If you’re a woman running a business in Ontario and you’ve been wondering whether therapy could help with the spiralling, the guilt, the money stress, or the team member you can’t bring yourself to let go, this page walks you through how therapy for entrepreneurs in Ontario works: who can provide therapy in Ontario, what it costs, what your benefits might cover, and what actually happens when you reach out.
Who This Support Is For
I work with women entrepreneurs who are carrying too much, emotionally, mentally, and neurologically. Folks whose businesses look fine from the outside while inside they’re white-knuckling their way through the week. If that’s you, the full picture of how we work together lives on my Work with Me page. This article covers the practical side: the Ontario-specific details that folks research before they’re ready to book.
What We Work On Together
Most of my work with business owners falls into three territories: stopping the emotional spiral when business gets hard, working through the guilt around boundaries, delegation, and firing folks you like personally, and untangling your sense of worth from your revenue.”The work is trauma-informed, nervous-system-aware, and neurodivergence-affirming, and you can read about how I work with women entrepreneurs in depth. Here, let’s get into the logistics.
How Therapy for Entrepreneurs Works in Ontario
I’m Shulamit Ber Levtov, The Entrepreneurs’ Therapist™ and a Registered Social Worker in Ontario, which means I can provide therapy to clients located in this province. That distinction matters more than folks realize. Psychotherapy is a controlled act in Ontario, and only members of certain regulated colleges are permitted to perform it. When you work with me, you’re working with someone accountable to a professional college, bound by standards of practice, confidentiality requirements, and a formal complaints process.
If you live outside Ontario, we can still work together. In that case I support you in a counselling and advisory capacity, bringing the same perspective and experience I’ve gathered as both a therapist and an entrepreneur. The conversation feels much the same; the regulatory framing differs. We’ll sort out which arrangement applies to you on the free call.
Appointments happen online or by phone, for anyone anywhere in the province. Someone in Thunder Bay or Windsor gets the same access as someone in Ottawa. And if you’re in the Merrickville area, you’re welcome to meet with me in person.
What About Privacy?
Wherever you live, we meet on a platform built to the standards of Canadian and Ontario privacy laws, including PHIPA, Ontario’s health privacy law. Everything between us is encrypted from end to end. Our video, audio, and chat travel directly between your screen and mine, with no company sitting in the middle listening or passing it along. Nothing is recorded. Nothing is stored on a server somewhere. When the session ends, there’s no copy of it anywhere, because a copy was never made in the first place.
Paying for Therapy in Ontario: What’s Covered and What to Check
Does OHIP cover any therapy in Ontario?
Some, but not private practice. OHIP covers psychiatrists (with a doctor’s referral) and mental health services offered through hospitals, family doctors, and Family Health Teams, though wait times can be long and the focus is often assessment or medication rather than ongoing therapy. Appointments with social workers, psychotherapists, and psychologists in private practice aren’t covered, which is where extended health benefits come in.
If you have access to an extended health benefits plan, whether through your own business, a spouse, or a professional association, it likely covers some of our work together.
The thing to look for in your benefits booklet is coverage for a “social worker” or the letters “RSW.” It’s usually listed separately from psychologists and psychotherapists, so if you’ve only checked those lines, it’s worth a second look. Plans vary in how much they cover per year.
After each session, I provide a receipt with my registration details, which is all most plans need for a claim.
There are two questions worth bringing to your accountant. First, fees paid to a Registered Social Worker may qualify as a medical expense on your Canadian income tax return (decreasing your tax burden by about 20% on the dollar). Second, some business owners explore whether our work qualifies as a business consulting expense (decreasing your tax burden by 100%), since we focus exclusively on the psychological load of running a business. Your accountant or tax preparer can tell you how each applies in your situation.
How much does therapy cost?
My fees range from $250 to $350 for single sessions, with 30-day support subscriptions at $1,100 and up. I bill in USD or CAD, depending on the currency in which you earn your income. Full details are on my services and fees page.
If you’re thinking “I do not have the bandwidth to call my insurance company right now,” come to the free call anyway. We can figure this out together.
Why a Therapist Who’s Also Run a Business
I’m an entrepreneur whose business success came at the cost of her mental health. By the end, it was down to a choice: the business or me.
I chose me. I exited the business.
I’ve run businesses since 1989, and I’ve studied entrepreneurial psychology alongside my clinical training, because I wanted to understand what happened to me, and what keeps happening to so many of us.
I learned that entrepreneurs tend to be wired a particular way. Research backs this up, and many of us are neurodivergent on top of it. Our work has its own culture, its own pressures, its own impact. But most mental health advice is written for people with salaried jobs. Take burnout: the standard guidance starts with “take a leave.” But you can’t take a leave when you are the business.
A therapist who hasn’t lived that will still care about your business problems. But you’ll spend your sessions translating. You’ll be explaining what a retainer is, why you can’t just take two weeks off, why firing someone you like has you in knots.
Some things just can’t be translated. A therapist who doesn’t know the territory can’t tell you which of your struggles are just entrepreneurship and which ones are your nervous system asking for help. That discernment is most of the work.
I do this work as the Entrepreneurs’ Therapist™ so that business owners like you don’t have to choose between the business and yourself the way I did.
How to Get Started: What the Free Consultation Actually Looks Like
It starts with a free 20-minute call. No pressure, no script, and no agenda to convince you of anything.
Here’s what actually happens on the call. You tell me what’s been weighing on you lately, in whatever order it comes out. We talk about the kind of support you’re looking for, and I’ll explain how business-aware mental health therapy works, including which services apply to you based on where you live. If something would help you right away, even if we never work together, I’ll point you to it.
Then we see whether working together feels like a good fit. And I mean that as a real question, not a formality. I run a boutique practice and take on one or two new clients a month, so I’m not trying to fill seats. I’m looking for the same thing you are: a fit that will actually work.
There’s no expectation that you’ll decide anything on the call. If it’s not the right fit, that’s okay, and I’ll say so honestly. If it is, we’ll talk about next steps at a pace that feels supportive, and nothing gets decided until you’re ready.
When you’re ready, you can book a free, no-pressure call here.
Questions Folks Often Ask About Therapy in Ontario
What’s the difference between a Registered Social Worker, a psychotherapist, and a psychologist?
All three can provide psychotherapy in Ontario, and each is regulated by a different professional college. Registered Social Workers belong to the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers. The training paths differ, but for your purposes the practical questions are the same: is this person regulated, and does my benefits plan cover their designation? Many plans cover social workers under their own line, separate from psychologists, so check for “RSW” specifically.
Can I do therapy with you if I live anywhere in Ontario?
Yes. Sessions are online or by phone, so where you are in the province makes no difference. In-person appointments are available if you’re near Merrickville.
Does my extended health plan cover this?
Many do. Look for “social worker” or “RSW” in your benefits booklet, or bring the question to the free call and we’ll look at it together.
Can therapy be a business expense?
That’s an accountant question, and worth asking. The medical expense route is more established; the business consulting route is one some business owners explore, since our work focuses entirely on the mental and emotional demands of running your company.
Do I need a referral or a diagnosis?
No. You don’t need a doctor’s referral, and you don’t need to be in crisis. Being tired of carrying it alone is reason enough.
What if I’m outside Ontario?
We can still work together, in a counselling and advisory capacity rather than therapy. My Work with Me page explains the counselling and advisory option and we’ll talk through what applies to you on the free call.
Is therapy or coaching better for entrepreneurs?
Therapy works with the emotional and nervous system patterns underneath; coaching works on strategy and accountability. I’ve written more about the difference between therapy and business coaching.
Do entrepreneurs really have more mental health challenges?
Yes, and it’s well documented. A widely cited study led by Dr. Michael Freeman at UC San Francisco found that 72% of entrepreneurs reported mental health concerns, with depression, ADHD, and anxiety all showing up at noticeably higher rates than in the general population. And there has been much more research conducted since that supports these findings.None of this means entrepreneurship is bad for you; it means the folks drawn to this work, and the conditions we work under, deserve support that takes both seriously.
Ready When You Are
There’s no perfect moment to start, and you don’t have to be in crisis to reach out. If something on this page sounded like your life, that’s reason enough.
I’m Shula, the Entrepreneurs’ Therapist™, and supporting women business owners across Ontario is what I do. The next step is a free 20-minute call. We talk, we see if it’s a fit, and nothing gets decided until you’re ready. Book your free, no-pressure call here.
Not ready to talk yet? You can subscribe to my gentle notes for your mind and heart instead: insights, validation, and practical support for your emotional wellbeing as a business owner.
Shulamit Ber Levtov, MA, RSW, CCC, is the Entrepreneurs’ Therapist™. She provides business-aware mental health therapy to women entrepreneurs in Ontario and counselling support to business owners beyond it, drawing on clinical training in trauma and more than three decades of running her own businesses. Learn more about Shula.
