News               

Top row (L to R): Monika Green, M.Ed., RP, CCC, Director of Public Affairs, Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association; Lindsay Mathyssen, MP, London-Fanshawe; Andrea D'Onofrio, MA, RP, OSRP Board Member.

Bottom row (L to R): Laura Hetherington, RP, PRPA; Ben Howe, Senior Consultant, Impact Public Affairs; Rachel Fulford, RP, OSRP Board Member. Regrets: Stephanie Woo Dearden, MA, RP(Q).

As previously announced, in December 2021, MP Lindsay Mathyssen tabled a private member’s bill called C-218: An Act to Amend the Excise Tax Act (psychotherapy services) to support a GST/HST exemption for psychotherapy services.

On May 5, Andrea D’Onofrio (Chair of #StopTaxingMyTherapy) and Rachel Fulford (Chair of the Advocacy Committee) joined our partners at the CCPA (Canada-wide), PRPA (Ontario-wide) and Impact (Lobbying Firm) to meet on Zoom with MP Lindsay Mathyssen.

We were all impressed by Mathyssen’s commitment to the removal of GST/HST from our services, and her desire to work with us to correct this barrier to access as soon as possible. She recognizes that Canadians deserve better access to psychotherapy and sees exemption of psychotherapy services as part of the toolkit for pandemic recovery and the massive mental health needs facing Canada now.

Unfortunately, Private Member’s Bill C-218 was placed far down the list for this parliament – #199, with #1 being the first to go forward. Order of precedence is determined lottery-style. However, Mathyssen remains committed to working with us and our partners to use the Bill to pressure the government to bring forward its own Bill, which they can do at any time.

We have learned that private member’s bills such as this do not have the power to amend taxation law, as the power to amend taxation rests solely with the Federal Government through a finance bill. That means that this Bill cannot grant tax exemption to our profession. However, Bill C-218 can play an essential part in our advocacy by raising awareness and support around this issue with Members of Parliament and the Government, encouraging them to legislate a GST/HST exemption for the profession.

Our next step is to prepare a coordinated advocacy effort with our members and stakeholders to support Bill C-218 and encourage the Government to remove this tax on our profession. Please stay tuned for more information on how you can help support this Bill through one unified and loud voice.

We are grateful to MP Mathyssen for championing this Bill, to the many MPs who have already expressed their support for this Bill, and to all the OSRP #StopTaxingMyTherapy volunteers who have worked on this issue, with particular thanks to Stephanie Woo Dearden who first connected with MP Mathyssen and informed her of this issue.

We ask that you please keep us informed of any emails or conversations with your MPs via advocacy@psychotherapyontario.org

We look forward to sharing how you can get more involved as soon as we can.

The Listserv is a members-only space where you can ask each other questions, share practice information, advertise for office space and more!

The OSRP has been putting together a list of guidelines for this self-organized, self-moderated space. We will be sending out an email once a month with these guidelines.

If you wish to contact the OSRP office or our Board members, please do so directly, not through the listserv. For the office, use mail@psychotherapyontario.org. For Board members, go to the Board Members page on our website and choose the appropriate email address. The OSRP office and Board members do not monitor the listserv for messages.

To join the listserv, click here

Owl Practice serves thousands of therapists across Canada. Owl allows therapists to easily manage their clinics or private practices and helps enable PHI and professional standards compliance. Owl’s mission is to enable mental wellness through therapists.

OSRP has finalized an agreement with Owl, which includes the following:

1. OSRP Qualifying and Clinical members who sign up for Owl Practice receive their first month of the Professional plan for free
2. OSRP Student members who sign up for Owl Practice receive their first 6 months of the Professional plan for $20 per month. (Full fees apply after 6 months.)
3. Webinar(s) about relevant topics to the practice of psychotherapy to OSRP members

For more information about OWL and/or to register, go to https://owlpractice.ca/

In an effort to spotlight our incredible members, OSRP’s Connect Committee is thrilled to announce our latest interview: this one about our (returned) Board member, Kimberly Cato.

As a Black woman who navigates the world through a wheelchair; an RP with over 30 years of experience working from trauma-informed and asset-based practices; and with her practice grounded in methodologies of anti-racism and anti-oppression, Kimberly’s experience and expertise across intersecting dimensions make her a gift to the OSRP.

Kimberly’s commitment to healing and mental wellness is long-standing. These experiences motivated her to intentionally engage in dismantling racism by decolonizing therapy and seeking culturally adapted therapeutic practices that build multi-racial communities with anti-racist capacity and a determination to facilitate more racial trauma healing forums.

Kimberly is delighted to be part of OSRP’s Board, Executive Committee, and the Interim Chair of the Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Committee, assisting with the process of embedding EDI principles into every aspect of the organization, and thereby creating a space that is welcoming, inclusive and safe for the differing identities of people we serve to know they belong here.

Our own Nikki Bianchi, Chair of the Connect Committee, interviewed Kimberly so that our members and the public could get to know who is helping guide the OSRP into more welcoming structures and practices for all therapists.

Click here to read the full interview

In celebration of OSRP's growth in reaching 1,000 members, we have assembled prizes for our 1,000th member and our first member.

Our 1,000th member is Brendon Antill, a student at Yorkville University enrolled in the Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology program.

Our first member is Mary Helen Garvin, who was a founding member of OSP (now OSRP) and joined in February 1992.

Congratulations to both of our winners. Thanks to Jane and Perkopolis for contributing to the prizes, both valued at over $500.

We are committed to becoming an anti-racist, anti-marginalization organization and intend to increase BIPoC and LGBTQA2S+ awareness and engagement at OSRP. To do that, we need diverse voices for social justice on our committees, in our communications and, well, everywhere!

Is this your voice?

If so, the following committees are welcoming new members and would love to hear from you:

• Advocacy
• Connect
• Equity, Diversity & Inclusion
• OSRP/CRPO

All committee meetings are virtual, so you can volunteer from the comfort of your home/workspace, wherever you live! If you would like to learn more about these committees or apply to join, click the following link https://funnelcom.typeform.com/OSRPVolunteerAp

When renewing your membership for 2022/2023, please ensure that you use the link in the reminder email sent to you. If you cannot find the email, please log in to https://orsp.ca/

Please also note that you will be paying the 15-month renewal rate. Because our online system only allows us to program for 12 months at a time, once you have paid, we will manually change your renewal date to July 1, 2023.

We did it! We have transitioned to our new website with a new URL: OSRP.CA. BUT, this new website is still a work in progress and will feature a mix of new and old content. Please bear with us for the next few weeks as we work with the content and navigation. We had a tight deadline for moving it from our old provider, which has left us with a tight schedule for bringing it up to full speed. We will continue to update it over the next few weeks and months.

The website is where you have gone to renew your membership and register for OSRP-hosted events. This has not changed.

We are asking all members to log in (visit OSRP.ca and you’ll see the members login) and update your referral profile. Currently, all referral profiles have been turned off. To appear on our online referral directory, you must opt-in. This feature is controlled with the opt-in field (“Allow to show in member directory?”) in your member profile. Currently, only Clinical and Qualifying members are included in our online referral service. 

We strongly urge you to choose yes for the option to receive Central (the option looks like this: Receive Member Emails and Newsletters), which is this email e-blast, as it’s the only way for the OSRP to share important information relevant to you as members and for your practices.