Guelph Clinic Pushes for OHIP Coverage of Psychotherapy

GUELPH, Ontario, Oct. 07, 2026 /CourierPR/ -- A leading psychotherapy clinic in Guelph is spearheading a campaign to expand Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) coverage to include psychotherapy, aiming to make mental health care more accessible and affordable for all Ontarians.

Marinela Trickett, a registered psychotherapist and clinical director of Trickett Psychotherapy, is preparing a petition to be presented at Queen’s Park. The campaign seeks to ensure that psychotherapy, a crucial component of mental health care, is funded by OHIP for qualified, regulated providers. Trickett emphasized that mental health therapy should not be a race to find the lowest-priced session, but rather a choice based on competence, experience, and therapeutic approach.

Trickett Psychotherapy, a clinic that offers in-person and online psychotherapy for various concerns including borderline personality disorder, trauma recovery, and postpartum depression, is part of the initiative. The clinic provides an initial matching process and a complimentary 20-minute phone consultation to help potential clients assess their fit with a practitioner before treatment begins.

The campaign is driven by the gap in mental health care access. According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, in 2024, 41 percent of Canadian adults with a diagnosed mental health disorder had needs that were only partly met or not met at all. In Ontario, the figure was 40 percent. Among people referred to community mental health counselling in 2024-25, half were seen within 30 days, while one in ten waited longer than four months.

A Statistics Canada study published in January 2026, using the 2022 Mental Health and Access to Care Survey, found that 32 percent of people with a mood or anxiety disorder who needed counselling or therapy and had not received it cited an inability to pay. The cost of leaving care unmet is now estimated at $180 billion annually in Canada, across health care, emergency services, justice, and housing supports. Employers carried more than $110 billion of that cost, while governments spent more responding to the consequences, about $28 billion, than they invested in mental health care and prevention combined, at $23 billion.

The gap is particularly sharp for specific and sustained care. For instance, in Ontario, 22 percent of mothers and birthing parents who had emotional or mental health challenges in pregnancy or after birth needed mental health care and did not receive it.

Ontarians can add their names to the petition at http://ohipforpsychotherapy.ca/.

Trickett Psychotherapy is committed to making mental health care more accessible and affordable, ensuring that people can choose care based on competence and therapeutic approach rather than financial constraints.