HELP), free, confidential, 24/7, in English and Spanish, or search FindTreatment.gov. You can also text HOME to 741741 to reach the Crisis Text Line. In an emergency, call 911.
About Therapy Q & A
Therapy Q & A is a questions-and-answers site about therapy and mental health — individual therapy, family therapy, and couples therapy — written in plain language for people deciding whether therapy could help, what it costs, and what actually happens in the room.
What it covers
How therapy works and what a first session looks like; anxiety, stress and burnout; depression and mood; children, teens and parenting; costs, insurance and affordable care; couples and marriage therapy; family therapy; finding and choosing a therapist; online and telehealth therapy; trauma, grief and life transitions; and personality disorders — an overview of how they are diagnosed and treated, Cluster A, Cluster B and Cluster C, borderline personality disorder (BPD), and narcissistic personality disorder (NPD).
How answers are sourced
Every answer stands alone in plain language and carries a named, linked source — the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), SAMHSA, the American Psychological Association (APA), the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT), the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, the CDC, MedlinePlus (National Library of Medicine), or Mayo Clinic — with the source date and the last-updated date beside it.
The archive
The site launched with a 40-entry Founding Archive across 10 topics, and the archive has since expanded to 64 entries: 16 topics in A–Z order, 4 answers each. On the live site, a daily refresh adds new researched answers, insert-only, deduplicated by question. This static GitHub copy holds the 64 Founding Archive answers; it does not refresh.
Not therapy, not advice
This site is educational information only. It is not medical advice, not a diagnosis, and not a substitute for therapy or for care from a licensed professional. If you are in crisis, call or text 988. For treatment referrals, call SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357.