NCAHP registration for psychologists: what the 2026 rules actually say
Last updated 20 September 2026. We update this page when something official changes. This is an explainer, not legal advice. Spotted a mistake? Write to hello@unifiedself.in and we will fix it and say so.
- India now has registration rules for psychologists who are not RCI-registered clinical psychologists. Counselling psychologists and psychotherapists with a psychology degree are the group they cover.
- You cannot register yet. No State Council is taking applications, and the national portal says in capital letters that it is not registration.
- You are not suddenly practising illegally. The rules for people already in practice have not been written.
- The final rules are far kinder than the 2025 draft that frightened everyone. Ordinary M.A. and M.Sc. degrees are now on the list.
- One requirement, "experience in health settings", is never defined anywhere. We checked every occurrence.
- If you practise in Karnataka, a different and older registration may already apply to your practice. See the Karnataka section.
On this page
- What was published, and when
- The ten questions people are asking
- Which qualifications are listed
- The undefined "health settings"
- The 2025 draft and what changed
- RCI and NCAHP side by side
- Once you are registered
- Fees, state by state
- Why nothing is open yet
- How to spot a fake council
- Karnataka: a second registration
- What the Act says about penalties
- What nobody knows yet
- Sources
What was published, and when
The document is the Registration of Allied and Healthcare Professionals Regulations, 2026, made by the National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions (NCAHP) under the NCAHP Act, 2021. Three dates get mixed up in most coverage, so here they are separately:
- 31 August 2026 is the date on the notification itself.
- 9 September 2026 is the date of the Gazette of India issue that carries it (Extraordinary, Part III, Section 4, No. 550). The regulations say they come into force on the date of publication in the Official Gazette.
- 15 September 2026 is when the electronic copy was signed and posted, and when NCAHP listed it on its own site.
Psychology was not added this month. The NCAHP Act's own Schedule has listed "Psychologist (Except Clinical Psychologist covered under RCI for PWD)" since 2021, under a category it calls Behavioural Health Sciences. What is new is the machinery: who is eligible, which forms, how long registration lasts and what renewal needs.
These regulations are about registration only. They say nothing about session notes, consent, fees, advertising or online therapy. A separate set of conduct and ethics regulations was published as a draft in April 2026 and has not been notified.
The ten questions people are asking
1. Am I practising illegally right now?
No. Registration is not open to anyone, and the regulations that would bring existing practitioners in have not been made. A duty that cannot be carried out cannot fairly be enforced. The Act also allows a court to act only on a complaint from the government, the Commission or a State Council, never from a private person.
2. Can I register today?
No. The Commission's enrolment portal at ahpr.abdm.gov.in still carries this notice, which we read on 20 September 2026:
"Please note that this is data collection. IT IS NOT REGISTRATION."
NCAHP enrolment portal, ahpr.abdm.gov.in
The same notice says the registration regulations are "under process", which is now out of date, and that enrolment is free. Kerala's council is just as plain:
"The Kerala State Allied and Healthcare Council (KESAHC) has not yet commenced the registration of Allied and Healthcare Professionals or the inspection/recognition of institutions."
Kerala State Allied and Healthcare Council, "Information Regarding Registration", 9 June 2026
We checked the council websites for Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra and Gujarat on 20 September 2026. None had opened registration or published anything interpreting the new regulations.
3. Which register am I on, RCI or NCAHP?
The Schedule to the regulations answers this directly:
"Professionals (Clinical Psychologist) eligible to register under Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) shall not be considered for registration under the National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions (NCAHP)."
Schedule I, note to Recognised Category 7
So RCI-eligible clinical psychologists stay with RCI. Other psychology graduates fall on the NCAHP side. One detail shows the split is by register and not by degree title: "Clinical Psychology (not registered with RCI)" is itself on the NCAHP list.
4. Is my M.A. or M.Sc. enough?
Your degree is very likely on the list. About thirty master's titles are named, Counselling Psychology among them. But the same table has a column called "Minimum Experience in Health Settings", and for master's degrees it says two years. The regulations never say what a health setting is. See the table and the section on health settings.
5. Does my private practice or online work count as a "health setting"?
Nobody can tell you today, because the term is not defined. We explain below what pulls in each direction. Treat anyone who answers this with confidence as guessing.
6. What is provisional registration, and when does it open?
Section 38 of the Act says people who were already offering services must be allowed to register provisionally, within a period and in a manner to be set by regulations. Those regulations do not exist, not even as a draft. The 2025 draft referred to them by name three times as the "Provisional Registration Regulations 2025". The final text refers only to "relevant regulations issued under section 38". There is no date, no form and no fee. Anyone quoting a deadline is not quoting a published source.
7. Can I still call myself a psychologist, counsellor or therapist?
The Act makes it an offence to use "the description of an allied and healthcare professional" without being registered, and to use a qualification you do not hold. With no register open, there is nothing to be registered on. The title "clinical psychologist" is a separate matter, regulated through RCI. Titles such as "counselling psychologist" and "psychotherapist" are not registrable titles under these regulations. The register will record you as "Psychologist".
8. My state has no council. What then?
The regulations provide a central route for that case. You would apply to the Commission with a fee of ₹2,000, and your entry moves to the State Register once a council exists. That route is not open yet either. NCAHP's own list of State Councils, last updated on 16 September 2026, shows Delhi and several union territories without a notified council.
9. What will it cost me each year in training hours?
Once you are registered, renewal needs 15 hours of continuous professional development a year and 75 hours across the five years, with no more than half of it online. The clock starts at registration, so it has not started for anyone. Details are below.
10. Why do some professions in the list say "To be updated"?
Behavioural Analyst, Integrated Behaviour Health Counsellor, Mental Health Support Workers, Movement Therapist and several others are named as professions, but their qualifications column reads "To be updated". Nobody can register under those titles until a further notification fills them in.
Which qualifications are listed
This is our transcription of the "Psychologist" entry in Schedule I, Recognised Category 7, pages 82 to 88 of the Gazette. The Gazette is the authority. Check your own degree title against it before relying on this table.
| Qualification group | Minimum experience in health settings | Course duration |
|---|---|---|
| Bachelor of Psychology (B.Psy / B.Psych) | None stated | Four years |
| B.A. or B.Sc. in Psychology or Applied Psychology (Hons. / Hons. with Research), Bachelor's in Applied Psychology and Behavioural Health, B.A. double or triple majors with Psychology, B.Sc. Behavioural Health Sciences (Hons.) | Three years | Three to four years |
| M.A. or M.Sc. in the titles listed below | Two years | Two years |
| Master of Psychology (M.Psych) | None stated | Two years |
| Advanced or post-graduate diplomas in the titles listed below, accepted along with a post-graduation in Psychology | One year | One to two years |
| Ph.D. in Psychology, Applied Psychology or Clinical Neuropsychology, provided you also hold a master's in Psychology or Applied Psychology from a recognised Indian university | None stated | Three to six years |
Master's titles named: Psychology; Applied Psychology; Clinical Psychology (not registered with RCI); Counselling Psychology; Psychological Counselling; Forensic Psychology; Industrial Psychology; Organizational Psychology; M.A. Psychology (Psychosocial Clinical Studies); Neuropsychology; Sports Psychology; Health Psychology; M.A. Psychology (Lifespan Counselling); School Psychology; Cognitive Psychology; Behavioural Science; Social Psychology; Developmental Psychology; Child Psychology; Community Psychology; Forensics and Investigative Psychology; Cultural Psychology; Applied Psychology (Clinical and Counselling Practice); Psychological Research; Clinical Psycho-oncology; Master's in Liberal Studies in Psychology; M.Sc. Psychology (Health and Wellbeing); Career Counselling; Career and Developmental Counselling; HRDM with Business and Organizational Psychology; Educational Psychology.
Diploma titles named include: Advanced or PG Diploma in Psychology; PG Diploma in Counselling Psychology; PG Diploma in Counselling and Psychotherapy; PG Diploma in Psychotherapy; PG Diploma in Guidance and Counselling; PG Diploma in Guidance, Counselling and Psychotherapy; PG Diploma in Child Psychology; PG Diploma in Counselling and Family Therapy; PG Diploma in Family Therapy; Diploma in School Counselling; PG Diploma in Psycho-oncology; Advanced Diploma in Counselling Psychology. The Gazette lists more than two dozen in all.
Every qualification in the table is marked "Regular" under mode of learning. Medical, psychiatric and clinical social workers have their own entry in the same category.
The undefined "health settings"
The Remarks column of the table says candidates qualify with "experience in health settings as defined". We searched the full 123-page Gazette text. The word "setting" appears sixteen times: twelve are the column heading repeating across pages, and four are that one phrase. The words "as defined" appear exactly four times, and all four are that same phrase. The cross-reference points to nothing.
We then looked everywhere else a definition could live: the NCAHP Act, the 2021 Rules and their 2026 amendment, the 2025 draft, all eighteen NCAHP curricula and their corrigenda, the state council rules NCAHP hosts, and the enrolment portal's manual. It is not defined in any of them. No correction to the regulations has been issued.
The regulations also disagree with themselves about whether experience is required at all:
| Where | What it says about experience |
|---|---|
| Regulation 4(1), the eligibility rule | Eligibility is a recognised qualification from Schedule I, the exit examination, and residence in the state. Experience is not mentioned. |
| Schedule I, Remarks column | Experience in health settings is needed for regular registration. |
| Form R-1, item 18 | "Any other remark/ information including experience that applicant wants to submit". Optional. |
| Form R-1, list of enclosures | "Evidence of Experience". Listed as a document to attach. |
What pulls in each direction on private practice
- NCAHP's curriculum for medical and psychiatric social work lists its profession's practice settings, and the list ends with "Private practice and consultancy".
- NCAHP's curriculum for applied psychology has no such list. Its section on scope of practice carries the Commission's own note that the areas of practice need "to be clarified further, to be in accordance with the Act".
- The only place the Act uses a similar phrase, it pairs "health care settings" with "medical facilities", which sounds like institutions.
- The enrolment portal asks every professional to choose a work status of Government, Private or Self-Employed. Self-employment is a recognised answer there.
None of these is a rule. The social work curriculum also explains what the experience is for: it lets people whose degree falls short of the prescribed health credit hours make up the gap, through experience in approved settings or through a bridge course the Commission would prescribe. That is written about social work, not psychology, but it is the only official explanation of the idea.
What you can do now. Keep your own record of where you have practised, since when, and roughly how much. Dated invoices, appointment records, employment letters and supervision records are the kind of thing a council could ask for. Nobody knows yet what will be accepted, so keep what you have.
The 2025 draft and what changed
Much of the worry still circulating is about a draft that no longer exists. NCAHP published draft regulations on 25 September 2025 and took comments by email until 25 October 2025. A Change.org petition against it, started by Ruchi Brahmachari on 23 October 2025, has 7,014 signatures. We compared the draft with the final text ourselves. The Commission published no response to comments, so comparing the two documents is the only way to see what moved.
What the draft said
- Regular registration as a psychologist had "only one entry point": B.Psych, then M.Psych, then a PsyD or Ph.D.
- Psychology graduates already working were offered provisional registration only: a bachelor's plus five years' work experience, a master's plus three years, or a one-year counselling psychology diploma plus five years.
- Draft regulation 27(b) said that anyone who failed to register under the provisional regulations "shall not be allowed to practice".
What the final says instead
- About thirty master's titles, more than two dozen diplomas and the three-year bachelor's degrees now qualify for regular registration. A doctorate is not required.
- The sanction in draft regulation 27(b) is gone.
- In the draft, several counselling professions recognised only social work degrees for regular registration. In the final, those rows read "To be updated".
What moved the other way
| 2025 draft | 2026 final | |
|---|---|---|
| When to apply for renewal | "may be made three months before" expiry | "shall be made six months before" expiry |
| State registration fee | "shall not exceed INR 2000", or another amount set by the Commission | Whatever each State Government prescribes. No ceiling. |
| State renewal fee | Not to exceed INR 1000, on the same terms | Whatever each State Government prescribes |
| Experience wording for psychology graduates | "work experience", in the provisional pathways | "experience in health settings as defined", with no definition |
So the campaign against the draft largely worked on qualifications, and that deserves to be said. The cost is an experience requirement nobody can interpret, and state fees with no upper limit.
RCI and NCAHP side by side
| RCI | NCAHP | |
|---|---|---|
| Who | Clinical psychologists eligible for RCI registration | "Psychologist (Except Clinical Psychologist covered under RCI for PWD)" |
| Register open? | Yes, for years | Not yet |
| Validity | Seven years | Five years |
| To renew | 100 CRE points in the cycle. Renewal is automatic in the last 90 days if you have them. Points do not carry forward. | 15 hours a year and 75 in the cycle, at most half online. You apply six months before expiry. |
The RCI terms are from RCI's office memorandum F.No. 7-8/CRR/RCI of October 2025.
The Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 does not fill the gap for counsellors. Under section 55 a State Mental Health Authority registers only clinical psychologists, mental health nurses and psychiatric social workers. Its registration of "mental health establishments" applies to places where people "are admitted and reside at, or kept in", which an outpatient practice is not.
Once you are registered
- Registration means your name is in the State Register and the Central Register, and you have been issued a UID number, which comes with a QR code.
- It is valid for five years.
- Renewal needs 15 hours of continuous professional development a year and 75 hours across the five years. Conferences, workshops, seminars, training programmes and faculty development programmes count. Online hours may not exceed half. You attach self-certified copies of your attendance certificates.
- The renewal application is due six months before expiry. If nothing is received before expiry, your entry is marked "inactive", and the regulations say you may not practise while inactive.
- The register is public. It shows your name, place of work or practice, qualifications, specialty, UID number, the states you practise in, and whether you are active.
- You register with one State Council at a time. To practise in another state, you inform your own council using Form R-2.
- An additional qualification is registered separately, and the regulations allow you to practise that specialty once it is on the register.
One consequence is easy to miss. The certificates go in with the renewal application, and the application is due six months early. In practice the 75 hours need to be done in four and a half years. That is our reading, not the Gazette's wording.
Two details of the training rule are unclear. The regulations do not say whether "a year" means a calendar year or a year counted from your registration date. They also do not say what the online half is measured against, though the 2025 draft's wording, "only 50% of such attendance", suggests hours actually attended. The Commission has published no guidance on CPD, and there is no list of approved providers.
Fees, state by state
State registration and renewal fees are set by each State Government, not by NCAHP. These are the states whose rules we have read ourselves. A published fee does not mean a state is taking applications. None is.
| State | Registration | Renewal, every five years | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Karnataka | ₹3,000 | ₹3,000 | State rules notified 5 December 2024, Annexure III |
| Kerala | ₹3,000 | ₹3,000 | State rules of 17 March 2023, rules 25 and 29 |
| Maharashtra | ₹5,000 | ₹1,500 | State rules of 10 October 2024, rules 9 and 10 |
| Tamil Nadu | ₹800, plus ₹200 for the form | ₹800, plus ₹200 for the form | State rules of 15 December 2023, rule 9 |
| Gujarat | ₹2,000 | ₹3,000 | State rules gazetted 26 November 2024 |
| No state council | ₹2,000, to the Commission | ₹1,000 | Regulations 12 and 14 |
Most of these rules let the government or the council revise the amount. Other central fees in the regulations: ₹1,000 to add a qualification, ₹2,000 for a duplicate certificate, ₹5,000 for an appeal or review, ₹1,000 for a good standing certificate.
Why nothing is open yet
This is the only regulation NCAHP has ever notified. The provisional registration regulations do not exist. The conduct and ethics regulations are still a draft. No exit examination has been specified, so for now your university's final examination counts in its place. The Central Register has not been published.
Parliament's own oversight committee has looked at why the Commission is moving slowly:
"The Committee notes with specific concern the chronic underutilization of funds by the National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions (NCAHP), which recorded an actual expenditure of merely ₹0.75 crore against a BE of ₹20.00 crore in 2024-25. The Committee believes that such financial inertia severely cripples the standard-setting mandates of these nascent statutory bodies."
Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare, 172nd Report, March 2026
The courts are now involved as well. On 16 September 2026 the Kerala High Court heard a public interest petition by the Lady Lawyers Association of Wayanad, WP(PIL) 182/2026. LiveLaw reports that the matter is posted after three weeks for the Central government's affidavit on operationalising the NCAHP Act. According to that report, the petition says there is no comprehensive legal framework governing counsellors and psychotherapists, and it asks for mandatory registration and for regulation of online mental health services. We will update this page when the affidavit is reported.
How to spot a fake council
While the real register is closed, searching for "allied healthcare council registration" brings up private websites styled as councils. Some have online registration pages that take money. We found one that is a copy of a genuine state council's website on a private domain, carrying a "registration now open" banner that does not appear on the real site.
A simple test protects you:
- Start from NCAHP's own list of State Councils at ncahp.abdm.gov.in/StateCouncil and follow links only from there.
- NCAHP's site is ncahp.abdm.gov.in. Genuine council sites are almost all on gov.in addresses.
- Enrolment on the national portal is free. Nobody genuine is charging for registration today, because registration has not started.
- Professional associations are a different thing. They are membership societies, and some have "Council" in their name. Membership can be worthwhile. It is not statutory registration, and a membership number is not a registration number.
Karnataka: a second registration, already in force
This one has nothing to do with NCAHP, and it applies now. Karnataka regulates private health establishments under the Karnataka Private Medical Establishments Act, 2007, known as KPME. The Act on its own is ambiguous about a counselling practice. The rules are not.
The KPME Amendment Rules of 27 March 2018 list eighteen categories of establishment, one of which is "Allied Health Professional Centre". They then say:
"Provided that the definition and scope of above categories of establishment shall be the same as recommended by the National Council constituted as under the Clinical establishment (Registration and Regulation) Act 2010".
Karnataka Private Medical Establishments (Amendment) Rules, 2018, rule 3(2)
The National Council's list of allied health professions includes, in its words, "Behavioral health (counseling, marriage and family therapy etc.)" and "Health Psychology/Clinical Psychology". The KPME portal shows the category with its fee: Allied Health Professional Centre, code AHC, ₹6,300.
A category name that misleads. The same list has an "Integrated Counseling Centre", also ₹6,300. The National Council publishes a standard with a nearly identical name, the Integrated Counseling and Testing Centre, which it defines as "a place where a person is counselled and tested and checked for HIV, Tuberculosis, ANC and postnatal follow up". Its counsellors need three to five years' experience in HIV/AIDS work. Neither document says outright that Karnataka's category is that kind of centre. It is the natural reading, and it means the word "counselling" in the name is not a reason to choose it. Ask your district KPME authority which category fits before you apply.
We could not find any rule, in Karnataka or elsewhere, that addresses an online-only or home-based practice. The KPME application asks for land area, building area, floor plans and a photograph of the front of the building. That tells you the system was designed around premises. It does not tell you that a practice without premises is exempt.
Other states differ. The central Clinical Establishments Act, 2010 applies in the states that have adopted it and in the union territories. It covers establishments offering care "in any recognised system of medicine", which it defines as allopathy, yoga, naturopathy, ayurveda, homoeopathy, siddha and unani. Psychology is not on that list. Several large states, Karnataka among them, run their own laws instead. If you practise outside Karnataka, check your state's law and do not assume this section applies to you.
What the Act says about penalties
For completeness, since other explainers lead with this. Section 15 of the NCAHP Act says that no person other than a registered professional shall "provide service in any of the recognised categories in any State". Section 57 sets a fine of up to ₹1 lakh for using the description of an allied and healthcare professional without registration, rising on a repeat conviction. Section 59 covers other contraventions, with imprisonment of one to three years, a fine of ₹1 lakh to ₹5 lakh, or both. Under section 60 a court can take up these offences only on a complaint by the Central or State Government, the Commission or a State Council.
These provisions are real, and they are a reason to register once you can. They are not a reason to panic, to pay anyone today, or to stop seeing clients.
What nobody knows yet
- What counts as a health setting, and whether private or online practice is one.
- When the provisional registration regulations will be made, and what they will ask of people already in practice.
- When any State Council will start accepting applications.
- Whether a year of CPD is a calendar year, and what the online half is measured against.
- Whether registration will entitle a psychologist to practise independently. The Act does not say so in terms, and academic commentary has raised the point.
- What the Central government will tell the Kerala High Court.
We have searched the documents as far as a document search can go. What is left needs a correction or clarification from the Commission, or criteria published by a State Council.
Sources
Everything quoted on this page was read at its source. Government links change often, so we give the document names as well.
- Registration of Allied and Healthcare Professionals Regulations, 2026. Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part III, Section 4, No. 550, 9 September 2026. egazette.gov.in and ncahp.abdm.gov.in.
- Draft Registration of Allied and Healthcare Professionals Regulations, public notice of 25 September 2025. ncahp.abdm.gov.in/DraftRegulations.
- National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions Act, 2021 (Act 14 of 2021): sections 2, 15, 38, 56 to 60 and the Schedule.
- NCAHP enrolment portal notice, read 20 September 2026. ahpr.abdm.gov.in.
- NCAHP list of State Councils. ncahp.abdm.gov.in/StateCouncil.
- Kerala State Allied and Healthcare Council, "Information Regarding Registration", 9 June 2026. kesahc.kerala.gov.in.
- Department-Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare, 172nd Report, Demands for Grants 2026-27, March 2026, paragraph 3.18.5.
- NCAHP competency based curricula: Medical and Psychiatric Social Work (January 2026) and Applied Psychology and Behavioural Health (April 2025). ncahp.abdm.gov.in/Curriculum.
- State Allied and Healthcare Council rules for Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, as hosted by NCAHP and the state gazettes.
- Rehabilitation Council of India, Office Memorandum F.No. 7-8/CRR/RCI, October 2025.
- Mental Healthcare Act, 2017: sections 2(1)(p), 55(1)(d) and 65.
- Karnataka Private Medical Establishments (Amendment) Rules, 2018, Karnataka Gazette, 27 March 2018, and the KPME portal category list at kpme.karnataka.gov.in.
- National Council for Clinical Establishments, "Categories of Clinical Establishments", and Standard No. CEA/ICTC-012.
- Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act, 2010: sections 1(2) and 2(h).
- LiveLaw report on WP(PIL) 182/2026, Kerala High Court, 16 September 2026. livelaw.in.
- Change.org, "Reconsider the NCAHP guidelines for behavioural health practitioners", started 23 October 2025.
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