About Counselling Licensure

Licensing in the US and Elsewhere

In some countries, most notably the United States, individual practitioners are required by law to be licensed in order to practise counselling or psychotherapy. Holding a license means that a practitioner has completed a level of training specified by the licensing board.

In the US, licensing is regulated at the state level, and it is illegal to offer services while physically within that state unless licensed by that state. If you are seeking face-to-face counselling in the United States, it is essential that you verify whether your practitioner is licensed -- not because licensing provides any guarantee about the quality of the service you will receive (it does not) -- but because a counsellor offering services in the US without a license is breaking the law. This would indicate either that the counsellor is unaware of the laws regulating their profession, or that they are deliberately undertaking criminal activity; neither alternative is acceptable!

Other countries, including Australia and the United Kingdom, do not regulate the profession by means of licensing; in the UK, there is no such thing as a 'licensed practitioner'. (To put it another way, US licensing laws are no more applicable to the UK practice of counselling and psychotherapy than they are to the UK practice of driving.)

Notably, a recent 3-year study in Australia, dubbed "the most comprehensive and diverse study ever to be undertaken on the regulation of the Counselling Profession", concluded that consumer protection would best be served by not introducing governmental regulation over and above the existing self-regulation via relevant professional organisations.

What Does Licensing Mean for You?

Licensing guarantees that a practitioner has completed a particular level of training specified by the relevant licensing body. Remember, however, that anyone can claim to be licensed, so a simple statement that a practitioner is licensed guarantees nothing. More importantly, licensing is not a guarantee of service quality. Indeed, scientific studies have repeatedly shown no positive correlation between the types of educational achievement required by licensing bodies and actual clinical effectiveness. (For an overview of some of those factors which are associated with clinical effectiveness, see the review of Hubble et al. (1999) at this site.)

In practice, the primary functional role of licensing is to ensure that a client who has been treated inappropriately by a practitioner has straightforward legal recourse against that practitioner. From the point of view of some practitioners, licensing also has the effect of increasing their status and prestige in the eyes of the public, enhancing the 'professionalism' associated with the work. For a provocative argument that licensing and regulation actually have more to do with this desire for status and prestige than with serving the public good, see Mowbray (1995).

Regulation via licensing often goes hand in hand with a philosophy that counselling or therapy represent something done to a client, in the way that heart surgery is done to a patient or a tooth extraction is done to a patient. (In fact, some practitioners who view themselves as doing things to people even refer to their clients as 'patients'!)

What About Countries Without Regulation Via Licensing?

As noted above, there is no such thing as a 'licensed practitioner' in countries such as the United Kingdom. However, it is still possible to verify a counsellor's training so as to achieve the same level of confidence -- or, indeed, more confidence -- in his or her qualifications as one might have from verifying licensure. (I say 'verifying licensure' because anyone can claim to be licensed, just as anyone can claim to have a PhD -- in either case, to be certain, you should still verify that what the practitioner is claiming is for real.)

Also as noted above, academic qualifications are not positively correlated with clinical effectiveness -- but when selecting a counsellor, this type of background information still contributes a part of the overall picture which you will form of them before deciding to try their services. (See the page on Selecting a Counsellor for more of this picture.)

Licensing and Ethics

Finally, in my view, a counsellor's determination to adhere to a recognized ethical framework (such as that of the BACP) is more important than the specific details of their educational background.

Also see the Australian study cited above which concluded that governmental oversight did not serve the public good better than self-regulation via professional bodies.

Licensing and Our Online Counselling Services

I am a fully qualified counsellor and a Member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (MBACP); I offer services wholly in accordance with the ethical framework of the BACP. I also hold Enhanced Disclosure from the UK's Criminal Records Bureau, a clearance level "reserved for positions involving the greatest degree of trust". (See the Disclosure Service or the main CRB site.)

As mentioned above, US licensing laws are no more applicable to the UK practice of counselling and psychotherapy than they are to the UK practice of driving: the two countries have simply followed different routes in terms of the development of the field. Nonetheless, many of my clients live in the United States, and I recognize that a full understanding of the licensing context is important to them. I welcome any and all questions or comments about my own background and training as they relate to my current practice. Please visit the Contact Pages if you'd like to drop me a note.