Mental Health Licensing & Regulation in Hong Kong: 2026 Guide

If you are seeing a psychiatrist, psychologist or counsellor in Hong Kong, or choosing one for yourself or a family member, it helps to know who is on an official register and who is not. The answer is different for doctors than it is for psychologists, and knowing that difference tells you what you can and cannot check.

How practitioners are regulated in Hong Kong, in short

Hong Kong regulates health professionals through statutory boards and councils. These are independent statutory bodies established under the relevant ordinances,¹ and practitioners in each profession register with their own board or council. The Medical Council of Hong Kong registers doctors.

Doctors and psychiatrists

A psychiatrist in Hong Kong is first a doctor. To practise medicine, surgery or midwifery in Hong Kong, a person must apply to register with the Medical Council. There are five registration categories under the General Register:² full, provisional, limited, temporary and special registration.

You can look a name up yourself. The Council maintains registration records and makes them publicly available. It publishes the names on the General Register and on the Specialist Register, each appearing on the Council's website and in the Government Gazette.² A psychiatrist should therefore appear on the Medical Council's register, and a specialist in psychiatry on its Specialist Register.

Which healthcare professions are on a statutory register

The Department of Health lists twelve healthcare professions that must be registered with their own boards or councils before they may practise in Hong Kong. Alongside medical practitioners, the list covers dentists, pharmacists, nurses, midwives, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, radiographers, medical laboratory technologists, optometrists and chiropractors, as well as Chinese medicine practitioners.¹

The government scheme that accredits professional bodies

The government runs an Accredited Registers Scheme for healthcare professions, known as the AR Scheme, under which professional bodies that keep their own registers can be accredited.

A body accredited under the scheme must be committed to a defined set of requirements, among them public protection, governance, risk management, the establishment of standards for registrants, effective management of the registers, education and training, and the management of complaints.³

A fully accredited body must undergo a Mid-cycle Review at the end of its second year, and Re-accreditation Surveys every four years in order to maintain the accreditation.³

The Hong Kong Institute of Clinical Psychologists and the Hong Kong Association of Educational Psychologists were re-accredited under the AR Scheme, as announced on 10 April 2025.⁴

What this means for psychologists and counsellors

Clinical psychologists, counsellors and psychotherapists are not among the twelve healthcare professions that must be registered with a statutory board in Hong Kong.¹ The Accredited Registers Scheme accredits professional bodies, not individual practitioners.

A psychologist or counsellor can still hold qualifications and a professional registration; the difference is where you look for them. The automatic, statutory check that exists for a doctor does not exist for a psychologist.

• The Accredited Registers Scheme publishes the list of bodies it has accredited, so you can check that list yourself.
• The Hong Kong Institute of Clinical Psychologists is one of the accredited bodies. For a clinical psychologist, you can ask whether they are on the register it keeps, or which accredited body holds their registration.
• The Hong Kong Psychological Society, founded in 1968, describes itself as both a learned society and a professional association of all specialties of psychology in Hong Kong, and has four divisions: clinical, educational, counselling, and industrial-organisational psychology. It has run its own registration system since 1993, registering members as Registered Psychologist, Registered Clinical Psychologist, Registered Educational Psychologist, Registered Counselling Psychologist or Registered Industrial-Organizational Psychologist, and states that the names of all Registered Psychologists are listed on its website for public checking.⁶

Where a healthcare profession has no statutory register, it is mostly regulated through the professional body's own registration system. The body publishes a membership list, and the public can use it to identify practitioners. This is voluntary, society-based registration.

Registered social workers

If the person you are seeing is a registered social worker, there is a public register you can check. Social workers are not on the Department of Health's list of twelve healthcare professions, but they do have a statutory register of their own. Under section 16(1) of the Social Workers Registration Ordinance, the Social Workers Registration Board maintains a Register of Registered Social Workers. It is kept in two parts, Part I for Category 1 and Part II for Category 2. As at 31 July 2026 the register held 29,935 registered social workers.⁵ The list published on the Board's website gives names, registration numbers and the expiry dates of current registration, so any member of the public can check whether a person is registered. The Register can also be inspected in person, free of charge, at the Board's office during office hours.

Quick reference

The practical rule in Hong Kong is that what you can check depends on which kind of practitioner it is. With a psychologist or counsellor, ask about their qualifications and training, and about which professional body holds their registration. You can also browse therapists in Hong Kong on TherapyRoute, or read our guide to finding the right therapist.

Team TherapyRoute

References

1. [1] Hong Kong Department of Health - Registration of Healthcare Professionals: various healthcare professionals must be registered with their respective statutory boards or councils before practising; the twelve registered professions are medical practitioners, Chinese medicine practitioners, dentists, pharmacists, nurses, midwives, medical laboratory technologists, occupational therapists, optometrists, radiographers, physiotherapists and chiropractors (psychologists/counsellors are not among the statutorily registered professions). dh.gov.hk/english/main/main_rhp/main_rhp.html.
2. [2] Medical Council of Hong Kong - registration requirements: any person wishing to practise medicine, surgery or midwifery in Hong Kong must apply for registration with the Medical Council; there are five registration categories under the General Register; the Council maintains the register and publishes the General Register and Specialist Register on its website and in the Government Gazette. mchk.org.hk.
3. [3] Accredited Registers Scheme for Healthcare Professions (Hong Kong Government, ars.gov.hk) — Accredited Healthcare Professional Bodies: what an accredited body must commit to (public protection, governance, risk management, standards for registrants, effective management of the registers, education and training, management of complaints), and the requirement to undergo a Mid-cycle Review at the end of the second year and Re-accreditation Surveys every four years. ars.gov.hk/en/accr_pro_bodies.html.
4. [4] Accredited Registers Scheme for Healthcare Professions (Hong Kong Government), homepage news and About AR Scheme. Records that the Hong Kong Association of Educational Psychologists and the Hong Kong Institute of Clinical Psychologists were re-accredited under the AR Scheme on 10 April 2025, and states that healthcare professionals not subject to statutory registration are regulated through voluntary, society-based registration under the principle of professional autonomy. ars.gov.hk/en/index.html.
5. [5] Social Workers Registration Board. List of Registered Social Workers. swrb.org.hk/en/Search.asp.
6. [6] The Hong Kong Psychological Society - About Us and Professional Registration: the Society (founded 1968) describes itself as both a learned society and a professional association of all specialties of psychology in Hong Kong, with Divisions of Clinical Psychology, Educational Psychology, Counselling Psychology and Industrial-Organizational Psychology; "In 1993, HKPS took up the responsibility to register and publicise Members who are qualified to practise as psychologists", with the registration categories RP(HKPS), RCP(HKPS), REP(HKPS), RCoP(HKPS) and RIOP(HKPS), and "Names of all Registered Psychologists are listed in the Society's website for public checking." hkps.org.hk/en/membership/professional_registration/.