Texas at a glance
| Rule | Texas | Checked |
|---|---|---|
| PSYPACT (psychologists) | Yes | 8 October 2026 |
| Counseling Compact (counselors) | No | 8 October 2026 |
| Social Work Licensure Compact | No | 8 October 2026 |
| Health-data or health geofencing law | None | 30 September 2026 |
| Privacy law treating health data as sensitive | Texas Data Privacy and Security Act | 30 September 2026 |
Texas licensing boards’ advertising rules
Ads, websites and directory profiles all count as advertising to a licensing board. These are the Texas 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.
Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council (professional counselors)
- An LPC Associate must use the term "LPC Associate" and follow their name with their supervisor's name on all advertisements, billing and announcements, and advertising must not be false, misleading, incomplete or not readily verifiable. (22 TAC 681.49)
Texas Medical Board
- Physician advertising has its own chapter of board rules, which bars false, deceptive or misleading advertising and limits claims of board certification. (22 TAC chapter 164)
Telehealth across Texas's borders
Texas is a PSYPACT state. A psychologist whose home license is in Texas 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.
Texas has not enacted the Counseling Compact, so a counselor licensed here needs a separate license for each other state.
For physicians, psychiatrists included, Texas 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. New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana each have their own page.
Health data, tracking and Texas law
The Texas Data Privacy and Security Act, in effect since July 2024, 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 Texas
Searches a month that name a Texas city, with the average cost per click, from Ahrefs (checked 30 September 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Houston | 1,300 $9.00 | 1,000 $6.00 | 200 $3.50 | 200 $7.00 | 100 $7.00 | 250 $1.20 | 150 $0.60 | 1,000 $1.50 |
| Austin | 700 $7.00 | 800 $6.00 | 700 $6.00 | 100 $8.00 | 70 $3.50 | 150 $1.50 | 150 $2.50 | 800 $1.50 |
| Dallas | 600 $9.00 | 800 $6.00 | 200 $6.00 | 150 $10.00 | 80 $7.00 | 350 $1.60 | 200 $3.00 | 450 $1.30 |
| San Antonio | 700 $8.00 | 700 $4.00 | 200 $3.50 | 20 $7.00 | 80 $3.00 | 100 $1.20 | 60 $1.40 | 600 $1.40 |
| Fort Worth | 250 $6.00 | 450 $4.50 | 150 $3.00 | 100 $8.00 | 150 $3.00 | 50 $1.00 | 20 $2.00 | 300 $1.40 |
| El Paso | 400 $5.00 | 200 $3.50 | 30 | – | 100 | 10 | – | 400 $1.40 |
| Corpus Christi | 250 $5.00 | 250 $3.00 | 20 | – | 200 | 30 | 10 | 300 $1.90 |
| Lubbock | 250 $5.00 | 250 $3.50 | 40 $2.50 | – | 50 | – | – | 400 $1.50 |
| Frisco | 150 | 90 $4.00 | 100 | 80 | 30 $6.00 | 150 $1.40 | – | 200 $1.20 |
| Statewide | 150 $3.50 | 200 $5.00 | 100 $6.00 | 100 $6.00 | 90 $3.50 | 30 | 20 | 10 $1.50 |
| Plano | 150 $4.00 | 150 $4.00 | 40 | 40 | 90 $2.50 | 40 $1.70 | – | 150 $1.20 |
| McKinney | 100 $4.00 | 200 $5.00 | 30 | 40 $11.00 | 10 $2.50 | 50 $1.30 | – | 40 $1.40 |
| Irving | 200 $6.00 | 20 | – | 30 | 20 | – | – | – |
| Grand Prairie | 60 $5.00 | 70 $3.50 | – | 40 | – | – | – | 20 |
| Garland | 20 $8.00 | 10 | – | 30 | – | – | – | – |
| Laredo | 20 $2.50 | 30 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
Of the cities measured, Houston gets the most of these searches. Its biggest single search, “therapist houston”, gets about 1,300 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, Texas patients look most for therapists (about 5,300 a month), then psychiatrists (5,220). Houston alone accounts for 20% of them. A click on a therapist search here costs about $7.15 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
- Texas Data Privacy and Security Act, checked 30 September 2026
- Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council (professional counselors), checked 30 September 2026
- Texas Medical Board, checked 30 September 2026