Counselling Therapy

A recognized health care profession, counselling therapy is the art and science of helping clients grow toward a better sense of well being. Counselling therapists offer support for people working through mental health, emotional, and interpersonal issues.

We provide mental health services to adults, adolescents, children, couples, families and groups in mental health care clinics, healthcare facilities, community and government agencies, public and private school systems, community colleges, universities, correctional facilities, industrial sites, and private practice. We also work as managers, educators, program developers, and researchers.

We hold a counselling-related master’s degree as a minimum level of education. We complete 2,000 hours of supervised postgraduate clinical work which includes 800 direct therapist-client counselling hours. To maintain our license, we engage in at least 12 hours of professional development each year in the form of workshops, courses, online seminars, and externships.

The Nova Scotia College of Counselling Therapists (NSCCT) oversees the practice of counselling therapy in Nova Scotia. It grants licences to people who meet the academic standards, clinical experience, and supervision the Counselling Therapists Act requires. NSCCT advocates for members of the public and supports its registered members — Registered Counselling Therapists and Registered Counselling Therapist-Candidates — by embracing comprehensive standards of practice, ethical decision making, and ongoing professional development.

Registered Counselling Therapists

Registered Counselling Therapists work in mental health clinics, health care facilities, community and government agencies, public and private school systems, community colleges, universities, correctional facilities, and industrial sites.

Private practice RCTs work in agency-style collectives, multidisciplinary health centres, and in individual practices.

All major national insurers recognize RCTs. Many employers’, organizations’, and unions’ benefit plans include private practice RCTs as approved practitioners.

In Nova Scotia, about 60,000 employees and their dependents have access to sessions with a counselling therapist under their workplace benefit plan.

16,000 First Nation band members can access sessions with a counselling therapist under the First Nations and Inuit Health Benefit.