Membership Categories

Some of the occupations for which UKAHPP provides accreditation are described briefly below. Additionally, please see the detailed accreditation criteria before considering applying for accreditation (Full membership).

Art Therapist
Someone trained in art therapy, in which creative self-expression is facilitated by the therapist enabling the client to express him/herself non-verbally using art materials. This is then likely to be explored verbally with the therapist helping the client to find meanings and associations for the art experience. Depending on the therapist's training, the work may be deepened by using other media or emerging themes or through enactment using gestalt or psychodrama techniques or through existential analysis looking at meanings, choices etc in the context of the client's existence.

Biodynamic Massage Therapist
Someone trained in the Gerda Boyesen method of therapy, which involves gentle massage to help bring out deep feelings and release tension and energy blocks.

Bioenergetic Therapist
Someone trained in bioenergetics, an approach developed by Alexander Lowen which lays the main emphasis on working directly with the body using massage and physical stress positions to bring out deep feelings and release tension and energy blocks.

Body Psychotherapist
A psychotherapist who by working directly or indirectly with the body acknowledges its significance as the embodiment of a greater whole that includes the client's mental, emotional, spiritual, sexual and societal life.

Bodywork Therapist
Someone trained in one or more of the schools of body therapy, such as bioenergetics, polarity therapy, postural integration, rebirthing etc, which tend to take the client into deep emotional or unconscious material quite quickly.

Breath Therapist
Someone who uses techniques involving the client's breathing in certain specialised ways which can take the client into deep emotional material which may be harder to reach by other methods.

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Counsellor
Someone trained to deal with immediate problems and crises which arise, such as bereavement, a broken relationship, a difficult marriage, a specific illness like cancer or AIDS, problems with children, alcohol/drug problems etc. Many counsellors also deal with long-term problems. Counselling can also be done on a couple, family or group basis. Some counsellors also use active techniques and give specific advice.

To be accredited by UKAHPP, counsellors must meet requirements which include training totalling at least 450 tutor-contact hours, and must have received at least 105 hours of personal counselling or therapy, have completed at least 3 years' supervised practice at a recommended ratio, and to have worked after completion of training with at least three clients for varying duration over a minimum period of two years and to have a minimum caseload of three clients at the time of application. (This is a summary of the criteria; for full details see Full Criteria: Counsellor.)

Dance Movement Therapist
Someone trained in Dance Movement Therapy, which uses the body's voluntary movement to develop creativity, self-expression and a deeper self-awareness in the client. They are often based in institutions and work with people with severe problems, either in a group or individual setting.

Dramatherapist
Someone trained in the therapeutic use of drama, using a range of techniques (masks, improvisation, role play, text-based work), most commonly working with groups and often in the public sector, with varied client ranges.

Educator
Someone who is trained to organise educational experiences along humanistic lines.

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Family Therapist
A psychotherapist who has completed a specialist training and has experience of working in depth with dysfunctional families who may have major problems.

Gestalt Therapist
Someone trained to work in gestalt therapy, an approach developed by Fritz Perls which emphasises the existential here and now and working with the mind, body and spirit to access deeper awareness. This approach may be used in groups and in individual work.

Group Facilitator/Therapist
Someone trained to lead groups, usually with limited duration and some specific focus, such as for people with smoking or eating problems, assertiveness training etc. Some group therapists also run more long-term groups using therapeutic techniques (like psychodrama) to work with deep emotional feelings.

Group Psychotherapist
A psychotherapist with specialist training who can work with deep emotional feelings in the group setting over a period of time and with highly distressed clients (i.e. psychotherapy in a group setting) and who has an understanding and experience of group dynamics.

OD Consultant/Organisational Consultant
Someone with training or skills to work in Organisational Development, a humanistic way of working with organisations of many kinds which are interested in change.

Primal Integration Therapist
Someone trained in primal integration, an approach developed by William Swartley and others, which works with memories of early traumas.

Psychodrama Therapist
Someone trained in Moreno's approach to dealing with role-playing conflicts by re-creating them in +a here-and-now controlled group setting.

Psychosexual Therapist
A psychotherapist trained for at least 2 years in both healthy and dysfunctional sexuality, who specialises in the treatment of both organic and non-organic sexual dysfunctions, in group or individual settings.

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Psychosynthesis Guide/Therapist
Someone who is trained to work in psychosynthesis, an approach worked out by Robert Assagioli, which emphasises the spiritual or transpersonal element in therapeutic work and the client's development (different from the sense of an established religion or that of spiritual healing).

Psychotherapist
Someone with a specialised, professional and broad-based training and the ability to work in depth with clients, sometimes for two or three sessions a week and often over an extended period of time. Psychotherapists may use a wide range of approaches or may concentrate on one in particular. Short-term psychotherapists usually specialise in more intense work with clients but of limited duration.

In accordance with criteria set by the Humanistic and Integrative Section of the U.K. Council for Psychotherapy, an UKAHPP-accredited psychotherapist needs to have completed a broadly ranging psychotherapy training course of at least 3 or 4 years' duration totalling 900 hours of tutor-contact, to have experienced the sort of psychotherapy s/he is offering to the same extent and frequency over a period normally of 4 years, to have had regular post-training supervision of client case-work for not less than 2 years with the same experienced supervisor, and to have worked after completion of training with at least six clients for varying duration over a minimum period of two years and to have a minimum caseload of 6 clients at the time of application. (This is a summary of the criteria; for full details see Full Criteria: Psychotherapist on the following pages.)

Researcher
Someone trained and experienced in research methods; perhaps in some specialised area of study.

Transpersonal Therapist/Counsellor
Someone trained in therapeutic work or counselling, which emphasises the spiritual or transpersonal element in therapy and in the client's development (different from the sense of an established religion or spiritual healing).

Child Caseloads

UKAHPP does not offer accreditation in any membership categories of therapy or counselling with children (for example, Child Counsellor), at present. The caseload requirements for accreditation refer to adult clients, and the case study must be of an adult client. However, in addition to the adult practice which forms the basis of an application, an applicant may also have child clients which do not form part of the UKAHPP application for accreditation.

Any person accredited by UKAHPP as a Full member (in any of these or other categories of membership) is required to be involved in on-going appropriate supervision or review of their work with others experienced in the field, and to have professional liability and malpractice insurance. They are also committed to working humanistically, to continuing their personal and professional development, and to adherence to UKAHPP's ethical codes and procedures. Members must apply to renew their accreditation every 5 years.

Prospective clients are encouraged to make sure that the practitioner and the therapy offered is appropriate to their own particular needs.