At a time when people by the millions are abandoning conventional treatments for emotional, mental and physical issues of life in favor of dignified, effective alternatives, the ability of Ontario practitioners to lawfully offer alternative and natural therapies such as hypnotherapy, counseling, EFT, NLP and spiritual ministering will end in the fall of 2014 if serious action is not immediately undertaken.

Anyone who is not a registered psychotherapist and who provides any sort of verbal or non-verbal therapy or counseling for emotional, behavioral and cognitive issues and especially those who do not sport a Master’s degree or an equivalent, including clergy, hypnotherapy, EFT, EMDR, Reiki and NLP practitioners are severely affected.

The current legislation deems that only psychotherapists can determine and treat ‘any thought, cognition, mood, emotional regulation, perception or memory issue’.  Further they alone will determine what may seriously impair the individual’s judgment, insight, behaviour, communication or social functioning!

The definition of ‘seriously’  and ‘disturbance’ is left to the psychotherapist.  Worse still is the fact that psychotherapy is defined as a ‘general term’ for essentially ‘psychological’ interventions.  And therefore, psychotherapeutic techniques are not defined, allowing psychotherapists to appropriate whatever ‘techniques’ they wish from other modalities of treatment and call them ‘psychotherapeutic’.  Please see the Information Tab for discussions on the issues around a psychological intervention casting such a wide net over all treatments, when they should in fact be regulated by the already existing Psychological Act.

Background of Psychotherapy Takeover of Healing Treatments

In 2009, the Psychology Act (2007) was amended under a huge Omnibus Bill 171, Section Q.  The Transitional Council of the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario (CRPO) was established with the background support of the Canadian Society of Clinical Hypnosis, a society whose membership is open only to licensed health care professionals (psychiatrists, nurses, psychologists, etc).

The CSCH is adamant that the provision of hypnosis treatments for example, be restricted to licensed professions. As described in the legislation below, practically any natural human reaction to life’s bumps and bruises can be referred to as a ‘disturbance’ and the assessment and treatment of this ‘disturbance’, a ‘controlled act of psychotherapy’, through psychotherapy techniques as prescribed by the College of Psychotherapy.

THE ASSESSMENT AND TREATMENT OF A ‘DISTURBANCE’ IS AN ACT OF ASSESSMENT AND TREATMENT, NOT AN ACT OF PSYCHOTHERAPY.  Psychotherapy is only one assessment and treatment approach!

It would seem that the law seeks to give psychotherapy legitimacy it does not have on its own and in fact, seeks to define a therapy previously undefined but understood to be psychiatry without drugs and electroshock.

Bill 171 – Schedule R – Psychotherapy Act, 2007, amended 2009

This Schedule adds that “treatment, delivered through a therapeutic relationship, of an individual’s serious disorder of thought, cognition, mood, emotional regulation, perception or memory that may seriously impair the individual’s judgment, insight, behaviour, communication or social functioning” is the new controlled act of psychotherapy and this is added to the existing list of 13 controlled acts within subsection 27 (2) of the RHPA (Regulated Health Professions Act).

The definitions of ‘serious’, ‘impairment’ and so on are left to the discretion of the College of Psychotherapy; the treatment for same can only be that deemed acceptable to the College despite the fact that many treatments are effective and acceptable to the public while not being deemed acceptable to the College which adheres strictly to conventional psychiatric paradigms and psychological theories.

The all-encompassing term ‘therapeutic’ ensures that the College can cast a net over all interventions undertaken to assist another in healing or in maintaining their health and wellness, as this is the definition of ‘therapeutic’.Even the highly effective hypnotherapeutic treatment of chronic pain and Irritable Bowel Syndrome will now be regulated by the College of Psychotherapy, as all of these involve some emotional, cognitive and behavioral component.

Psychotherapy Act, 2007, s. 3, 4, 10.

Scope of practice

3.   The practice of psychotherapy is the assessment and treatment of cognitive, emotional or behavioural disturbances by psychotherapeutic means, delivered through a therapeutic relationship based primarily on verbal or non-verbal communication. 2007, c. 10, Sched. R, s. 3.

Authorized Act

4.   In the course of engaging in the practice of psychotherapy, a member is authorized, subject to the terms, conditions and limitations imposed on his or her certificate of registration, to treat, by means of psychotherapy technique delivered through a therapeutic relationship, an individual’s serious disorder of thought, cognition, mood, emotional regulation, perception or memory that may seriously impair the individual’s judgement, insight, behaviour, communication or social functioning. 2007, c. 10, Sched. R, s. 4.
5.   Every person who contravenes subsection 8 (1) or (2) is guilty of an offence and on conviction is liable to a fine of not more than $25,000 for a first offence and not more than $50,000 for a second or subsequent offence. 2007, c. 10, Sched. R, s. 10.

Essentially, all unwanted and natural human reactions to life are now the purview of psychotherapy to assess and treat where there can be no other means permitted of resolving the unwanted reactions.  The only treatment can be psychotherapy, as prescribed by the College of Psychotherapy, despite the fact history has shown that most human issues such as anxiety, stress management, depression, chronic pain, fears, psycho-spiritual and subconsciously-rooted emotional issues have not usually been effectively resolved by psychotherapy. 

Effect of this legislation on alternative practitioners, spiritual advisors, healers and their clients:

While alternative practitioners may not immediately feel the imposition on their right to offer their alternative services, the stage has been set through this legislation for the ‘creeping elimination’ of all treatments that do not fit the psychological and psychiatric models through restrictive College rules, regulations and impositions.

It would seem that the underlying agenda in this action by the licensed professions is to eventually eliminate the availability of all popular alternative therapies for normal human disturbances and to centralize control of the treatment and assessment of same in the hands of psychotherapists, psychologists and psychiatry.

Despite 75 years of self-promotion by the licensed professions, independent science has not shown their treatments to be more effective or efficient than alternative approaches and in fact, studies have shown they are often less effective, less efficient and too often, very harmful.

What it means for all non-licensed health & wellness practitioners:

Once this College of Psychotherapy is proclaimed in the fall of 2014, and therefore its regulations made court-enforceable, anyone who is involved in any way, shape or form with individual treatments, therapy, counseling or ministration to another for thought, cognition, mood, emotional regulation, perception or memory that may impair the individual’s judgment, insight, behaviour, communication or social functioning (which is essentially all normal issues of life) and who is not registered with the College as a psychotherapist will be prohibited from continuing and potentially subject to severe fines.

In other words, all alternative wellness specialists, including clergy, are deemed to be psychotherapists by another name.  If a practitioner helps people with grief, anger, resentment, self-sabotaging behaviors, persistent sadness and depressive feelings, or if they advertise services for anxiety, fears, phobias, compulsive behaviors, chronic pain, stress and unwanted habits and addictions, they are engaging in psychotherapy despite using approaches and techniques not remotely associated with psychotherapy.

How to help with Actions now  Underway:

(1) Lawyer T.J.Green of Green & Associates, Ottawa has been retained to file formal appeals with the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care for legislative amendments to the Psychotherapy Act, 2007 to ensure a change in the definition of ‘a controlled act of psychotherapy’. The amendments sought would prevent restrictions of the activities of non-psychotherapy therapists, spiritual healers, counselors, practitioners and clergy. The amendments would seek to establish that psychotherapy is only ONE means of treatment among many legitimate, safe treatment options. This must be done before by the fall of 2014.

(2) We seek testimonials from satisfied clients who resolved their issues with alternative treatments means AFTER having tried psychotherapy, psychologist or psychiatry treatments.  Such stories will be put into affidavit form for the client’s signature at no cost to them and attached to legal submissions to support the appeals.

This effort needs your immediate financial support.  If you want to be free to practice, to teach and to prosper or if you are a client who wants to ensure freedom to choose your treatments, we urge you to be as generous with your donations as possible, as soon as possible, as we are working to meet deadlines.  Please forward this notice to others. A special Fund has been set up. All donations should refer to ‘Psychotherapy Take-over”. 

You can help the legal by

(a)       cheque, money order (made out to Green & Associates Law Offices in Trust) and mailed to:      Green and Associates Law Offices
                             712-170 Laurier Avenue West
                             Ottawa, ON  K1P 5V5

(b)  Donate from this site using the PayPal button.

Please refer to: Psychotherapy Take-over with all donations   and accept our thank you for all your help.