Counselling Psychology in the NHS
| Date | 01 September 2005 |
| Pages | 31-34 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/13619322200500027 |
| Published date | 01 September 2005 |
| Author | Alan Frankland,Yvonne Walsh |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care |
Focus on…
The Mental Health Review Volume 10 Issue 3 September 2005 ©Pavilion Publishing (Brighton) 2005 31
Counselling Psychology
in the NHS
Alan Frankland
Consultant Counselling Psychologist
NELMHT
Yvonne Walsh
Consultant Counselling Psychologist
NELMHT
Background
Counselling psychology is a relatively new profession
in the United Kingdom. Although some of us with an
academic background in psychology and working in
counselling or psychotherapy have thought of
ourselves as counselling psychologists for maybe 30
years, the discipline has only been recognised for
about 20 years and formal qualifications wereonly
established by the British Psychological Society 12
years ago. As a profession we have a lot in common
with other psychotherapeutic psychologists across
Europe, and counselling psychology is established in
much of the English-speaking world, although in the
USA it has more of a feel of educational guidance than
in our history, which has more in common with
therapeutic counselling and psychotherapy. There is
also an overlap between counselling psychologists and
counsellors and psychotherapists because many of us
are, or have been, members of these professional
groups. Essentially counselling psychology is
differentiated from counselling or psychotherapy by
the fact that we have an initial training in psychology,
and see ourselves as reflexive practitioners deploying
an evidence-based practice developed from within the
discipline of psychology (Walsh et al, 2004).
Counselling psychologists working in the health
service are generally professional psychologists
chartered by the British Psychological Society (BPS)
(or working towards registration), and, whether they
have worked through a personally structured
independent training or through specialist university
courses, chartered counselling psychologists have a
doctoral-level qualification which ensures that they
have a diversity of psychological knowledge and
theory relevant to practice and research, a variety of
practice experiences and supervision, and an
understanding of their personal and therapeutic
experiences. This training gives rise to a number of
demonstrable competencies or training outcomes so
that when the NHS employs a chartered counselling
psychologist they can be confident that they will have:
ndeveloped an understanding of and the capacity
to critically evaluate the diverse philosophical
bases that underpin counselling psychology and
to understand the cultural and spiritual
traditions relevant to the discipline
ndeveloped a critical understanding and capacity
for skilled practice within one theoretical model
of therapy,aworking knowledge and
competence within at least one other model and
an appreciation of a range of therapeutic models
ndeveloped the ability to demonstrate the
continuing evolution of their initial
psychological knowledge including lifecycle
development, the impact of social and cultural
contexts, psychopathology, psychopharmacology,
testing and assessment procedures
ndeveloped capacities for research and inquiry,
generating and evaluating evidence using both
qualitative and quantitative methodologies
ndeveloped competencies in effective client work
across more than one modality (individuals,
couples, families etc) demonstrating the
development and maintenance of a purposeful
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