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

Yes, if the agreement fits the statute.

Under Louisiana Revised Statutes 23:921(A)(1), every contract or provision by which anyone is restrained from exercising a lawful profession, trade or business is null and void, except as that section allows.

For a therapist, BCBA, case manager or other non-physician employee, the exception you would use is subsection C: the employee may agree not to compete with you and/or not to solicit your customers, but only within parishes or municipalities named in the agreement, for no more than two years after employment ends, and only so long as you carry on a like business there.

One more constraint comes from the Louisiana Supreme Court: because these covenants are in derogation of the common right, they must be strictly construed against the party seeking enforcement.

How the states compare is covered in our guide to non-competes nationally.

Louisiana's rule is statutory.

Louisiana Revised Statutes 23:921(A)(1) declares every restraint on exercising a lawful profession, trade or business null and void unless the section itself provides otherwise, so the drafting question for a Louisiana practice is always whether the clause fits a listed exception.

For employees, that exception is subsection C.

It permits a promise to refrain from carrying on or engaging in a business similar to the employer's and/or from soliciting the employer's customers, within a specified parish or parishes, municipality or municipalities, or parts of them, so long as the employer carries on a like business there, for no more than two years from termination of employment.

The strict-construction holding above comes from SWAT 24 Shreveport Bossier, Inc. v. Bond, a 2001 Louisiana Supreme Court decision.

In that case the court used the example of a hospital-employed doctor to show the absurd results of reading subsection C to bar working for a competitor: on that reading, the doctor could not practice medicine in any capacity in the region for two years.

Older summaries sometimes present SWAT 24 as holding that subsection C only bars a departing employee from running their own competing business; that reading has since been overtaken by the current text of subsection D, under which a person who becomes employed by a competing business — whether or not they own any of it — may be deemed to be carrying on a business similar to the former employer's.

Treat SWAT 24 as the strict-construction case, not as a safe harbor for taking a competitor job.

Louisiana Revised Statutes 23:921 names exactly one health-care profession: physicians.

Our review of the section found no provision specific to counselors, social workers, marriage and family therapists, psychologists, behavior analysts, nurse practitioners or other non-physician clinicians — they fall under the general employee rule in subsection C, and the physician rules below do not reach them.

The physician-specific limits were added by Acts 2024, No. 273, effective January 1, 2025, and the section's history shows no later amendment as of October 7, 2026.

For a behavioral health practice they matter mainly on psychiatrist hires:

• Primary care physicians. Under 23:921(M), a provision restraining a primary care physician from practicing medicine may not exceed three years from the effective date of the initial contract, and later contracts with that employer may not include non-compete provisions.
• Psychiatrists. The primary care definition covers physicians who predominantly practice general family medicine, general internal medicine, general pediatrics, general obstetrics or general gynecology. Psychiatry is not on that list, so a psychiatrist falls under the "any other physician" rule in subsection N: a restraint may not exceed five years from the effective date of the initial contract, and later contracts with that employer may not include non-compete provisions.
• Early exit. If a physician ends the contract before the initial three-year (primary care) or five-year (other physician) term, the statute allows a bar on a similar business in the parish of the physician's principal practice and no more than two contiguous parishes in which the employer carries on a like business, named in the contract, for up to two years.
• Rural exception. The physician-specific limits do not apply to a physician employed by or contracting with a rural hospital under the Rural Hospital Preservation Act or with a federally qualified health center operating in a rural parish; those physicians stay under the general rules, including subsection C.

For counselors, social workers, MFTs, psychologists, behavior analysts and PMHNPs, the requirements are the subsection C terms themselves:

• Time. No more than two years from termination of employment. An independent contractor working under a written contract — a 1099 therapist, for example — can agree to a non-compete on the same basis as an employee, for up to two years from the last work performed under that contract.
• Area. The parishes or municipalities, or parts of them, specified in the agreement — and only there.
• Like business. The restraint holds only so long as the employer carries on a like business in the named area.
• Who counts as competing. Under subsection D, a person who goes to work for a competing business may be treated as carrying on a business similar to the former employer's, even without owning any of it.

The statute spells out the remedy.

Under 23:921(H), upon proof of the obligor's failure to perform, a court of competent jurisdiction shall order injunctive relief enforcing the terms of the agreement — no showing of irreparable injury required.

Strict construction is the counterweight: the same court construes the covenant against the party seeking enforcement.

One gap: how Louisiana courts treat an overbroad or incomplete clause — strike it, trim it or rewrite it — was not verified for this page, so do not count on a court repairing wording that misses subsection C.

Have Louisiana employment counsel test the draft before it goes into an offer.

Client non-solicits live inside the same subsection C.

An employee may agree not to solicit the employer's customers within the specified parishes or municipalities, on the same two-year limit — the statute allows the promise alongside a non-compete or on its own.

Two cautions before you draft one.

Define who your "customers" are: whether a practice's customers under 23:921(C) means its patients or clients, or its referral sources, was not researched for this page, and the definition carries the clause.

And note the verified Louisiana rules on this page cover customer non-solicits only — how Louisiana courts treat a clause barring a departing clinician from soliciting coworkers was not verified.

How non-solicits work elsewhere, and how ethics codes shape a clinician's departure, is covered in our guide to non-solicitation clauses.

Louisiana gives a practice a workable restrictive covenant, but only in the shape the statute draws.

Draft to that shape:

• Name the parishes or municipalities. The area must be specified in the agreement, and strict construction makes the list load-bearing rather than boilerplate.
• Match the area to your footprint. The restraint holds only while you carry on a like business in the parishes you named.
• Keep the term inside the caps. Two years from termination for employees; two years from the last work performed for written-contract contractors; for physicians, three or five years from the effective date of the initial contract, with no non-compete in later contracts with the same employer.
• Put it in writing for contract therapists. Subsection C reaches an independent contractor — a therapist paid on a 1099 basis, for example — on the same terms as an employee, but only where the contractor works under a written contract; the null-and-void default is what awaits a covenant that fits no exception.
• Do not import another state's law. Under 23:921(A)(2), choice-of-forum and choice-of-law clauses in Louisiana employment contracts are null and void unless the employee expressly, knowingly and voluntarily agrees to and ratifies them after the incident at issue — a trap for multi-state groups papering Louisiana hires on a home-state template.
• Use the tools you keep. A training repayment agreement is a separate covenant with its own rules; our guide to training repayment agreements covers where they stand.