The United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy now requires that all therapists who are registered with UKCP must be re-accredited every five years. The SPTI Training Committee intends the following re-accreditation procedures to apply to all SPTI graduate members, both psychotherapists and counsellors. Graduate members will therefore need to:

1.    Demonstrate that they are still working in a professional capacity.

2.    Show evidence that they are receiving appropriate levels of supervision.

3.    Show evidence that they are committed to appropriate professional development.

4.    Show evidence that they are engaged in appropriate personal development.

Professional development may include relevant training in disciplines other than a graduate’s own school of psychotherapy/counselling, or even disciplines other than therapy: supervision may include peer supervision; personal development may cover opportunities beyond personal therapy. 

5.    The procedure established by SPTI to achieve the requirements set out above are as follows:

5.1   In November the SPTI office will inform SPTI graduates of university validated courses that they are due for re-accreditation by May the following year. The SPTI office will then forward your documents to UKCP for processing. Therefore re-accreditation will be completed by June.  

5.2   With effect from 1 January 1999 all counsellors who have qualified through the SPTI Diploma in counselling using the Person-Centred Approach should inform the SPTI Director of Training when they have been qualified for a period of five years. This applies to members of SPTI only. 

6.    Re-accreditation Process  

6.1   Therapists/counsellors will self-choose a peer group of three or four people from the pool of those requiring re-accreditation. A list of names can be made available from the SPTI office. N.B. therapists/counsellors may, if they so choose, participate in a peer group re-accreditation with those from a different school of psychotherapy or counselling. 

6.2   The peer group will meet, discuss and provide written evidence to one another listing ways in which they meet the requirements under point 6 above.  

6.3   Once confirmed by a full consensus of the peer group each member will submit the written evidence, together with a brief report of the process, to the SPTI Director of Training. It is important that the requirements for re-accreditation be interpreted generously and with sensitivity, by each member of the peer group. It is only necessary that the re-accreditation group is reasonably satisfied that each member of the group is taking seriously their continued personal and professional development as a psychotherapist/counsellor, as may reasonably be defined by the community of psychotherapists and counsellors as represented by the UKCP and BACP respectively. 

6.4  As the re-accreditation process takes place only once every five years it is important that the peer group meeting does not restrict itself simply to addressing the issues above but that each member of the peer group makes a presentation of approximately 15 minutes highlighting an area of personal or professional development. This may take the form of a written, an audio, or audio-visual presentation.  

6.5   If there is a lack of agreement within a peer group concerning the evidence provided by a particular member, then this must be notified to the SPTI Director of Training. Any individual member of the peer group may take responsibility for this communication.  

7.   It is generally held by the Humanistic & Integrative Psychotherapy Section of UKCP that in order for a therapist to be working authentically in that capacity they should work with a minimum of four individual clients on an ongoing basis. Alternatively, that they are running a weekly therapy group. 

8.   Should an accredited member cease to practice for a period of more than two years and wishes to still remain a graduate member (or UKCP registrant) then their re-accreditation requirements will be individually assessed by the SPTI Director of Training. That is, a person in this position should still attend a peer group and participate in the re-accreditation process as outlined above but it will be a matter for the SPTI Co-ordinator of Professional Development in liaison with the SPTI Training Committee to arrive at a decision.           

9.   The SPTI Director of Training will discuss with the full Training Committee whether to recommend:  

a.    Re-accreditation

b.    Re-accreditation with conditions (and time frames)

c.    Not to re-accredit.  

I am happy for people to email me with any questions. My email address is rosemary.langford-bellaby@spti.net or telephone 0115 844 7875 

We can supply a list of names of those undergoing the process with you, but under Data Protection legislation we cannot supply contact details. These can be obtained from the UKCP Register.