How clients can verify a therapist's profile is real
Written for clients and for clinicians to share. Unauthorized copies of real therapists' profiles exist across the web - the therapist in the photo is usually real; the page contacting you may not be theirs.
The five-minute check
- License lookup - the authoritative step. Every US state board runs a free public license search (search "[state] therapist license lookup" and use the .gov result). The name, license type, and state on the profile should match an active license. No match, or a "license number" the state database doesn't recognize, ends the question.
- Cross-reference the contact path. Find the therapist's own website or their profile on a major directory, independently (search their name - don't follow links from the page you're checking). The phone/email/booking route should agree. A page with a different booking path than the therapist's own site is the red flag that matters.
- Contact them directly once. Use the contact from their own website: "I found your profile on [site] - is that you?" Clinicians answer this gladly; impostor pages are how their identity gets misused.
When to bother checking
- The page asks for payment before any contact with the therapist.
- The domain is a directory you've never heard of, with urgent wording.
- The "therapist" initiated contact with you unsolicited - real clinicians rarely cold-message prospective clients.
For clinicians
The reverse also protects you: a line on your real website - "my only authorized profiles are this site and [directory]" - gives clients a one-step verification anchor. Continuous monitoring of where your profile appears is what Therapist Watch automates.
Common questions
Q: The profile checks out on the license lookup but the site feels off. Now what?
A: Trust the contact-path test: reach the therapist through their own website's contact and confirm. The license being real doesn't make the PAGE theirs - copied profiles use real credentials.
Q: What if the therapist has no website of their own?
A: Use the license lookup plus a major established directory profile, and confirm by phone. The board record is always the anchor.
Q: I paid a "session fee" through a page that turned out not to be the therapist's. What now?
A: Dispute the charge with your card issuer, keep screenshots, report at reportfraud.ftc.gov, and tell the real therapist - they can act against the page.
Check your own name now. The free scan looks for your profile on directories you never joined - no account, private report. Continuous monitoring: Therapist Watch from $9/month.
Related answers
- My headshot is on another therapy website
- How to remove your profile from a therapist directory
- Someone is using my license number online
Therapist Watch provides monitoring assistance, not legal advice, and is not a licensing board. Findings are similarity signals that require your confirmation - they are not accusations about any website, directory, or person.