How to Vet a Therapist

Checking whether a therapist is registered is an ordinary step. The bodies that keep the registers publish them so the public can look.

Each check on this page takes a few minutes. The register lookups can be done before you make contact.

This page answers one question. Is this person registered to do this work? Whether they suit you is a different question, and it is not covered here.

Registers work differently from country to country, and the examples below name the jurisdiction they apply to.

Checking is ordinary

A registration check is not an accusation.

The Professional Standards Authority in the United Kingdom advises the public to check a practitioner's registration. The occasions it names are paying for private services, employing a practitioner, commissioning services, and holding concerns about someone.¹

Paying privately for therapy is on that list. You are entitled to look, and the details you are checking are already public.

Regulator, association, qualification

Three different things are often treated as one, and separating them is the main part of the check.

A statutory regulator licenses practitioners under the law. CORU, the Irish regulator, describes statutory registration as legally binding. Everyone wishing to practise must be registered, and practising without registration can be prosecuted.²

A professional association is something a practitioner joins. Membership may show training and accountability to that body. It is not a licence granted by the state.

A qualification is a course someone completed. It may be part of what a licence requires. On its own it is not permission to practise.

There is a middle category. In the United Kingdom, the Professional Standards Authority accredits organisations that hold registers of practitioners who are not regulated by law.³

That accreditation is a real signal, though a weaker one than statutory regulation. The regulator itself cautions that not everyone on an accredited register is a regulated professional.⁴

Protected titles, and what they do not cover

Some job titles are restricted by law to people on a register. Others sound just as official and are restricted to nobody.

The Health and Care Professions Council explains that a profession is regulated by law where the law requires certain qualifications or experience to use a protected job title.⁴ Government and parliament decide which titles those are.

In the United Kingdom, nine titles for practitioner psychologists are protected, including clinical psychologist, counselling psychologist and educational psychologist.⁴ Anyone using one of them must be on the HCPC register.

The word psychologist on its own is not protected in the United Kingdom, and neither are counsellor, psychotherapist or therapist.⁴ So a person may lawfully call themselves a therapist there without being on any statutory register. That is not dishonest in itself, but the title alone tells you very little.

Where a title is protected, misusing it is a criminal matter. Under the Health Professions Order 2001, it is an offence to falsely represent yourself as registered. It is also an offence to use a protected title you are not entitled to, or to falsely claim qualifications in a regulated profession.⁵

Overstating a qualification is therefore a wrong in its own right, treated separately from misusing a title.

How to check a registration claim

The method is the same everywhere, even though the tools differ. Take the claim, find the body that would hold the register, and look the person up there.

1. Ask which register the person is on, and under which name. A person may be registered under a different name from the one they use day to day.
2. Go to the regulator's own website. Type the address yourself rather than following a link from the practitioner's page.
3. Search the register, then read the entry. Look at the profession, the registration status and any conditions recorded.
4. If nothing comes up, check the spelling and try a broader search before drawing any conclusion.

In South Africa, the Health Professions Council keeps a public search called iRegister. It accepts a full name or a surname. There is an exact or wildcard option for when you are unsure of the spelling.⁶

That search also lets you pick the register you want, and the list includes psychologist and registered counsellor as separate categories.⁶

In the United Kingdom, the HCPC says its register can be searched online by the name of anyone currently registered.⁴

What a registration number is, and is not

A registration number is a way of looking someone up, and on its own it is not evidence of anything.

A number printed on a website or an email signature has not been checked by anyone. It means something only once you enter it in the register, and then you see whose entry comes back.

Formats differ by country and by council, and there is no single pattern to recognise. Pakistan's Allied Health Professionals Council, for instance, shows an example registration number in a REG prefixed format on its verification page.⁷

Two things are worth checking once you have an entry. Confirm the name matches the person you are speaking to. Confirm the registration is current rather than lapsed.

When the register cannot help you

Sometimes the check will not work, and knowing why keeps you from drawing the wrong conclusion.

The search needs something you do not have. Pakistan's Allied Health Professionals Council regulates psychology and counselling, which appear on its published list of disciplines.⁸ Its online verification page asks for a CNIC or NICOP number together with an official registration number. It offers no way to search by name.⁷

A member of the public who has only the practitioner's name cannot use that portal. The number then has to come from the practitioner, and you are confirming what you were given rather than searching independently.

The register does not exist yet. In Ireland, CORU does not yet hold open registers for psychologists or for counsellors and psychotherapists.² It lists both among the professions it will regulate in future, and expects to open the first three psychologist registers in 2027.⁹

Until then an Irish reader cannot check a psychologist against a statutory register, because there is not one to check. That is a gap in the system, not a fault in the practitioner.

The profession is not regulated by law where you are. The HCPC advises checking whether the person appears on an accredited voluntary register. Any concern goes to the organisation that oversees it. Where someone is neither regulated nor on a voluntary register, the HCPC points people towards their local authority, or the police in a serious case.⁴

What to ask the therapist directly

When the register cannot answer, the person can. These questions are reasonable, and the way they are received tells you something.

• Which register or professional body are you on, and under what name?
• What is your registration number?
• Is your registration current, and are there any conditions on it?
• What qualification allows you to do this work, and where did you complete it?

None of this is private information; where someone is registered, these details are already on a public register.

Evasion is worth noticing. So is a confident answer that the register does not support.

A statutory register gives you something beyond the check itself. The HCPC, for example, can act on concerns about anyone on its register. It can impose a sanction, place a condition on their practice, or remove them from the register.⁴

What TherapyRoute checks, and what it does not

We verify credentials as part of running this directory. Every listed member goes through an approval review carried out by a registered mental health professional. The review checks whether the qualifications match the professional title claimed, and whether the registration details given are valid.

Where something does not match, we follow it further. That can mean contacting professional bodies, asking for more documentation, or speaking to the applicant directly.

Members on a paid listing are screened more closely. They must supply documents supporting their professional title. Those documents are cross referenced with licensing boards or professional organisations where that is possible.

Verification is repeated rather than done once. Profiles are re-checked against licensure expiry dates, through random sampling, and at renewal.

Cross referencing depends on a register being reachable. The Irish and Pakistani examples above show that this is not always the case.

A listing on this or any directory is not a guarantee about a practitioner. It is not a substitute for the check you can run yourself. We cannot monitor anyone in real time, and a person's circumstances can change between reviews.

Frequently asked questions

Are online therapists checked any differently?

No. Registration attaches to the person, not to the website or platform they appear on. Run the same check on the individual you would be seeing.

Is a qualification enough on its own?

Not where the profession is regulated. In those places the law asks for qualifications and registration, and a completed course does not replace being on the register.

Is an unprotected title a red flag?

Not in itself. The other checks then matter more: a voluntary register, the qualification behind the title, and a direct conversation about training.

What if I check and the person is not registered?

Ask them about it first, because names on registers differ and mistakes happen. If the answer does not match the register, and they are using a protected title, the regulator will want to know.

Where do I go from here?

Once you are satisfied a practitioner is who they claim to be, the remaining question is fit. Our guide on how to find the right therapist covers choosing between practitioners, approaches and fees.

This article is for general information and is not a substitute for professional assessment or care. If this is affecting your life, consider reaching out to a qualified mental health professional.

References

1. [1] Professional Standards Authority, 'Check a Practitioner' professionalstandards.org.uk/practitioners.
2. [2] CORU (Health and Social Care Professionals Council, Ireland), 'Public Information' coru.ie/public-protection/public-information.
3. [3] Professional Standards Authority, 'Our work with Accredited Registers' professionalstandards.org.uk.
4. [4] Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), 'Understanding the regulation of psychologists', 16 January 2023 hcpc-uk.org.
5. [5] Health Professions Order 2001 (S.I. 2002/254), article 39 (Offences), legislation.gov.uk legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2002/254/article/39.
6. [6] Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA), iRegister practitioner search hpcsaonline.custhelp.com/app/i_reg_form.
7. [7] Allied Health Professionals Council (Pakistan), on-line Verification portal accounts.ahpc.org.pk/verification.
8. [8] Allied Health Professionals Council (Pakistan), 'Our Disciplines' ahpc.org.pk/our-disciplines.html.
9. [9] CORU, Psychologists Registration Board, 'Statutory Regulation of Psychologists' coru.ie.