Choose Your Path
3-Day Becoming Method® Intensive Training
RN-Psychotherapist Program
🕒 6–8 Months
On-line + Live 3-Day Intensive
For Registered Nurses including NPs, CNSs & PSWs
Apply NowTrauma Recovery Certificate Program
🕒 6–8 Months
On-line + Live 3-Day Intensive
For Registered Nurses including NPs, CNSs & PSWs
Apply Now
Controlled Act of Psychotherapy
Some forms of psychotherapy are legally restricted because they involve higher levels of clinical risk and vulnerability.
When psychotherapy constitutes a controlled or restricted act, it must be performed only by practitioners who are appropriately prepared, authorized, and accountable—according to provincial regulation.
The Controlled Act of Psychotherapy
In Canada, certain health care activities are designated as controlled or restricted acts because they involve a higher degree of clinical risk, vulnerability, or potential for harm if performed without appropriate competence and oversight. These restrictions exist to protect the public, not to limit professional contribution.
A controlled or restricted act is not defined by a single technique, intervention, or professional designation. Instead, it is determined by the nature of the activity, the level of risk involved, and the impact on the client or patient.
In some provinces, psychotherapy may constitute a controlled or restricted act when it involves the treatment of serious disturbance, impairment, or vulnerability through psychotherapeutic means. Whether this threshold is met depends on several factors, including:
Not all therapeutic conversations, counselling, or relational support constitute psychotherapy as a controlled or restricted act.
Controlled and restricted acts exist to ensure that health care activities involving greater clinical risk and vulnerability are performed only by practitioners who have the appropriate preparation, authority, and accountability to protect the public.
Specifically, these activities are restricted to practitioners who are:
They exist to ensure the safety of clients or patients experiencing significant psychological distress, impaired functioning, or heightened vulnerability.
Nurses across Canada routinely provide therapeutic, relational, and trauma-informed care as part of nursing practice. Much of this work falls well within nursing scope and is foundational to safe, ethical care.
However, when care begins to approach the treatment of serious psychological disturbance through psychotherapeutic means, nurses carry specific professional responsibilities. These include the responsibility to:
The Controlled Act of Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy encompasses a wide range of modalities and theoretical orientations. While these approaches may differ in structure, theory, and technique, they share a common foundation in core therapeutic skills, including the development of a therapeutic alliance, clinical attunement, and reflective practice.
Contemporary nursing scholarship recognizes that psychotherapeutic practice exists along a continuum of structured and unstructured approaches, rather than as isolated or mutually exclusive methods. As nurses develop advanced competence through education, supervised practice, consultation, and clinical experience, they may draw from multiple modalities in a thoughtful and integrated way.
Common examples and elements
Common examples and elements
Core elements (applies across modalities)
The Controlled Act of Psychotherapy
The following activities are recognized components of nursing practice and do not, on their own, constitute psychotherapy, even though they may involve therapeutic communication, emotional support, or relational engagement.
In Canada, there is no single, nationally mandated education pathway that authorizes nurses to perform psychotherapy when it constitutes a controlled or restricted act. Instead, requirements are determined by provincial legislation, regulatory colleges, and the nature of the work being performed.
What matters is not the professional title alone, but whether a nurse is engaging in the treatment of serious psychological disturbance through psychotherapeutic means, as defined under provincial law.
At minimum, a nurse must:
These foundations support therapeutic nursing practice but do not on their own authorize the controlled act of psychotherapy.
There is no single nationally mandated credential that authorizes psychotherapy practice for nurses in Canada.
Educational expectations vary based on:
Where practice approaches psychotherapy, advanced and structured psychotherapy education—often at the post-graduate level—is typically required.
When nursing work moves toward psychotherapy, regulators expect education that includes:
This reflects public-protection principles, not professional exclusion.
No. Education and authorization are not the same.
Completing psychotherapy education:
Authorization depends on:
This distinction is emphasized by both the College of Nurses of Ontario and the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario, within the framework of the Regulated Health Professions Act.
No. Many nurses pursue psychotherapy-specific education as an extension of nursing practice, not a departure from it.
Ethical pathways may include:
What matters is clarity of scope, competence, and accountability.
Several documents inform psychiatric mental health and psychotherapeutic nursing in Canada. View these resources as often as you need to support your entry into the field of psychotherapy.
Receive regulatory updates, new learning resources, and RN–Psychotherapist program news—delivered to your inbox.
Get the guide to explore certification pathways, part-time workshops and learning outcomes.
