Therapist Registration

Before you continue with your registration, please read, agree with, and prepare to provide evidence for the following. If you do not agree then you can opt out by simply hitting the "opt out" button.

Statement of agreement:

First, you agree that you are currently appropriately licensed in your state, country, or province for your profession, be that psychology, counseling, clinical work, psychiatry, or another area of mental health. We will accept people who have recently graduated and are providing services while still under supervision. We do not accept life coaches, spiritual healers, or other people who do not have an appropriate educational background and licensure status.

Second, you agree to use current best practice while working with your clients. This means using evidence-based therapeutic practices which have proven efficacy and effectiveness for particular populations. This would preclude use of spiritual or supernatural techniques such as prayer, past life regression, New Age modalities, anything that calls upon supernatural elements, pseudoscientific therapies, or any other therapeutic method not based on scientific research and best practices.

While many people use the term "evidence-based practice" (EBP), we are specifically looking for therapies that have a solid grounding in scientific research that control for both placebo effects and regression to the mean. This means therapies that have had multiple clinical trials published in legitimate, peer-reviewed journals. Such trials will optimally be randomized, placebo controlled, double blinded trials, which are the gold standard for treatment outcome studies. Therapies which have lower levels of evidence (single blinded, waitlist controlled, small N designs, and so on) must have a sufficient amount of studies. Anecdotes and number of people who use a particular therapy do not matter, and if your chosen therapy is controversial within the scientific community we may not accept your application.

As part of your application we ask about your theoretical orientation. When you tell us which kind of EBP you use, please also describe how you use it in therapy. We want to look at the “how” of your therapy rather of the “what” or “why” of your chosen therapy. For example, if you say that you use cognitive-behavioral therapy, please list which of the numerous techniques you use and what type of population you use them with, rather than just typing in "CBT."

Third, you agree that you yourself are secular and non-theistic. While being a religious person certainly in no way means that one cannot provide quality, ethical therapy, the clients who use the Secular Therapy Project to connect with therapists are looking for people who are similar to them.

Please provide us with examples or evidence that show could show that you are non-theistic. Examples could include being active in a particular group (such as a local secular/atheist/skeptic group; a national group such as American Atheists, American Humanist Association, the Center for Inquiry, or Americans United; or a Unitarian Church or Ethical Society), having published work (in print or online) that demonstrates a commitment to secular values, having social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) that shows secular values.