Counselling and psychotherapy: a regulatory model under review
Counsellors and psychotherapists remain self-regulated with unprotected titles. National standards were published in 2025 and a consultancy is recommending a model.
Title protection & public confusion
Everything tagged with this theme. The country and profession filters at the top still apply.
Reforms
Ontario "As of Right": psychologists from other provinces can practise immediately
Since January 2026, psychologists fully registered elsewhere in Canada can practise in Ontario for up to six months while they complete local registration.
Ontario: one "psychologist" title from a master's degree
Ontario's psychology regulator voted to register master's graduates as psychologists and cut post-degree experience from four years to one. The proposal is now with Ontario's Health Minister; the title change would also need the legislature to amend the Act.
Physician associates regulated by the Medical Council
Physician associates came under the Medical Council of New Zealand on 1 October 2026. Existing practitioners must apply by 30 November 2026.
Physician associates: expansion, regulation, and the Leng review
Planned to grow to 10,000, physician associates came under GMC regulation in 2024. After coroners' findings and an independent review, the roles are to be renamed and restricted, but not abolished.
"Psychologist" remains an unprotected title
Only qualified titles such as "clinical psychologist" or "registered psychologist" are protected in the UK. Much of the wider psychological workforce is assured through voluntary registers rather than a statutory regulator.
No reforms for these filters.
Explainers & analysis
Four countries, one direction: the layered psychology workforce
In Australia and Ontario, the route to the protected psychologist title is set to get shorter. New Zealand has created a registered assistant tier, and the UK assures a wider psychological workforce through voluntary registers. We have found no outcome evidence for any of it yet.
Nothing written for these filters.
Library
Statement by the CPBAO on registration changes
Ontario's regulator announces that its Board approved registering psychologists from approved graduate programs, cutting the experience requirement for master's candidates from four years to one, and recognising accrediting bodies outside the US. It says it will keep working on approaches that support 'fairness, labour mobility, and improved access to care'.
Why it matters: The regulator's own words. Quote this rather than second-hand descriptions of the change.
The Leng review: an independent review into physician associate and anaesthesia associate professions
An independent review found the evidence on the roles weak and based on observational data. It made 18 recommendations, including renaming the roles 'physician assistant' and 'physician assistant in anaesthesia', and requiring a named supervising doctor for each physician assistant. The government accepted all of them.
Why it matters: In our view, a template for how a government re-tightens a role after scaling it ahead of the evidence.
Susan Pollitt: Prevention of Future Deaths report
A senior coroner found that an ascitic drain, which a junior doctor had decided to place, was not clinically indicated. The physician associate who inserted it was unaware of local guidance, left it in for 21 hours and directed that it be clamped, which the coroner found was unwarranted. The report also raises the absence of a regulator at the time, title confusion, and a competency sign-off that covered only the technical skill of inserting the drain, not consent, risk factors or aftercare.
Why it matters: Its first concern was that there was then no regulator at all, so it does not show that proportionate regulation fails; its other concerns (training, supervision, the title, competency sign-off) remain relevant under regulation.
Rethinking who can be called a psychologist
An opinion piece by psychologist Monnica T. Williams supporting Ontario's proposal to let master's and doctoral graduates share the psychologist title, arguing that opposition from professional associations reflects elitism more than public safety.
Why it matters: A clear statement of the case for the change, from a supporter. Read it alongside the CPA/OPA joint letter for the case against.
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