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| Abbreviation | BACP |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1977 |
| Type | Professional Body, Charity |
| Registered office | 15 St John's Business Park, Lutterworth, Leicestershire, LE17 4HB |
| Membership | 67,000 (approx.) |
| Chair | Natalie Bailey |
| CEO | Phil James |
| Website | https://www.bacp.co.uk |
The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) is a professional body for counsellors and psychotherapists practising in the United Kingdom. [1] [2]
Originally founded in 1977 as the British Association for Counselling, aided by a grant from the Home Office Voluntary Service Unit, it had emerged from the Standing Conference for the Advancement of Counselling. [3] [4] This body was inaugurated in 1970 at the instigation of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations. [5] [6] It was co-founded by the humanist activist Harold Blackham, and drew on detailed work Blackham had done for a non-religious counselling service for the British Humanist Association, which he led at the time. [7] [8] [3] The organisation's Chair was Nicholas Tyndall, Chief Officer at the National Marriage Guidance Council (which later become Relate). [6]
In 1978, the headquarters were relocated from London to Rugby courtesy of the National Marriage Guidance Council which provided free accommodation to help the association establish itself. The Association is now located in Lutterworth.
In September 2000, the Association recognised that it no longer represented only those involved in counselling, but also psychotherapy, and changed its name to the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. [9]
In September 2017, the branding was refreshed introducing a new logo, colour scheme, typeface and the slogan "counselling changes lives", based on a belief in the impact and benefits of the profession. This was Highly Commended in the 2018 memcom membership excellence awards stating that it "found success over various mediums" and "had a clear rationale for the brand relaunch and a strong proposition that counselling changes lives". [10]
In November 2019, the membership was reported to have surpassed 50,000, [11] prompting the Association to share celebratory and rewarding comments from its members as a way to mark the achievement. Individual members pay £178 per year for membership. [12]
In October 2024, investigations led by the i newspaper showed that regulation of counsellors and psychotherapists was inadequate and exposed vulnerable members of the public to exploitation by 'rogue therapists'. These concerns were echoed by leading mental health campaigners and by members of the UK Parliament. Tougher regulation was called for. [13]
BACP is a company limited by guarantee and a registered charity, monitored by the Charity Commission to ensure that aims are charitable and funds used for the benefit of its members and communities in which they are active. BACP follows the Charity Commission's Charity Governance Code as a tool for continuous improvement.
The governing instrument is the Memorandum and Articles of the Association. [14]
The Trustees, known collectively as the Board of Governors, govern the Association. [15]
BACP operates six committees, with volunteer input, to oversee the activities of the association:
BACP works with commissioners and government [16] to promote the counselling professions, seeking to advise and inform national and international policy and procedures concerned with counselling and psychotherapy, offering information and guidance to involved parties. BACP is consulted by government bodies, professional bodies, funding organisations, teaching institutions and many others on important issues concerning counselling and psychotherapy.
The Association sets and maintains standards for the profession. The Ethical Framework for Good Practice in Counselling and Psychotherapy along with the Professional Conduct Procedure is intended to ensure that members of BACP abide by an accepted code of conduct and accountability. [17] The Association accredits counsellors with the appropriate training and experience via a rigorous accreditation process that requires continued education to maintain accreditation. The BACP has a Professional Conduct Procedure for complaints made against members and publishes details of all complaints upheld under the Professional Conduct Procedure where it believes it is appropriate to do in the interests of public protection. [18]
In October 2015, the Collaboration of the Counselling and Psychotherapy Professions (CCPP) was announced between BACP, BPC and UKCP. Whilst promising to maintain their unique differences, each organisation expressed their recognition of shared goals and a commitment to improving the nation's mental health and wellbeing. [19] [20]
In June 2017, BACP presented their Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) research [21] as a paper at the Society for Psychotherapy Research conference in Canada. Key research papers, including the FGM paper and a paper analysing data from the National Audit of Psychological Therapies, were published gold open access.
In March 2018, BACP and the SQA announced a unique partnership which promises to improve access to the counselling profession for students in Scotland through a new BACP Approved Qualification scheme. [22]
Following consultation with their members and stakeholders, BACP identified three key areas for particular focus where the value of counselling has the greatest potential to improve lives.
BACP represent and promote specialist areas of interest within the profession by operating seven divisions, each managed by an executive committee of volunteers which run their own meetings and formulate strategies in line with BACP objectives, overseen by the BACP Board of Governors.
Although counselling and psychotherapy are not statutorily regulated professions, [23] BACP works alongside other associations to advise and appeal to government [24] in attempts to ensure members of the public who access the counselling professions are safeguarded.
The BACP is registered for accreditation under the scheme set up by the Department of Health and regulated by the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care. [25] The Accredited status of the BACP Register is reviewed annually by the Professional Standards Authority to ensure that the highest standards are being met and good practices are being followed. [26] During October 2024 newspapers in Britain signalled the inadequacy of regulation of therapists after an investigation. It showed that some therapists and counsellors, including at least one GP, were able to set up in practice after having been struck off for misconduct by their member organisations, such as the BACP and UKCP. Misconduct was reported to include drug and sexual abuse. The majority of perpetrators were male practitioners exploiting female clients. Campaigners and MPs have called for stronger measures to protect the public. [27] [28]
The organisation's Therapy Today magazine, with a circulation of 44,386 (ABC Jan – Dec 2016), is the most widely read specialist magazine for counsellors and psychotherapists in the UK, and has a strong international presence, publishing articles on topics crossing the breadth of counselling and psychotherapy practice, modalities and theoretical approaches.
The BACP publishes eight member-only journals:
A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how individuals relate to each other and to their environments.
A professional association is a group that usually seeks to further a particular profession, the interests of individuals and organisations engaged in that profession, and the public interest. In the United States, such an association is typically a nonprofit business league for tax purposes. In the UK, they may take a variety of legal forms.
Supervision is used in counselling, psychotherapy, and other mental health disciplines as well as many other professions engaged in working with people. Supervision may be applied as well to practitioners in somatic disciplines for their preparatory work for patients as well as collateral with patients. Supervision is a replacement instead of formal retrospective inspection, delivering evidence about the skills of the supervised practitioners.
Licensed professional counselor (LPC) is a licensure for mental health professionals in some countries.
John Rowan was an English author, counsellor, psychotherapist and clinical supervisor, known for being one of the pioneers of humanistic psychology and integrative psychotherapy. He worked in exploring transpersonal psychology, and wrote about the concept of subpersonality.
Andrew Samuels is a British psychotherapist and writer on political and social themes from a psychological viewpoint. He has worked with politicians, political organisations, activist groups and members of the public in Europe, US, Brazil, Israel, Japan, Russia and South Africa as a political and organisational consultant. Clinically, Samuels has developed a blend of Jungian and post-Jungian, relational psychoanalytic and humanistic approaches.
The United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) is a professional association of psychotherapy organisations and practitioners in the United Kingdom.
A licensed clinical professional counselor (LCPC) is a professional who has been qualified to provide psychotherapy and other counselling services. LCPCs are trained to work with individuals, families, and groups to treat mental, behavioural and emotional problems and disorders. The main goal of LCPCs is to use counselling strategies to help people live a more satisfying life, which typically involves identifying a goal and finding potential solutions.
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. The counselling profession in Australia is currently not government regulated so clients are faced with the task of evaluating qualifications of various counsellors and psychotherapists. PACFA is one of two industry associations that is campaigning for government accreditation of counselling in Australia.
The Australian Counselling Association (ACA) is a non-profit, professional organisation that is dedicated to the counselling profession. ACA represents over 13,500+ Registered Counsellors and Psychotherapists in Australia. ACA is the largest peak body for counselling and psychotherapy in Australia.
In the United Kingdom, counselling is not under statutory regulation, and is overseen and supported by several organisations, none of which are officially recognised by the government.
In the United Kingdom there are several hypnotherapy organizations. Each one has a code of ethics and practice, seeking to protect the public and maintain professional standards. Over the years, the number of hypnotherapy organizations has proliferated, often associated with particular training schools. There has been a notable lack of co-operation between organizations in establishing any agreed public standard of training and code of practice for the hypnotherapy profession as a whole. However, progress is now being made in this area.
The Association for Neuro-Linguistic Programming (ANLP) is a UK organisation founded in 1985 by Frank Kevlin to promote neuro-linguistic programming (NLP). Since 2005, it has been led by Karen Moxom.
The British Psychoanalytic Council (BPC) is a UK-wide umbrella association of training institutions and professional bodies providing psychotherapy services to the public, mainly in the private sector. As implied in the title their therapeutic approaches are guided by analytical psychology and the psychoanalytic schools of psychology and treatment. It is a registered charity.
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The Independent Practitioners Network (IPN) is an association of practitioners founded in 1994 working in the broad field of human development, especially counselling and the psychological therapies. It is based on a system of peer support and monitoring.
The Association for Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (AREBT) was established in 1993 by a group of counsellors, psychotherapists and psychologists who were training as Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) practitioners in the United Kingdom.
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