About ACC register
About ACC register
ACC’s register has been accredited by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA) under its Accredited Registers programme. This means that by selecting counsellors and psychotherapists who are on ACC’s Accredited Register, you can have confidence that our counsellors and psychotherapists are properly trained, work ethically under professional supervision, and are committed to good practice.
Accreditation by the PSA means that ACC continues to be assessed against standards to ensure that we have a well-run and managed membership organisation.
Accreditation also means that the PSA have recognised that counselling and psychotherapy conducted by professionally trained and ethical therapists is of benefit to people. Research supports the value to clients of having therapists who understand the importance of religion and spirituality in their lives. ACC counsellors and psychotherapists work with people of all faiths and none and won’t impose their own beliefs on anyone. However, many will be skilled in having conversations about faith and spirituality and incorporating the client’s religious worldview into the psychotherapeutic work they do with clients when this is relevant.
ACC have in addition adopted a national framework which sets out the skills and capabilities that counsellors and psychotherapists will have developed through their training and experience. This framework is called the SCoPEd Framework. All ACC registered counsellors sit within this framework – and this provides further reassure as to the standards of practice and training of our members.
To be on ACC’s register, counsellors and psychotherapists will need to:
- Have undergone an extensive training course and been assessed by their training organisation as someone who can safely and competently work as a counsellor and psychotherapist.
- Abide by the terms and conditions of membership which sets out standards which a counsellor or psychotherapist must adhere to.
- Follow our code of ethics.
- Be a Christian.
- Be committed to embrace working with all people without discrimination in line with the Equality Act 2010.
- Be committed to continuing professional development in terms of post qualification learning and training, including opportunities and practices that encourage the counsellor/psychotherapist to grow in self-awareness in service of their clients.
- Reaffirm their commitments to safe and ethical professional practice on an annual basis.
ACC counsellors and psychotherapists will display the PSA the quality mark, which distinguishes trained and accountable counsellors and psychotherapists, when currently anyone can set themselves up and advertise as a counsellor or psychotherapist with little or no training and no accountability.
To find out if a counsellor is registered with ACC, you can search our register. If you are looking for a counsellor near you, you may wish to use our Find a counsellor.
Being on the ACC register is a mark of quality standards and professionalism. We welcome applications from eligible individuals to join our register.