Counselling in the United Kingdom

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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.

Contents

National regulation

In 2007 the Health Professions Council (HPC), which is independent of any professional body, released a white paper, Trust Assurance and Safety – The Regulation of Health Professionals in the 21st Century, which said that the Government intended to introduce statutory regulation for psychotherapists and counsellors.

The HPC set up a working group of stakeholders, known as a Professional Liaison Group, to consider and make recommendations to the HPC about how psychotherapists and counsellors might be regulated, in light of the statements made in the white paper. The HPC held a public consultation on the PLG recommendations, which ran for three months in 2009. Following the consultation, the PLG was reconvened and had its last meeting on 2 February 2011.

In February 2011, the Government published a command paper, Enabling Excellence, which set out the coalition government's policy on professional regulation. The paper outlined a system of what it called "assured voluntary registration" and said that in the future statutory regulation will only be considered where there is a "compelling case", and where "voluntary registers are not considered sufficient to manage this risk". [1] Later that month, the HPC's Chief Executive Marc Seale wrote to Anne Milton MP, then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Public Health, seeking clarification of the coalition government's policy on the statutory regulation of psychotherapists and counsellors.

At its meeting on 31 March 2011 the Council discussed the response received from Anne Milton MP. The letter said: "...it is not currently our intention to proceed with statutory regulation of psychotherapists and counsellors". [1]

Counselling organisations

The British Association For Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP)

The largest UK counselling organisation is the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). It grew from the Standing Conference for the Advancement of Counselling, a grouping of organisations inaugurated in 1970 at the instigation of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations. Membership was extended to include individuals when in 1977, with the aid of a grant from the Home Office Voluntary Service Unit, the British Association for Counselling (BAC) was founded. In 1978 the headquarters was moved from London to Rugby courtesy of the National Marriage Guidance Council which provided free accommodation to help the association establish itself.

During the 1980s, the BAC began the process of professionalising counselling in Britain, first introducing a code of practise for counsellors (1986), a member's register and a complaints panel for clients. (1987) Other counselling groups from the churches and from various counselling traditions affiliated with the organisation.

In September 2000, the Association recognised that it no longer represented just counselling, but also psychotherapy. It changed its name to the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and moved to new premises in Lutterworth. BACP is now the largest and broadest body within the sector with approximately 65,000 individual members. BACP participates in the development of counselling and psychotherapy at an international level.

The Survivors Trust

According to the introduction on their main website The Survivors Trust is a national umbrella agency for over 125 specialist voluntary sector agencies throughout the UK and Ireland providing a range of counselling, therapeutic and support services working with women, men and children who are victims/survivors of rape, sexual violence and sexual abuse. [2] The organisation aims to offer a national collective voice to support and empower survivor groups, to educate and inform acknowledgment of and response to sexual abuse on a local and national level. [3]

College of Sexual and Relationship Therapists (COSRT)

The College of Sexual and Relationship Therapists (COSRT) [4] is a non-profit membership organisation that acts as the professional body for therapists specialising in sexual and relationship issues. Originally founded in 1978 as the British Association for Sexual and Relationship Therapy, it holds two Registers covering Psychosexual and Relationship Therapies. These are public records of specialist therapists who meet prescribed standards. The organisation sets professional standards for therapists, provides training programmes, and maintains ethical and professional conduct policies that all Members must adhere to.

The National Counselling Society

The National Counselling Society (NCS) [5] is a not-for-profit membership organisation, founded by a group of counsellors, psychotherapists, psychologists and hypnotherapists in 1999. The aim of the NCS is to promote and support the practice of counselling, and does so by offering a range of services to members, including a comprehensive training programme. The NCS also benefits the patients of counsellors by ensuring that the counsellors in their organisation follow their stringent code of ethics; facing expulsion if they deviate or break any of their established codes of conduct and practice.

COSCA (Counselling & Psychotherapy in Scotland)

COSCA is a professional body for counselling and psychotherapy in Scotland, which seeks to advance all forms of counselling and psychotherapy and the use of counselling skills.

According to the organisations website, COSCA's aims are to increase accessibility to counselling and psychotherapy, develop ethically-based professional standards and quality assurance for counselling, psychotherapy and the use of counselling skills, increase access to training and information on counselling, psychotherapy and counselling skills, deliver a range of services that meet the needs of the counselling and psychotherapy field, provide opportunities for sharing knowledge, experience and resources for the advancement of counselling, psychotherapy and the use of counselling skills in Scotland. [6]

The Counselling Society

The Counselling Society is one of a number of UK counselling professional organisations. According to the introduction on their website in 2007, the Counselling Society launched a campaign by contacting every UK MP, Peer and other national stakeholder via Blake's Parliamentary Yearbook. [7] It proposed a criminal offence of “abuse by a healthcare professional” which would include counsellors as a matter of public safety. This would give courts powers to ban abusive counsellors from practising.

The Human Givens Institute

According to their main page, the Human Givens Institute (HGI) is a membership organisation and resource open to anyone wishing to support the new school of psychology known as the Human Givens approach. [8]

Related Research Articles

Psychotherapy is the use of psychological methods, particularly when based on regular personal interaction, to help a person change behavior, increase happiness, and overcome problems. Psychotherapy aims to improve an individual's well-being and mental health, to resolve or mitigate troublesome behaviors, beliefs, compulsions, thoughts, or emotions, and to improve relationships and social skills. Numerous types of psychotherapy have been designed either for individual adults, families, or children and adolescents. Certain types of psychotherapy are considered evidence-based for treating some diagnosed mental disorders; other types have been criticized as pseudoscience.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Psychologist</span> Professional who evaluates, diagnoses, treats and studies behavior and mental processes

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.

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Freedom from Torture is a British registered charity that provides therapeutic care for survivors of torture who seek protection in the UK. Since it was established in 1985, more than 57,000 survivors of torture have been referred to the organisation for help and it is one of the world’s largest torture treatment centres.

Counseling psychology is a psychological specialty that began with a focus on vocational counseling, but later moved its emphasis to adjustment counseling, and then expanded to cover all normal psychology and psychotherapy. There are many subcategories for counseling psychology, such as marriage and family counseling, rehabilitation counseling, clinical mental health counseling, educational counseling, etc. In each setting, they are all required to follow the same guidelines.

Co-counselling is a grassroots method of personal change based on reciprocal peer counselling. It uses simple methods. Time is shared equally and the essential requirement of the person taking their turn in the role of counsellor is to do their best to listen and give their full attention to the other person. It is not a discussion; the aim is to support the person in the client role to work through their own issues in a mainly self-directed way.

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.

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.

The United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) is a professional association of psychotherapy organisations and practitioners in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emmy van Deurzen</span> Dutch existential therapist

Emmy van Deurzen is an existential therapist. She developed a philosophical therapy based in existential-phenomenology.

The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) is a professional body for counsellors and psychotherapists practising in the United Kingdom. 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.

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.

Phillip Hodson is a British psychotherapist, broadcaster and author who popularised ‘phone-in’ therapy in his role as Britain's first 'agony uncle'. His afternoon and evening counselling programmes ran on LBC Radio in London for nearly 20 years. Thereafter he worked on Talk Radio and with Jimmy Young on BBC Radio 2.

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 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 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.

Body-centred countertransference involves a psychotherapist's experiencing the physical state of the patient in a clinical context. Also known as somatic countertransference, it can incorporate the therapist's gut feelings, as well as changes to breathing, to heart rate and to tension in muscles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research</span>

Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research (CFAR) is a psychoanalysis research, training and low-cost treatment centre located in London, United Kingdom. CFAR is a member organisation of the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy. CFAR operates within the psychoanalytic tradition of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan.

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.

References

  1. 1 2 "Psychotherapists and Counsellors". Health and Care Professions Council. Archived from the original on 10 September 2010. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
  2. ↑ "Home". thesurvivorstrust.org.
  3. ↑ "Home Office website: Guide to Partnerships on tackling sexual violence" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 April 2009. Retrieved 15 August 2008.
  4. ↑ "COSRT - College of Sexual and Relationship Therapists". 11 June 2019. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
  5. ↑ "National Counselling Society website". www.nationalcounsellingsociety.org.
  6. ↑ "COSCA - Counselling in Scotland". Archived from the original on 27 January 2013. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
  7. ↑ "The Counselling Society". www.counsellingsociety.com. Archived from the original on 16 July 2007. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  8. ↑ "Home". hgi.org.uk.
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