Becoming a Students
Becoming a Students

Frequently Asked Questions

Our Approach to Psychotherapeutic Nursing
Our Courses & Instructors

Frequently Asked Questions

A grounded, nurse-led framework for working intentionally with trauma, emotion, and human experience—within regulated care systems.

Clear answers to common questions—so you can explore this path with confidence and without pressure.

Identity and Scope of Practice

Psychotherapeutic work unfolds both Moment-to-moment and Holistically, across time and even across client groupings.

  • What is an RN–Psychotherapist?

    An RN–Psychotherapist is a registered nurse who practises with advanced psychotherapeutic skill, presence, and ethical accountability. This role builds on nursing’s long-standing engagement with emotional, relational, and psychological dimensions of care, bringing greater clarity, structure, and intention to work nurses are often already doing.

  • Do I stop being a nurse if I pursue this pathway?

    No. This pathway does not move you away from nursing—it deepens your nursing practice. Your professional identity, accountability, and scope remain grounded in nursing values and regulatory frameworks.

  • Is psychotherapeutic nursing the same as counselling or social work?

    No. Psychotherapy is distinguished by its use of a structured, theory-informed framework that guides clients through a sequenced process of change. It works with cognitive, emotional, physiological, relational, and meaning-based dimensions of experience—within sessions and across time—supporting the integration of patterns that once served survival but may now limit growth.

Living Grace

“A nurse is one who opens the eyes of a newborn and gently closes the eyes of a dying man. It is indeed a high blessing to be the first and last to witness the beginning and end of life.”

– Unknown Author

Education, Learning, and Readiness

Trauma awareness is important—but awareness alone is not enough. What is often missing globally is an understanding of the healing journey itself: how people move from overwhelm and disconnection toward integration, regulation, and restored relationship with self and others.

  • Why is Becoming 101 offered at no cost?

    Becoming 101 exists to support awareness of the healing journey. It helps individuals recognize where they are in their own process and understand how healing unfolds gradually through awareness, reflection, and relational safety. This course exists as part of a larger movement—one that supports more compassionate responses in families, workplaces, communities, and systems by deepening shared understanding of how healing happens.

  • Do I need prior psychotherapy training?

    No. Becoming 101 is designed for registered nurses at varying stages of experience. Curiosity, openness, and professional reflection are more important than prior specialization.

  • How intensive is the learning experience?

    Becoming 101 is structured, reflective, and professionally grounded—but intentionally accessible. It is designed to fit alongside professional and personal responsibilities.

Deep Insights

“The trained nurse has become one of the great blessings of humanity, taking a place beside the physician and the priest.”

—Dr. William Osler

Professional Alignment, Ethics, and Regulation

The RN–Psychotherapist role represents an emerging area of advanced nursing practice that sits at the intersection of nursing, psychotherapy, and mental health care.

  • Why is there no formal regulatory recognition for RN–Psychotherapist programs yet?

    While nurses have long engaged in therapeutic and relational work, regulatory pathways specific to RN-led psychotherapeutic practice are still evolving. At present, no single regulatory body globally has established a dedicated framework for recognizing education programs specific to the RN–Psychotherapist role.

  • Is this program endorsed or recognized by regulators?

    No endorsement or formal recognition by any regulatory body is implied. The program is designed to align with existing professional standards, ethical guidelines, and scopes of practice, without implying approval or credential recognition. The Becoming Institute continues to engage with nursing associations and professional bodies in Canada, the United States, and internationally as recognition pathways evolve.

  • What is SEUS (Safe and Effective Use of Self)?

    SEUS—Safe and Effective Use of Self—refers to the intentional, ethical, and reflective use of the practitioner’s self within therapeutic relationships. In psychotherapeutic nursing, the nurse’s presence, responses, emotional awareness, and boundaries are not incidental—they are central to care. SEUS provides a framework for understanding how to engage relationally with clients in ways that are clinically effective, ethically contained, and aligned with professional accountability expectations across regulated care environments.

Truth Telling

“You treat a disease: you win, you lose. You treat a person, I guarantee you win—no matter the outcome.” 

—Robin Williams in Patch Adams

This work is grounded in responsibility, not credential inflation.

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