Statutory Registration of Allied Professions

Yes the bickering and sniping among psychotherapy accrediting organisations and training programmes is somewhat endemic. However I'm not sure I agree that it puts off genuinely interested people in getting into the field.

I'll give you a brief sketch of who is who. None of the following are statutory regulators.

The PSI is the accrediting organisation for psychologists, so counselling psychologists and clinical psychologists will be accredited by them. The legislation is on the books for a statutory registration board to accredit and regulate them in the future.

Psychiatrists have the Irish College of Psychiatry.

Psychotherapists and counsellors have lots. There is:

Irish Council for Psychotherapy - they are an umbrella organisation comprised of:

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

The Family Therapy Association of Ireland (FTAI)

The Irish Analytical Psychology Association (IAPA)

The Irish Association of Humanistic & Integrative Psychotherapy (IAHIP)

The Irish Constructivists Psychotherapy Association (ICPA)

The Irish Forum for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapists (IFPP)

The Irish Forum for Child & Adolescent Psychotherapy (IFCAPP)

The Irish Group Analytic Society (IGAS)

The Irish Psychoanalytic Association (IPAA)

The Northern Ireland Institute of Human Relations (NIIHR)

Among them IAHIP would be the biggest non-psychoanalytic group. There would have been some sniping over the years between them and the IACP as two of the largest groups who accredit your average humanistic and integrative therapist. Their accreditation standards are higher than the IACP's because IAHIP require that training be at postgraduate level unlike IACP which admits those without a degree.

IACP - are one of, if not the biggest, accrediting bodies in the country. I've always thought of them as being more on the counsellor side of the traditional counsellor - psychotherapy thing.

The Irish Association for Psychotherapy in Primary Care - accredit therapists who work in primary health care settings. They are relatively new, their accreditation standards are very high, and I have no clue how big their membership is.

The Irish Association of Alcohol and Addiction Counsellors - they accredit therapists who work in addiction.

There are religious kind of ones such as:
ACCORD Catholic Marriage Care Service
The National Association for Pastoral Counsellors and Psychotherapists

I'll mention The Association for Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy in Ireland or Odysseus will get annoyed A lot of them are into Lacan.

There's the The Irish Gestalt Society, The Irish Association for Cognitive Analytical Therapy, Institute of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Ireland (small group of REBT'ers), a few hypnotherapy ones some of which claim to also be psychotherapy, NCII.

And I'm sure there are others.

Any prospective trainee should consider that their course should meet the standards laid down by the submission to the government on statutory regulation. So that means postgrad level for a start. They should consider that their course would ultimately enable them to reach the level to get the European Certificate of Psychotherapy. They should also consider that their training will get them accredited and respected by bodies unconnected to the training course itself.

At the moment this probably means aiming to join the ICP after training.

A lot of the sniping is low level and usually restricted to people involved in the organisation of the bodies. NCII is the only body I know of which explicitly markets that their courses are more legitimate than any of the others.

If you don't have a degree before starting your therapy training then you will be looking at joining the IACP usually, and many people with degrees choose to train in an IACP accredited course and choose to join them after. If you're into psychoanalysis then there are lots of ICP affiliated bodies to choose from or APPI. Otherwise it's usually some IPC body, often IAHIP.

The situation is ludicrous tbh. There's also tension about money. For example PCI college which usually leads to IACP membership would have taken a lot of money away from courses accredited by IAHIP.

It would be nice to say that it's all just sillyness, and mostly it is, but there are yahoos out there too. We need statutory regulation imo. At least that would stop the organisations with bad standards claiming they train and accredit therapists.

Just an update, I got some stuff in the post today around Reg Stat and APPI; it looks like is causing more trouble again. I didn't have the time to read it, I'll give a further update when I have had the chance to read the material, but if I read it correctly this morning it looks like we are having an emergency AGM around it. It's a heated topic in APPI will a good amount for or against it.