Are Non-Competes Enforceable for Therapists and Behavioral Health Staff in District of Columbia?

No, with one narrow exception.

Since October 1, 2022, D.C. Code § 32-581.02 has prohibited District of Columbia employers from requiring or requesting that a covered employee sign an agreement — or comply with a workplace policy — that includes a non-compete provision, and a non-compete in an agreement entered into on or after that date is void.

In the statute's terms, a covered employee is one who is not highly compensated.

For 2026, the District's ban applies to employees earning less than $162,164 and to medical specialists earning less than $270,274.

In practice that voids non-competes for nearly all of the counselors, social workers, marriage and family therapists, psychologists, BCBAs and RBTs a D.C. practice employs.

Two details matter as much as the ban itself.

Requesting a non-compete — even one you never plan to enforce — violates the statute, not just requiring one.

And the income thresholds are not permanent: they adjust each January 1, so re-check them before every hiring cycle.

The rule is a statute, not judge-made law: D.C. Code § 32-581.02, effective for agreements entered into on or after October 1, 2022.

That is also why the usual reasonableness debate never starts for covered employees — the statute voids the clause rather than leaving a judge to weigh it.

The same section protects employees who push back.

A D.C. employer may not retaliate or threaten to retaliate against a covered employee for refusing to sign a prohibited non-compete, or for asking about or complaining about one (§ 32-581.02(b)).

The penalties are specific.

The D.C. Mayor may assess an administrative penalty of $350 to $1,000 for each violation of the chapter, and at least $1,000 for each retaliation violation.

An employer that tries to enforce a void non-compete is separately liable to each affected employee for relief of not less than $1,500.

Coverage has a geographic test too, which matters if your staff cross the Potomac: the rules cover an employee who spends more than 50% of work time for the employer working in the District, or whose job is based in D.C. and who regularly spends substantial time there and not more than 50% of time in another jurisdiction.

This is D.C. law doing the work — as of October 2026 there is no federal rule banning employee non-competes; the FTC removed its 2024 rule from the Code of Federal Regulations on February 12, 2026.

For how the other states compare, see our guide to non-competes nationally.

District of Columbia's healthcare carve-out is the 'medical specialist' category, and it is narrow.

A medical specialist is a highly compensated employee engaged primarily in the delivery of medical services who is a licensed physician, has completed a residency and meets the pay floor.

A psychiatrist can qualify.

Psychologists, counselors, social workers, BCBAs and nurse practitioners cannot — D.C.'s definition creates no such category for them.

That last point matters for prescriber hires: a psychiatric nurse practitioner is a nurse practitioner, and D.C. limits medical specialists to physicians, so a PMHNP has no route to a non-compete through the exception no matter what they prescribe.

For the rest of a behavioral health roster — counselors, social workers, MFTs, psychologists, BCBAs, RBTs — there is no profession-specific exception to invoke in either direction.

The general income thresholds decide, and in practice they void non-competes for nearly all of this roster.

Ordinarily this is where a non-compete guide talks about what a court requires: a limit on time, a defined area, a legitimate business interest to protect.

District of Columbia takes most of that analysis away from the courthouse for covered employees — the statute voids the clause outright, so there is no reasonableness balancing to win.

For the small group that can still sign one, the law supplies the limits in place of a court.

A permitted D.C. non-compete — one with a highly compensated employee — must specify its functional scope and geographic limits, may last no more than 365 days after separation (730 days for a medical specialist), and must be provided to the employee at least 14 days before employment starts or before the agreement starts.

What counts as a non-compete is likewise defined rather than litigated.

D.C. defines a non-compete provision as one that prohibits an employee from performing work for another for pay or from operating the employee's own business, and the definition excludes otherwise lawful provisions that bar disclosing or using the employer's confidential or proprietary information.

Start with what is settled.

D.C. defines proprietary employer information to include customer lists and client lists, and restrictions on disclosing or using confidential or proprietary information sit outside the non-compete ban.

A clause that stops a departing clinician from taking or using your client list is on statutory ground.

Whether a pure client non-solicitation clause — one that bars contact with former clients, not just use of the list — is itself a prohibited non-compete under D.C. law is not settled by the statute text; our research found no D.C. agency guidance or court decision resolving it.

Treat that language as a question for employment counsel, not a template item.

The same caution applies to employee non-solicits: our research did not resolve how D.C. treats them, so have counsel review any recruitment or no-hire language before it goes into a D.C. agreement.

Our guide to non-solicitation clauses covers how these covenants work for clinicians.

Six moves to consider:

1. Scrub the template first. The statute prohibits requesting a non-compete, not just enforcing one, so a legacy clause in your offer letters and employment agreements is a liability even if you never intend to use it.
2. Protect what the statute lets you protect. Confidentiality, client-list and trade-secret terms are expressly outside D.C.'s ban — invest there instead, with access controls on schedules and records and a clear written policy on client-list use.
3. If you are selling the practice, note the carve-outs: D.C.'s non-compete definition excludes seller-of-business covenants and provisions that provide a long-term incentive, so a seller's covenant is not the employment non-compete the statute bans.
4. If your real concern is the investment in a clinician you trained — funded supervision hours, a paid certification — the narrower instrument is a training repayment agreement, not a non-compete workaround. Read our guide to training repayment agreements, and confirm any D.C. drafting with employment counsel.
5. Re-check the income thresholds every January before you extend offers; the 2026 figures adjust with the calendar.
6. Build the retention case on the role itself — supervision, caseload, schedule, pay — so that keeping a clinician never depends on restraint. Our guide to clinician retention starts there.