A therapy practice website, without testimonials or promises

Old East Brick

A practice site works almost the opposite way to a trade site: no testimonials and no promises. What it needs is a plain account of how you work and who you see, your title exactly as your college writes it, clear fees, a way to book, and a contact form that keeps clinical details out of your inbox.

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What a counselling or therapy website has to say instead

This page is for people who run a therapy or counselling practice, not people looking for one. My pages for roofers, electricians and landscapers lean on photographs of finished work, and my local SEO page tells trades to ask every customer for a review. For a Registered Psychotherapist most of that is off the table: CRPO's advertising standard counts your own website as advertising, and it says you neither ask for testimonials nor use them.

It reaches further than people expect. CRPO expects registrants not to advertise or promote third-party reviews, counts star ratings as testimonials and calls a “Voted Best” award inappropriate, which rules out an embedded Google reviews widget, a “see our reviews” button, stars and badges. Superlatives, promising results you cannot deliver and appeals to fear are out too; one of CRPO's own examples of what not to write is “the best therapy available”. Social workers answer to OCSWSSW, which bars asking clients for reviews, testimonials, likes or shares, and bars comparing yourself with other registrants or claiming a special advantage you cannot back with evidence.

What takes the place of proof is plainness. Someone choosing a therapist wants to know:

Who you work with, whether adults, couples or teens, and who you do not see
How you work, in words a first-time client understands rather than a row of acronyms
What a first session is like, how long sessions run, and whether they are in person, virtual or both
Your registered title and training, with a link to your entry on the public register
What a session costs, and what happens if they need to cancel

Your title, written exactly the way your college writes it

Titles are easy to get slightly wrong and easy to get right. CRPO's approved forms are “Registered Psychotherapist” or “RP”, and for the qualifying class “Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying)” or “RP (Qualifying)”; the shorthand “RP(Q)” is not approved. The regulated title has to be more prominent than any other qualification, and it belongs on your promotional material, which includes a practice website.

OCSWSSW requires “Social Worker”, “Registered Social Worker” or “RSW” after your name as it appears on the register, with your highest degree, if you list it, placed before the designation. Social workers authorized to practise psychotherapy use a set form such as “Registered Social Worker, Psychotherapist”. On a psychotherapist or social work practice website, the credentials block should carry:

Your name exactly as it appears on your college's public register, with a link to your entry
Your regulated title given prominence over every other credential; straight after your name and highest degree works for both colleges, as in “M.Ed., RP” or “MSW, RSW”
No “Dr.” for a Registered Psychotherapist, even with a PhD, unless you are also registered with a college whose members may use it; you can still list the PhD after your name if it is your highest degree and relates to your practice
No college logo, and no suggestion that the college recognizes you as a specialist
A practice name if you have one, alongside the registered name you use with clients

Fees, insurance and booking, without promises

The fees page should give the session length and fee, the cancellation and no-show policy, any sliding scale, and that you issue receipts. For social workers part of this is a rule: OCSWSSW says that if you advertise fees, you also have to say when additional fees may apply, such as for a late cancellation.

Insurance is the line people read twice. CRPO does not decide whether a client's extended health plan pays for sessions; each insurer does. So the page asks people to check their own plan before booking and never says “covered by most plans”, which nobody can verify for a stranger's policy.

Booking goes to the booking or practice-management system you already use, or to a short free consultation call. Intake questions belong in that system, not in a website form that lands in your email.

A contact form that keeps clinical details out of your inbox

Ontario's Information and Privacy Commissioner says practitioners who belong to a regulated health college or to OCSWSSW and provide health care are generally health information custodians under PHIPA, sole practitioners included, and should collect no more personal health information than they reasonably need. A website form usually arrives as ordinary email, and the commissioner expects you to tell people your email policy and get their consent before using unencrypted email; keeping it to appointment scheduling is one example it gives.

PHIPA also expects a written public statement: how you handle information, who to contact, how to ask for access to or correction of a record, and how to complain to you or to the commissioner. I build and host that page, but the wording is yours; I am a web designer, not a privacy adviser. If you are an associate in someone else's clinic, ask the clinic who owns the privacy notice and the intake process before we write anything.

The form itself stays short and says what it is for:

Name, how to reach you, general availability, and in person or virtual
A line above the message box asking people not to describe their health or why they are looking for therapy
A note that the form is not watched for emergencies, pointing to 9-8-8, the national suicide crisis line, which takes calls and texts at any hour, or to 911
One sentence on how you use email
A link to your privacy notice

Pages per approach, but only where your training is verifiable

A page for each approach or group you work with is how a practice site gets specific, and each one is a claim about your training. CRPO lets you advertise an area of practice, whether a population, an issue or a modality, only with verifiable training in it, and singles out the pre-filled menus on directory sites as a place to check every option you tick. OCSWSSW asks social workers to claim expertise only where they can show specialized training, extensive experience or education. So each page names the training behind it and describes the work in plain words.

If you keep a Google Business Profile for your address and hours, CRPO accepts that you cannot control whether a client reviews you on a third-party site; what you control is not asking and not promoting. So the review-request advice on my local SEO page does not apply to you, and the contact page shows a plain street map rather than your listing. No reply to a review should confirm the writer was a client; OCSWSSW's advertising standard, for one, bars disclosing confidential information. Whether to keep a profile at all is worth asking your college.

Photos are of you and your office, never clients. None of the sample sites on my examples page is a therapy practice, so the free homepage preview is the honest way to see what yours would look like.

The pages in a typical practice site

Page	What it has to do
Home	Who you see, how you work, in person or virtual, and how to book
About	Your registered name and title, your training, a link to the register
One page per approach or focus	Only areas where your training is verifiable, in plain words
Fees	Session length and fee, cancellation policy, receipts, check your own plan
Contact and booking	A link to your booking system and a short form with no clinical details
Privacy notice	How you handle information, who to contact, how to ask or complain

Questions people ask

What does a private practice website cost?

A one-time $499 for one to three pages, $899 for four to six pages, or $1,399 for seven to ten pages, in Canadian dollars. Hosting is free on every plan; the only running cost is your domain, $15 to $25 a year, and you own it and the site files. Care plans for edits are optional, from $49 a month.

Can I put client reviews or testimonials on my therapy website?

Not if you are a Registered Psychotherapist. CRPO says you do not ask for testimonials or use them in advertising, which includes your website, and linking straight to a review site could count too. Social workers may not ask clients for reviews or testimonials, and psychologists' standards say testimonials may not be used to promote a practice.

Can I call myself a psychotherapist on my website before I am registered?

No. “Psychotherapist” is a protected title in Ontario, open only to registrants of six colleges, and students and pending applicants may not use it. CRPO suggests “student therapist” or “therapist in training”, with your program and the fact that you are supervised, and warns that using a protected title early may affect a later registration decision. In the qualifying class, write “RP (Qualifying)”, not “RP(Q)”.

Will you make sure my site meets my college's rules?

No, and be wary of anyone who says they will. I write the copy with the published standards on this page in mind, but you read every word before launch, and you are the one accountable to your college. I do not give legal or privacy advice, and standards get revised, so check the current wording.

Do you work with therapists outside London?

Yes. I meet practices in London and nearby towns in person, and work remotely with practices anywhere in Canada, which suits a practice that already sees clients by video. The rules on this page are Ontario's; outside Ontario your own regulator's advertising rules apply, and we would work from those instead.