Our EAP Provider Framework

At Clearhead, our mission is to ensure every client receives safe, consistent, and high-quality care. To uphold this commitment, we have established clear standards for the providers we accept into our network. The following standards apply to our EAP network. While other provider types may be available to the general public through our platform, the EAP network follows these specific requirements.

Why we have standards

Unlike some other EAP models, Clearhead practitioners often work with clients for longer durations and with more complex presentations. This requires additional safeguards to ensure that providers are both appropriately qualified and equipped to practise safely within their scope.

Our framework therefore sets minimum qualifications and experience requirements, aligned with professional bodies, industry benchmarks, and regulatory standards in New Zealand and Australia. These requirements also reflect those used by organisations such as ACC and PHOs in New Zealand, and are consistent with what other EAP providers expect of their therapists.

General standards

All Clearhead providers must:

• Primarily deliver talk-therapy.

• Be regulated by a professional body with clear codes of conduct, ethical guidelines, and continuing education requirements.

• Hold a current practicing certificate or professional membership.

• Have at least three years of post-qualification therapy experience (internships and provisional status do not count).

• Maintain professional indemnity insurance.

• Comply with clinical supervision requirements as outlined by their respective registration/ membership bodies, confirmed as part of our annual audit declaration.

  
  

Accepted:

Clearhead accepts the following professional groups, provided they meet the above general standards:

• Psychologists – Registered in New Zealand (NZ Psychologists Board) or Australia (Psychology Board of Australia).

• Psychotherapists – Registered with the Psychotherapists Board of NZ (PBANZ) or the equivalent in Australia.

• Counsellors – NZ: Full member of NZAC or NZCCA. AU: ACA Level 3+, PACFA, or CCAA membership.

• Social Workers (Australia only) – Accredited as a Clinical Social Worker or Mental Health Social Worker with the AASW. Not accepted as therapists in New Zealand.

Specialist Providers:

• Drug & Alcohol Counsellors – must be accredited (e.g., DAPAANZ in NZ, APSAD in AU) and ideally co-qualified with an accepted professional body.

• Indigenous Practitioners – Clearhead values cultural healing practices. Rongoā Māori practitioners (NZ) and Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Health Practitioners (AU) may be accepted, provided they are recognised by their respective frameworks and demonstrate use of safe, evidence-based therapeutic models.

Not accepted

The following groups are not accepted as Clearhead providers unless they also meet one of the credentialed professional standards above:

• Occupational Therapists

• Nurses

• Life Coaches

• Hypnotherapists

• Art Therapists

• Mental Health Practitioners