Regulating therapy
As a Registrant, it is your responsibility to know your role in upholding the regulatory model that maintains confidence in the psychoanalytic profession. Find out more about the regulatory landscape and the BPC’s role her.
Regulation is the process by which standards are set and maintained for different professions, and the organisations who manage this are called regulators. Concerns around Fitness to Practise can be investigated by regulators, and further sanctions can be imposed by committees as appropriate.
The BPC regulate 2,000+ psychoanalytically trained therapists in the UK, we do this alongside other UK therapy regulators that are accredited by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA) who oversee these processes.
The Professional Standards Authority (PSA) provide oversight across UK-based regulators that ensure safer care. The PSA accredit public registers, like our ‘Find a Therapist’ register, amongst many others in the UK. They review regulatory performance, provide advice and review sanctions to promote patient safety.
The PSA regularly assesses the regulators it accredits to ensure they are effectively protecting the public. By achieving accreditation with the PSA, the BPC demonstrate a commitment to maintaining a high standard of psychoanalytic therapy and protecting the public.
To learn more about how the PSA work with Accredited Registers, click here.
In the UK, there is currently no legal requirement for the majority of talking therapists to be registered with a regulator. Therapists can therefore choose to be regulated but are not legally required to be; this is called ‘voluntary regulation’. The titles of counsellor and therapists are not legally protected. This means that anyone can call themselves a therapist or counsellor, regardless of their training or experience.
There are no legal requirements for a therapist to be on any register in order to set up a therapy business and begin taking patients. There are some exceptions to this, such as for arts therapists who are statutory regulated.
Decision-making around statutory regulation is held by the UK Government. The Government implements statutory regulation in the areas it considers to be in the best interests of public protection. The Government has considered statutory regulation of talking therapist in the past but as it stands, the Government has decided talking therapies do not require statutory regulation.
