Membership Criteria Group Counsellor/Therapist

UKAHPP is an equal opportunities organisation. If the procedure for applying for membership is not appropriate to your situation, please let our Administrator know so that we can respond appropriately.

1. Training route 2. Experience route 3. Equal opportunities route

Requirements for Full Membership and Accreditation by any route:

Supervision. Applicants must have completed a minimum of 3 years' supervised practice with a more experienced practitioner. (UKAHPP requires members to be supervised by a more experienced practitioner for at least the first 5 years post-training. A successful applicant who has not completed this requirement will be expected to do so after accreditation). The recommended rate of supervision in the first 2 years post-training is a maximum of 10 client hours per hour of supervision, with a minimum rate for all applicants of 11/2 hours per month. Applicants must also agree to increase the frequency of counselling supervision if carrying a high caseload or having a high stress level. Peer supervision on its own is not regarded as acceptable for trainees and inexperienced counsellors. Evidence of counselling supervision through statements by past and present supervisors must be provided. Counselling supervision is NOT line management and should be clearly distinguished from such.
Personal counselling. To be accredited, applicants must have had at least 50 hours of personal development work consistent with their core theoretical model, of which at least 40 hours should have been personal counselling. Counsellors should also have experienced the same depth and length of counselling as that which they are offering, so counsellors offering longer-term work would need to have experienced longer personal therapy.
Practice. Applicants must have at least 450 hours of supervised groupwork counselling practice. During the past 2 years a caseload of at least 6 clients must have been maintained with the same counselling supervisor.
Humanistic orientation. Applicants must demonstrate that the group counselling work currently engaged in has a clearly humanistic orientation.

1. Training route. Applicants must have completed an appropriate diploma or degree level course in counselling with a minimum of 450 training hours, comprising at least 200 hours of skills training and 250 hours of counselling theory, followed by an additional group facilitation training with at least 200 hours of tutor contact time, OR a similarly appropriate diploma or degree level course of 450 hours specifically designated as a course in group counselling or facilitation, OR a counselling diploma or degree course which has substantial ADDITIONAL content on theory and practice of group counselling and probably takes 3 years rather than 2 years. Applicants must have a minimum of 3 years' supervised group counselling practice of which at least 2 years were AFTER completion of training.

2. Experience route. Applicants must provide a portfolio of evidence of some formal training, evidence of continued training and personal development since that training, and at least 8 years of supervised group counselling practice.

3. Equal opportunities route. Applicants must present a case for their acceptance in whatever form they find appropriate. This route is for people with disabilities for whom the other routes would be inappropriate. With this exception,
all applications must be made by the application forms which are obtainable from:

Ian Doucet UKAHPP Administrator
BCM AHPP LONDON WC1N 3XX
(tel: 08457 660326; fax: 01348 840845)