The study demonstrates the need for regulating lay counselors in India, indicating potential improvements in mental health services.
India’s counseling psychology landscape features a mix of regulated professionals and supervised lay counselors in task-sharing models, alongside unregulated practice by unqualified individuals offering psychotherapy via online platforms and short courses amid a large treatment gap in mental health services. While supervised lay counselors play a constructive role in evidence-based task-sharing under specialist oversight, unregulated practice risks inconsistent quality and client harm. Statutory title protection, tiered workforce models, and enforcement against deceptive mental health services are urgently needed in India.
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Chakraborty et al. (2026) studied this question.
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