Empty Chair - UK Counsellors Forum

Hello, new to this site, so hopefully do this correctly. Disappointed today as I have failed in my application for accreditation. Have met most of the criteria, but the few bits they are allowing me to submit within the next six months, concerns my CPD. I chose to tell BACP about my year-long training to become a supervisor which I did last year. They, unfortunately, do not consider becoming a counselling supervisor evidence of CPD. I find that totally amazing! If all of the training and hours spent with counsellors - students and qualified - who I see monthly are not evidence of my CPD then I don't know what is. So fed up with BACP's high and mighty attitude. I am doing this with them as opposed to another organisation as it is the preferred govering body of my employers. They have us literally ' jumping through hoops.'

Hello

Thanks for posting this useful information. I certainly would have expected supervision training to count as CPD, and I should think others would not have known that too, so thanks for sharing the experience.

All best

I have heard about this before. I think it is time to lobby this issue and persuade BACP change their definitions of CPD.

I must have a look and see their definition - I suppose it's on their website somewhere.

Hi, I'm new here and am training towards accreditation. Myself and fellow students are finding it incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to find somewhere we can practice one-to-one counselling. It seems its a Catch 22 situation. You can't get practice until you're registered and you can't get registered until you've practiced! Any advice anyone?

I remember how difficult it felt to get that first placement, and half the people in my group were panicking about exactly that Catch-22 situation... but in the end we all got the first placement, and I think after that it got easier. I guess it partly depends where you live: if it's a large City of group of towns there probably are a lot of places to try, and if you only register an interest and get on a waiting list, then if you're on say 10 waiting lists (and follow them up every couple of months with a friendly email or phone call) then it doesn't take that long for something to come up. But I realise it feels a bit desperate waiting for your first placement - you will get one! And after that it gets easier. Best wishes and best of luck!

Thanks Bay, I feel like I'll be needing that luck! I will keep plugging away though - persistence is the way forward - they'll soon get fed up with my pestering!

I had my application for accreditation turned down by bacp on a minor technicality. I have consistently found them to be possibly the most inflexible bunch of bureaucrats I have ever had to deal with. Their process is (it seems to me) completely rigid, & obsessed by the letter of the law. For a counselling accreditation body their process appears to me absurd & incongruent to what counselling is about. Mature concepts such as "the spirit of the law" seems to be outside of their comprehension. It seems to be tick-boxes, & if you dont tick all the boxes exactly as defined, forget it.

My use of words like completely & consistently is chosen because that is how I have experienced them.

I know of others who have suffered a similar fate.

For example (I wasn't failed on this but it illustrates the absurdity of their process), they demand (a minimum of) one & a half hours supervision every month... so if a person's workload is such that it makes sense to have two hours supervision in one month then one hour the next month (which obviously averages at one & a half hours per month), they will fail that person. It begs the question what is the purpose of the exercise of demonstrating competence to practise as a counsellor if a person's competence is deemed to depend on such trivial technicalities- am I an incompetent counsellor if I don't arrange supervision EXACTLY the way they demand? I think not.

I have been around the UK counselling world almost 20 years. It is difficult for me not to conclude that its (at least partly) a power & control issue by people who enjoy having that kind of power over other people's professional lives.

I am accredited with the Counselling Society now. Most employers seem to recognise or at least accept that as valid. The Counselling Society demonstrate a holistic, flexible, congruent & mature approach to accreditation which is absent in the BACP approach.

Thank you for your wise words of wisdom about your experience with the accreditation process. I have failed in my bid to become accredited, despite running a large counselling team, overseeing the work of qualified counsellors and students on placement, and also being a busy, qualified supervisor. I failed eventually on one tiny piece of evidence..... I did not supply them with enough written evidence that I was fully aware of my thoughts, feelings and emotions when working with clients in the counselling arena. Years and years'worth or work and study have come down to this, one tiny piece of criteria I failed to write up satisfactorily. It is a disgraceful. I sit on a supervisory team made up of West Yorkshire's most highly skilled counsellors and supervisors, and interestingly, two others - very experienced and competent supervisors - have also failed in their bid to attain accreditation with the BACP!
Interestingly too, when one of them went to re-submit their corrected work, the fee for re-submission (on top of the original£200+) had gone up on 1st April 10, from £70 to £110 - what kind of rise is that then????? Absolutely disgraceful. Thanks for telling me about The counselling Society. I shall be googling them, very shortly.

It might be a good idea now to wait for the HPC to take over accreditationn after registration. Supposed to be around October isn't it?

Can't be any worse than the bacp can they!?

Regulation will not stop the process of accreditation or take the accrediation process away from BACP. Regulation by the Health Professions Council (HPC)will be the base line for working as a counsellor/psychotherapist. Accreditation through governing bodies like BACP, UKCP etc will still be a desirable qualification for experience practitioners, but will not be run by HPC.

Latest date I have heard is 2013

I can remember when I became accredited. It was a long process and I had to re-submit my application as it failed the first time round. For me it was about describing my work as "eclectic" rather than "integrative". I had wanted to apply as an integrative counsellor, but my then supervisor told me that would mean I would have to come up with a whole new way of working as integrative does not mean using different therapeutic techniques together to fit clients' needs. So I described myself as eclectic instead. The whole thing gave me a major headache and was really stressful.

In terms of work placements you just have to knock on a lot of doors when you are a student. Work placements never come to you, you have to go and find them! I remember enquiring about working with a youth outreach team and that led to someone telling me a about a new youth project where they would be looking for counsellors and in the end I had two placements. One with the Children's Society and one in the other youth project. I worked two nights a week, went to college two nights as well as working a full-time job on a community mental health team in the day in order to get the experience and the hours to pass the Diploma - happy days!! Looking back I don't know how I managed it all. Still, if you want something enough there's always a way. You just have to be tenacious.

Really!? Kinda makes me wonder if they can do without it until 2013 why bother with it at all.

Where did you here that date?

BACP "making connections" conference on 5th July, every time I hear a date it seems to be further into the future