TrichotillomaniaSupport & Treatment in Ireland

No gatekeeper stands between you and private therapy here: ring an accredited therapist today and you can be seen this month. The HSE route costs nothing but moves slowly, so start both.

Route 1 — Private, no referral needed. Contact a BFRB-aware therapist directly: no GP letter, no diagnosis, no waiting list. Most offer a free 10 to 15 minute call — use it to ask about hair pulling.

Route 2 — Through your GP. Your GP can refer you to HSE primary care psychology (which sees adults and children) and, for under-18s with moderate to severe difficulties, to CAMHS. If you are 18 or over and hold a medical card, ask about Counselling in Primary Care (CIPC): up to eight free sessions on GP referral, after which you phone your local CIPC office within two weeks to confirm. Your GP can also refer you to SilverCloud, the HSE’s free guided digital CBT service for over-18s; its courses target anxiety and depression, not pulling, but they start quickly.

What to say: “I pull out my hair and I can’t stop. I think it’s trichotillomania. I’d like a referral to someone who has treated body-focused repetitive behaviours.” Naming it moves you from “stress” to a coded diagnosis (ICD-10 F63.3).

What to expect: primary care psychology takes self-referrals too, but the HSE says a first appointment can take over a year; 4,849 adults were waiting for primary care counselling in April 2026. Few HSE clinicians are BFRB specialists, so ask.

For children and teens: start with your GP or paediatrician. CAMHS treats moderate to severe difficulties and had 4,462 children waiting at the end of December 2025, 602 beyond 12 months; hair pulling alone is not always accepted. For 12 to 25s, Jigsaw is free and takes no referral.

→ Our guide to Habit Reversal Training·→ How to choose a therapist who knows BFRBs

Cards and cover. A medical card is the gateway to CIPC and makes GP visits free; a GP visit card covers consultations only, and under-8s and over-70s get one without a means test. Vhi, Laya Healthcare and Irish Life Health part-cover outpatient counselling and psychology on many plans, but the rebate and number of visits a year depend on your plan — check your table of benefits first. Cover usually requires full IACP, ICP or IAHIP accreditation, or PSI chartered status, and some insurers exclude pre-accredited members — so “working towards accreditation” can quietly cost you the rebate.

Tax relief. Revenue gives 20% standard-rate relief on qualifying health expenses, claimed through Revenue myAccount (or Form 11 if you are self-assessed) — keep receipts for six years. Psychology and psychotherapy qualify only where the practitioner is a registered doctor, or a doctor referred you for a diagnostic procedure. Ordinary counselling generally does not; psychiatrist fees do.

Budget benchmark: a course of BFRB-focused therapy runs 10 to 20 sessions. With an accredited psychotherapist at €80, that is €800–€1,600; with a psychologist at €130, €1,300–€2,600. (Figures verified September 2026.)

Ireland has a regulation gap worth knowing about. As of September 2026, “psychologist” is not a legally protected title here: CORU’s Psychologists Registration Board is still drafting standards, with a public consultation anticipated for autumn 2026, and no register has opened. The registers for counsellors and psychotherapists are not open either — title protection follows only after they open and a two-year transition ends. Meanwhile anyone may use those titles.

So voluntary registers do the work. Check one before you book:

• Psychologists — the Psychological Society of Ireland’s Register of Chartered Psychologists, at psychologicalsociety.ie ↗
• Counsellors and psychotherapists — IACP accredited members at iacp.ie/therapists ↗, or IAHIP at iahip.org ↗. Look for “accredited”, not “pre-accredited”
• Psychiatrists — the Medical Council’s public register at medicalcouncil.ie ↗; a consultant should appear in the Specialist Division, psychiatry

CORU does regulate social workers and other professions, just not the ones you are choosing between. Registration is the floor, not the ceiling — the credential matters far less than BFRB experience. Three questions for the free initial call:

1. How many clients with trichotillomania or other BFRBs have you worked with?
2. Do you use Habit Reversal Training or the ComB model?
3. How soon could I start, and how many sessions do you usually plan for?

Most people with trich here have never knowingly met another person who pulls. Peer support does what therapy cannot.

• OCD Ireland’s TTM group — free, confidential and facilitated, running online for anyone 18 or over. Booking opens five days before each session; you get a Zoom link by email.
• BFRB UK & Ireland groups — peer-led Zoom meetings open to people in Ireland, run by volunteers with BFRBs themselves.
• IOCDF virtual BFRB groups — online groups and events through the year, some for families.
• In person — we cannot verify any standing in-person trich group in the Republic right now. If you run one, tell us and we’ll list it free.

For parents: The Parent’s Guide to Trichotillomania covers what to say at home and how to push for a referral while a HSE waiting list runs. Start here →

Trichotillomania (hair pulling disorder) sits in the DSM-5 under obsessive-compulsive and related disorders, ICD-10 F63.3. It involves recurrent pulling of your own hair — scalp, eyebrows and eyelashes most often — with repeated attempts to stop and real distress as a result.

It is not a bad habit, not self-harm, not attention-seeking and not a failure of willpower. It rarely arrives alone: anxiety, depression, ADHD and skin picking are common company, and a therapist who treats only the anxiety will often leave the pulling exactly where it was — one reason it is worth naming trichotillomania at the first appointment rather than describing stress. Genetic predisposition, differences in the brain’s habit circuitry and emotional regulation all play a part, and pulling usually starts between ages 10 and 13, though it can begin at any age.

What works: behaviour therapy is first-line, with Habit Reversal Training (HRT) carrying the strongest evidence. It is usually delivered inside the Comprehensive Behavioural (ComB) model, which maps your pulling profile — sensory, cognitive, affective, motor, environmental — and blends in acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). No medication is approved specifically for trichotillomania, though N-acetylcysteine shows modest evidence. Most people who complete structured treatment see meaningful reductions in pulling.

→ Complete guide to trichotillomania·→ Treatment options explained·→ For parents: start here