TempoLife › Features › Mental health support: who to see and what it costs
Mental health support in the Nordic and Baltic countries
The difference between a psychologist, a psychotherapist and a psychiatrist, how each of 0 countries is entered, the free routes and their eligibility rules, the public registers that verify a practitioner, and the crisis numbers.
This is a map of how the systems work, not a diagnosis and not a treatment plan. It names no practice and no private price, because neither can be kept accurate here. It cannot tell you what is wrong or which treatment you need — that is a clinician's job, and it starts with an appointment. Never stop or change a prescribed medicine on the strength of a web page. If someone's life is in danger right now, call the emergency number: 112 anywhere in the EU and EEA.
Start with the door, not the profession
Almost everyone begins this search by choosing a job title — psychologist, usually — and then discovering that the job title is behind a queue, a referral or a fee. The systems in this region are not organised that way. They are organised in tiers, and in every one of these countries there is a tier below specialist care that you can enter yourself, that costs little or nothing, and that delivers real treatment rather than a holding pattern. Finding that tier is the whole game, and it has a different name in each country.
- Right now, in danger. The emergency number, 112 anywhere in the EU and EEA. Then the crisis page, which lists every country's lines.
- Employed. Occupational health, which is free to you and in Finland is often the fastest psychological appointment in the country. See getting help through work.
- Studying. Student health or study welfare, free or nearly free and usually under-used. See students.
- A child or a teenager. Three separate systems — school, health care and the municipality — and picking the wrong one costs a term. See children and teenagers.
- None of the above. The fastest funded appointment in Estonia, Finland, Lithuania and Norway is a mental-health nurse or a municipal low-threshold service. Then your country page below.
Who does what
Five professions, one of which can prescribe and one of which is sometimes not regulated at all. The differences are not seniority: they are different trainings for different jobs, and a complicated case usually needs two of them working in parallel rather than the most impressive one working alone.
| Profession | Trained as | Can prescribe | What it is for | Is the title protected? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Psychologist | Five to six years of university psychology, plus supervised practice | No | Psychological assessment and structured psychological treatment | Licensed, authorised or certified in all seven countries |
| Psychotherapist | Three to five further years in a named method, on top of a base profession | No | Longer, method-specific psychotherapy | Licensed in Sweden, a protected title in Finland, weakly protected elsewhere |
| Psychiatrist | A medical degree plus several years of specialist training | Yes | Diagnosis, medication, physical causes, sick leave, hospital care | A medical speciality, registered as a doctor |
| Mental-health nurse | Nursing qualification plus mental-health specialisation | No | Assessment, brief structured work, medication follow-up, coordination | Registered as a nurse |
| Counsellor or support worker | Varies widely; counselling training, or none at all | No | Present, situational difficulties; peer and practical support | Usually unregulated — check the training |
By country
Seven systems that look similar from outside and diverge on the questions that decide your week: whether you need a referral to see a psychiatrist, whether a psychologist is funded, what is capped, and what a licence proves. Each page carries that country's doors, registers and crisis lines.
Crisis and emergency numbers
112 reaches emergency services anywhere in the European Union and the European Economic Area, and Norway and Latvia also run a direct ambulance number. The lines beginning 116 are reserved across the EU for services of social value by a Commission decision of 2007, extended in 2009 to add 116 006 for victims of crime and 116 123 for emotional support — which is why the same three digits appear country after country, and why a reserved number a country has not assigned simply does not connect there. Only the lines each country actually operates are listed.
| Country | Service | Number | When | Who it is for |
|---|
Checking that someone is who they say they are
Every country here keeps a public register, all of them are free, and the check takes about a minute — which is a minute more than most people spend before handing over their worst week. The registers do not all prove the same thing: a state licence means the qualification is recognised and the person is subject to supervision, a professional certificate means an assessed standard, and association membership means the person has joined a body with entry rules and an ethics code. All three are worth something; only the first two involve the state.
| Country | Register | Kept by | What it proves |
|---|
The page on checking a licence explains what each register proves, what to ask that a register cannot answer, and the warning signs that are diagnostic rather than a matter of taste.
What this page is not
It is not a directory. There are no practices, addresses, opening hours, phone numbers of clinics or private prices anywhere in this surface, and that is a decision rather than an omission. A directory of mental-health providers built from the outside is wrong within a season — people move, take on new registrations, close their lists, change their fees — and being sent confidently to a door that has closed is worse than being told where the door register is. Everything here is either a rule, an entitlement, a public register or a published number, all of which hold still long enough to be useful.
It is also not a diagnosis and not a treatment plan. It will not tell you what is wrong, will not recommend a medicine and will never suggest changing one. Those are clinical acts and they belong to a clinician who has met you.
Sources: Tervisekassa (Estonia) · Kela (Finland) · Nacionālais veselības dienests (Latvia) · 1177 (Sweden) · Helsenorge (Norway) · Sundhed.dk (Denmark) · Commission Decision 2007/116/EC on the reserved 116 numbers · plus the national registers and helpline operators cited on each country page · Rules, entitlements and helpline numbers change: check the operator's own page before you rely on one. Checked 2026-09-08.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a psychologist, a psychotherapist and a psychiatrist?
A psychiatrist is a medical doctor who can diagnose, prescribe, sign sick leave and admit to hospital. A psychologist has a long university degree in psychology, specialises in assessment and psychological treatment, and cannot prescribe. A psychotherapist has completed a further three-to-five-year training in a named method on top of another profession. Many people hold more than one of these.
Where do I start if I have no idea?
With the fastest funded door in your country rather than with the profession you have heard of. In Estonia, Finland, Lithuania and Norway that is usually a mental-health nurse or a municipal low-threshold service, often available in weeks and free. If you are employed, occupational health; if you are studying, student health. Specialist psychiatry sits behind a referral in the Nordic countries and is directly accessible in Estonia and Latvia.
Is there anything that is genuinely free?
Yes, in all seven countries — municipal low-threshold services, mental-health nurses in primary care, victim support, school and student services, guided digital programmes in Finland, and free psychologist referrals for young adults in Denmark. Nearly every free route carries an eligibility rule, which is why they are hard to find: the rule is what turns a long list into the two or three doors that are actually yours.
How do I check that a therapist is qualified?
Search the public register in the country where they practise. Every country here has one, they are free and searchable by name, and the check takes about a minute. In Finland and Sweden even the psychotherapist title is verifiable; in countries where it is not protected, look at the base profession, the training institute and the professional association instead.
Does this page list therapists near me?
No, deliberately. It names no practice, no address, no opening hours and no private fee, because none of that can be kept accurate here and a stale directory sends people to doors that have closed. What it gives you instead is the route into each country's system, the register to search, and the questions that settle the cost.
Bring the doctor facts instead of an impression
A mental-health assessment runs on history, and history is what disappears under pressure. TempoLife keeps a dated record of sleep, mood, activity and medicines, so the appointment starts with two weeks of real data rather than "I think it got worse in the spring".