It may well be the case that, for many experienced practitioners, there is little difference between counselling and psychotherapy but the evidence is that there is a clear differentiation at entry level. The BACP’s argument that counselling and psychotherapy is of equivalence at entry level is aspirational, not evidence-based, as counsellors clearly do enter the profession and work at a lower level of training.

Furthermore, the consequence of there being ‘no difference’ at entry level would mean that there would have to be common curriculum and practice requirements for counsellors and psychotherapists. A reputable psychotherapy training includes:

• several years of weekly personal psychotherapy with an accredited psychotherapist;
• typically more than 600 hours supervised client work;
• typically around 900 tutor contact training hours;
• a mental health placement and the ability to work with complex mental health problems at the point of entry to the register.

These would also have to be minimum requirements for entry-level counsellors. Is this really the outcome that counsellors want? Should counsellors who do valuable work with common life/mental health problems be excluded from doing this work?

If the draft Standards of Proficiency do not adequately distinguish between entry level counselling and psychotherapy then they 
need further work.

Fiona Ballantine Dykes
CPCAB representative on the PLG

CPCAB’s response to the HPC consultation is available on the CPCAB website at www.cpcab.co.uk