Australian Counselling Association

Last updated
Australian Counselling Association
Headquarters Queensland, Australia
CEO
Philip Armstrong
Website http://www.theaca.net.au/

The Australian Counselling Association (ACA) is a non-profit, professional organisation that is dedicated to the counselling profession. ACA represents over 4,000 professional counsellors in Australia. The Australian Counselling Association is one of the more active peak bodies for counselling and psychotherapy in Australia. [1]

Contents

Mission

The mission of the Australian Counselling Association is to enhance the quality of life in society by promoting the development of professional counsellors, advancing the counselling profession, and using the profession and practice of counselling to promote respect for human dignity and diversity.

Government accreditation

The counselling profession in Australia is currently not government regulated. Therefore, clients are faced with the task of evaluating qualifications of various counsellors and psychotherapists. ACA is one of two industry associations (with PACFA) that is campaigning for government accreditation of counselling in Australia. As of 2010, none of the federal or state jurisdictions are actively considering regulation of the counselling profession. The Council of Australian Governments(COAG) have agreed that regulation of the counselling profession would only be considered if the public were at serious risk and that those risks could only be ameliorated through a regulatory framework. [2]

Council of Australian Governments

The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) is the "peak intergovernmental forum in Australia". Comprising the federal government, the governments of the six states and two mainland territories and the Australian Local Government Association, it manages governmental relations within Australia's federal system.

See also

The Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA) is the umbrella professional body that plays a self-regulating role in the psychotherapy and counselling industry. It represents the interests of more than 3000 practitioners of various forms of psychotherapy and counselling in Australia. It cooperates with 40 related associations to set and meet standards in all states and territories of Australia.

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References

  1. Counsellors in Australia: Profiling the Membership of the Australian Counselling Association
  2. Pelling, N. Sullivan, B. (2006) "The credentialing of counselling in Australia", International Journal of Psychology, 41.3, pp.194-203 doi : 10.1080/00207590544000194

[1]

  1. Counsellors in Australia: Profiling the Membership of the Australian Counselling Association – Counselling, Psychotherapy, and Health, 1(1), 1-18, July 2005. http://www.cphjournal.com/archive_journals/V1_I1_Pelling_1-18_7_05.pdf Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine