Can ADHD therapy sessions be claimed on taxes in Canada?

Therapy counts as a medical expense when the practitioner is on the CRA list for your province

Fees paid for a medical service from an authorized medical practitioner are eligible for the medical expense tax credit (METC), and that is the route most ADHD therapy claims take. The Canada Revenue Agency does not keep a list of eligible conditions or therapies; instead it publishes a province-by-province table of practitioner types whose services are treated as medical services for the credit. Whether a session with a therapist qualifies therefore turns on two things: the practitioner's designation and the province where the service was delivered.

Registered nurses, which the CRA table uses to include nurse practitioners, and occupational therapists are authorized in all nine of those provinces. A therapist who holds none of the listed designations, such as a life coach or an uncredentialed counsellor, is not an authorized practitioner, and fees paid to them are not claimable under this heading regardless of how helpful the sessions were.

You claim only the unreimbursed part, and only above a threshold

The credit applies to the amount by which your eligible expenses exceed the lesser of 3% of your net income or a fixed dollar cap, which the CRA sets at $2,834 for the 2025 tax year. If your net income is $50,000, the first $1,500 of medical expenses earns nothing; the credit is calculated on what you paid beyond that. The METC is a non-refundable credit, so it reduces tax owing rather than producing a refund on its own, although a separate refundable medical expense supplement exists for some lower-income workers.

• Only unreimbursed amounts count. The CRA states that you can claim only the part of an expense that you have not been and will not be reimbursed for. If your extended health plan paid $100 of a $149 session, you claim $49. An exception applies where the reimbursement was itself included in your income as a taxable benefit.
• Any 12-month period ending in the tax year. You do not have to use the calendar year. You can choose the 12 months that capture the most expenses, provided the period ends in the year you are filing for and no expense is claimed twice.
• Family claims pool together. Expenses for you, your spouse or common-law partner and your children under 18 go on line 33099. Expenses you paid for other dependants go on line 33199. It usually makes sense for the lower-income partner to claim, because the 3% threshold is smaller.
• Provincial credits follow. Each province has its own medical expense credit with its own threshold, calculated on the provincial return using the same receipts.

The receipt has to name the practitioner and show their designation

A receipt for a therapy session needs to show who was paid, what for, when, and the practitioner's professional designation, because that is what ties the expense to the authorized-practitioner table. The CRA states that receipts must show the name of the company or individual to whom the expense was paid, and it can ask for them years after you file. A credit card statement or a booking confirmation does not meet that standard.

For therapy through Finding Focus, sessions are delivered by a Registered Social Worker (RSW) on the care team, and receipts carry the RSW designation and registration number so they can be used for extended health claims and kept for tax purposes. Sessions are 50 minutes by video or phone, from $149 per session, paid per session with no membership. What is on the receipt, and how plans treat it, is set out at therapy fees and insurance.

• Submit to your extended health plan first, then keep the plan's explanation of benefits showing what was reimbursed.
• File the original receipt and the explanation of benefits together, so the unreimbursed portion is easy to show.
• If you claimed an assessment fee in the same period, keep it in the same file; the question of assessment fees is covered at Can I claim an ADHD assessment on my taxes in Canada?.

ADHD coaching is not automatically a medical expense, even when a clinician delivers it

Coaching sits in a grey area because the CRA test is about medical services from an authorized practitioner, and coaching aimed at planning, habits and productivity is not obviously a medical service. A session of cognitive behavioural therapy for ADHD from a psychologist or social worker fits the definition comfortably. A skills-coaching session may or may not, and the CRA does not publish a ruling specific to ADHD coaching.

Finding Focus offers both CBT for ADHD and ADHD coaching from the same Registered Social Worker, so the receipt shows an authorized designation either way. That improves your position but does not settle it. Extended health plans usually reimburse the CBT sessions under a social work or mental health benefit and usually do not reimburse coaching; treat the tax claim the same way and, if you want certainty on coaching, ask the CRA or a tax preparer before filing rather than after a review.

Video and phone sessions qualify the same way as in-person ones

Nothing in the METC rules requires the session to happen in a clinic; the practitioner's authorization in the relevant province is what matters. A video session with a Registered Social Worker who is registered in Ontario, delivered to a client in Ontario, is treated no differently from a session in an office. This is why Finding Focus therapy is limited to adults 18 and over who are physically located in Ontario at the time of the session: the RSW's registration is with the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers, and the service is delivered within that province.

If you live elsewhere, the same principle applies to a therapist registered in your own province, and the CRA table above tells you which designations count there. Options for people outside Ontario are described at therapy outside Ontario. Therapy is not a crisis service; if you need help now, call or text 9-8-8, Canada's Suicide Crisis Helpline, or call 911.