The Psychotherapy Register

I have been asked to explain the structural changes that are taking place in UKSCP and to describe how these will lead to the formation of a register of psychotherapists early in 1993. I shall briefly survey the present balanced structure, describe the most recent changes and show how they will work in practice.

After the collapse of the profession's joint working party, the Rugby psychotherapy conference was started, which went on to become the UKSCP in January of 1989. This was achieved by much work and was based on the concept of having semi-autonomous sections which would contain the different varieties of psychotherapy. Sections make their own rules in their own way, provided that the rules and criteria make sense to the other sections and fit within the agreed baseline of training criteria. These are: graduate level entry, MA equivalent content, supervised treatment of clients and training in the appropriate management of the trainee's own involvement in the therapy process. This will mean therapy or analysis for some kinds of psychotherapy and other forms of training for other kinds of psychotherapy. In either case it is a requirement that the training shows that the arrangements are appropriate to the task of their own particular kind of therapy.

For some time there has been a significant shift towards a more uniform standard of training by a subtle kind of upgrading that has gone on almost unnoticed. In order to stay in line within their own Section, member organisations have been raising their training requirements. Two examples: one organisation in the Analytic Psychotherapy Section used to recommend that its trainees have own therapy; now they demand it. One of the Jung trainings used to require twice weekly analysis; now it requires thrice. We have kept a steady pressure on the Sections to produce criteria that are distinctive and satisfactory.

The Council of UKSCP is made up of one delegate from each of the eight Sections and one each from British Psychol