Trichotillomania Support in Pennsylvania

Find a therapist in Pennsylvania who understands trichotillomania. Whether you pull your own hair or you’re supporting a child or someone you love, search by city or town, from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, for someone near you, or choose Online to see who works with people anywhere in Pennsylvania.

Find a therapist for trichotillomania in Pennsylvania

Philadelphia and Pittsburgh sit about 300 miles apart, with small towns and mountain ridges between them. In 2026 Pennsylvania joined a second agreement that lets licensed professionals work online across state lines, so your options reach well past your county. Finding someone who understands pulling is still the hard part. It’s the reason this directory exists.

The directory includes therapists, counselors, psychologists, hypnotherapists, EFT practitioners, NLP practitioners and BFRB coaches. BFRB stands for body-focused repetitive behavior, the group of conditions trichotillomania belongs to. Each listing explains how the person works, whether they see people in person, online or both, and what they charge. Each one has a private contact form too. If nobody is listed near you yet, see who works online across Pennsylvania.

Open the full directory →

Frequently Asked Questions about Trichotillomania in Pennsylvania

Find a Therapist

How do I find a trichotillomania therapist near me in Pennsylvania?›

Search the directory by town or city. Everyone listed has told us they understand hair pulling. Most in-person options are in and around Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Elsewhere in Pennsylvania, choose Online to see who can work with you from home.

Can I have sessions online from anywhere in Pennsylvania?›

Yes. Many people listed work online, so where you live in Pennsylvania doesn’t limit you. Licensed psychologists in other member states can also work online with Pennsylvanians, and counselors will follow under an agreement the state joined in 2026. Hypnotherapists, EFT practitioners and coaches aren’t bound by these rules.

How much does trichotillomania therapy cost in Pennsylvania?›

Private sessions usually cost $100–$200, with many around $130–$150. Philadelphia and Pittsburgh sit at the top of that range. Every listing shows its own prices, and many people offer a free first call.

What kinds of help are there for hair pulling in Pennsylvania?›

The directory lists therapists, counselors, psychologists, psychotherapists, hypnotherapists, EFT practitioners, NLP practitioners and BFRB coaches. Different people find different things helpful. What everyone listed shares is that they understand hair pulling and already help people who pull.

Do I need a doctor’s referral or a diagnosis to see someone in Pennsylvania?›

No. You can contact anyone listed directly, with no doctor’s note and no diagnosis. Say what it is in your first message, and ask whether they offer a free first call.

My child pulls their hair. What do I do first?›

Stay steady, and don’t tell them off. Telling a child off reliably makes pulling worse. Start with The Parent’s Guide to Trichotillomania, then look for someone whose listing says they work with children and teens.

Are there trichotillomania support groups in Pennsylvania?›

In-person groups are rare in Pennsylvania right now. The IOCDF lists online BFRB groups you can join from home, and NAMI affiliates run free general mental health groups across the state. If you run a group, tell us and we’ll list it.

How common is hair pulling in Pennsylvania?›

Trichotillomania affects about 1 in 50 people, so well over 100,000 Pennsylvanians. It’s a body-focused repetitive behavior recognized in the DSM-5 and ICD-10 (F63.3), and it usually starts around ages 10–13. It isn’t a bad habit, self-harm or a lack of willpower. Read our complete guide to trichotillomania.

How to get in touch with a therapist

You can message anyone listed directly. You don’t need a doctor’s note or a diagnosis first. Keep your first message short and name it: “I pull my hair. I’m looking for someone who understands trichotillomania.”

Most practitioners who understand hair pulling work in and around Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Smaller numbers practice in the Lehigh Valley, Harrisburg and Lancaster. In the northern tier and across the Alleghenies, online sessions are often the most practical way to reach someone.

Licensed psychologists in other member states can already work online with Pennsylvanians. Licensed counselors will follow as the state’s new counseling agreement gets up and running. Hypnotherapists, EFT practitioners and coaches aren’t bound by these state licensing rules.

You can also start through your insurance or family doctor. That route exists, and it often takes longer.

How to choose who to work with

People who understand hair pulling come from many backgrounds: psychologists, counselors, psychotherapists, hypnotherapists, EFT and NLP practitioners, and coaches. Different people find different things helpful, and many try more than one kind of support.

If you’d like reassurance about a licensed clinician, use Pennsylvania’s free PALS lookup at pals.pa.gov. It covers psychologists, professional counselors, clinical social workers and marriage and family therapists. It shows whether a license is active and any board discipline. Many good practitioners, including hypnotherapists and coaches, aren’t licensed by the state. They belong to their own professional associations instead.

Everyone on this site has one thing in common: they’ve told us they understand hair pulling. On a first call, you can ask:

Have you helped people who pull their hair before?
How do you work? What happens in the first few sessions?
What if I feel it isn’t right for me?

Charities and groups in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania has no charity just for hair pulling, but it does have a statewide affiliate of the International OCD Foundation.

International OCD Foundation (IOCDF)

The main US home for BFRB information and support. Its website explains hair pulling and skin picking and lists online BFRB support groups you can join from anywhere in the US.

OCD Pennsylvania

The IOCDF’s Pennsylvania affiliate. It raises awareness of OCD and related conditions across the state and connects Pennsylvanians to resources and events.

NAMI Keystone Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania’s branch of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Its local affiliates run free peer and family support groups in communities across the state. They aren’t specific to hair pulling, but families often find them useful.

988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline

Call or text 988 at any time, day or night, if distress becomes a crisis.

Support groups in Pennsylvania

In-person groups for hair pulling are rare in Pennsylvania right now, and most people connect online.

IOCDF online BFRB groups: peer groups listed by the IOCDF that meet by video, open to people across Pennsylvania.
NAMI local groups: free, peer-led mental health groups meet in counties from Erie to the Poconos. They cover mental health broadly, but they’re local and free.
For parents: start with The Parent’s Guide to Trichotillomania, which walks you through the first weeks after you find out your child pulls.

Do you run a Pennsylvania group? Tell us and we’ll list it for free.

The sensory side of pulling

For many people, pulling starts with a feeling in the hair itself. A strand might feel coarse, kinked, wiry or simply out of place. The urge is to find that hair and remove it. Eyebrows and eyelashes can carry the same pull, because one stray hair can feel wrong until it’s gone.

The senses stay involved after the pull. Many people run the hair between their fingers, look closely at the root, or touch it to their lips. Others notice the small tug on the scalp, which can feel satisfying or soothing in the moment. None of this is strange. These rituals are common among people who pull, even though almost nobody talks about them.

Sensory triggers also explain why pulling so often happens in quiet, still moments: reading, driving, scrolling, lying in bed. When the hands and senses have little else to do, they find something. For some people, pulling fills a gap in stimulation. For others it takes the edge off tension or restlessness.

Knowing your own sensory pattern won’t make the urge vanish. It can make pulling feel less mysterious and less like a personal failing. It also gives you something concrete to say when you first contact someone. “I look for the coarse hairs” or “I pull when I’m reading in bed” tells a practitioner a lot.

About this page

Sources: International OCD Foundation; OCD Pennsylvania; NAMI Keystone Pennsylvania; 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline; Counseling Compact Commission; PSYPACT; Pennsylvania Department of State (PALS license verification); published Pennsylvania and Philadelphia therapy cost data (Arise Counseling Services; Growth Thru Change).

Things change. We check this page often, but always check prices and qualifications with the person you contact. This page is information, not medical advice.

Are you a Pennsylvania therapist or practitioner who works with trichotillomania?

Be found by people looking for help with hair pulling across Pennsylvania, in person or online.

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About Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania is a commonwealth of about 13 million people, stretching from the Delaware River to Lake Erie. Philadelphia, its largest city, holds the buildings where the United States was founded. Pittsburgh, the second-largest, grew on steel where the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers meet to form the Ohio.

Harrisburg, the capital, sits on the Susquehanna River. The Lehigh Valley around Allentown and Bethlehem has deep industrial roots, and Lancaster County is known for its Amish farms. Erie is the state’s port on the Great Lakes. Between the cities, the ridges of the Appalachians run across the middle of the state, and the Pocono Mountains cover the northeast.

Attractions in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania draws people to the rooms and fields where American history was made, and to mountain and lakeshore landscapes at either end of the state.

Independence Hall

Built between 1732 and 1753 as the Pennsylvania State House, in Philadelphia. Delegates adopted the Declaration of Independence here in 1776 and drafted the US Constitution in 1787. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979 and is the centerpiece of Independence National Historical Park, across from the Liberty Bell.

Gettysburg National Military Park

The Battle of Gettysburg, fought over the first three days of July 1863, was the bloodiest single battle of the Civil War. The park preserves the battlefield and its monuments around the town of Gettysburg. Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery on November 19, 1863.

Fallingwater

Frank Lloyd Wright designed this weekend house in 1935 for Pittsburgh department-store owner Edgar J. Kaufmann Sr. and his family. It stands in the Laurel Highlands at Mill Run, with concrete terraces cantilevered directly over a waterfall on Bear Run. It opened for public tours in 1964 and joined the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2019.

The Andy Warhol Museum

Opened in 1994 on Pittsburgh’s North Shore, in a 1911 warehouse redesigned by architect Richard Gluckman. It is the largest museum in North America dedicated to a single artist, with seven floors of galleries. Warhol was born in Pittsburgh in 1928, and the museum holds the largest collection of his work.

Presque Isle State Park

A sandy peninsula of more than 3,000 acres that arches into Lake Erie, four miles west of downtown Erie. It has swimming beaches, 21 miles of trails and a lighthouse first lit in 1873. It became a National Natural Landmark in 1967 and is a stopover for migrating birds.