Over the past few weeks, I’ve been reviewing counselling job listings — often alongside students I support — and I’ve noticed something deeply concerning:
Nearly every role demands the same thing: “Applicants MUST be registered with BACP, BABCP or NCS — full or provisional.”
Some roles go further, insisting practitioners have their own private therapy rooms. While that isn’t universal, the pattern is clear: these jobs are closing the door on skilled, ethical, trauma-informed professionals who have simply chosen not to align with one of these institutions.
As someone with years of experience supporting individuals through trauma and emotional distress, I find this both discriminatory and damaging — not just for practitioners like me, but for the clients who lose access to diverse, deeply attuned support.
When Paper Trumps People
Take this current 0-hours contract listing, offering £38 per hour:
“Applicants MUST have British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy OR Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP/BACP) OR NCS registration — full or provisional.”
“Applicants MUST have their own therapy premise to provide face-to-face counselling.”
Despite being self-employed, on a zero-hours basis, and offering no job security, the requirements are inflexible and exclusionary. The job asks for a minimum Level 4 Diploma — yet prioritises BACP/BABCP/NCS affiliation over everything else. It excludes highly capable, trauma-informed practitioners who may have advanced qualifications, years of experience, and live community credibility but choose not to register with one of these three bodies.
The listing continues:
“Applicants must have a commitment to safeguarding, managing risk including suicide and self-harm. Must be able to engage using evidence-based theoretical interventions, including CBT and counselling skills. Must demonstrate empathy and communicate sensitively.”
And yet — somehow — none of these qualities can count unless you’re a member of BACP, BABCP, or NCS.
This is where the contradiction lies.
If empathy, sensitivity, safeguarding, and ethical communication are truly valued, then the framework for who gets hired should reflect that — not reduce competence to a subscription.
Let’s ask an important question:
What actually makes a good therapist?
Is it BACP registration?
Or is it care, compassion, lived insight, ethical presence, congruence, and the ability to truly see and hold another human being?
Because I’ve seen newly qualified therapists, fresh from academic training, gain automatic credibility based purely on affiliation — despite limited client experience and minimal exposure to trauma. Meanwhile, seasoned practitioners with embodied wisdom and thousands of hours of service are overlooked simply because they don’t wear the “right” badge.
This isn’t about ego or hierarchy. It’s about recognising that healing is relational, and relationships aren’t built with certificates — they’re built with presence.
The Problem With Current Regulation
BACP, BABCP, and NCS may serve a purpose — but they are not the only route to ethical, effective practice.
Requiring registration with only these bodies creates:
- A financial barrier for those from marginalised backgrounds
- A philosophical mismatch for trauma-informed or somatic practitioners
- An exclusion of lived experience as valid professional grounding
- A loss of innovation in therapeutic models that go beyond talking therapy
- A rigid, monocultural lens on what “qualified” means
This is especially harmful when coupled with requirements like having a private therapy space — further privileging those with financial resources and excluding community-based or mobile models of care.
What Regulation Should Look Like?
We do need regulation. But we need regulation that reflects the reality of therapeutic practice, not just institutional allegiance.
A better, more inclusive model would be competency-based and grounded in ethical accountability rather than membership status.
Imagine a framework where therapists demonstrate:
✅ Ethical understanding
With a clear practice statement outlining confidentiality, boundaries, consent, and safeguarding.
✅ Supervision
Regular, reflective supervision with a qualified or peer-reviewed supervisor.
✅ Insurance & accountability
Public liability insurance and a transparent client feedback or complaints process.
✅ Ongoing learning
Evidence of professional development — whether through courses, reflective writing, or lived experience integration.
✅ Lived experience & relational skill
A clear ability to use personal insight safely and ethically in service of the client’s growth.
✅ Client impact
Testimonials or feedback that reflect real-world trust and effectiveness.
This model values how you show up, not just what you’ve paid for.
What We Stand to Lose if We Don’t Change
If current practices continue to dominate, we risk losing:
- Therapists with cultural, somatic, or community-grounded wisdom
- Lived experience practitioners who offer unmatched empathy and attunement
- Innovators working outside medicalised models — using music, nature, movement, or story
- True diversity in therapeutic approaches, especially for those failed by traditional services
We’ll be left with a narrow field — full of box-tickers, but lacking the kind of deeply human support so many people truly need.
A Call for Change
To organisations, employers, and funders:
If your aim is to provide meaningful support — especially for communities impacted by trauma, addiction, or systemic injustice — ask yourself:
Would you rather hire someone BACP-registered, or someone trusted by the people you serve, supervised, insured, and deeply attuned to trauma and healing?
The answer should be: Why not both?
Let’s move toward regulation that recognises multiple valid pathways to practice. Let’s create space for lived wisdom, ethical independence, and diverse forms of healing.
Let’s stop letting paper trump people.
If You’re a Practitioner Feeling Shut Out…
You are not alone.
You are not lesser.
You are not unqualified just because you refuse to pay for permission to do what you’ve already been doing with integrity, compassion, and care.
There is space for your voice — and I’ll keep using mine to help make that space wider.
A Final Note
I refuse to be made to feel less than because I choose a different path.
I know my worth.
I trust my experience.
And I approve of myself.
Accreditation may open some doors — but integrity opens hearts.
And that’s where real healing begins.