Are Non-Competes Enforceable for Therapists and Behavioral Health Staff in Georgia?

Georgia writes its non-compete rules in a statute — and the statute starts by limiting who can be bound.

Under O.C.G.A. § 13-8-53(a), a post-employment non-compete is permitted only against an employee who customarily solicits customers, regularly makes sales, or manages the business by directing two or more employees with hiring-and-firing authority or weight in those decisions — or who performs the duties of a key employee or a professional.

Where each role lands:

This page covers Georgia only; see non-competes nationally for the other states.

Georgia's rules come from a statute — the Georgia Restrictive Covenants Act (O.C.G.A. § 13-8-50 et seq.) — not from case law alone, and the Act is prescriptive about mechanics.

Two matter day to day.

A covenant that does not comply with the Act is void, but a court may modify it so long as the modification does not make it more restrictive for the employee than as originally drafted (O.C.G.A. § 13-8-53(d)).

And restraints that operate while someone is still employed are permitted so long as they are reasonable in time, geographic area and scope of prohibited activities — the legal footing for a sensible outside-activities or moonlighting restriction.

Our research found no Georgia statute specific to non-competes for counselors, social workers, marriage and family therapists, psychologists, behavior analysts, physicians or APRNs.

Two caveats: the search was not exhaustive, and we have not reviewed 2025–2026 Georgia bills, so confirm current law with Georgia employment counsel before relying on the absence.

That leaves the Act's general categories to do the work.

A "professional" is an employee whose primary duty requires advanced knowledge in a field of science or learning customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction (O.C.G.A. § 13-8-51(14)) — on its face, master's- and doctoral-level clinicians: LPCs, LCSWs, LMFTs, psychologists, BCBAs, psychiatrists, PMHNPs.

But we found no Georgia court decision applying the definition to a behavioral health clinician, so treat the fit as an argument, not a settled rule.

The same definition excludes technician work learned through on-the-job and classroom training — where RBT-type roles sit, and again with no Georgia decision testing it.

The safer reading: a non-compete is not your tool for a technician.

The "key employee" label covers an employee who gained high influence or credibility with the employer's customers, or who holds selective or specialized skills, customer contacts or customer information obtained by working for the employer (O.C.G.A. § 13-8-51(8)) — in a practice, the clinician whose clients ask for them by name.

The sections we verified set no income threshold — eligibility turns on job category.

Confirm that reading with counsel: our review covered the Act's core sections, not every amendment.

Time is the one the Act answers directly: Georgia courts presume a post-employment restraint of two years or less to be reasonable in time, and one of more than two years to be unreasonable (O.C.G.A. § 13-8-57(b)).

Drafting at or under two years starts you inside the presumption; anything longer starts against you.

Area and scope have no equivalent safe harbor in the sections we verified.

The Act's built-in limits are the employee categories, the time presumption, and the rule that a court may narrow a noncompliant clause but never broaden it.

The interests the sections we verified protect are customer relationships and contacts, specialized skills, and confidential information or trade secrets.

How narrowly a particular clause must draw its territory and prohibited activities is fact-specific; have Georgia employment counsel review the language before you hand it to a hire or try to enforce it.

The client non-solicit reaches every role on your staff, because unlike the non-compete it is not limited to professionals or key employees: under O.C.G.A. § 13-8-53(b), any employee may agree in writing not to solicit, for a stated period after termination, customers with whom the employee had material contact — including prospects the practice was actively pursuing.

No express reference to a geographic area is required for the restraint to be enforceable.

In a behavioral health practice, the "customers" are your clients.

Drafted this way, the clause covers every hire — clinicians, BCBAs, RBTs, front-desk staff — and it is your tool for every role outside the non-compete categories above.

Employee non-solicits — no-recruit clauses aimed at your own staff — are a different instrument; the sections of the Act we verified address customer solicitation, not staff raiding, so ask Georgia employment counsel before one goes into your agreement.

Which states allow which version, and what the ethics codes ask of a departing clinician, is its own topic; we cover it in non-solicitation clauses.

Audit what you already use: if every hire signed the same template, you may be relying on a non-compete for roles the statute does not let you bind.

Match the tool to the role.

Reserve the non-compete for hires who genuinely fit a category, draft it at or under two years, and keep it no broader than the interest you are protecting.

Give everyone else a written client non-solicit limited to clients they had material contact with.

Then invest where Georgia leaves you unlimited: the Act does not limit how long confidential information or trade secrets may be protected, for as long as they remain confidential (O.C.G.A. § 13-8-53(e)).

Under the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act, though, business information such as a client list is a trade secret only if the owner takes reasonable measures to keep it secret and it has independent economic value from not being generally known — so limit who can export schedules and contact data.

For staff you train up — an associate counselor working toward independent licensure, or a behavior technician you support through certification coursework — a training repayment agreement is a different instrument with its own rules; we cover training repayment agreements separately.