Does OHIP cover therapy in Ontario?

OHIP covers therapy when a physician provides it. Psychotherapy from a family doctor, a psychiatrist or any other licensed physician is an insured service with no fee to you. Therapy from a registered psychotherapist or a psychologist in private practice is not covered by OHIP.

Is there free therapy in Ontario that is not OHIP?

Yes, and it is the part most people miss. Ontario funds programs such as Ontario Structured Psychotherapy and BounceBack, plus hospital and community services, that cost nothing but are paid for by government budgets rather than billed to OHIP. Most of them accept self-referrals, so no doctor is needed.

Find OHIP-Covered Therapy in Ontario

Ontario pays for therapy when a physician delivers it, and separately funds free programs that are not OHIP billings at all. Two routes, both free, and almost nothing online tells you the difference.

MDTherapy helps Ontarians understand and find OHIP-covered psychotherapy and publicly funded mental-health care. Everything here is sourced to government, regulator and hospital pages, and dated.

What OHIP covers for therapy in Ontario
The full answer, sourced to the Ministry of Health Schedule of Benefits: what is insured, what is free without being insured, and how to reach each route.
Ontario Structured Psychotherapy: free CBT
The province's largest source of free structured therapy. Free to use, self-referral in most regions, and not an OHIP billing at all.
Medical psychotherapy: therapy delivered by a doctor
The insured route almost nobody explains. Fully covered, and genuinely hard to find.

The short answer

Covered by OHIP: psychiatrists, and any family doctor or other physician who provides psychotherapy. You are never billed. Ontario's fee schedule does not specify an annual per-patient maximum for these codes, though that is a billing rule rather than a guarantee of access.

Not covered by OHIP: psychologists, registered psychotherapists, registered social workers and counsellors in private practice. A referral does not change this.

Free, but not OHIP: Ontario Structured Psychotherapy, BounceBack, hospital outpatient programs and community agencies. These are funded by the province rather than billed per session, which is why most accept self-referrals.

If you want free therapy and do not know where to start, read how to get OHIP-covered therapy, step by step.

Where to go next

What OHIP covers for therapy, profession by profession — psychiatrists, family doctors, psychologists, registered psychotherapists and social workers, each answered separately.
The OHIP psychotherapy coverage rules and fee codes — the codes, the time-unit rules, the same-day restriction, and what the Schedule does and does not limit.
How to find a physician who provides therapy — where to search and what to ask when you make contact.
Who Ontario Structured Psychotherapy is and is not suitable for — eligibility, the published exclusion criteria, and how to self-refer.

What MDTherapy is

MDTherapy is an independent information resource. We are not a healthcare provider, we do not accept patients, we do not provide medical advice, and we do not bill OHIP.

We publish coverage information checked against primary sources, and every page shows what it relied on and the date a person last looked. If we cannot confirm something, we say so rather than filling the gap. Read our editorial, medical review and corrections policy and our about and privacy page.

Sources last rechecked September 4, 2026.