Degrees & Diplomas
April 10th, 2007 |Hi Folks, Although GoodTherapy.org does not require therapists to be licensed in order to join our site and list their practice, we do require people to certify that: 1) they are Mental Health Professionals (Counselor, Psychotherapist, Social Worker, Marriage & Family Therapist, Psychologist, Psychiatrist, Physician, Nurse Practitioner, or other related professional); and 2) that they have graduate level academic training in psychotherapy and mental health counseling and a degree from an accredited institution.
Due to the large number of members from outside the US and Canada, there are degrees and diplomas I’ve never heard of. So, I’m asking for your help. If you’re familiar with the license types in the United Kingdom, Australia, France, and other locations outside the US and Canada, I’d really appreciate your input. Could you please tell me which degrees/diplomas are standard for graduate level mental health professionals. If I had the time ,I’d do the research myself, but being that I have access to a wealth of resources: you and your fellow GoodTherapy members, It’s easier to ask for help. Thanks so much for taking the time to help. Noah :)
April 14th, 2007 at 9:07 pm
Qualifications in Australia.
In Australia we have the Australian Qualifications framework (AQF), which sets the frame for all post high school recognized qualifications. The AQF system is administered through a federal government department called the Department of Education and Science. This department co-ordinates with each state accreditation body through which formal qualifications are accredited.
The range of post high school qualifications in order from lowest to highest begins with accredited short courses, certificate II, certificate III, certificate IV, diploma, advanced diploma, associate degree, bachelors degree, graduate certificate, graduate diploma, masters degree, and PhD.
The AQF system covers both the government and private education sectors. Education bodies include; TAFE colleges (technical and further education), RTO’s (registered training organizations), and Universities. TAFE and RTO’s can teach and award people to associate degree, graduate certificate and graduate diploma but not a full bachelors degree. Universities can teach and award qualifications as low as a Diploma.
Unfortunately in Australia there are still many non-recognised training and teaching organisations that teach various therapies and related models. One way to know if a “so called” qualification is recognised in Australia is whether is has an official course number. A course number begins with a series of 5 numerals followed by 3 letters that represent the state within which the qualification has been accredited. For example my company a RTO teaches an accredited short course (lowest level in the AQF system) on coaching which has the following course number and name 21614VIC Course in Process Oriented Coaching. We also teach a post-graduate qualification, a graduate certificate with the following number and name 21576 Graduate Certificate in Neuro-Linguistic Programming.
A Grad Cert or Grad Diploma issued by a university does not require a course number as Universities are self-accrediting (in terms of course design) in Australia. in summary If a person claims to have a post-graduate qualification they will have either a course number that they can quote or the name of a university. And the post graduate qualifications are graduate certificate, graduate diploma, masters or PhD.
Please note: a lot of hypnosis schools issue non-recognised diplomas in hypnosis. In Neuro-Linguistic Programming it is becoming popular for people to claim to have a Masters in NLP. Currently in Australia there is no masters degree in NLP. In turns out that what people refer to as a masters is actually a master practitioner certificate issued by their NLP training organization and can be as little a 7 days training.
As of last year newly accredited non-university Grad certs and Grad diplomas are now called Vocational Graduate Certificates and Vocational Graduate Diplomas.
More information can be found at http://www.aqf.edu.au/
Degrees in this country are described in much the same way as in the UK (our higher education system was originally modelled on the UK system. However, they are bringing in US style University colleges for single subject post graduate education) and the USA. Typical degrees are BA, BSc followed by the major i.e. BA (psych)., BSc (psych). BCom for a bachelors in Commerce. MBA., MAppSci, and so on. Rather than one person you have listed here has “Certificate of Hypnotherapy and Counselling” in space for degree.
When you ask people to state if they are licensed. The equivalent of licensing in Australia is called registration. Currently Psychologists have registration and counsellors (even though their are counselling degrees taught in Australia) do not have registration. Medical doctors of course do have registration.
I hope that this has been useful. We have been working to get formal qualifications into the system in Australia for the past 5 years. We have been very concerned with the proliferation of 7 days so called practitioner in NLP certifications in Australia and frankly worldwide. We have been working closely with Dr. John Grinder (one of the 2 co-originators of NLP) in our campaign.
We would of course prefer that therapists who claim to be NLP trained state how many days training they have received.
Anyway I hope this has been useful for you.
Regards Chris Collingwood
April 14th, 2007 at 9:18 pm
Chris, Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a thorough response to my question. This will help us very much. I’d write more, but we’re supposed to be up at 4AM Alaska time to fly to New York tomorrow. Ouch, I’m tired just thinking about it…. Anyway, thanks again for helping us yankees out all the way from the beautiful land down under! Noah :)
April 15th, 2007 at 1:21 am
I live in Australia too. Psychologists here are not licenced but registered. At the moment, each State has its Psychologists’ Registration Board, but there is talk of forming a single national registration authority.
Unfortunately, as Chris pointed out above, while psychologists, social workers etc. need to jump through pretty impressive hoops to practice, almost anyone can claim to be a “Counsellor”, with dubious qualifications and training.
April 16th, 2007 at 12:18 am
Further to comments by Australian therapist, Chris, I qualified in the UK, which has different requirements, too.
My qualification is that I am educated to degree level (BA Hons) and also have a Post-Graduate Diploma in Counselling. I have various other qualifivations incuding the European Cert. Counsllg.
The main accrediting body for Counsellors/Psychotherapists in the UK is the BACP (British Association for Counseeling & Psychotherapy) and for those members who are Accredited membership and registration by the UKRC (United Kingdom Register of Counsellors).
Anyone seeking therapy in Europe/UK would be well advised to ensure that the therapist is a bona-fide member of these two organizations.
May 27th, 2007 at 10:08 pm
I would like to add to Kate Roberts statement, that as well as her two mentioned bodies of registration BACP (which I am a member of) and UKRC, there is The Counselling Society UK (I am registered with). There are also B-tec HND courses in the UK (very few), from one of which I graduated in 1997 and of course, becoming a member or becoming registered with a bona-fide body in Counselling Psychology and Psychotherapy, involves proof of qualifications, i.e. copies of relevant documents as well as insurances etc, all of which are easily checked. There have been many short term courses in Counselling/NLP/Life Coaching springing up all over the UK also however the length of study can be checked by a professionnal however less easy accessible to the layman.
A B-tec HND in Integrative Counselling for example takes 4 years (including Foundation Course) to continue towards Counselling Psychology and Psychotherapy another two years, however the learning can run side by side as one benefits the other.
I hope my little input has been of some help.
Kind regards
Nicole Burnett
May 28th, 2007 at 8:41 pm
Thanks Bob, Kate, & Rich. This information is helpful! Noah :)
June 19th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
Counsellors and psychotherapists in Australia can be registered as a member of PACFA -Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia. This means they have approved training, insurance, have agreed abide by the rules of conduct and code of ethics, have had a police check and references and participate in regular ongoing training and supervision, as well as belonging to one of PACFA’s member associations - PACFA being the National organisation. To browse these member organisations, or find out more about PACFA see
http://www.pacfa.org.au/pacfa_member_assoc.html
Cheers,
DF
June 21st, 2007 at 5:06 am
Thank You Diana!
July 26th, 2007 at 10:12 pm
I am a tutor for New Zealand Institute of Professional Counselling and have worked in the industry for 20years.To date there is no minimum standard of education in New Zealand for a person to practice or advertise as a counsellor. There is also no registration. The industry is in the process of working with government to change the law for regulating Counsellors and Psychotherapist through our national organisation New Zealand Association of Counsellors. Info on http://www.nzac.org.nz .To join NZAC you need a recognised qualification with a number of post graduate supervision and practice hours. There is currently discussion within the industry as to making the minimum qualification for practicin and pending registration either an undergradute Diploma or an undergraduate Degree.This will be a great step in safe and ethical practice in New Zealand. It’s been a long time coming.
July 27th, 2007 at 1:15 am
I have a question for anyone in the US and the UK. Im American, got my BA in America, and am now in the UK and have been accepted to City University for their Doctorate in Counselling Psychology course (PsychD- which Im guessing is the same equivalent as a PsyD in America). I would like to do my studies in London, but Im afraid of the risk involved in transfering the degree back to America and worried my time here might be irrelevant. Ive spoken with state boards, APA, BPS, etc and all can’t give me a definitive answer because they do not know much about transfering degress. Does anyone on this forum know anyone who has been able to transfer the degree, and how UK counselling degree compare to ones from the US? Any help would be much appreciated.
May 15th, 2008 at 6:02 am
Noah,
NLP is a good option. But still there are no providers of Master’s Degree. Almost all institutions provide diploma certification after 7-15 days. This will only certify you as Master Practitioner. Also you have to be a NLP practitioner to do these diploma courses.