What regulates a coaching or therapy website
Four things. Advertising rules on health and mental-health claims, which apply to anyone making them, clinician or not. Protected titles, which decide what you may call yourself. Consumer law on prices, contracts and cancellation. And the laws that apply to any website: privacy, cookies, accessibility, business details. Each changes by country and, in federal systems, by state or province. Coaching itself is unregulated almost everywhere, which is why the advertising and title rules do most of the work. This is orientation, not legal advice; your professional body and a local adviser are the authorities.
United Kingdom
Claims: the Advertising Standards Authority enforces the CAP Code, which requires health claims to be backed by evidence and treats testimonials as claims needing the same support. Its guidance on hypnotherapy and complementary therapies is specific about what may be said for which conditions; claims to treat serious conditions are the ones most often ruled against. Advertising treatment for cancer is restricted by statute.
Titles: "dietitian" and the practitioner psychologist titles are protected through the Health and Care Professions Council. "Counsellor", "psychotherapist" and "coach" are not protected, so accreditation with a body on a Professional Standards Authority accredited register is what clients rely on.
Consumer law: the Consumer Rights Act and Consumer Contracts Regulations, including the 14-day cancellation right for services bought online, which your terms should explain. Prices should say whether VAT applies.
Business details, privacy, accessibility: trading name and address; UK GDPR and PECR, with health-adjacent intake data as special category data; ICO registration for most practices; Equality Act, WCAG 2.1 AA.
United States
Claims: the Federal Trade Commission on deceptive health claims and, under its endorsement guides, testimonials that must reflect typical results and disclose material connections. State attorneys general enforce state consumer protection acts. Health claims that are not substantiated are the exposure.
Titles and licensing: state by state. "Psychologist", "licensed professional counselor", "marriage and family therapist" and similar are licensed titles; using them without the licence is an offence. Hypnotherapy is regulated in a few states and unregulated in most; coaching is unregulated everywhere. Check your state board.
Consumer law: state rules on automatic renewals for subscriptions and packages, and on refunds. The TCPA if you text clients for marketing (consent required).
Privacy and accessibility: HIPAA applies to covered entities and most coaches are not one, but state privacy laws (California and a growing list) may apply above their thresholds, and Washington's health data law covers consumer health data broadly. ADA applied to websites through litigation; WCAG 2.1 AA the standard.
Canada
Claims: the Competition Act on misleading advertising, enforced federally, and Ad Standards' code. Health Canada regulates claims about natural health products, which touches practitioners who sell them.
Titles: provincial. Ontario makes "psychotherapist" a protected title and psychotherapy a controlled act; Quebec regulates psychotherapy through its psychologists' order; other provinces vary. "Dietitian" is protected across provinces. Coaching is unregulated.
Consumer law: provincial consumer protection acts, with Quebec's the strictest on contracts and pricing. Quebec also requires French on websites serving Quebec.
Privacy and accessibility: PIPEDA federally and provincial equivalents, Quebec's Law 25 with consent and policy requirements; CASL for marketing email, which is strict on consent; AODA in Ontario and the Accessible Canada Act.
Australia
Claims: the Australian Consumer Law on misleading conduct, enforced by the ACCC. For registered health professions, the National Law's advertising rules prohibit testimonials, misleading claims and encouraging indiscriminate use of services. Coaches, hypnotherapists and most complementary therapists are not registered under the National Law, so the ACL is the main rule, but anyone who also holds a registered title is bound by both. The TGA regulates claims about therapeutic goods.
Titles: the National Law protects titles such as psychologist, nurse and Chinese medicine practitioner; dietitian is protected by its association's rules rather than statute. Coaching and hypnotherapy are unregulated.
Consumer law: ACL consumer guarantees and unfair contract terms, which reach package terms and cancellation policies.
Privacy and accessibility: the Privacy Act for businesses over the turnover threshold, though health service providers are covered regardless of size, so a practice handling health information should assume it applies; the Disability Discrimination Act; WCAG 2.1 AA.
European Union
Claims: the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, implemented nationally, plus national health advertising laws, of which Germany's Heilmittelwerbegesetz is the strictest and restricts testimonials and before-and-after claims for treatments. National rules on who may treat: Germany's Heilpraktiker licence, for example, is required for anyone practising medicine without being a doctor, and hypnotherapists there usually hold it.
Titles: national. "Psychologist" and "psychotherapist" are protected in most member states.
Consumer law: the Consumer Rights Directive with the 14-day withdrawal right for services bought online and its information duties; prices inclusive of VAT.
Business details, privacy, accessibility: the E-Commerce Directive's information requirements (the Impressum tradition in Germany and Austria); GDPR with health data as special category data requiring explicit consent, and the ePrivacy consent rules for cookies; the European Accessibility Act from June 2025 for services above the micro-enterprise threshold.
What is the same everywhere
- Do not claim to treat, cure or heal a medical or psychological condition unless you are licensed to.
- Use only titles your qualification and your jurisdiction allow.
- State the line between your practice and clinical care.
- Treat testimonials as claims: about the experience, not the outcome, and only where your country and your body allow them.
- Publish prices honestly, with tax stated, and a cancellation policy that respects the local withdrawal right.
- Keep intake and booking data in a tool with the right data agreement, not on the site.
- Publish business details and a privacy notice; build to WCAG 2.1 AA.
Where this sits
Every coaching practice website we build runs through a country checklist at the content stage covering claims, titles, testimonials, prices and cancellation, privacy and accessibility, and each sub-page from hypnotherapists to doulas carries its own note on what applies. The copy is written to survive the strictest reading, and flagged for your professional body to review, because the honest, specific site is also the compliant one.