Choice

At present, Counselling, Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis are unregulated professions in the UK, meaning that anyone can use these titles freely in advertising their services or promoting training programmes.

This can make it hard to know where to turn when seeking out personal therapy, supervision, or a professional training.

I offer the recommendations below for organisations, both in the UK and internationally, that require a minimum standard of training, centered around a course of study, supervision, and personal therapy, undertaken over several years.

While the choice is yours, the organisations below cover a wide range of therapeutic perspectives and training programmes, and would be a good starting point in seeking out a psychotherapist for your own personal therapy, a psychotherapy training, or a clinical supervisor.

Within the UK:

European and International:

  • All of the organisations listed above have agreed upon similar standards as a minimum for all member psychotherapists.

    These entail:

    • a post-graduate level training of a minimum 3, 4, or 5 years length

    • a total of approximately 1,500 supervised practice hours, with a large proportion of these under 1:1 weekly supervision. (within the UK, the majority of these are completed post-qualification, under continued close supervision)

    • a professional background in psychiatry, psychology, social work or mental health nursing, or at minimum a psychiatric placement experience

    • personal therapy at an outer minimum of once weekly individual therapy for the duration, and usually prior to training, with the intensity of personal therapy matching, but ideally exceeding, what will be offered professionally

    • supervisors, tutors, and training therapists with a required minimum amount of post-qualification clinical experience