As a licensed mental health professional, your work has the power to impact peoples’ lives profoundly. It is only natural to continue educating yourself about the latest evidence-based practices after completing your degree. This is why continuing education is not optional. It is essential.
Whether you are a therapist, counselor, psychologist, or social worker, CE credits are required to maintain licensure. But continuing education serves a deeper role beyond compliance. It helps clinicians refine their skills, stay aligned with current research and deliver higher quality care to their clients who rely on them.
Key insight: CE credits are not just a regulatory checkbox; they are a professional commitment to delivering evidence-based, high-quality care to every client you serve.
What are Continuing Education Credits?
Continuing Education (CE) credits, sometimes also regarded as CEUs, are units of professional learning required by licensing boards to ensure clinicians stay current and competent in their field. CE activities can include coursework, live trainings, conferences, supervision and online learning.
Regardless of license type, mental health professionals must earn these credits to maintain active licensure during each renewal cycle.
How CE Credits Work
Complete accredited coursework → Earn CE credits → Submit to licensing board → Maintain active license
Why are CE credits important for Mental Health Professionals?
Continuing education supports four core professional needs:
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Licensing ComplianceLicensing boards establish CE requirements as both a legal obligation and an ethical responsibility. Providers must complete accredited CE courses to meet state or national requirements and maintain their ability to practice. |
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Clinical Skill DevelopmentLike any other healthcare disciplines, mental health is also evolving rapidly. New research, emerging treatments, digital tools, and culturally responsive frameworks continuously shape how therapists practice. |
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Staying Updated with Latest ResearchMental health knowledge is evolving rapidly. Some studies suggest that scientific knowledge in psychology can shift significantly within several years as new data emerges. This reality makes ongoing educational endeavors even more critical for therapists, social workers, psychologists and other professionals who want to practice responsibly and effectively. |
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Professional Confidence & Client CareInvesting in CE credits enables mental health professionals to stay up to date with latest advancements, feel more grounded in sessions, navigate complex cases, and make more informed decisions with confidence. It also reinforces trust when providers stay aligned with updated science and ethics. |
High quality CE credits for counselors and social workers are not just about checking a box. They are about staying current with evidence-based practices, deepening specialization in areas such as trauma modalities, EMDR, EFT, telehealth regulations, improving clinical skills in complex cases, and ultimately improving client outcomes while adapting to societal and regulatory changes.
Therefore, continuing education is an investment in both professional identity and client care.
This doesn’t mean, however, that pursuing CE credits is always simple.
Limitations and Barriers to Continuing Education
Most mental health professionals face real challenges when pursuing continuing education:
1. Time Constraints and Professional Burnout (click for more)
Most therapists are managing full client caseloads, alongside documentation and administrative work, supervision, consultation and personal commitments. Attending in person trainings often requires carving out time away from clients and their daily practice means, adding strain to an already demanding schedule.
2. Inflexible Learning Formats (click for more)
Many continuing education programs follow structured formats, set schedules or in person attendance, making participation harder to manage. For busy working professionals, setting aside time to commit to such sessions becomes difficult. Limited flexibility often turns continuing education into a logistical challenge rather than a meaningful learning experience.
3. Information Relevance and Overload (click for more)
With the proliferation of CE credit providers, it can be difficult to evaluate quality and accreditation. Many mental health professionals are genuinely concerned about the relevance of CE content to their specific practice areas and client needs. Choosing the right CE provider requires careful consideration.
What to Look for in Accredited CE Courses Online?
With limited time and many options available in the market, mental health professionals cannot treat all CE providers as equal. Selecting the right platform can make the difference between meaningful growth and simply checking a box.
Platforms such as GoodTherapy stand out because they offer:
What a Quality CE Provider Offers
- Accredited and Recognised Courses: GoodTherapy’s CE credits are backed by approvals from the American Psychological Association, NBCC, and NAADAC, ensuring compliance with most state and licensing board continuing education requirements.
- Focused Professional Growth: The topics chosen are grounded in evidence-based practices and presented by experienced, highly reputed clinicians and mental health professionals.
- Convenient and Organized Access: From live webinars to an organised library of over 500 home study courses, therapists can access learning that fits their schedule. The GoodTherapy dashboard tracks completed credits and provides easy access to certifications upon course completion.
“Speaking as a psychotherapist, I can attest that the CE workshops that GoodTherapy offers are top notch. Each one that I’ve watched or listened to is full of useful information.”
– Ashley Davis Bush, LICSW, author of 75 Habits for a Happy Marriage
Ready to Earn Your CE Credits on Your Schedule? If you are looking for continuing education for therapists that is accredited, flexible, and grounded in real clinical practice, GoodTherapy offers a trusted solution. Explore our CE course library or become a CE subscription member to access ongoing learning designed for working mental health professionals.
Ethics Training for Mental Health Providers
Ethics training is essential for mental health providers, helping you provide the very best help to your clients and patients. As laws, technology, and our understanding of people and the therapeutic relationship continue to evolve, ethics training keeps you and your practice up to date.
The theory and study of ethics stretch through every profession as the measure of quality in decision-making. Ethics play a vital role in how therapists and counselors choose to interact with their clients. For mental health providers, having a strong understanding of ethics is important for maintaining healthy boundaries with yourself, other professionals, and clients as you work through some of life’s more difficult topics. Keep reading for a brief explanation of ethics and an examination of how ethics training is important for therapists.
What Do We Mean by “Ethics?â€
Ethics is a complex term that we use to talk about several different aspects of appropriate conduct. The most relevant definitions of ethics from Merriam-Webster for our purposes are “the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation†and “the principles of conduct governing an individual or a group.â€
According to the American Psychology Association, The Ethics Code “provides a common set of principles and standards upon which psychologists build their professional and scientific work.†Its goals are “the welfare and protection of individuals and groups with whom psychologists work and the education of members, students, and the public regarding ethical standards of the discipline.â€
Ultimately, ethics training ensures that you know the ethical principles that govern psychotherapy and understand how to align your professional conduct with them.
Looking for ethics courses? Check out our lineup of ethics CE courses for therapists!
How Does Ethics Support Psychotherapy?
As mental health providers, you must frequently determine how to apply ethical principles in various contexts. That’s why many jurisdictions require psychotherapy practitioners to take continuing education courses in ethics. Through ethics training, you’ll grow in your understanding of how to weigh ethical issues in psychotherapy and what to do if you get stuck in the decision-making process.
Staying up to date with the ethical standards and best practices will help you practice psychotherapy in a way that avoids ethical violations. Providers who exhibit unethical behavior may can find themselves at risk of losing their license or ability to practice.
Examples of Unethical Behavior
Ethics violations include many different examples of poor decision-making. Here’s the scoop on four of the most common therapist ethics violations.
Dual Relationships
As a therapist, you should never have a client who is or becomes someone you share a personal relationship with (e.g., a family member, friend, or romantic relationship).
Breaking Confidentiality
Confidentiality is essential for building trust with clients; sharing private client information with another party without the client’s informed consent breaks that trust and violates ethical standards. Confidentiality has a wide scope, including what you tell a friend over coffee and how securely you keep your client files.
Failing to End Therapy
If you do not end therapy with a client you are not in a position to help, whether that’s because you cannot give them the attention they need, you do not have the knowledge or expertise to address their concerns, or the client is no longer benefiting from therapy, you are not serving the client.
Practicing Without a License
It is unethical to offer psychotherapy without the credentials, such as a license or certification, that are required in the jurisdiction where you’re practicing. Licensing boards are a great place to start. It is each therapist’s responsibility to know the requirements that govern their practice and follow them.
Impacts of Unethical Behavioral
Ethics training for mental health providers can help you avoid unethical behavior. This is crucial, as therapist ethical violations can have a lasting impact on you and your clients.
For someone who has come to you for help or attention to address issues and problem areas in their life, unethical behaviors can be damaging to their progress. Because of the inherent imbalance of power in the therapeutic relationship, clients are vulnerable. Your unethical choices can harm a client’s ability to trust (both in future therapy contexts and in their personal lives) and can cause them further psychological damage. Ethics training keeps you in the loop about how to act ethically and protect the integrity of the therapeutic relationship, ensuring your client is safe and supported.
Staying Compliant
While most mental health professionals took ethics courses in school or during their certification, it is important to refresh your knowledge and stay on top of new developments in ethical psychotherapy. Continuing education courses on ethics can be a fantastic way to stay fresh on the topic and stay up to date. Many jurisdictions require a minimum number of continuing education hours to be about ethics, and it’s easy to see why.
GoodTherapy offers ethics courses as part of our continuing education program. There are three ways to access our continuing education courses: CE Only allows you to purchase courses a la carte; CE Unlimited allows you to take as many courses as you want for a monthly fee; and Premium or Pro membership options include a profile in our registry, unlimited access to our CE courses, and other perks. Check out your options today!