Tennessee at a glance
| Rule | Tennessee | Checked |
|---|---|---|
| PSYPACT (psychologists) | Yes | 8 October 2026 |
| Counseling Compact (counselors) | Yes, live | 8 October 2026 |
| Social Work Licensure Compact | Enacted, not issuing licenses yet | 8 October 2026 |
| Health-data or health geofencing law | None | 30 September 2026 |
| Privacy law treating health data as sensitive | Tennessee Information Protection Act | 30 September 2026 |
Tennessee licensing boards’ advertising rules
Ads, websites and directory profiles all count as advertising to a licensing board. These are the Tennessee rules we check copy against, with links to the official text. Boards update their rules, so read the current version before you rely on a summary.
Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners
- Physician advertising may not use a personal testimonial about the quality of a licensee's service or treatment that is not reasonably verifiable. (Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 0880-02-.13(4)(f))
- Physicians may advertise discount fees if the discounted fee is in fact lower than their customary or usual fee and they provide the same quality and components of service as at the regular, non-discounted fee. (Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 0880-02-.13(3)(c))
Tennessee Board for Licensed Professional Counselors, Licensed Marital and Family Therapists, and Licensed Clinical Pastoral Therapists
- Professional counselors who engage others to create or place public statements promoting their practice, products or activities keep professional responsibility for those statements. (Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 0450-01-.21(5)(a))
Telehealth across Tennessee's borders
Tennessee is a PSYPACT state. A psychologist whose home license is in Tennessee can apply for PSYPACT's telepsychology authorization and then see clients by telehealth in the other PSYPACT states, so ads can reach clients there too.
Tennessee is one of the first states where the Counseling Compact is live, so a licensed professional counselor based here can already apply for privileges to practice in the other live member states instead of a separate license in each.
It has also enacted the Social Work Licensure Compact, which isn't issuing multistate licenses yet; the compact's commission expects its licensing system in 2027.
For physicians, psychiatrists included, Tennessee is in the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact, which speeds up getting a license in other member states but doesn't replace it.
Telehealth ads should only reach places where the clinician can legally treat: see PSYPACT and Counseling Compact states.
Practices near a state line often see clients from next door. Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Missouri each have their own page.
Health data, tracking and Tennessee law
The Tennessee Information Protection Act, in effect since July 2025, treats health information as sensitive data. A business needs the person's opt-in consent before processing it. Most small practices fall below its size thresholds, but the ad platforms and data companies that receive website data usually don't, which is one more reason health information shouldn't reach them.
This is not legal advice.
How the states compare: state health-data laws.
What patients search for in Tennessee
Searches a month that name a Tennessee city, with the average cost per click, from Ahrefs (checked between 30 September and 5 October 2026). A dash means too few to measure; “near me” searches aren't counted. The Statewide row is searches that name the state.
| City | Therapist | Psychiatrist | Ketamine | IOP | Weight loss | Functional med. | Concierge | GI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nashville | 450 $8.00 | 350 $6.00 | 400 | 30 $6.00 | 200 $9.00 | 100 $1.80 | 100 $3.00 | 400 $2.00 |
| Memphis | 250 $6.00 | 150 $3.50 | 90 $3.00 | 20 | 20 | 10 $0.90 | – | 200 $1.10 |
| Chattanooga | 300 $7.00 | 250 $2.50 | 10 $3.50 | 10 | – | 30 $1.20 | – | 30 $1.10 |
| Franklin | 100 $3.00 | 80 $5.00 | 150 $3.50 | 10 | 50 $3.00 | 10 $1.20 | – | 200 $2.50 |
| Knoxville | 100 $7.00 | 60 $3.00 | 60 | 60 | 20 | – | – | 40 $0.80 |
| Statewide | 60 $2.50 | 40 | 20 | 100 | – | 10 | – | – |
| Murfreesboro | 100 $3.00 | 30 | – | 60 | 30 | – | – | – |
Of the cities measured, Nashville gets the most of these searches. Its biggest single search, “therapist nashville”, gets about 450 a month. To turn a cost per click into a cost per booked patient, put your own numbers into the patient acquisition cost calculator.
Across the searches measured here, Tennessee patients look most for therapists (about 1,360 a month), then psychiatrists (960). Nashville alone accounts for 42% of them. A click on a therapist search here costs about $6.36 on average, above the $4.00 median across the 306 therapist searches measured on our state pages.
Fill The Lobby is a remote US healthcare marketing agency; the ads and pages we write for practices are checked against rules like these. See how we handle compliance.
Sources
- PSYPACT, compact map, checked 8 October 2026
- Counseling Compact, member map, checked 8 October 2026
- Counseling Compact, 10 states now offering privileges, checked 8 October 2026
- Counseling Compact, Pennsylvania becomes the 40th member, checked 8 October 2026
- Social Work Licensure Compact, enacted in 35 states, checked 8 October 2026
- Interstate Medical Licensure Compact, participating states, checked 14 October 2026
- IAPP, US State Privacy Legislation Tracker, checked 30 September 2026
- Ahrefs Keywords Explorer, US search volumes and cost per click, checked 30 September 2026
- Tennessee Information Protection Act, checked 30 September 2026
- Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners, checked 5 October 2026
- Tennessee Board for Licensed Professional Counselors, Licensed Marital and Family Therapists, and Licensed Clinical Pastoral Therapists, checked 5 October 2026