Can psychologists advertise their own work?
Short answer
Yes — a psychologist may promote their own work, and needs to if they practise independently. What Brazil’s Code of Ethics forbids is the form: promising results, sensationalising distress, using testimonials from people seen in practice, and omitting professional identification.
What tends to be a problem
The points that come up most often when promotion is questioned:
- Promising or guaranteeing a result ("beat anxiety in 8 sessions").
- Testimonials from people seen in practice — even with consent, even anonymised.
- Sensationalism and appeals to fear around psychological distress.
- Promoting yourself without full name and registration number visible.
- Advertising an unrecognised specialty as though it were a formal title.
What tends to be safe
Stating who you are, your training, your approach, the groups you work with, the format of your work and how to reach you. Informative content about the field too, as long as it does not diagnose the reader.
The rule of thumb that covers most of it: describing the work is allowed; promising its effect is not.
How this shows up on IAURA
The directory profile is built around exactly those fields — name, CRP, approach, audience, format, fee and a first-person text written by the professional. There is no testimonial field and no client rating, and that absence is deliberate.
Frequently asked questions
- Can I publish my session fee?
- Stating a fee is treated as information to the public, not a promise of results. What the Code pushes back on is commodification — such as undercutting fees or using price as sensationalist bait.
- Where do I check the rule in force?
- In the Code of Professional Ethics for Psychologists and the CFP resolutions, always in the version published on the council’s website. This entry is a summary, not a source.