Continued Professional Development -CPD- For Accredited Psychotherapists
All Accredited members of the Association must have continued their professional development as psychotherapists and an average of 50 hours per annum of Continuing Professional Development is required (i.e. a total of 250 hours over each five-year period).
(i) Acceptable forms of Continuing Professional Development may come from any of the eight categories listed below, (a) to (h).
(ii) The hours to be counted must be drawn from at least three of these categories, though they may be drawn from a larger number of categories or even from all eight categories.
- A maximum number of allowable hours is set only for category (g).
- For at least three of the categories from which hours are drawn, there
should be at least 10 hours over the five-year period.
- As and from September 2016, hours claimed from category (b) (training programmes) and from category (c) should, where possible, be supported by attendance certificates or copies thereof.
The categories are as follows:
- Engagement as a client in personal therapy or group therapy or as a participant in other relevant experientially-based group learning activities
- Attendance at additional or advanced psychotherapy and related training programmes.
- Attendance at psychotherapy conferences / symposiums / lectures / workshops / seminars / reading groups or other shared learning environments that address psychotherapy theory and practice.
- Receiving supervision in accordance with the requirements of clause 4 above.
- Engagement in activities for or on behalf of the Association e.g. committee work, membership of Governing Body, etc.
- Working as a supervisor or as a trainer in the field of psychotherapy, or in related fields that call for psychotherapeutic skills.
- Engagement in self-care and/or self-reflective activities and/or practices e.g. meditation, yoga, martial arts, journaling. (Maximum average of 10 hours per year, i.e. maximum total of 50 hours over the five-year period.)
- Writing and publishing articles or books relating to psychotherapy. (This form of continuing professional development is counted in the following way: (i) An article on psychotherapy in a journal counts as 15 hours in the year in which it is published. (ii) A book in the field of psychotherapy counts as 25 hours per annum for a five-year period (i.e. 125 hours in total). These hours may be divided across two five-year periods of re-accreditation, if required.