Psychology for adults · Québec City
Whether a psychologist is what you need. What it costs once insurance is accounted for. How long you’ll wait. The tools below answer without asking you for anything identifying — and two of them can conclude that this isn’t where you should go.
Right now
Lines that answer around the clock, no appointment, no charge.
The numbersNo charge
The public system provides psychotherapy free of charge. The way in is simpler than people think.
How to get inHere
Start by checking that a psychologist is what you need. Thirty seconds.
The toolGeneral information, not clinical advice. None of these tools diagnoses anything, and none replaces an assessment.
Since Bill 21, psychotherapy is a reserved activity in Quebec: not everyone may practise it, and titles that sound alike don’t mean the same thing. The tool asks for no name, no age, no symptom — three choices, and it may well send you elsewhere.
The door to try first
That’s what we do here.
A psychologist is the one professional who can assess, make a psychological diagnosis and practise psychotherapy without an additional permit. No doctor’s referral is needed to book: you call, that’s it.
Also worth knowing
A member of one of the five orders eligible for the permit.
The psychotherapist permit is open to guidance counsellors, occupational therapists, nurses, psychoeducators and social workers — and, under a transitional provision, to certain sexologists. It is the same reserved activity under the same regulation, often at a lower fee and a shorter wait. The difference: a psychotherapist does not make a psychological diagnosis.
Employee assistance program.
If your employer offers one it is almost always the fastest route, and it costs you nothing: a few sessions, often within the week, with a professional from the provider’s network. The number of sessions is capped — it is built for one specific rough patch, not for long-term work. Nobody at your workplace is told that you called.
« Psychologist » and « psychotherapist » are reserved titles: nobody may use them without being registered. The Ordre des psychologues du Québec keeps a public roll, and the psychotherapists’ register covers permit holders. Thirty seconds, a name, and you know. « Coach », « relationship helper » and « practitioner » are not reserved titles and confer no right to practise psychotherapy.
A summary of Bill 21 and of the Regulation respecting the psychotherapist’s permit (C-26, r. 222.1). General information: your situation may call for a different answer, and the only way to know is to talk to someone. This tool diagnoses nothing and stores nothing.
The posted fee is almost never what you pay, and your annual maximum runs out partway through. The tool asks for three numbers that are in your insurance booklet — no income, no name.
In 2023 the Ordre found that 82% of psychologists in private practice charged between $120 and $180 an hour. There is no official rate: it is an open market.
The maximum your plan reimburses per year for a psychologist. It is in your group insurance booklet, often between $300 and $1,500.
Your share, per session
$29.00
$145.00 once the maximum is used up
7 sessions reimbursed in part or in full, the maximum runs out at session 7
No share, no amount, no exception. What RAMQ covers is service delivered inside the public system — and that is free, not reimbursed.
A psychologist’s services are exempt from GST and QST. Since 2024, psychotherapists’ services are too. The posted price is the price paid.
The share you pay yourself is an eligible medical expense, federally and provincially. The calculation depends on your net family income, so the tool doesn’t attempt it — but keep the receipts.
An estimate. Rules vary from contract to contract: some plans cap per session rather than per year, some require a doctor’s recommendation, and some count psychology inside a pot shared with physiotherapy. The only document that answers for you is your own group insurance booklet.
A private practice that doesn’t publish its wait makes you find it out after the call. Ours is posted, and if it doesn’t suit you the other routes are right here — two of them free.
These lines answer around the clock, anywhere in Quebec, with no appointment and no charge. You can call for yourself, for someone else, or simply because you don’t know what to do next.
If someone’s life is in immediate danger, call 911.
988 also works everywhere in Canada. Quebec chose to keep promoting 1-866-APPELLE and 535353, answered by the Quebec network — both reach a person.
A few daysNo charge
If you have one, this is the fastest route. A capped number of sessions, and your employer is not told that you called. The number is on your group insurance card or on the intranet.
2 to 4 weeks$145 per session
A free twenty-minute first call, to find out whether we’re the right place. If we aren’t, we tell you during that call and name the route that is. The posted wait is today’s and it changes.
VariesNo charge
Info-Social at 811 option 2, your doctor or family medicine group, the CLSC, or the mental health access desk. The Programme québécois pour les troubles mentaux runs from guided self-care up to psychotherapy: the first step is often quick, the later ones less so.
Depends on the termReduced fee
Doctoral psychology programs see the public at a reduced fee. You are seen by a doctoral candidate supervised by a psychologist — the work is closely overseen, often more so than in many practices. Spots open on the university calendar.
Twenty minutes, no charge, no file opened. Together we check whether the practice is the right place for you — and if it isn’t, we name the one that is before hanging up.
Members of the Ordre des psychologues du Québec