Your Therapist Probably Doesn't Know What They're Doing

That 'crickets' moment when your therapist realizes the weekend workshop didn't cover... this 🦗

Ok. I'll Say It. The Odds Are Good That Your Therapist Doesn't Know What They're Doing.

I've been training therapists for over twenty years. What I'm seeing now terrifies me.

The therapy industry has fundamentally broken. We're churning out too many undertrained therapists who believe their degree makes them experts, while clients suffer the consequences.

The shift happened gradually, then during the pandemic, all at once. When I completed my PhD in clinical psychology, I needed over 4,000 hours of supervised practice before I could work independently. Today's therapists? They get by with a fraction of that oversight. Nowadays, it's more and more likely that your therapist doesn't know what they're doing.

The mentorship model collapsed. Instead of learning the art of therapy through deep supervision and in-depth analysis of their performances, new graduates collect certificates from weekend workshops. They mistake credentials for competence.

Here's what really happens: A fresh graduate completes maybe eight months of practicum with six clients per week. One depressed client, one anxious client, one trauma case. From this limited exposure, they declare themselves specialists in - you guessed it - anxiety, depression, and trauma. The reality is, they’re not even an expert in general therapy yet.

They don't know what they don't know. And here's an even worse recent trend: Many aren't even interested in finding out where they may have “blind spots.”

The Supervision Crisis

The numbers tell the story. Research shows that 51% of therapists never received supervision for implementing cognitive-behavioral therapy during their training.

In Ontario, supervision requirements dropped from one hour per four to six hours of client contact to one hour per ten hours. For most right-out-of-the-box therapists, this means less than one hour of supervision per week. The change wasn't made because less supervision produces better therapists. It was made because supervision costs money.

What we lost in that equation was the vulnerable but valuable process of studying our work. Real supervision means opening your sessions to scrutiny, admitting when you're stuck, receiving feedback from those of us who've been around long enough to figure out how to do it well, and learning how to adapt when textbook interventions fail.

Too many modern therapists skip this entirely. They arrive at supervision claiming they have all the skills they need, closed off to feedback that could transform their practice. How can I confidently state this? I’ve seen it. “That’s not the kind of therapy I want to do,” objects a supervisee from examining what they said and how they could do better using a tried-and-true technique like CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy). Yikes. I've supervised trainees who consistently decline meaningful feedback opportunities, citing discomfort with the process or preference to talk about something else because they don’t think they need that type of supervision. Unfortunately, the current system allows them to simply find another supervisor rather than work through these growth opportunities, ultimately passing the consequences onto their clients.

The art of therapy requires integration. You can't learn it from a three-hour online course. You develop it through mentorship, vulnerability, and years of guided practice.

When Therapy Fails

I see the casualties daily. Clients arrive at my practice saying they've tried therapy multiple times and it just doesn't work.

What actually happened? They encountered therapists who accepted cases beyond their skill level, or who didn't really know how to do the intervention they thought they were doing, in the first place.

I’ve seen therapy work thousands of times. I know it’s effective. So when someone says something like “CBT didn’t work for me,” I’m suspicious. I believe that these clients, instead of being poor candidates for a solid therapy technique, encountered therapists who just didn’t know how to do it, but maybe think they do. When complexity arose, when giving their client a worksheet instead of teaching them a process, or when cookie-cutter interventions failed, these therapists had no framework for adaptation. This means that instead, they:

• doubled down on their efforts (if at first it doesn’t work, try to do it again, harder),

• offered something they did know how to do (but which wasn’t the right thing for the client’s presenting issue, so it was ineffective), or

• they flaked out and told the client to find another provider.

Maybe before that happened too much, the client just dropped out because they weren’t feeling it any more.

And who can blame them? The client sits through ineffective sessions until their faith, their motivation, or their insurance runs out. They incorrectly conclude their problems are unfixable or therapy is useless.

Neither is true. They simply encountered an undertrained practitioner who lacked the depth of applied skill to help them. Neither the client nor the therapist had what they needed to get better.

The industry's response? Scale up even more. Mental health service usage jumped 40% from 2019 to 2022, yet national mental health outcomes haven't improved.

We're treating more people with lower-quality care. The math isn’t math-ing.

The Online School Factory

Online therapy programs accelerated the problem. These schools prioritize enrollment over selectivity, admitting anyone who can fund a master's degree.

There's no gatekeeping. No assessment of whether someone has the qualities needed for this profession. No evaluation of their capacity to sit with human suffering or facilitate genuine change.

Students complete coursework that checks regulatory boxes but doesn't teach integration. They graduate believing, or rather, hoping they're ready for independent practice.

The practicum experience is minimal. Eight months isn't enough time to develop the pattern recognition and artful skill that separates skilled therapists from degree-holders. Some trainees invest in additional training, recognizing this gap and wanting to do more, do better - these are the ones who become excellent therapists. Unfortunately, the current system doesn't encourage this kind of self-reflection or directly instruct the value of attending to the art of ongoing integration and skill development, so most do not.

When these graduates enter the field, they often lack the humility that comes from understanding therapy's complexity. They've never been broken down and rebuilt through intensive supervision. They admit in interviews with me that they don’t really know how to handle common client situation role-plays, because there was never this type of training offered in their academic programs or in their (minimal check-those-boxes-off supervision).

The Corporate Therapy Problem

Corporate platforms made everything worse. Mental health professionals report high caseloads, inadequate pay, and lack of clinical supervision on these platforms. Outsourcing electronic-based mental health provision to the lowest bidder does not make ‘affordable’ therapy good.

Quality becomes impossible. Therapists juggle enormous caseloads with minimal support. They don’t feel they can afford to pay for mentorship or supervision, so they don’t. The focus shifts from depth to volume, from transformation to symptom management.

Clients receive robotic responses and generic interventions. When they don't improve, they're told they need more sessions or different medications, or are referred to someone else to start all over. It’s a hot mess.

The system creates therapeutic casualties while generating profits.

What Clients Need to Know

You deserve better than the current standard. Here's how to protect yourself:

Seek established group practices led by regulated psychologists. 

Psychologists in Ontario are bound by the College of Psychologists of Ontario - one of the most rigorous regulatory bodies in healthcare. Unlike voluntary certifications (like "Certified Clinical Counsellor" which has no actual regulatory power), psychologists face serious consequences for substandard care: investigations, hearings, fines, suspension, or complete license revocation.

This regulatory oversight means psychologist-led practices must maintain strict ethical standards, including:

• Regularly evaluating their team's competencies and skill gaps

• Ensuring therapists only accept cases within their demonstrated expertise

• Referring clients elsewhere when they're not the right fit

• Providing ongoing supervision and professional development

• Maintaining detailed accountability for treatment outcomes

The key isn't finding the oldest therapist - it's finding the right practice model. 

A newer therapist working under proper supervision in an established practice will generally outperform a solo practitioner with years of unsupervised, unmentored experience. Quality practices actively vet their team, provide ongoing mentorship, and remove therapists who can't meet their standards.

Avoid solo practitioners working in isolation, especially those with virtual-only practices. Most lack the accountability and mentorship that comes from working within a structured environment.

Ask about matching processes. 

Quality practices match you with therapists based on your specific needs and the therapist’s evaluated expertise, not just availability.

Research the practice's leadership and regulatory status. Look for clinics owned by licensed psychologists who maintain active involvement in training and supervision - not just years of experience, but demonstrated commitment to quality control and professional development.

Trust your instincts. 

If therapy feels robotic or generic, if your therapist seems overconfident without results to back it up, or if they can’t really explain to you what the roadmap is to your therapy solution, you're probably right to be concerned.

Why Smart Therapists Choose Well-Led, Established Group Practices

Here's what the industry won't tell you:

The best therapists know they need ongoing support. 

They actively seek out established group practices because they understand what solo practitioners often miss.

First, they recognize they don't know what they don't know. Working alongside experienced clinicians exposes gaps they never realized existed - from setting healthy boundaries around attendance to developing a confident money mindset when discussing fees. These seemingly small skills make enormous differences in both effectiveness and job satisfaction.

Second, quality group practices provide reality checks. Instead of letting new therapists take on complex cases they're not ready for, experienced leadership creates structured training plans and limits on which clients see which therapists. They help therapists build genuine expertise before expanding their scope. This prevents the therapy ruptures and client failures that plague undertrained practitioners.

Most importantly, ethical practices protect both therapists and clients through appropriate matching. 

New therapists aren't thrown to the wolves with cases beyond their skill level. They're paired with clients who match their current capabilities while being supported to grow those capabilities systematically.

The result? Therapists who feel competent, satisfied, and genuinely helpful instead of stressed, overwhelmed, and ineffective. And clients get better.

The Path Forward

The industry needs fundamental reform. We need stricter admission standards for therapy programs, extended practicum requirements, and more intensive supervision mandates, not less. We need ethical leadership in larger ‘collectives’ where the new norm should be that quality of service matters more than profits or putting bums in seats.

We need evaluative feedback. 

Supervisors should have the authority to determine whether students are ready for independent practice, not just whether they completed required hours. Is this in place in the online grad schools churning out thousands of students per year? Nope. This gap in quality control is concerning, to say the least.

Most importantly, we need to return to valuing depth of experience, mentorship of those new to the field, and demonstrated skills over the number of purchased credentials a person has after their last name. The best therapists are made through years of learning the art of their practice, not quickie online workshops and certifications-for-dollars schemes.

Until these changes happen, clients must become informed consumers. Your mental health is too important to leave to chance.

The therapy industry's current trajectory serves everyone except the people seeking help. As someone who's dedicated my career to this field, I can't stay silent while clients suffer from our collective failure.

You deserve therapists who know what they're doing. 

Don't settle for less.

Ready for Therapy That Doesn’t Suck?

At Limestone Clinic, we practice what I preach. As a psychologist-led practice bound by the College of Psychologists of Ontario's rigorous standards, we maintain the exact quality controls I've outlined in this article.

Here's what that means for you: Every therapist on our team is carefully vetted, continuously overseen, and matched to clients based on demonstrated expertise - not just availability. We don't throw new therapists into complex cases they can't handle, and we don't keep therapists who can't meet our standards. We also only hire people we’d enjoy spending time with over coffee or tea, so, no jerks over here!

Whether you're dealing with anxiety, depression, trauma, or just need someone to talk to, we offer both ongoing therapy and walk-in sessions designed to actually help you get better.

We provide individual therapy for adults 18+ as well as couples counselling and marital therapy for partnerships that need support. Sessions are available both in-person and through online therapy to meet your needs.

Ready to experience the difference? Book a free Discovery Call with our Customer Care CEO, Alicia Morrow, who will personally match you with the right therapist for your specific needs.

Book Your Discovery Call →

Because you deserve therapy that works, not therapy that wastes your resources.

Questions about our approach or services? Contact us - we're always happy to chat about how we can help.