Therapy for Military Members, DND Employees and Their Families
The National Capital Region holds the largest concentration of defence personnel in the country, and a working culture of its own. This page is for the people inside it: serving members, public servants at the Department of National Defence, contractors, and the families who move with them.
Sessions take place online, across Ontario and Quebec, in English or in French.
Reviewed by the Belleisle Clinics clinical team. Last updated: 29 October 2026.
Three situations, three ways in
Serving members of the Canadian Armed Forces
Care arranged through Canadian Forces Health Services is provided by the military health system. Members also arrange psychotherapy privately, at their own cost or through a family plan, for reasons that are theirs: a preference for someone outside the chain, a schedule that does not fit, or a subject they want to work on without it becoming a file.
What a member must disclose, and to whom, is set by military policy rather than by a clinic. If that question matters to you, it is a reasonable thing to ask, and it can be asked before you book.
Public servants and contractors at DND
Coverage for psychological services depends on your plan and the limits it sets, and eligibility depends in part on the provider’s professional title. Many workplaces also offer an employee assistance program with a set number of sessions at no cost. Some people start there and continue privately once those sessions are used.
Families
Spouses, partners and children carry the moves, the absences and the uncertainty, and they rarely have the same access to support as the member. Family members can be seen on their own, as a couple, or as a family, depending on what the situation calls for.
What people come in for
- Deployments, absences and the return home, which is often harder than the leaving.
- Postings: a new city every few years, a career interrupted on one side of the couple, children changing schools and losing their footing.
- Operational stress, and sleep that stays switched on long after the operation ended.
- Pressure that is not operational at all: workload, reorganizations, acting positions, a competition that did not go your way, a culture where asking for help is still read as a risk.
- Clearances and discretion: the weight of not being able to talk about parts of your work with the people closest to you.
- Relationships under the accumulated weight of all of it.
- Transition out of uniform, and the question of what comes next.
A diagnosis is not needed to start, and neither is a crisis.
What the work looks like
The first session is about understanding what brings you in and whether this professional and this format fit your situation. From there, the work follows what you came for and the approaches your professional is trained in.
Length varies with the nature and duration of the difficulties, their impact and your goals. After a few initial sessions, your professional can usually offer a first estimate and a direction, which is adjusted as the work goes on.
Some people come for a defined piece of work and stop. Others continue through a posting or a transition. Both are ordinary.
Fees, coverage and direct billing
Direct billing is available for many plans, and what applies to your situation is confirmed before the first session. Where a plan reimburses you directly, it will usually ask for the professional’s title, which appears on the documents you receive.
Coverage itself varies by contract and by the provider’s professional title, so two things are worth confirming with your plan before you begin: which titles are eligible, and what annual maximum applies. Public service plans and departmental assistance programs each have their own rules, and they change.
Private psychotherapy is generally not reimbursed by public health insurance. Some fees may qualify as a medical expense under the federal Medical Expense Tax Credit. Keep your receipts and check the Canada Revenue Agency’s current criteria.
Confidentiality
Your professional’s confidentiality obligations come from their regulatory college or order and from the privacy legislation that applies to the service, with the limits the law sets. Your professional will go through those limits in the first session.
Belleisle is a private clinic. The clinical record is not part of a military or departmental file, and billing a plan transmits what a claim requires rather than the content of your sessions.
If you hold a security clearance and are weighing what to report, that question belongs to the clearance process rather than to the clinic. It is a reasonable thing to raise in a first session, and you can raise it before booking.
Who you will work with
The professionals in the Belleisle network are independent and regulated: each belongs to a professional order or college in the province where they practise and works within their own areas of competence. In Ontario, several regulated professions may provide psychotherapy within their scope of practice; at Belleisle you are most likely to work with a Registered Psychotherapist (CRPO) or a Psychologist (CPBAO).
In Quebec, the practice of psychotherapy is reserved. Psychologists, physicians and couple and family therapists practise it without a separate psychotherapist permit; members of certain other professional orders may practise it while holding the psychotherapist’s permit issued by the Ordre des psychologues du Québec.
Experience with defence and public service populations is not universal among professionals. Say in your request that this is your context, and the request is directed accordingly.
For more on professional titles and what is worth checking before you begin, see our page on psychotherapy.
Working online, across postings and across the river
Sessions are by video, which keeps the work going through a posting, a course elsewhere, a deployment schedule, or a week when the commute would make an appointment impossible. It does require a space private enough to speak freely, and it does not suit every situation.
It matters locally too. In the National Capital Region, many households live on one side of the river and work on the other, and the two provinces do not have the same rules or the same plans. Online sessions remove the travel; they do not remove the regulatory question.
For remote services, authorization requirements can vary depending on the jurisdictions involved and on where you and the professional are located during the session, and the professional has to make sure they comply with the rules that apply to their situation. If you are posted outside Ontario or Quebec, say so in your request.
Frequently asked questions
Will my chain of command know?
Not from us. Belleisle is a private clinic and the clinical record stays with your professional. What a serving member must disclose is governed by military policy, so if you are unsure, it is a reasonable question to ask before booking.
Does my public service plan cover this?
It covers psychological services within the limits it sets, and eligibility depends on the provider’s professional title. Check your current member booklet, since the terms change.
Can my spouse or my teenager be seen?
Yes, subject to availability and to what your plan covers. Family members can be seen individually, as a couple or as a family.
I am a veteran rather than a serving member.
Say so in your request. See our page on therapy for veterans, which covers approved sessions billed directly.
I used my employee assistance program and the sessions ran out.
The work can continue privately with the same professional where that is possible, or with another. Fees are confirmed with you before the transition.
Do you work with organizations rather than individuals?
Yes. Contracted services for teams, departments and employers are arranged case by case, through Belleisle Access.
In a crisis
The services described on this page are not a substitute for crisis or emergency services.
If you are thinking about suicide or are in crisis, you can call or text 9-8-8 anywhere in Canada. If there is immediate danger, call 911.
The Canadian Forces Member Assistance Program is available at no cost, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, at 1-800-268-7708, to Regular Force members and their immediate families, and to Reserve Force members where the situation is linked to their service.
In Quebec, you can also call 1-866-APPELLE (1-866-277-3553) or dial 811, option 2, for Info-Social.
Getting started
Tell us briefly what brings you in, whether you are a serving member, a DND employee or a family member, your province, your language preference and your availability.
The content on this page is provided for information only. It is not individualized professional advice, does not create a therapeutic relationship, and does not replace a consultation with a qualified health professional.