How to check a private therapist is properly registered

You have found someone. The website reads well, the photograph is warm, and there is a slot on Tuesday. Then the doubt: how do you actually know this person is qualified to do this? It is a fair question with an awkward answer, because the law protects fewer therapy titles than most people assume, so a good deal of the checking falls to you. In my experience that part takes about ten minutes.

The short version

• In the UK, counsellor, psychotherapist and therapist are not titles protected by law, so anyone may use them.
• Nine practitioner psychologist titles, including clinical psychologist and counselling psychologist, are protected, and misusing one is a criminal offence.
• Check the person on a register accredited by the Professional Standards Authority, such as the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) or the UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP).
• A name you cannot find is not proof of anything: trainees, resignations and removals all look the same from outside.

What the law actually protects

Which job titles the law protects is decided by government and parliament, and most therapy titles have never been. The Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), which regulates fifteen health and care professions in the UK, puts it plainly: titles such as counsellor, psychotherapist and therapist are not protected, so people using them do not need to be on its register. UKCP is just as blunt about its own profession: its register is voluntary, therapists do not have to join it or any other organisation, and so anyone can call themselves a psychotherapist.

What the law does protect is narrower. There are nine protected titles for practitioner psychologists, among them clinical psychologist and counselling psychologist. Anyone using one must be on the HCPC register, and the HCPC says that using a protected title without being on the register, or falsely claiming to be registered or qualified in a profession it regulates, is a criminal offence. Psychologist on its own is not protected, and nor is psychotherapist, though art psychotherapist, dramatherapist and music therapist all are.

The registers worth checking

If the title tells you less than you hoped, the register tells you more. The Professional Standards Authority accredits voluntary registers in roles the law does not require to be regulated, under powers set out in section 25(2) of the National Health Service Reform and Health Care Professions Act 2002. The NHS puts the practical version of this plainly: before choosing a private counsellor, make sure they are on a register the Authority has accredited.

BACP and UKCP are the two you are most likely to meet, but they are not the only accredited registers, so the Authority's own search is the place to start. A registered member of BACP has either passed a BACP accredited training course or its own Certificate of Proficiency, and has committed to its Ethical Framework and professional conduct procedure. UKCP registers psychotherapists who have completed a four year postgraduate training, and psychotherapeutic counsellors trained to a UKCP recognised standard. Both audit a random sample of their registered members.

One distinction is easy to miss: the accreditation attaches to the register, not to the person on it. What the Authority has assessed and approved are the register's entry standards and its complaints and governance processes, reaccredited every year. Search by name through the Authority's Check a Practitioner tool, or go straight to the BACP register or the UKCP directory.

What a register gives you, and where it stops

Registration is not a promise the work will suit you. What it gives you is a route if something goes wrong: both set standards, investigate complaints about their members and can remove someone, and UKCP publishes its complaint decisions.

The limit is the flip side of that, and I am arguing it rather than quoting it. Because these registers are voluntary, what they hold is membership, not the right to practise. That is a reason to check, not a reason to give up. One wrinkle if you are booking online: BACP notes the Authority's programme covers practitioners resident in the UK, and has no jurisdiction in the British Crown Dependencies or Overseas Territories.

If the name is not there

A blank search result usually has a dull explanation. The first is that BACP and UKCP are not the only accredited registers, so run the Authority's search before you read anything into an empty one. UKCP lists the others: the person never applied or was not eligible, they resigned, they were removed or are subject to an interim suspension order, or they are still in training, in which case they appear in a separate trainee directory rather than on the register itself. BACP points you to its withdrawal of membership notices, or to its customer services team, if you believe someone is a member but cannot find them.

So ask the therapist which register they are on. A registered one will not mind being asked. One case goes past the person to the regulator: if somebody is using one of the nine protected psychologist titles and is not on the HCPC register, you can make a complaint to the HCPC about misuse of title.

Before any money changes hands

Check the free routes first. You can refer yourself to an NHS talking therapies service for anxiety and depression without speaking to a GP, though the NHS page on counselling says you must be registered with one, and be 18 or over, or 16 in some areas. Counselling is also sometimes free as part of treatment at another NHS service, or through an employer, a school or university, or a charity. Why therapy waiting lists are broken covers why so many people end up looking privately.

If you are going private, UKCP suggests emailing or phoning before you book, giving a brief outline of the problem, and asking whether the therapist can help and what they charge. It lists first-session questions too: what type of therapy do you do, what training and experience have you had with this issue, and how will I know when therapy is finished. It says plainly that it is completely okay to ask a lot of questions and then decide not to work with them. What to expect from a first therapy session covers what happens once you are in the room; everything here is about the part before it.

Ask how long a session runs, too, because the default usually goes unstated. The NHS describes counselling sessions as usually lasting 50 to 60 minutes. Treat that as a starting figure you are allowed to ask about rather than a fixed term, which is my reading and not the NHS's. It is the figure brightloaf does not use: our sessions are 20 minutes. Whatever length you settle on, settle it before the first payment rather than after.

This is general information rather than a substitute for personal medical advice, and none of it is a judgement on any individual therapist.

If things feel urgent while you are still looking, do not wait for the search. Get advice from 111 online or call 111 and select the mental health option, or ask for an urgent GP appointment. Samaritans are on 116 123, and if you are under 19 you can call Childline on 0800 1111. If someone's life is at risk, for example they have seriously injured themselves or taken an overdose, or you do not feel you can keep yourself or someone else safe, call 999 or go to A&E. brightloaf is not a crisis service.