Who can provide CBT

Professionals who may provide CBT

healthdirect names these professionals among those who may provide CBT:

• psychologists and psychiatrists
• some doctors who have trained in mental health
• mental health nurses
• some counsellors

The full list, in its own words, is on healthdirect’s CBT page. healthdirect also sets out how two of these professions differ: a psychiatrist has trained as a medical doctor and can prescribe medicines, while a psychologist is not a medical doctor and cannot. Psychologists focus on psychotherapy, or talk therapy.

‘Psychologist’ in law

The Health Practitioner Regulation National Law defines the word plainly:

“psychologist means a person registered under this Law in the psychology profession.”

Section 5, Health Practitioner Regulation National Law

The Psychology Board says the National Law protects the public by protecting the title, so only people who have finished an education and training sequence the Board has approved, and whom the Board has registered, can call themselves a psychologist. Using the title without being registered is an offence. Ahpra adds that it is also an offence to hold yourself out as registered when you are not, or to use symbols or language that may lead a reasonable person to believe you are.

The law’s protection does not depend on the exact wording. Section 113 says its restrictions apply “whether or not the title is taken or used with or without any other words and whether in English or any other language”.

Protected title, open practice

The Psychology Board is direct about the difference. It says no intervention is restricted so that only a psychologist may provide it. The National Law limits practice in just four defined areas with an identified risk to public safety, such as certain dental acts, prescribing optical appliances and spinal manipulation.

That does not leave psychologists free to do anything. The Board says psychologists must provide only services in which they can show their current competence.

Health psychologist and the other endorsed titles

Psychology has titles beyond the main one. The Board says the professional titles tied to its nine approved areas of practice, such as Health Psychologist, are protected under the National Law, and using one requires a Board-approved qualification in that area and supervised practice in a Board-approved registrar program. Only psychologists who hold the matching area of practice endorsement can use those titles.

An endorsement is a notation on a psychologist’s general registration, published on the national register, while specialist registration is a separate register with a higher level of oversight. Psychology is not among the professions with specialist registration: the Board names medicine, dentistry and podiatry as the only three.

The Board’s code of conduct

The Psychology Board’s first regulatory code of conduct came into effect on 1 December 2025. The Board describes it as the standards of behaviour and practice it expects from all psychologists registered to practise in Australia, and says practising in line with it is now a mandatory requirement of registration. When a psychologist departs from its standards, the Board may take regulatory action to protect the public.

Checking a psychologist’s registration

1. Register search

   Practising psychologists must be registered with Ahpra, and healthdirect says you can check this on Ahpra’s website. A name on the Register of practitioners means that person is allowed to practise.

2. The register entry

   The register also shows any type of registration or conditions that limit what a practitioner can do. An endorsement appears as a notation on the entry.

3. A missing name

   Some practitioners register under a different name from the one they usually use, so Ahpra suggests checking with them or the health service where they work. If a name still does not appear, or the details raise questions, Ahpra says you can call it on 1300 419 495 for a confidential conversation.

Registration is not a one-off: practitioners must keep meeting the standards and renew their registration every year with their National Board.

If something is wrong

Anyone can raise a concern about a health practitioner with Ahpra, which can look into safety concerns about registered practitioners, students, and unregistered people who claim to be health practitioners. Concerns about registered practitioners are handled differently in Queensland and New South Wales. Ahpra says a complaint about a service or fee, or a dispute with a provider, should go to the healthcare complaints organisation in your state or territory, and that a crime such as sexual assault should also be reported to the police.

How Medicare pays for sessions with psychologists and others is in Better Access and Medicare; free services that need no referral are in CBT online; and the crisis lines are in Help now. The home page record has the short version.