In our cover feature Julia Bueno explores the Human Givens approach which by all accounts is gaining momentum across mental health services and beyond. MindFields College, the organisation behind Human Givens, has become the leading independent provider of trainer days to the NHS and social services, and Hartlepool Mind which integrated Human Givens throughout its organisation seven years ago puts its good outcomes down to this ‘essential framework for wellbeing’.

It’s been an extraordinary year for counselling and psychotherapy. The HPC has now published the responses to the consultation on the regulation of counselling and psychotherapy (available in full on the BACP and HPC websites). Eighty-eight per cent of respondents disagreed with the differentiations proposed between counsellor and psychotherapist, and there was great concern about the impact such differentiation would have on services. The proposed standards of proficiency were deemed by the vast majority to be unacceptable.

Earlier in November BACP attended a meeting convened by Shadow Health Minister Anne Milton (see report on page 44) to discuss issues surrounding the regulation of the profession. She stated that across her parliamentary career she had not experienced the level of lobbying and the volume of mail that she had received from counsellors and psychotherapists in relation to statutory regulation. She believed that this set the profession apart from other professional groups being taken into the HPC and stressed to CEO Marc Seale that this difference must be recognised. However at an HPC meeting held this week, Marc Seale said that based on the work undertaken to date, the HPC ‘is confident that its systems can accommodate the regulatory needs of psychotherapists and counsellors’. Obviously the Government will make the final decision on whether statutory regulation goes ahead. If it does and a Section 60 Order is drawn up, the HPC would consult again on the proposed standards of proficiency and educational thresholds.

I’d like to thank readers for your many thoughtful and stimulating letters and contributions this year, and to wish you all a peaceful and rejuvenating Christmas break.

NB: the next issue of Therapy Today is due out mid-February 2010