Physical Therapists

Licence renewal for 2026/2027

The CHCPBC Bylaws were amended to align renewal cycles for licensing, certification, and health profession corporations to a deadline of March 31, across all nine professions regulated by the College, starting in 2026. The amendments were approved by the CHCPBC Board following public consultation.

Licence renewal for 2026/2027 will open February 18, 2026 in the Licensee Portal for physical therapy. March 31, 2026 is the renewal deadline.

To view the CHCPBC Fee Schedule, see Fees.

For detailed information on renewing your licence for 2026/2027, see the Renewal page.

Registrants may be considering leaving their practice or the physical therapy profession, either temporarily or long term.

If you are no longer practising as a physical therapist in British Columbia, you have two options. You could cancel your registration or maintain your full registration status.

If you cancel your registration:

• You must not practice physical therapy, assign physical therapy services, or hold yourself out as a physical therapist entitled to practice.
• You must not use the protected titles: Physical Therapist, Physiotherapist, Registered Physical Therapist, Registered Physiotherapist, or any abbreviations.
• You must apply for reinstatement if you plan to practice physical therapy in British Columbia again: Applying for Reinstatement.
• See Leaving or Closing A Physical Therapy Practice for advice on notifying clients, retention of clinical records, and employment contracts.
• If you have a health profession corporations permit, that will also need to be cancelled.

If you want to maintain your full registration status, you must continue to meet registration requirements, including:

• Active professional liability insurance Extended period or “tail” coverage offered by insurance brokers does not meet the requirement for full registration.
• Practice hours.
• Quality Assurance Program requirements.

What are practice hours?

Practice hours are paid and professional activity hours spent in physical therapy practice or other activities resulting from possessing physiotherapy or physical therapy credentials and experience.

Why do you report practice hours?

Physical therapy regulators in Canada consider practice hours to be an indication of currency of practice. All Canadian jurisdictions, except Quebec, have the same requirement.

Practice hours are a reflection of practice experience. For example, the College requires new physical therapists to have a minimum number of practice hours to be eligible to use dry needling in physical therapy practice.

Practice hours are also a component of health human resources data. The CHCPBC reports practice hours to CIHI annually where they are aggregated nationally.

What qualifies as practice hours?

• The Bylaws define practice hours as “clinical practice, research, administration, teaching or academic positions, and consulting.”
• Practice hours include activities you do while registered as a physical therapist in order to meet the expectations of the Code of Ethical Conduct (PDF), and the Standards of Practice (PDF) for the provision of physical therapy service to clients. This includes, for example, clinical documentation, report-writing, and team meetings.
• Teaching that results from possessing physical therapy credentials

What does not qualify as practice hours?

• Physical therapy clinical practice means service provided to human clients*, so hours spent providing rehabilitation care provided to animals do not qualify as practice hours.
• Vacation hours, statutory holidays, leaves of absence (e.g. sick, parental), continuing education, courses and on-call time if the physical therapist is not called in to work do not qualify as practice hours.

Who can accrue physical therapy practice hours?

• Physical therapists (full and provisional registrants) practising physical therapy in BC in accordance with CHCPBC Standards of Practice, Code of Ethical Conduct and the Bylaws.
• Physical therapists registered to practice in another jurisdiction in Canada.
• Physical therapists practising physical therapy in jurisdictions outside of Canada where physical therapy is a regulated profession; the physical therapist must be registered with the regulator in that jurisdiction in order to practise and to accrue practice hours.

When do you report your practice hours?

• When submitting an application for registration
• Annually during registration renewal

What dates do you use to count your practice hours?

• Practice hours are counted per registration year from April 1 to March 31.

* Physical Therapists Regulation

For more information on the Criminal Record Check, click here.

Important: The College uses the following definition when discussing dry needling. The regulations explained below apply to all approaches, including acupuncture.

Dry needling is a broad term that refers to a treatment technique that uses solid filament needles to puncture the skin for therapeutic purposes. It includes a range of approaches, such as acupuncture, trigger point dry needling, intramuscular stimulation, or similar treatments used by numerous healthcare professionals.

– The Safe Practice of Dry Needling in Alberta. Health Quality Council of Alberta, 2014

Full registrants who wish to use dry needling within the physical therapy scope of practice must first apply to the College.

March 10, 2020 Board of Directors Policy Decisions (PDF)

Eligibility

A registrant may apply to use dry needling within their physical therapy practice if they:

• Are a full registrant in BC, and
• Have at least two years of physical therapy practice experience (experience as an interim physical therapist and experience outside of Canada count), and a minimum of 3900 practice hours, and
• Successfully completed one of the following programs:
  • Acupuncture Canada Certification in Dry Needling – Dry Needling Level 1 and Level 2
  • Acupuncture Canada Certification, Level 1
  • Acupuncture the Art and the Science (Manitoba): A Comprehensive Introduction to Acupuncture: the Art and the Science
  • *Evidence in Motion Functional Dry Needling Weekend Intensives – Functional Dry Needling Level 1, Dry Needling: Clinical Integration, Functional Dry Needling Level 2 (3-day version of each course)
  • Foundations Health Education Modern Dry Needling ANIMS (formerly ANIMS-1)
  • McMaster University – Contemporary Medical Acupuncture
  • *On Point Physiotherapy – On Point Needling- Comprehensive Dry Needling
  • OPPQ Puncture Physiothérapique avec Aiguilles Sèches: Cours de Base
  • Smart Seminars Certification in Biomedical Dry Needling
  • UBC Gunn IMS (Certification) Course
  • Uplands Physiotherapy Clinic – Dry Needling Canada Courses Level 1 and 2

*Course certificates dated on or after August 1, 2023 will be accepted. Courses taken before this date will not be accepted.

• NOTE:
  • Until the College confirms that a registrant may use dry needling/acupuncture in their physical therapy practice, they must not do so. Please discuss with the course provider how to fulfill a requirement to log needling practice in between courses
  • Registrants may take a course before they complete the 2-year/3900 practice hour requirement if permitted by the course provider. However, the College strongly encourages registrants to consider acquiring at least the minimum experience (and mature clinical reasoning skills) before taking a course.
  • The College recommends registrants not to take a course too far in advance of being able to use the knowledge and skills in their practice.

Application Process

1. Complete and sign (electronic signatures are accepted) the Application To Perform Dry Needling form (PDF)
2. Send the application form and a copy of your program certificate to the College at certification@chcpbc.org
3. Processing an application may take 3-5 business days once both documents have been received
4. You will be notified by email and ‘dry needling’ will be visible as an additional skill on your record on the public directory

Questions About Dry Needling?

For further information on dry needling, please contact certification@chcpbc.org.

In preparation for the Health Professions and Occupations Act coming into force on April 1, 2026, the College is revising instructions and forms related to health profession corporations. The College will not accept applications for new health profession corporations between March 16 and April 1, 2026. On April 2, 2026 a new application form will be available on this page.

Health Profession Corporation Permit Renewal (PDF)