> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.opentherapy.app/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Join Open Therapy

> Apply as a practitioner and complete onboarding — every question you'll be asked, in order.

## Apply

<Steps>
  <Step title="Sign up as a therapist">
    On the signup page choose **I'm a therapist**. Use your practice email — it's what we verify
    against.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Verify your email">
    We send a six-digit code, valid for 30 minutes. Enter it and set a password of at least 8
    characters.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Complete onboarding">
    You're taken straight into it. Set aside about fifteen minutes.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## What onboarding asks

Eleven steps. The questions are ordered so the quick factual ones come first and the ones worth thinking about come once you're warmed up.

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="1. Identity" icon="user" defaultOpen>
    First name, last name, pronouns, and your discipline: clinical psychologist, psychologist,
    counsellor or psychotherapist, speech pathologist, occupational therapist, dietitian, or
    psychiatrist.

    **Required to continue:** first name, last name and discipline.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="2. Registration" icon="badge-check">
    Your registering body — Ahpra, Speech Pathology Australia, Dietitians Australia, or PACFA/ACA —
    your registration number, and years practising.

    **Required to continue:** a body, and a registration number of at least 6 characters.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="3. Practice" icon="map-pin">
    How you work (online, in person, home visits), your suburb and city, and the languages you
    practise in. English is assumed unless you say otherwise.

    **Required to continue:** at least one mode, and a city.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="4. Concerns" icon="list">
    What you work with. These are the same categories clients choose from when they answer the
    matching questions, which is what makes the two sides line up.

    **Required to continue:** at least one.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="5. Approaches" icon="git-branch">
    CBT, ACT, Schema therapy, EMDR, Psychodynamic, Internal Family Systems, DBT, Emotion-focused,
    Narrative therapy, Somatic and body-based, Family and systemic, Play-based,
    Neurodiversity-affirming, Health at Every Size, Culturally responsive practice.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="6. Themes and experiences" icon="heart">
    Eight themes — culture and belonging, family, identity and sexuality, neurodivergence and
    disability, faith and community, work and study, parenting and caring, loss and survival. For each
    theme you pick, you'll mark the specific experiences inside it as either **lived** or **worked
    with**.

    This distinction matters more than anything else in matching. See
    [Lived experience](/therapists/build-your-profile#lived-experience).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="7. Your story" icon="pen-line">
    Your lived experience in your own words, if you want to write it. Optional.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="8. Fees" icon="dollar-sign">
    Your standard session fee, your initial consultation fee, and the funding you accept.

    **Required to continue:** a session fee.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="9. Availability" icon="calendar">
    The days and times you work, and whether you're taking new clients.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="10. Profile" icon="file-text">
    Your bio — the first thing a client reads.

    **Required to continue:** at least 40 characters.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="11. Done" icon="check">
    Your application goes to us for verification.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

<Tip>
  Have your registration number to hand before you start. It's the one field you can't guess at, and
  the one most likely to send your application back for a correction.
</Tip>

## What happens next

You'll get an email confirming the application is in. Three things then happen:

<Steps>
  <Step title="We verify your registration">
    Checked against the national register. We'll email if anything doesn't line up.
  </Step>

  <Step title="You set your real availability">
    In the workspace, so the times clients see are the times you have.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Your profile goes live">
    You start appearing for clients whose experiences overlap with yours.
  </Step>
</Steps>

Nothing goes live until your registration checks out. See [Verification](/therapists/verification).

## Before you can take a booking

Two things beyond verification:

<Columns cols={2}>
  <Card title="Set up payouts" icon="banknote" href="/therapists/set-up-payouts" horizontal>
    Clients can't book you until your Stripe account is fully verified.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Choose a cancellation policy" icon="calendar-x" href="/therapists/cancellation-policy" horizontal>
    A session booked before you choose one carries no cancellation fee at all.
  </Card>
</Columns>