Short answer: the CAP Code is the UK’s rulebook for advertising. It is written by the Committee of Advertising Practice and enforced by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). Since 2011 it has covered your own website and social media. For therapists, the parts that matter most are health claims, testimonials and how you describe your qualifications.
Have you ever read another therapist’s website and wondered whether you are allowed to say what they are saying?
“Helps with anxiety.” “Overcome your phobia.” “BACP accredited.” Phrases like these turn up on therapy websites all the time. Some are fine. Some could earn a practitioner a published ASA ruling. It is hard to tell which from the outside, and very few counsellors were taught any of this in training.
This article explains what the CAP Code is, how it applies to a therapist’s own website, and the few parts that come up most often. I am a web designer, not a lawyer, so read it as a plain-English guide rather than legal advice. Wherever it matters, I link to the ASA’s own guidance so you can check it at source.
What is the CAP Code?
The CAP Code is the rulebook for non-broadcast advertising in the UK. Its full name is the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct & Promotional Marketing. The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) writes it, and the ASA enforces it.
Non-broadcast means anything that is not TV or radio. Leaflets, directory listings, emails, social media posts and your website all count.
Two parts of the code matter most to therapists. Section 12 covers health-related products and therapies, and it is where claims about what your work can do are judged. Section 3 covers misleading advertising, which is where testimonials and claims about qualifications are looked at.
Does the CAP Code apply to my therapy website?
Yes. Since 2011 the CAP Code has applied to advertising on a business’s own website, and the ASA’s guidance names sole traders specifically.
It is not only your website. The same guidance covers “non-paid-for space online” that you control, which includes your Facebook page, your Instagram profile and any other social media channel you run.
What brings a page into scope is whether it is connected with selling your services. Your homepage, your services page and your fees page all count. That surprises a lot of therapists, who think of their website as information rather than marketing. To the ASA, a page that invites someone to book sessions is an ad.
What counts as a health claim?
This is the part that catches most people.
Rule 12.1 says objective claims must be backed by evidence. In the ASA’s words, “any claim that a particular therapy or product can treat or cure a medical condition or symptom is unlikely to be acceptable unless the advertiser holds robust evidence to support the efficacy claim.”
“Helps with anxiety” is a claim. So is “treats depression”, “overcome your phobia”, or “most of my clients feel better within six sessions”. They read as gentle, everyday marketing. To the ASA, each one says your therapy works on a condition, and the question becomes whether you can prove it.
What you can say also depends on your therapy. The ASA keeps an online library of positions on individual therapies. For hypnotherapy, it accepts that hypnotherapy can help with anxiety and aid sleep, but not that it can treat depression or other serious conditions unless a suitably qualified health professional is supervising. So check the entry for your own approach before borrowing wording from another therapist’s site. A phrase that is fine for one therapy may not be fine for yours.
I have got this wrong myself. In an article earlier this year I gave “I’m a counsellor in Taunton who helps people with anxiety” as an example of a clear opening line for a therapy website. It is clear. It is also the kind of wording I now leave out when I write for clients, because there is an equally clear line available that makes no claim at all.
Which conditions can’t you advertise to treat?
Some conditions are treated as so serious that the ASA says treatment for them, diagnosis of them or advice on them can only be advertised if a suitably qualified medical professional supervises it. That applies whatever evidence you hold.
The ASA’s list includes:
- depression
- addictions, including alcohol and drugs
- eating disorders, including anorexia and bulimia
- obsessive compulsive disorder
- chronic insomnia
- suicidal thoughts
Rule 12.2 sits alongside it. Ads must not discourage people from seeking essential treatment for a condition that needs medical supervision.
None of this stops you working with people who are living with these things. It changes how you write about it. You can describe what someone might be going through. Unless your work is supervised by a suitably qualified medical professional, you cannot advertise it as treating the diagnosis.
Can therapists use testimonials on their website?
The CAP Code does not ban testimonials. It does stop them doing the work your own claims cannot.
The ASA says testimonials alone are not evidence, and that claims inside a testimonial need the same evidence as claims you make yourself. So a client quote saying “my anxiety disappeared after four sessions” is treated as if you had written it. If you could not say it, a client cannot say it for you on your site.
For therapies, testimonials are likely to be acceptable when they make no direct or implied claim about effectiveness that the ASA does not accept. “I felt listened to from the first session” is about the experience. “She cured my phobia” is a claim.
Your professional body may go further than the ASA. The UKCP Code of Ethics, for example, says members must not “include testimonials from clients in any advertising”. Check your own body’s code before adding any, and treat Google reviews embedded on your site the same way.
How should you describe your qualifications and memberships?
Exactly as they are, and no further.
In March 2025 the ASA ruled against a counsellor’s own website for describing her as “a BACP qualified, trained and experienced counsellor”. The ASA found that readers would take this to mean she held BACP accreditation and had been trained by the BACP. Neither was the case, so the ad was ruled misleading.
It is an easy mistake to make in good faith. Membership, registration and accreditation mean different things, and the wording on a website tends to blur them. A few things to check on your own site:
- “Accredited” only appears if you hold accreditation, not membership
- A professional body’s logo matches what you actually hold with that body
- Training is credited to whoever actually delivered it
- Letters after your name are ones you can explain if asked
What happens if someone complains to the ASA about your website?
Anyone can complain to the ASA, including a member of the public or another practitioner. If a complaint is upheld, the ASA publishes its ruling and tells the advertiser the ad must not appear again in its current form.
The ASA does not fine advertisers itself. For online ads, its sanctions include listing the advertiser’s name and the problem on a dedicated section of the ASA website, running its own paid search ads that highlight the non-compliance, and referring persistent cases to Trading Standards.
For most therapists the real cost is the published ruling. Rulings sit on the ASA website under the practitioner’s name, and a practice runs on trust. That is a good reason to get the wording right before anyone has to ask.
How do you write therapy website wording that stays within the rules?
Write about the situations and feelings that bring people to you, rather than the diagnosis your therapy might act on. That is also closer to what your future clients are searching for. Someone lying awake at 3am is not typing a diagnosis into Google. They are typing what it feels like. I wrote more about that in what your clients are actually searching for.
Some swaps I use when writing for therapists:
| Instead of | Try |
|---|---|
| Helps with anxiety | A space to talk when everything feels like too much |
| Treats depression | Support when you have been feeling low for a long time |
| Overcome your addiction | Support if your drinking has started to worry you |
| Specialist in trauma | Experienced in working with people who have been through difficult events |
| Proven to reduce stress | Time set aside to think things through |
| 95% of clients improve | Remove it |
| Guaranteed results | Remove it |
The wording on the right is not only safer. It is warmer, and it reads like a person rather than a leaflet. If your website is getting visits but no enquiries, wording is one of the first things I would look at, and I covered the others in why a therapy website does not get enquiries.
A quick check you can run on your own site today:
- Search each page for “helps with”, “treats”, “cure”, “overcome” and “proven”.
- Look for any percentage, success rate or number of sessions promised.
- List every qualification, membership and logo, and check each against what you actually hold.
- Read any testimonials for claims about results, then check what your professional body allows.
- Look up your therapy in the ASA’s AdviceOnline library.
Frequently asked questions
What is the CAP Code?
The CAP Code is the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct & Promotional Marketing. It sets the rules for advertising that is not on TV or radio, which includes websites, social media, leaflets, emails and directory listings. It is written by the Committee of Advertising Practice and enforced by the Advertising Standards Authority, which can have ads that break the rules removed or changed. The core idea is that advertising must be legal, decent, honest and truthful, and that claims must be backed by evidence. For therapists and counsellors, the sections that matter most are Section 12, which covers health-related claims and therapies, and Section 3, which covers misleading advertising, including testimonials and how qualifications are described. The ASA publishes free guidance on its website for individual therapies, which is the best place to check what can and cannot be said.
Does the CAP Code apply to a counsellor’s own website?
Yes. Since 2011 the CAP Code has covered advertising on a business’s own website, and the ASA’s guidance names sole traders specifically, so a counsellor in private practice is included. It also covers non-paid-for space online that you control, such as your Facebook page, Instagram profile and other social media accounts. A page is in scope when it is connected with selling your services. In practice that means your homepage, services page, fees page and anything else that invites someone to get in touch or book a session. Purely editorial content, such as a general blog post with no link to what you offer, may fall outside it, but most of a therapist’s website is likely to count as advertising. If you are unsure whether a page is covered, it is safer to write it as though it is.
Can I say my therapy helps with anxiety?
It depends on your therapy and the evidence you hold. “Helps with anxiety” is an efficacy claim under the CAP Code, so it needs strong evidence behind it. The ASA’s position varies between therapies. For hypnotherapy, it accepts that hypnotherapy can help with anxiety and aid sleep, but it does not accept claims to treat depression or other serious conditions unless a suitably qualified health professional is supervising. For other approaches, check the ASA’s AdviceOnline entry for your therapy before using the phrase. There is also a simpler route. You can describe the situations and feelings that bring people to you, such as “a space to talk when everything feels like too much”, which makes no claim at all and usually reads more warmly. Many therapists find that wording closer to how their clients actually describe what they are going through.
Can therapists use client testimonials on their website?
The CAP Code allows testimonials, but it treats any claim inside one as if you had made it yourself. The ASA says testimonials are not evidence on their own, so a client saying “my panic attacks stopped after four sessions” needs the same proof as you saying it. Testimonials that stay subjective, such as “I felt listened to from the first session”, are more likely to be acceptable. Your professional body may be stricter than the ASA. The UKCP Code of Ethics, for example, says members must not include testimonials from clients in any advertising. Before adding testimonials or embedding Google reviews on your site, read your own body’s code of ethics, and make sure you have the client’s consent and can show the testimonial is genuine. If in doubt, leave them out. A well-written About page often does more to build trust than a quote from a client.
What happens if someone complains to the ASA about my website?
Anyone can complain to the ASA about an ad, including your own website. The ASA will look at the complaint and, if it decides to investigate, contact you and ask for your response and any evidence for your claims. If the complaint is upheld, the ASA publishes a ruling and tells you the ad must not appear again in its current form. The ASA does not fine advertisers directly. If an online advertiser does not make the changes, its sanctions include listing the advertiser’s name on a dedicated section of the ASA website, running paid search ads that highlight the problem, and referring the case to Trading Standards. For a therapist, the most lasting effect is usually the ruling itself, which stays on the ASA website under your name. Most problems can be fixed quickly by changing the wording before anyone needs to complain.
Where can I get advice on my website wording?
Start with the ASA’s free AdviceOnline library, which has entries for many individual therapies and for topics such as testimonials and mental health claims. The Committee of Advertising Practice also runs a free Copy Advice service, which gives bespoke advice on whether a specific ad is likely to comply with the CAP Code before you publish it. Its advice is not binding, but it is the best guide available to how the rules are likely to be applied. Your professional body is the other source to check, because its code of ethics may be stricter than the ASA, particularly on testimonials and how you describe your training and membership. If you work with someone on your website, ask them whether they write to these rules. Whoever writes the words, you are the advertiser, so it is your name on any ruling.
Before you rewrite anything
None of this means your website has to be bland or cautious. It means writing about the people you work with, in their words, and leaving out the claims. The ASA’s Copy Advice team gives free advice on specific wording if you want a second opinion, and your professional body’s code is worth reading alongside it.
When I write the words for a therapist’s website, I write them to these rules from the first draft, and I ask for written confirmation of every qualification and membership before the site goes live. If you would like a website built that way, take a look at my websites for counsellors and wellness practitioners or the Pay Monthly plans. And if you would just like someone to look over your current wording, book a free 30-minute chat.