Guide
Advertising Rules for Counsellors and Psychologists in BC: What You Can and Can't Do (2026)
Most counsellors in BC handle marketing one of two ways. Some avoid it almost entirely — a name, a phone number, nothing that could attract a complaint. Others follow general small-business advice: collect reviews, post client success stories, run ads that promise results. Both approaches cost something. The first leaves capable clinicians invisible to the people looking for them. The second quietly breaks rules that carry real consequences.
The actual rules are narrower and more specific than either group assumes. Most of what a counselling practice needs in order to be found — a clear website, a directory profile, educational content, search ads — is permitted. A short list of specific practices is not, and that list is what this guide covers.
This is general information, not legal advice. Regulatory documents get revised, and the version that matters is the current one published by your own regulator. Read this as orientation, then check the source.
Who regulates what
Two different bodies, and two different kinds of relationship.
Registered Psychologists are regulated by the College of Health and Care Professionals of British Columbia (CHCPBC), formed in June 2024 when several health colleges — including the College of Psychologists of British Columbia — were amalgamated into a single body. The amalgamation changed the name on the door, not the standards behind it. The Code of Conduct continues to apply, and the advertising provisions cited throughout this guide come from it.
Registered Clinical Counsellors (RCCs) are certified by the BC Association of Clinical Counsellors (BCACC). BCACC is an association rather than a government college, so the obligations are membership-based. That distinction matters less in practice than it sounds. The RCC designation is what extended health plans recognise for reimbursement, so losing it does not just cost you letters after your name — it can make your sessions ineligible for coverage, which decides whether some clients can afford to see you at all.
The two frameworks differ in their details. Where they differ, this guide follows the stricter standard, so a practice built on it is safe under either.
The five rules that catch people
Almost every advertising problem a counselling practice runs into is one of these five. None of them are obscure; they are simply the points where ordinary marketing advice and professional obligation pull in opposite directions.
1. No client testimonials or reviews
The Code of Conduct (s.10.8) prohibits soliciting or using testimonials from current or former clients. Not discourages — prohibits. This is the rule most often broken by accident, because every general marketing guide on the internet treats reviews as table stakes. It also covers more than a quotes section on your website: asking a client to leave a Google review is soliciting a testimonial, and so is a recommendation on a social page, a star rating on a booking tool, or a "what clients say" carousel. The prohibition is about the relationship, not the platform. It is also why serious professional directories have no client review sections while general business directories do — if a directory is showing star ratings on therapists, that tells you something about who built it and for whom.
2. Advertise to the public; do not approach individuals
Section 10.5 prohibits contacting prospective clients directly — in person, by telephone, over the internet or otherwise — to solicit business, with an exception for approaches made through organizations. The clean way to hold it in your head is pull, not push. Anything that puts information where someone searching can find it is fine: search optimization, directory profiles, educational articles, ads shown to people who typed a relevant query. Anything that singles out a person who never asked is not. Replying to a stranger’s post about their depression with an offer of sessions is the clearest example, and it happens more often than you would expect.
3. Your registration number belongs on your advertising
Section 10.6 requires your registration number to appear on advertising, which in practice means all of it: your website, every directory profile, ad copy, printed cards and flyers. It is a small thing, easy to leave off a new profile or a hastily written ad — and one of the easiest things for anyone, including a complainant, to check.
4. Paid placement has to look like paid placement
Section 10.13 requires advertising to be identifiable as advertising. If you pay for position — a featured slot in a directory, a promoted listing, a sponsored article — the label needs to be there and it needs to be visible. This is not only the platform’s problem to solve. If you buy a placement that is not labelled, the unlabelled material is still your advertising.
5. No outcome claims, no borrowed titles
Section 10.16 prohibits false or misleading statements. In advertising, that usually surfaces as outcome claims: success rates, "90% of clients improve", guaranteed results, or the softer phrasings that imply the same thing without a number. Titles are the other half of it. Section 9.3 draws a line between describing your practice and claiming a title: "Practice in Child Psychology" describes what you do and is acceptable, while "Child Psychologist" is a title claim and is not, unless it has been granted to you. The same logic applies to any specialty wording that reads as a credential rather than a description.
What this means for the channels you actually use
The rules above are short. Applying them to a real marketing stack is where the questions come up.
Directory listings
Fine, and usually the highest-value single thing a new practice can do. Check two things before you publish: that your registration number appears on the profile, and that the directory has no client review section. If it does, your profile is sitting inside a feature you are not permitted to use.
Google Ads and paid search
Fine. The ad copy carries the same obligations as any other advertising — registration number, no outcome claims. Search ads are pull marketing by definition, since you are appearing for someone who typed a question, so the direct-solicitation rule is not engaged.
Instagram, LinkedIn, and content marketing
Fine as education. The risk is not the platform, it is the format. Before-and-after style stories, "a client I worked with recently…" anecdotes, and case studies drift into two problems at once: confidentiality, and the testimonial rule if the client is identifiable or was asked to take part. Teach the concept; do not narrate the case.
Replying to online reviews
This is the one that surprises people. If a review appears without your asking, you have not solicited a testimonial. But replying "thank you for trusting me with your care" confirms that the reviewer was your client, and you have disclosed a therapeutic relationship in public. The safe reply is no reply. If you feel you must respond — to something factually false, for instance — say nothing that confirms or denies whether the person was ever a client.
Referral fees and per-client payments
Prohibited. Section 12.12 (no payment for referral) rules out paying anyone per client sent your way. It is worth understanding structurally, because it shapes which marketing arrangements are available to you at all: paying a flat monthly fee for a service — a directory listing, a website, ad management — is a purchase. Paying a set amount per client who books is a referral fee, whatever the invoice calls it.
A ten-minute compliance check
Open your website and every profile you have, and run this list. Most practices find one or two items rather than none.
- My registration number appears on my website, in every directory profile, and in any ad copy currently running.
- There are no testimonials, client quotes, or star ratings on any page I control.
- I have not asked any client, current or former, to leave a review anywhere.
- Nothing I publish claims a success rate, a recovery percentage, or a guaranteed outcome.
- My specialty wording describes my practice rather than claiming a title I have not been granted.
- Any paid placement I have bought is visibly labelled as advertising or sponsored.
- I have never replied to an online review in a way that confirms someone was a client.
- Every marketing arrangement I pay for is a flat fee for a service, never a payment per client.
Where Ravanika fits
Ravanika’s public provider profiles were built against this list. The registration number and professional association appear on every profile and on every directory card. There is no review section, no star rating, and no plan to add one. Where paid placement exists, it is labelled. None of that is a favour to counsellors — it is the minimum a directory has to do before a regulated professional can safely appear on it.