Can Children or Youth Seek Therapy Without Parental Consent?

Key points

Ordinarily, minors need parental consent before speaking with a mental health counselor.

Sometimes, minors may need to talk with a counselor but not want to get parents involved.

There may be several options for getting help without having parents involved.

Youth should be aware of services for emergencies, safety issues, and ongoing support.

Ordinarily, when children under 18 years old need health or mental health services, the clinician requests consent from their parents or legal guardians (Maslyanskaya & Alderman, 2019; McNary, 2014). [1] Parental consent not only ensures that parents know about the services that their children are receiving, but also that the services are helpful and actively support treatment progress. In some situations, however, children—particula