Online Therapy in Ottawa

Reviewed by Dr. Marie Paquette, C.Psych. (CPBAO #7136). Written and edited by the Belleisle Clinics care team. Last updated: 7 September 2026.

Ottawa is not short of good clinicians. It is short of available ones. Ask around and the pattern repeats: the public system has a waiting list measured in months, the well-reviewed private practice downtown is closed to new clients, and the one person who takes your insurance and works in French has nothing until the spring. People give up somewhere in that sequence — not because they stopped needing help, but because the search itself became one more thing to manage.

Online therapy removes most of what makes that search hard. It widens the pool of clinicians beyond the ones who happen to work near you, and it removes the trip across the city that turns a fifty-minute session into a two-hour commitment. Belleisle Clinics connects you with independent, regulated professionals — Registered Psychotherapists (CRPO) and Psychologists (CPBAO) — who provide psychotherapy online across Ottawa and the rest of Ontario.

This is not a lighter version of therapy. It is the same work, in a different room.

Why online suits this city in particular

Some of the case for online therapy is general. Some of it is specific to Ottawa, and worth saying plainly.

The geography

Ottawa is physically large for its population. Kanata to Orléans is close to fifty kilometres, and the practices cluster downtown, in the Glebe and in Westboro. If you live in Barrhaven, Stittsville, Riverside South or Manotick, an in-person weekly appointment realistically costs you an afternoon. That cost is the reason a great many people attend for six weeks and then quietly stop.

The winter

Therapy works through repetition, and repetition is what January damages. A course of treatment interrupted by storm days and unploughed side streets loses its momentum, and momentum is difficult to rebuild. A session you can attend from your kitchen table is a session you actually attend.

The language

Ottawa is a bilingual city where genuinely bilingual clinical care is harder to find than the demographics suggest. Therapy in your second language is possible, and for some people it even helps — but the vocabulary of feeling is the vocabulary you learned first, and describing shame or grief in a language you use at work is real additional work. Several clinicians in the network practise in French, and one of them practises in French only.

The schedules

Shift workers, hospital staff, public servants on compressed weeks, parents managing two school pickups, students at uOttawa, Carleton or Algonquin between classes — for all of them the constraint is rarely the fifty minutes. It is the ninety minutes around them.

What people in Ottawa come to us for

The list below is not exhaustive, and no one arrives with a diagnosis in hand. Many arrive with a description: something has been off for a while, and it is starting to cost them.

• Anxiety in its various forms — generalized worry, panic, social anxiety, performance anxiety, health anxiety
• Depression and persistent low mood: loss of interest, fatigue that sleep does not fix, withdrawal from people you used to see
• Burnout and work stress, including the particular kind that comes from work that is not physically demanding but never stops
• Trauma and post-traumatic stress, recent or long-standing
• Grief and loss, including losses that are not deaths — a marriage, a career, a diagnosis, a version of the future you had counted on
• Life transitions: separation, a new baby, a move, retirement, a career change that turned out differently than expected
• Relationship and family difficulties, including communication patterns that repeat no matter who is in the room
• Self-criticism, perfectionism and the exhaustion of holding an impossible standard
• Emotional regulation, anger, and reactions that feel bigger than the situation
• Behavioural and school difficulties in children and adolescents
• Sleep, concentration and the mental fatigue that accompanies a long stretch of stress

What the work actually looks like

The first session

The first appointment serves mainly to understand what you need, and it can also begin the therapeutic work. You describe what is happening, how long it has been happening, and what it is costing you. The clinician asks questions to understand the context — your circumstances, your history, what has helped before and what has not, what you want to be different. By the end you should have a shared sense of what the work would involve and roughly how long it might take.

The first session is also where the fit gets tested, in both directions. If online is not the right format for your situation, or if your presentation calls for someone with different expertise, the clinician says so and helps you find the alternative. That conversation is part of the service, not a failure of it.

The sessions after it

Sessions typically run fifty minutes, usually weekly at first, spacing out as things stabilize. You and the clinician agree on what you are working toward, and revisit it as you go. Some courses of therapy are short and targeted at one problem. Others are longer, because the pattern being addressed is older and more entrenched. Neither is better; they answer different questions.

What you need at your end

A device with a camera, a reasonable connection, and — the part people underestimate — a place where you will not be overheard. Privacy at your end is the one condition online therapy cannot supply for you. In a full house, people use a parked car, a closed office, a scheduled walk. It is worth solving before the first session rather than during it.

Evidence-based approaches

The approach is chosen for the problem and the person, not applied uniformly. Clinicians in the network draw on:

• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) — the relationship between thoughts, feelings and behaviour, and the concrete strategies that follow from it
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) — psychological flexibility, and acting in line with your values even when the discomfort does not disappear
• Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) — emotions as information, particularly useful in relationship and attachment work
• Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) skills — distress tolerance and emotional regulation
• Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT) — for entrenched shame and self-criticism
• Psychodynamic work — recurring patterns and their origins, when the same difficulty keeps returning in different clothes
• Solution-focused and narrative approaches — for circumscribed goals and for reframing the story you tell about a situation
• Parent coaching and family systems work — where the difficulty lives in the household rather than in one person

Most clinicians work integratively, drawing on more than one of these. What matters more than the label is that the approach is deliberate, explained to you, and adjusted when it is not working.

Children, teens and families

Online therapy suits many adolescents unusually well. Some adolescents are comfortable with the medium, and for some the slight distance of a screen can make difficult subjects easier to raise than they would be across a desk. Sessions cover identity, confidence, academic pressure, friendships and relationships, mood, and sleep.

With children the picture is more mixed, and it depends on the child and the reason for referral. Work with younger children often involves the parents as much as the child — sometimes more, because changing what happens at home changes more than an hour a week can. Where a child needs in-person work, or a different service altogether, the clinician says so at assessment rather than after three months.

Who you’ll work with

In Ontario, psychotherapy is provided by regulated professionals working within their own scope of practice and competence. In the Belleisle network, that means Registered Psychotherapists and Psychologists; the difference between the two matters mainly at the edges.

Registered Psychotherapists (CRPO) hold a master’s-level qualification in psychotherapy and are regulated by the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario. For the most common presentations — anxiety, depression, stress, grief, relationship difficulties, adjustment — an RP and a psychologist can both provide effective care; the choice usually turns on the reason for the referral, your preference and practical considerations. Fees are generally more accessible.

Psychologists (CPBAO) hold a doctorate and are regulated by the College of Psychologists and Behaviour Analysts of Ontario. In addition to therapy, they can conduct formal psychological assessment and communicate a diagnosis — which is what you need when the picture is complex or unclear, or when a report is required for an accommodation, an insurer or a physician.

You can verify any clinician’s registration yourself, free, on their college’s public register. For a fuller comparison, see our guide, Psychologist vs. Psychotherapist in Ontario. Our intake team helps you make the choice based on your situation, your preference and practical considerations like fees and availability.

Clinicians in the network practise independently. Belleisle provides the scheduling, the secure platform and the administrative support; it does not deliver clinical services or direct clinical decisions.

The clinicians serving Ottawa

ZONE CLINICIENS — bloc visuel alimenté par les données de la clinique, pas par le texte de la page. Pour chaque clinicien autorisé en Ontario : photo, nom, profession, ordre et numéro de permis, langues, groupes d’âge, lien vers le profil.

Each clinician’s registration number is published beside their name, so you can verify anyone on the college register before you book. Some hold a “Qualifying” class of registration with the CRPO — a registration category, not a trainee status. A Qualifying member is registered with the college, holds the required education, and practises under clinical supervision while completing the remaining requirements, which means a second experienced clinician is involved in the case.

What we are not the right fit for

Most clinic pages imply everyone treats everything. Ours does not, because being routed to the wrong clinician costs you weeks.

Each clinician works within defined areas of competence, and several do not take certain presentations as a primary concern — OCD, personality disorders, ADHD management, anger management, bipolar disorder, severe substance use, and forensic or court-ordered work are the common ones. This does not mean the network cannot help; it means the match matters, and intake will tell you honestly if there is not a good one. Where we are not the right service, we would rather say so at the outset.

Online therapy is also not appropriate for everyone. Acute risk, situations requiring urgent in-person care, and circumstances where a private space genuinely cannot be arranged are all better served elsewhere. That assessment is made with you, in the first conversation.

In person in Ottawa: what is and is not available

Psychotherapy at Belleisle is delivered online, and that is how nearly all clients are seen. A limited number of in-person appointments exist in Ottawa; if it matters for your situation, say so at intake and the team will tell you what is possible rather than guessing.

Assessment is different. Neuropsychological and psychoeducational assessments require standardized testing administered in a controlled setting, and those continue in person at the Ottawa and Gatineau offices. If you are looking for an assessment rather than therapy — for ADHD, a learning difficulty, a concussion, or a memory concern — start there instead: neuropsychological assessment in Ottawa

Fees, insurance and receipts

Fees depend on which regulated profession you work with. Rates vary and change, so we do not publish figures here — intake confirms the exact fee with you before the first session, once you know who you are being matched with. As a general pattern, sessions with a Registered Psychotherapist are more accessible than sessions with a Psychologist, reflecting the difference in training.

• OHIP does not cover private psychotherapy. Neither profession is billed to the provincial plan.
• Coverage under extended health plans varies by contract and by the provider’s profession — usually a portion of the fee up to an annual maximum. Check the wording of your own plan.
• Check which profession your plan names. Some plans cover psychologists but not psychotherapists, or the reverse. Plans that list “Registered Psychotherapist” generally also cover an RP (Qualifying) — confirm the wording with your insurer.
• Employee assistance programs sometimes cover a set number of sessions. Worth checking before you pay out of pocket.
• Tax credit. Depending on the provider’s profession and your own situation, some fees may qualify as a medical expense for the federal Medical Expense Tax Credit. Keep your receipts and check the Canada Revenue Agency’s current criteria.

Official receipts are issued for every session, in the format insurers require.

How to start

1. Tell us briefly what brings you in. A short form — a few sentences is enough. No referral needed.

2. We review it and propose a match. A person reads your request, not a chatbot, and matches you on the basis of your concern, your language, your preferred format and your availability. If the right match is not in the network, we say so.

3. The clinician contacts you directly to arrange the first session and explain how to connect.

Request an appointment in Ottawa

If you need help right now

This service is not an emergency service, and requests are not monitored around the clock. If you are in crisis or thinking about ending your life, call or text 9-8-8, the Suicide Crisis Helpline, available across Canada 24/7 in English and French. If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department.

Frequently asked questions

Is online therapy as effective as in person? In the populations and contexts studied, research reports comparable results. A 2021 meta-analysis covering more than 5,000 participants reported comparable outcomes between live video therapy and the same therapy delivered in person (Fernandez et al., 2021). A separate review of eighteen studies reported comparable ratings of the working relationship — one of the factors associated with outcome (Flückiger et al., 2018) — by clients and therapists in video sessions and in person (Seuling et al., 2024). Both are cited below. This holds for most presentations, not all, which is what the first session is for. These results do not mean the format suits every situation.

Are in-person sessions available in Ottawa? Psychotherapy is delivered online, and that is how nearly all clients are seen. A limited number of in-person appointments are available in Ottawa — mention it at intake if it matters for your situation and the team will tell you what is possible. In-person neuropsychological and psychoeducational assessments continue at the Ottawa and Gatineau offices.

Is therapy available in French? Yes. Several clinicians in the network practise in French, and one practises in French only. Indicate your language preference on the intake form and it is used in the matching.

Do I need a referral? No. You can request an appointment directly. Some insurers ask for a physician’s note before they reimburse — that is a requirement of your plan, not of the service.

Is online therapy appropriate for children and teens? Often, but not always. Some adolescents are comfortable with the format. With younger children it depends on the child and the reason for referral, and the work usually involves the parents. If online is not appropriate, the clinician says so at assessment and helps you find an alternative.

Do parents take part in therapy for younger children? Usually, either in the sessions themselves or through separate parent consultation, depending on the child’s age and the presenting difficulty. What happens at home between sessions generally matters more than the hour itself.

Can we come as a family, or as a couple? Yes. Several clinicians work with couples and families, particularly around communication, transitions and shared stress. Say so on the form so the matching accounts for it.

How long does therapy take? It depends on the difficulty and the goal. Some people come for a handful of targeted sessions; others work for a year or more on something long-standing. You and your clinician set the goal at the start and revisit it as you go — you are not committing to an open-ended process.

How private is it? Sessions run on a secure video platform, and clinicians are bound by their college’s confidentiality obligations and by the privacy legislation applicable to the service, with the standard legal exceptions concerning risk of serious harm. The one part we cannot control is your end: a room where you will not be overheard is worth arranging in advance.

Can I see someone if I live in Gatineau? Where you are physically located during the session determines which regulator applies, so a Quebec address is served by clinicians authorized to practise in Quebec. Say where you live on the form and intake will route it correctly. Our French Gatineau page covers this: Psychothérapie à Gatineau

Sources

The statements on this page about the effectiveness of online therapy and about what predicts good outcomes are supported by peer-reviewed research, including:

• Fernandez, E., Woldgabreal, Y., Day, A., Pham, T., Gleich, B., & Aboujaoude, E. (2021). Live psychotherapy by video versus in-person: a meta-analysis of efficacy and its relationship to types and targets of treatment. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 28(6), 1535–1549.
• Seuling, P. D., Fendel, J. C., Spille, L., Göritz, A. S., & Schmidt, S. (2024). Therapeutic alliance in videoconferencing psychotherapy compared to psychotherapy in person: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare, 30(10), 1521–1531.
• Flückiger, C., Del Re, A. C., Wampold, B. E., & Horvath, A. O. (2018). The alliance in adult psychotherapy: a meta-analytic synthesis. Psychotherapy, 55(4), 316–340.
• Carlbring, P., Andersson, G., Cuijpers, P., Riper, H., & Hedman-Lagerlöf, E. (2018). Internet-based vs. face-to-face cognitive behaviour therapy for psychiatric and somatic disorders: an updated systematic review and meta-analysis. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 47(1), 1–18.
• Venturo-Conerly, K. E., Fitzpatrick, O. M., Horn, R. L., Ugueto, A. M., & Weisz, J. R. (2022). Effectiveness of youth psychotherapy delivered remotely: a meta-analysis. American Psychologist, 77(1), 71–84.

Talk to someone in Ottawa

Whether it is for you, your child or your family, starting is the part that predicts the rest. The request takes a few minutes, and a first session commits you to nothing beyond it.

Request an appointment

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The content on this page is for general information and does not replace a consultation with a qualified health professional. It does not constitute a diagnosis or a treatment recommendation.