The Friendship Bench provides sustainable community based psychological interventions that are evidence based, accessible and scalable. We are reimagining the delivery of evidence-based mental healthcare through training community health workers (also known as lay health workers) to provide basic Cognitive Behavioural Therapy with an emphasis on Problem Solving Therapy, activity scheduling and peer led group support. This task shifting approach means we can deliver an effective, affordable and sustainable solution to bridge the mental health treatment gap at a primary care level.

We aim to respond within 2 weeks. However, it does sometimes depend on the number of lists that have been submitted.

Talk therapy, also known as psychotherapy, is based on the core idea that talking about the things that are bothering you can help clarify them and put them in perspective.

There are various forms of talk therapy, the Friendship Bench focuses on the evidence based Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, which focuses on problem solving sherapy and behavioural activation.

Friendship Bench was founded in Zimbabwe, and has been replicated in Malawi, Zanzibar, Vietnam, Kenya, Jordan, the USA (New York City , Ohio, New Orleans and Washington DC), the UK(London), and Colombia.

You can donate through Givebutter on our donate page.

For other forms of support kindly email support@friendshipbench.org

All therapy sessions are free of charge.

The FB In A Box is the blueprint of the Friendship Bench model. It brings together all the lessons learnt from the past decade of implementation. It's simple and adaptable in any setting in the world.

Problem-solving therapy works by teaching people skills to help them take a more active role in their lives, taking more initiative, and utilizing whatever influence they have to effectively make decisions and achieve their goals. By using this treatment approach with one specific problem, people learn to apply it to any other problem they may face, empowering them to face difficulties more independently. As these skills are repeatedly practice, clients often report an increased sense of confidence and agency in many aspects of their lives.

We appreciate your interest in making a community impact. Currently, we don't have an active volunteer program. Please join our waitlist by filling out this form: https://www.friendshipbench.org/volunteer.

The price of FB In A Box varies based on the training level and the number of participants. For detailed pricing, please contact us at partnerships@friendshipbench.org.

To become part of the movement and explore our offerings, please fill out the form on our website: https://www.friendshipbench.org/partnerships.