Getting help
Kintsugi is not a crisis service and nobody here is on call. The people below are, and everything on this page is free.
This page is deliberately outside everything we measure. There is no analytics on it, no tracking on any link, and no count of who came here or what they clicked. Somebody looking for help at three in the morning is not a marketing event.
If the first place you ring cannot help, that is common and it is not a verdict on you. Try the next one. Waiting lists, catchment areas and narrow remits are a failure of how services are funded, not a sign you asked wrongly.
If you need someone right now
- Emergency services999
If life is at immediate risk, or someone needs urgent medical help, call 999. From a mobile you can also use 112.
- Lifeline — Northern Ireland crisis response0808 808 8000
Free, confidential, 24 hours a day, every day, for anyone in Northern Ireland in distress or despair. Textphone 18001 0808 808 8000.
- Samaritans116 123
Free to call from any phone in the UK and Ireland, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Whatever you are going through, they will listen.
- Shout — text supportText SHOUT to 85258
A free, confidential, 24/7 text service if you would rather not speak to anyone. Messages do not appear on your phone bill.
- Beat — eating disorders, Northern Ireland0808 801 0434
Free helpline for anyone affected by an eating disorder, open 3pm to 8pm Monday to Friday. Webchat and email support are also available.
- Drugs and Alcohol NIdrugsandalcoholni.info
The Public Health Agency directory of drug and alcohol treatment and support services across Northern Ireland.
Help for the thing underneath
None of this is us. These are the people who actually do this work, with what each one covers and where it stops.
Finding a counsellor or therapist
Counselling is not only for a crisis, and you do not need to have hit some threshold to deserve it. In the UK the titles "counsellor" and "therapist" are not legally protected, so the thing worth checking is whether someone is on a register — BACP, UKCP, or HCPC for practitioner psychologists. Every directory below only lists people who are.
- Your GPThe surgery you are registered with
The free route. A GP can refer you into talking therapies and is the way in to most specialist services. Waiting lists are often long, so it is worth starting this and looking at other options at the same time rather than choosing between them.
- BACP — find a therapistbacp.co.uk
The register of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. Search by area, by what you want help with, and by whether they work online. Private sessions are paid for, though many therapists keep a few lower-cost places.
- Action Mental Health028 9039 1630
A BACP-accredited counselling service in Northern Ireland, working with anxiety, depression, work stress, family difficulty, abuse, trauma, self-harm and substance use.
- Inspire Wellbeinginspirewellbeing.org
Mental health and wellbeing services across Northern Ireland and Ireland, including counselling, addiction services and workplace support.
Trauma
Trauma is not only the event. It is what the event left behind in how you sleep, startle, remember and trust — sometimes years later, sometimes without an obvious trigger. Effective treatments exist and they are specific: trauma-focused CBT and EMDR have the strongest evidence. General counselling can help, but for post-traumatic stress it is worth asking directly whether a service offers those.
- Regional Trauma Network (Northern Ireland)Ask your GP for a referral
Specialist trauma therapy across all five Health and Social Care Trusts. Important limit: this service is for people affected by Troubles or conflict-related events — bereaved, injured, or providing regular care for someone who was. If that is not you, a GP can still refer you to general mental health services.
- WAVE Trauma Centrewavetraumacentre.org.uk
Free counselling and psychotherapy for people affected by the conflict, at centres in Belfast, Armagh, Ballymoney, Derry/Londonderry and Omagh, including CBT and EMDR. Evening appointments in Belfast and Armagh.
- PTSD UKptsduk.org
Plain, reliable information on post-traumatic stress and complex PTSD — what the symptoms actually are, what treatments work, and what to ask for. Information rather than a helpline.
A break-up, a separation, or a relationship coming apart
The end of a relationship is a bereavement that nobody sends cards for. You can lose a home, a routine, a social circle and a version of the future all in the same week, and be expected at work on Monday. It is one of the most common reasons people start drinking more, stop eating properly, or stop sleeping — not weakness, just what loss does to a nervous system.
- Relate Northern Irelandrelateni.org
Relationship counselling across Northern Ireland for couples, families and individuals — including separation, and including support after the relationship has already ended. You do not need to come as a couple.
- Samaritans116 123
Free, 24 hours a day. You do not have to be suicidal to call. "My marriage ended and I have nobody to say that to at two in the morning" is exactly the kind of call they are there for.
- Cruse Bereavement Support0808 808 1677
For bereavement specifically, if what you are carrying is a death rather than a separation. Free helpline; check current opening hours on their site as these vary by day.
Drinking
You do not need to have lost anything yet to be allowed to ask about this, and you do not need to call yourself an alcoholic to get help. One warning worth taking seriously: if you drink heavily every day, stopping suddenly on your own can be genuinely dangerous — alcohol is one of the few drugs where withdrawal can kill. Talk to a GP or a service before you stop, not after.
- Drinkline0300 123 1110
Free and confidential, for anyone worried about their own drinking or someone else’s. Weekdays 9am to 8pm, weekends 11am to 4pm.
- Alcoholics Anonymous0800 917 7650
Free national helpline, answered 24 hours a day by members who have been where you are. The only requirement for membership is wanting to stop drinking. They will help you find a meeting near you.
- Al-Anon0800 008 6811
For families and friends of someone who drinks. If the person you are worried about is not you, this is your service and you are entitled to support in your own right.
- SMART Recoverysmartrecovery.org.uk
Free meetings, in person and online, built on cognitive behavioural methods and motivational work rather than the twelve steps. Worth knowing about if a faith-based framing is what has put you off before — the two approaches are not in competition and plenty of people use both.
Drugs
Whether you are trying to stop, trying to cut down, or just want to know what you are taking is doing, these are the places to ask. Nobody listed here reports you to anyone.
- FRANK0300 123 6600
Free and confidential, 24 hours a day, every day. You can also text 82111 and be texted back. Honest information about specific drugs and their effects, without a lecture. Its service directory covers England — for local services in Northern Ireland use Drugs and Alcohol NI.
- Narcotics Anonymous0300 999 1212
Answered by recovering members, 10am to midnight, seven days a week. They will talk you through what NA is and help you find a meeting. Note their line will not accept withheld numbers.
- Cocaine Anonymous0800 612 0225
Free helpline, 10am to 10pm every day, for anyone who wants to stop using cocaine or crack.
- Drugs and Alcohol NIdrugsandalcoholni.info
The Public Health Agency directory of local treatment and support services across Northern Ireland — community services, day programmes and residential options.
Finding a sponsor
A sponsor is a member of a fellowship — AA, NA, CA — with time behind them who agrees to work through the steps with you one to one, and who you can ring at eleven at night. They are not a counsellor, not paid, and not trained; the qualification is having been there. People are often stuck on how you actually get one, so, plainly:
- Go to meetings firstSeveral, before deciding anything
Sponsors are not allocated and there is no waiting list to join. You find one by turning up and listening for someone whose way of talking about it makes sense to you. Try a few different meetings — they vary enormously in feel, and disliking the first one is not a verdict on the whole thing.
- Ask directly"Would you be willing to sponsor me?"
That is the whole script. Ask after a meeting. Being asked is normally taken as a compliment, a no usually means their hands are full rather than anything about you, and you are allowed to ask someone else. Most fellowships suggest a sponsor of the same sex, or otherwise someone you would not be attracted to, for reasons that become obvious.
- In the meantime, use a temporary oneAsk the helpline or the meeting secretary
Most groups will find you a temporary sponsor on your first night so you are not going home with nobody to ring. The helplines above can arrange this. If the fellowship model is not for you, SMART Recovery meetings work differently and have no sponsors at all.
Eating and food
Eating disorders are not a matter of willpower or vanity, they are among the most dangerous mental illnesses there are, and they do not only affect young women. You do not have to be underweight, or at any particular weight, to be ill enough to deserve treatment.
- Beat — Northern Ireland helpline0808 801 0434
Free, for anyone affected by an eating disorder including families. Open 3pm to 8pm, Monday to Friday. Webchat and email support are also available through their site, and they can help you prepare for a GP appointment.
Hobbies, and having people again
This is not filler. Isolation is one of the strongest predictors of relapse and one of the strongest drivers of depression, and if drinking or using was your social life, stopping can leave a hole where most of your week used to be. Something to do, somewhere to be, and people expecting you is not a lesser kind of help — for a lot of people it is the part that makes the rest hold.
- parkrunparkrun.org.uk
Free, every Saturday morning, in parks everywhere including across Northern Ireland. You can walk it. People do, every week, at the back, and the volunteers stay until the last person finishes. A fixed point in the week and a reason to be outside among people, without having to talk to anyone.
- Men’s Shedsmenssheds.org.uk
Workshops where men meet to make and repair things together. Built on the observation that men often talk more easily side by side over a task than face to face over a table. There is a network across Northern Ireland.
- Volunteer Nowvolunteernow.co.uk
Volunteering opportunities across Northern Ireland, searchable by area and interest. Being useful to somebody else is unglamorous, effective, and available on days when nothing else feels possible.
- Libraries NIlibrariesni.org.uk
Free to join, warm, and quietly full of groups — reading, computers, crafts, conversation. One of the few places left you can go and stay without buying anything.
If you are worried about someone else
Every service listed here will talk to you about another person, not only about yourself. You do not need the right words ready, you do not need to have tried everything else first, and you will not be wasting their time.
Details on this page were checked against each organisation’s own published information in August 2026 and are reviewed every six months. If you find something out of date, please tell us — that is a fault worth fixing quickly.