End the Bottleneck around counselling & psychotherapy

For decades the world of Mental Health has been shaped by charities that have monoplolised the perception of therapeutic professionals. This focus has been a double-edged sword. On one side positive frameworks and awareness is raised, on the other; manipulation and fear has dominated. Employers’ mis-perceive the authority of the charities; the charities refuse to publicly correct the mis-perception and knowingly accept the financial benefit from it.

Education Providers continue to act as recruiting agents for the charities, falsely representing Voluntary Registers as a required facet, in order to study. This is a manipulation of students, and sets the tone for their whole engagement with the sector.

THERE IS NO GOVENERING BODY AND VOLUNTARY REGISTERS ARE

VOLUNTARY SUPPORT SYSTEMS FOR PROFESSIONALS.

Qualified is qualified, The baseline for accepted therapeutic practice is, as it has always been, a LEVEL 4 Diploma in Counselling / Psychotherapy.

Individual Voluntary Registers set their own levels for Affiliation and Accreditation. THIS DOES NOT SET THE QUALIFACTION LEVEL. As the Voluntary Registers are NOT a Governing Body, these levels relate, ONLY to those professionals that affiliate to the Voluntary Registers. This does not apply to the whole sector and employers that attempt to use an affiliation to a specific VOLUNTARY Register, as a REQUIREMENT for employment, are discriminating against qualified professionals, restricting their right and access to work.??

This knowing manipulation of perception has created a completely false narrative of the therapeutic sector and the professionals that work to support those in need. It also fails to protect professionals from the unethical practice of restrictive recruitment.

APA’s Open Letter clearly demonstrates the reality of the sectors bottleneck and one of the charities responses to APA’s request, that they openly confirm not being a Governing Body, to read the Open Letter Click Here

Much has been said in recent times about the ‘sectors’ adoption of SCoPEd. APA’s formal response is available Here. APA will be hosting a ‘Panel Conversation’ discussing this topic later this year, in advance of the that conversation, APA hosted an ‘In Conversation With’ episode that discussed ‘The Impacts of SCoPEd’

The role of Voluntary Registers, in the absence of a governing body should not be undermined by Registers that over step their role. APA provides an Ethical & Professional Conduct Protocol, that Holistic Insurance deemed as “a breath of fresh air” and Counselling Directory agreed, is an ‘elevation in the sector’. APA believes that ethical professional support is as vital as ethical client engagement. Voluntary Registers should protect Professionals, just as much as they protect the public. APA has demonstrated that, it is possible to remove the current ‘Bottleneck Around Counselling & Psychotherapy’ which is not only counterproductive to supporting and protecting the public, but that it is damaging to the sector and the qualified professionals within it.

Voluntary Registers are open to, but not obliged to affiliate with the Professional Standards Authority. The PSA measure the organisation and management of a Voluntary Register, not the activity of an individual professional. Much credit is given to the Voluntary Registers that have met the PSA standards. Yet operationally there is still much discord, among the sector as to the management of some Voluntary Registers processes and professional engagement.

APA encourages all professionals to choose the Voluntary Register they wish to align with, based on that VOLUNTARY registers, own Ethical and Professional Conduct, rather than on a false narrative of restrictive employment or peer pressure to conform to a manipulative or coercive environment. The psychological knowledge of masters in the field, has surely demonstrated that our focus should be on EMPATHY, CONGRUENCE AND UNCONDITIONAL POSITIVE REGARD, NOT ON PRESSURE.