Mental Health Licensing & Regulation in the UAE: 2025 Guide

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The short answer: who licenses whom in the UAE

The UAE does not have one mental health regulator. Each emirate runs its own health authority. Dubai and Abu Dhabi also run social care authorities. Clinical psychology sits with the health side, and non-clinical psychology and counselling sit with the social care side.

That fork decides everything downstream. Which degree counts, which experience threshold applies, and how a client checks you.

What "DHA licensed psychologist" means in Dubai

In Dubai that phrase needs a second look.

The PQR's psychology section carries a note for Dubai. DHA licenses the Specialized Psychologist titles there. Those cover Addiction Psychology, Clinical Psychology, Forensic Psychology, Health Psychology, Neuropsychology, Rehabilitation Psychology and Clinical Psychopharmacology.³

Anyone wanting another specialisation, or the plain title Psychologist, applies to the CDA instead.³ So in Dubai a clinical psychologist holds a DHA licence. A person licensed as a Psychologist may hold a CDA one.

Same word, two regulators, two sets of requirements.

Requirements by route: the thresholds, checked

We checked three much-quoted thresholds against the regulator's own current text. Two are real. One is upside down.

One footnote catches people out. Where the bachelor's ran a three-year course, the PQR asks for three (3) years of experience in a related field.⁷

The CDA also licenses Social Workers, Behavioural Analysts, Assistant Behavioural Analysts and Special Education Teachers.⁵ Those routes sit outside this page.

The 3,000 hours are the wrong way round in most retellings

If you have been told that a provisional licence in Abu Dhabi needs 3,000 hours, read DCD's own standard: the opposite is true.

The 3,000 hours belong to the professional licence. On the provisional row, practical experience is not required.⁶ What the provisional licence asks for is a bachelor's degree in psychology, in one of the areas of specialisation DCD lists.

The provisional licence exists so that you can build those hours. DCD's own definition says so. It is granted on part of the requirements, such as the educational qualification only, and it lets a person practise under supervision by a professional licence holder while they work towards one themselves.⁹

The supervision is onsite, by someone holding an active DCD professional licence.¹⁰ The provisional licence runs 24 months and can be renewed only once.

Hours only count if they qualify. DCD asks that the experience be relevant to the profession and licence type, carried out in a relevant setting, and recognised in a formal contractual employment arrangement.¹¹

Moving from provisional to professional needs evidence of the supervision too. Your supervisor must have been practising as a licensed professional for not less than 3 years, which DCD equates to 4,500 hours of practice under the licence.¹¹

The one year in Dubai is real, and it is easy to miss

The CDA's per-profession requirements list only degrees. The experience minimum is not there. It sits one article earlier, in the general licensing requirements.

Article 7 of the CDA's 2011 implementing bylaw asks for at least one (1) year of work experience in the social work profession being practised.⁸ That is a general condition. It applies to every social work profession on the CDA's list, not to one category.

The same article asks for three more things. You must pass the theoretical and practical tests, or the training courses, accredited by the CDA. You must work through a social work establishment the CDA licenses, and practise full time.⁸

So the answer is yes: one year, whichever CDA category you apply under.

Two versions of the CDA degree rules circulate. Use the 2020 one

Article 8 of Administrative Resolution No. (9) of 2020 sets out the qualifications and experience required for each social care profession.⁵

The degrees in the table above come from the 2020 text.

The master's plus two years is real, with a doctorate discount

The PQR's psychology section confirms it. A bachelor's in psychology plus a master's of at least two (2) years in a listed specialty needs two (2) years of experience after qualifying.⁷

Swap the master's for a doctoral degree in a listed specialty. The requirement drops to one (1) year of experience in a related field.⁷

Two terms that do not cross over

Abu Dhabi's DCD licenses a Psychologist (Non-Clinical).⁶ Dubai's CDA licenses a Psychologist, plain.⁵ Do not read one emirate's category into the other.

And the CDA's own list carries no marriage and family therapist category. The social care professions in the 2020 text are Social Counsellor, Social Worker, Social Therapist and Special Education Teacher. Social Therapist covers Behavioural Analyst, Assistant Behavioural Analyst, Psychologist and Assistant Psychologist.⁵

If you want couples or family work in Dubai, ask which of those titles the person's licence carries.

What the PQR is, and which edition we read

PQR stands for Unified Healthcare Professional Qualification Requirements. It is one qualification standard, and it governs licensure recognition among the health authorities in the UAE.¹²

It sets the title a person can be licensed under, and the degree and experience each title needs. The psychology titles are in section 18.32.

The edition read for this page is the April 2025 PQR, named in the reference list below.¹² Editions move, so check with the authority that licenses your title for a newer one before you rely on a threshold here.

The PQR carries a recognition rule worth knowing. Meet its requirements and you are eligible for exemption from the examination, as long as you have not used up the permitted attempts at that title. You still need a valid licence from one of the authorities, a good standing certificate, and a full primary source verification report.¹²

One line cuts the other way. If one health authority suspends or revokes your licence, the other authorities where you are licensed apply the same decision.¹²

You also carry your title across, not up. You are granted the same title you held before, if it is listed in the PQR, and a higher or lower title means meeting that title's requirements.¹²

The licensing route, step by step

The health route: DHA in Dubai

DHA's own licensing manual sets out the steps.

1. Create a Sheryan account and do the self-assessment.¹³
2. Meet the PQR requirements for the title you want. That means the qualification, the clinical experience, a licence from your home country, and a good standing certificate from the country where you practised.¹³
3. Obtain a positive primary source verification result.¹³
4. Pass the assessment the PQR sets for your title. It is a computer-based test or an oral one, and the oral step is carried out after the registration application.¹³
5. Receive your professional registration certificate.¹³

Two things sit alongside that list. DHA's Health Licensing Department reviews whether you are eligible for the title you applied for. And you are responsible for declaring any disciplinary action against you, proven or in process, when you submit.¹³

Where you work is regulated too. Dubai's 2012 decree says no person may practise professionally in the emirate without a licence permit from the Dubai Health Authority.¹⁴ Federal law prohibits a health professional from practising in an unlicensed place, apart from cases the executive regulations set out.¹⁵

One carve-out matters. The 2012 decree applies to non-governmental health facilities and their professionals in Dubai, including the free zones and the Dubai International Financial Centre. Dubai Healthcare City is excluded from it, under a separate 2011 law.¹⁴

The social care route: CDA in Dubai

Article 9 of the 2011 implementing bylaw says an application for a licence to practise a social work profession is submitted to the Department on the relevant form approved by the Department.¹⁷ The bylaw defines the Department as the CDA's Social Sector Regulatory and Licensing Department.¹⁶ The bylaw lists what must come with the form.

• A valid passport. UAE nationals add the family book, and everyone else adds a valid residence permit.¹⁷
• Your résumé.
• Copies of your academic and work experience certificates, attested by the competent entities. A body the CDA recognises must also certify that those qualifications and that experience are genuine.¹⁷
• A certificate of good conduct issued by the competent entities in the emirate.¹⁷

Being licensed is not the whole of it. No person may practise a social work profession in Dubai unless they are licensed by the CDA and registered on the Roll, hold a valid licence, and practise through a CDA-licensed social work establishment.⁴

Licences run two (2) years and renew for the same period. The renewal application goes in at least one (1) month before the licence expires.⁴

Renewal asks for more than a fee. You must actually be working for a CDA-licensed establishment, if you are not a UAE national, hold a valid UAE work permit sponsored by it, practise full time, and give the CDA a report summarising the work and activities you did during the previous licensing period.¹⁷

The social care route: DCD in Abu Dhabi

Your degree has to come from the right place. DCD asks for a recognised educational institution and a nationally accredited programme.¹⁸

Qualifications earned outside the country must be attested and equalised by the relevant regulatory bodies.¹⁸

Then the hours, on the terms set out above. Renewal asks for 20 hours of CPD a year, which DCD counts as 40 hours across the licence cycle.⁶

What each licence lets a person do

Scope is where the fork stops being administrative. It changes what the person in the room may do.

The social care side

Abu Dhabi's DCD gives the clearest definition we found. A Psychologist (Non-Clinical) helps people with psychological, emotional and behavioural problems, without the capacity of prescribing medication.⁹

DCD places the work outside a medical setting. The professional evaluates the problems a person faces, then develops and administers non-medical treatment plans to help them cope.⁹

Dubai's CDA does not draw the line the same way in what we hold. Its bylaw defines the social work profession itself, broadly: welfare work with individuals and groups, studying their circumstances, rehabilitating them, and providing therapy.¹⁶

So a Dubai social care licence does include therapy on the bylaw's own wording. Where the boundary runs between that and a health authority's clinical psychology licence, we could not confirm.

The health side

Federal law sets one hard scope rule for health professions. A licensed practitioner may not carry out a function beyond their own functions or the licence granted to them.¹⁵ The only exception is a case that requires immediate intervention to save life.

Three more prohibitions sit next to it. A health professional may not practise in an unlicensed place, may not market themselves directly or through an intermediary, and may not disclose what a patient tells them.¹⁵ Each carries exceptions set out in the executive regulations or the law in force.

Psychiatry

Psychiatrists are doctors, and medicine has its own federal law. Under it, a physician practises within the scope of their own licence and the licence of the health facility where they work.¹⁹

The federal mental health law adds something only psychiatrists hold. Compulsory admission for treatment rests on a decision by two psychiatrists, one of them in the same mental health facility, and the facility's administration must be notified within 24 hours.²⁰

That decision has conditions. There must be clear indications of a severe psychiatric disorder posing a threat to the person or to others, and admission must be necessary for their recovery or to stop their condition deteriorating.²⁰

Psychiatric health services themselves may not be provided without a licence from the health authority.²¹

Prescribing: what we will and will not say

Plenty of pages say a psychiatrist has full medical authority to prescribe. We did not find a UAE statute in our sources that sets out who may prescribe. So we do not state one.

What we can say is narrower, and it comes from Abu Dhabi. DCD's definition of a Psychologist (Non-Clinical) says the work is done without the capacity of prescribing medication.⁹

That is a scope line for one category in one emirate. It is not a UAE-wide prescribing rule, and we will not dress it up as one.

Practising without a licence, and holding yourself out

This is often described as title protection. Reading the instruments, that is not quite the mechanism. What the law we hold restricts is the licensed activity, not the word on the door.

Federal law says no person may practise a health profession unless licensed by the health authority.²² Dubai's 2012 decree says the same for the emirate.

Dubai's social care bylaw goes one step further. No person may practise a social work profession, or hold themselves out in any way to be a Professional, unless licensed by the CDA and registered on the Roll.⁴

That holding-out rule is the closest thing to title protection in what we read.

The penalties

Federal Law No. 6 of 2023 carries the numbers. Practising a health profession without the licence draws imprisonment, a fine, or both. The fine runs from AED 50,000 to AED 100,000.²³

The same band covers two more things. Obtaining a licence on invalid documents or by unlawful methods. And using leaflets, a billboard, signage or any means of publication that leads the public to believe a person is licensed when they are not.²³

Where the licence was won on invalid documents, a conviction is followed by revoking it and removing the name from the register of practitioners. The court may also order the premises closed.²³

Checking a licence, and what to do if something goes wrong

Start with the fork. It tells you which register to look in.

Both sides are required by law to keep one. Dubai's 2012 decree tells DHA to create a database of the names of the professionals and facilities in the emirate and their professions.² The CDA's bylaw creates the Roll, a register of licensed professionals kept on paper or electronically.¹⁶

We will not link a public search page we could not confirm from a primary source. What we can give you is the check itself.

• Ask for the licence title, not just the word psychologist. The regulators' own titles are in the table above.
• Match the title to the regulator. In Dubai, a clinical psychology licence is a DHA Specialized Psychologist licence, and a plain Psychologist licence is a CDA one.
• Ask for the licence number and the expiry date. CDA licences run two years, DCD licences run 24 months.
• Search that number on the licensing authority's own website. A screenshot is not a check.
• If the person holds a DCD provisional licence, ask who supervises them onsite. Supervision is part of that licence.
• If the person is a psychometrist or an assistant psychologist, they practise under a licensed psychologist. Ask who that is.

Complaints follow the same fork

In Dubai, the 2012 decree gives DHA the job of receiving medical complaints about healthcare professionals and facilities. DHA forms the medical committee and presents recommendations to it, then implements the committee's decisions by applying penalties to offenders.²

For a CDA-licensed professional, we could not confirm a complaint channel from the instruments we hold. Take it to the CDA and ask for its process rather than trusting a route we cannot show you.

Where the person is not licensed at all, that is the federal offence set out above, with the penalties that go with it.

If someone you care about is in a mental health facility

The federal mental health law gives people admitted to a facility rights you can hold it to. Among them is a full explanation of those rights, in a way they understand, immediately on entering. That includes the right to file a grievance. The article's wording extends to their representative where the patient is unable to understand the explanation.²⁴

The law also protects their dignity, their privacy and their belongings, and the confidentiality of their information. Restrictions on their civil rights are allowed only where needed to protect them or others, or under a judicial ruling.²⁴

Choosing well in a fragmented system

A split system tempts people into a ranking. It is easy to hear "health authority" as senior and "social care authority" as junior. That is not what the fork means.

The two sides license different work. A person on the social care side in Dubai may hold a master's in psychology and a CDA licence. A person on the health side holds a specialisation and a health licence. Neither is a grade.

Match the licence to what you need, not to whichever acronym sounds more medical. Some steers, from a directory run by clinicians:

• Ask directly whether the work you want sits inside the person's licensed scope. On the health side, working beyond the licence is prohibited by federal law.
• In Abu Dhabi, a provisional licence is a legitimate stage rather than a warning sign. It comes with onsite supervision built into it. Ask who the supervisor is.
• A renewed CDA licence tells you something real. The CDA looked at a report of that person's work for the previous licensing period before renewing it.
• Ask about language before the first session. We found no language requirement in the licensing instruments we read, which makes it a question for the practitioner rather than the regulator.

Red flags, in plain terms

• No licence title or number offered. Both sides run registers, so there is nothing to protect by withholding it.
• A title and a regulator that do not fit each other. If someone says DHA and Psychologist plain, in Dubai, ask to see the licence.
• Claims that reach past the licence. On the health side that is prohibited, with an exception only for immediate intervention to save life.
• An expired licence, or one that cannot be produced at all.
• Advertising built to make you believe someone is licensed when they are not. Federal law puts that in the same penalty band as unlicensed practice.

If you are looking for a therapist, our own directory is where we point people. Our guide on how to find the right therapist covers the rest of the decision.

What this page could not confirm

A licensing page is only worth what stands behind it. Here is what does not.

• A Sharjah picture. We hold no Sharjah instrument of its own, so we have not built a Sharjah row.
• A DOH Abu Dhabi document. We did not reach a DOH scope or category document, so this page carries no DOH-specific requirement.
• Licence terms on the health side. The PQR gave us titles, degrees and experience. It did not tell us how long a licence runs.
• Dubai's scope boundary. Abu Dhabi's DCD defines its non-clinical psychologist clearly. We found no equivalent line in English drawing CDA's territory against DHA's.
• Who may prescribe. No statute we hold sets it out for the UAE.
• A CDA complaint channel. The bylaw we read does not name one.
• A language requirement. None appears in the instruments we read.
• Public register search pages. The registers exist in law. We could not confirm a public search page for each, so we have linked none.
• The Dubai Healthcare City law. The 2012 decree excludes DHCC under a separate 2011 law that we did not read.
• The Arabic originals. The Dubai instruments we cite are official English translations. We did not check them against the Arabic.
• One federal definitions table. An English text we checked misaligns its own definitions. We left those definitions out and used the medical and health profession laws instead.

Everything above comes from the editions named in the references: the April 2025 PQR, DCD's second-edition standards dated 2025, DHA's licensing manual dated 20 November 2024, and the Dubai and federal instruments as published. Requirements move between editions. Check with the authority that licenses your title before you rely on a number here.

This page is for information. It is not legal advice, and it is not clinical advice.

Team TherapyRoute

References

1. [1] UAE Federal Law No. 6 of 2023 on the Practice of Some Medical Professions by Persons Other Than Physicians and Pharmacists, art. 1 (Definitions) uaelegislation.gov.ae.
2. [2] Dubai Decree of the Executive Council No. 32 of 2012 Concerning the Regulation of Practicing Health Professions in the Emirate of Dubai, art. 7 dha.gov.ae.
3. [3] MOHAP/DOH/DHA/SHA, Unified Healthcare Professional Qualification Requirements (PQR), April 2025, s. 18.32 (Psychology), note on the Emirate of Dubai services.dha.gov.ae.
4. [4] Community Development Authority (Dubai), Administrative Resolution No. (39) of 2011 Issuing the Implementing Bylaw of Executive Council Resolution No. (20) of 2011 Regulating Social Work Professions in the Emirate of Dubai, Article (5) (The Roll) and Article (6) (Practice of Social Work Professions) dlp.dubai.gov.ae.
5. [5] Community Development Authority (Dubai), Administrative Resolution No. (9) of 2020 Amending Administrative Resolution No. (39) of 2011 Issuing the Implementing Bylaw of Executive Council Resolution No. (20) of 2011 Regulating Social Care Professions in the Emirate of Dubai, Article (8) (Particular Licensing Requirements) dlp.dubai.gov.ae.
6. [6] Department of Community Development (Abu Dhabi), DCD Standards for Education & Practical Experience (Second Edition, 2025, DCD.FMY.STS.02), Clause 9.2 (Psychologist (Non-Clinical)) addcd.gov.ae.
7. [7] MOHAP/DOH/DHA/SHA, Unified Healthcare Professional Qualification Requirements (PQR), April 2025, s. 18.32 (Psychology) services.dha.gov.ae.
8. [8] Community Development Authority (Dubai), Administrative Resolution No. (39) of 2011 Issuing the Implementing Bylaw of Executive Council Resolution No. (20) of 2011 Regulating Social Work Professions in the Emirate of Dubai, Article (7) (General Licensing Requirements) dlp.dubai.gov.ae.
9. [9] Department of Community Development (Abu Dhabi), DCD Standards for Education & Practical Experience (Second Edition, 2025, DCD.FMY.STS.02), Chapter 1 (Definitions), Clause 1.1 addcd.gov.ae.
10. [10] Department of Community Development (Abu Dhabi), DCD Standards for Education & Practical Experience (Second Edition, 2025, DCD.FMY.STS.02), Clause 8.1 (Applicability of the Social Care Professional Licensing Education and Practical Experience Requirements) addcd.gov.ae.
11. [11] Department of Community Development (Abu Dhabi), DCD Standards for Education & Practical Experience (Second Edition, 2025, DCD.FMY.STS.02), Clause 5 (Practical Experience) addcd.gov.ae.
12. [12] MOHAP/DOH/DHA/SHA, Unified Healthcare Professional Qualification Requirements (PQR), April 2025, s. 3 (Licensure Recognition among the Authorities) services.dha.gov.ae.
13. [13] Dubai Health Authority, Manual for Licensing Healthcare Professionals, version 1.1 (20 November 2024), rules 5.3-5.6 dha.gov.ae.
14. [14] Dubai Decree of the Executive Council No. 32 of 2012 Concerning the Regulation of Practicing Health Professions in the Emirate of Dubai, arts. 2-4 dha.gov.ae.
15. [15] UAE Federal Law No. 6 of 2023 on the Practice of Some Medical Professions by Persons Other Than Physicians and Pharmacists, art. 12 (Prohibitions) uaelegislation.gov.ae.
16. [16] Community Development Authority (Dubai), Administrative Resolution No. (39) of 2011 Issuing the Implementing Bylaw of Executive Council Resolution No. (20) of 2011 Regulating Social Work Professions in the Emirate of Dubai, Article (2) (Definitions) dlp.dubai.gov.ae.
17. [17] Community Development Authority (Dubai), Administrative Resolution No. (39) of 2011 Issuing the Implementing Bylaw of Executive Council Resolution No. (20) of 2011 Regulating Social Work Professions in the Emirate of Dubai, Article (9) (New Licence Application Mandatory Attachments) and Article (10) (Licence Renewal Requirements) dlp.dubai.gov.ae.
18. [18] Department of Community Development (Abu Dhabi), DCD Standards for Education & Practical Experience (Second Edition, 2025, DCD.FMY.STS.02), Clause 4 (Educational Qualifications) addcd.gov.ae.
19. [19] UAE Federal Law No. 5 of 2019 Regulating the Practice of the Medical Profession, arts. 23-24 uaelegislation.gov.ae.
20. [20] UAE Federal Law No. 10 of 2023 on Mental Health, arts. 22-23 uaelegislation.gov.ae.
21. [21] UAE Federal Law No. 10 of 2023 on Mental Health, arts. 4-6 uaelegislation.gov.ae.
22. [22] UAE Federal Law No. 6 of 2023 on the Practice of Some Medical Professions by Persons Other Than Physicians and Pharmacists, arts. 4-5 uaelegislation.gov.ae.
23. [23] UAE Federal Law No. 6 of 2023 on the Practice of Some Medical Professions by Persons Other Than Physicians and Pharmacists, art. 16 uaelegislation.gov.ae.
24. [24] UAE Federal Law No. 10 of 2023 on Mental Health, art. 9 (General Rights) uaelegislation.gov.ae.