Verifying therapists
Every therapist listed on Open Therapy has had their registration checked against the relevant national register before their profile went live. Applications that don’t clear are not published. Registration is held with one of:
A profile shows the registering body, the practitioner’s registration status and their listed qualifications. Where a therapist has been verified, the profile carries a verification badge and the line “Registration checked by Open Therapy”.
Verification confirms that someone is registered to practise. It is not an endorsement of their
clinical judgement, and it doesn’t replace your own read of whether they’re the right fit.
Your clinical record
Documents, session history and anything you share with a therapist form part of a clinical record.- Therapists can see the record of clients they treat, and only those clients.
- Australian law requires practitioners to retain clinical notes for seven years. Closing your Open Therapy account removes your profile, but it does not and cannot delete notes a therapist is legally obliged to keep.
- You can export your record at any time from your account settings.
Payments and card data
Open Therapy never stores your card number. Payments run through Stripe, which is PCI-DSS compliant, and the therapist is the merchant of record — their practice name appears on your statement, not ours. See Paying for sessions for what’s charged and when.Messaging and video
Messages between clients and therapists are encrypted and stored with the clinical record. Online sessions use an encrypted video link, and nothing is recorded unless both people agree to it in the room.Reviews and Australian advertising law
Section 133 of the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law prohibits using testimonials to advertise a regulated health service. A review Open Therapy chooses to publish on a therapist’s profile is our advertising, so it has to comply. The line we apply: a review may describe the service, but not the treatment.Allowed
Booking, waiting times, availability, punctuality and cancellations. Admin — invoices, fees,
rebates, Medicare, NDIS, paperwork. Premises, parking, accessibility and video quality. Manner and
communication. Languages, appointment times, location.
Not allowed
Any symptom, condition, diagnosis or reason for attending, named or implied. Any treatment,
technique, medication or test result. Any statement about outcome, progress or whether it helped —
positive or negative. Any clinical recommendation or claim about clinical skill.
Reporting a concern
You can also raise a concern about a registered practitioner directly with Ahpra, independently of Open Therapy.