The Ministry of Social Development issued a new Governance Regulation for Practising the Profession of Psychological Counselling and Family Counselling. This regulation replaces the Regulation for Private Counselling and Family Counselling Centres of 2013 and expands on the licensing requirements from a simple requirement to have the counselling centre licensed to a more comprehensive licensing requirement for each individual practitioner working in a counselling centre, in addition to the existing requirement to have the centre licensed as well.
The regulation provides a detailed procedure for obtaining the licence under several conditions, the most important being for the licence applicant to be an Omani or GCC national. The regulation makes a distinction between psychological counselling and family counselling, and provides different academic degrees and work experience requirements for licence applicants. Article 25 of the regulation provides for a mechanism to allow a visiting practitioner to provide services in the centre after the approval of the ministry, but it is not clear from the regulation if this is limited to Omani and GCC nationals.
The regulation entered into force on 26 April 2022, and existing centres have 6 months to comply with the regulation.
You can read the regulation in full in English on the link below: