Residence in Ireland no longer required by IACP for accreditation

In its latest newsletter, the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy says:

Please be advised that as of 31 March 2015, the requirement to be a resident and/or practising in the 32 counties of Ireland no longer applies.

 

For more information please contact the IACP Accreditation Department or visit our website: http://www.iacp.ie/first-time-accreditation

Counselling/Psychotherapy students can now combine courses for first-time accreditation, says IACP

As of June, 2015 courses done within a five-year period can be combined to make up a core course by students seeking first-time accreditation with the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. Here's the announcement from the IACP newsletter:

Please be advised that amendments have been made to the IACP criteria for First Time Accreditation regarding Combining Courses and Personal Therapy In Parallel With The Core Course.

“As of 12 June 2015 courses may be combined to make up a core course. These two courses must be completed within 5 years of each other.

If the IACP believes that the ethos promoted by the course or the course providers or their employees or agents as part of the course or as part of the environment surrounding the course is / are not compatible with the ethos promoted by the IACP, the IACP has a right to refuse accreditation to the applicant who has completed such a course. This is a discretionary right of the IACP.”

“Where the applicant has completed a course or combination of two courses, which meet the IACP Core Course criteria in all respects except for the inclusion of 50 hours of personal therapy, then personal therapy taken in parallel with the course with an accredited IACP therapist (or therapist accredited by an organisation acceptable to IACP), will be accepted.”

For more information please contact the Accreditation Department or visit our website: http://www.iacp.ie/first-time-accreditation

IACP still does not accredit Irish College of Humanities and Applied Science counselling/psychotherapy degrees

I notice that the degrees in counselling and psychotherapy offered by the Irish College of Humanities and Applied Science (previously known as the National Counselling & Psychotherapy Institute of Ireland) in Limerick are still not accredited by the IACP. The list of accredited courses is at the following link:

LINK

No difference between counselling and psychotherapy, says IACP

In its latest position paper supporting statutory regulation of the profession, the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy asserts that no difference can be found between counselling and psychotherapy. An honours degree should be the minimum academic requirement for entry to counselling/psychotherapy it recommends.

The position paper can be found here:

LINK

Fitness to Practise regime does not include counsellors and psychotherapists

Despite some media reports, the new fitness to practise regime announced by the Minister for Primary and Social Care, Kathleen Lynch TD, on 21st of January 2015, does not apply to counsellors and psychotherapists.

It applies only to those professions that are being regulated by Coru. Counsellors and psychotherapists are not even on the list for future regulation. How long it will take to get on the list and be regulated is anybody's guess - five years minimum, in my opinion, if it happens at all.

Coru - another body, like Tusla, with a meaningless name - is the state agency for regulating health and social care professionals.

Link to Minister's announcement
Link to CORU

Online CPD courses from the American Psychological Association worth exploring

The American Psychological Association has put a wide range of CPD courses online at reasonable rates. They cover many aspects of psychology and psychotherapy, including supervision. Prices I saw ranged from $20 to $120. You can do online courses, buy recordings of workshops or do mini-courses based on tests in the APA Monitor on Psychology which is free online and well worth checking out.  They give credits rather than specifying a number of hours but I would imagine that a reasonable statement of hours would be accepted by accrediting bodies such as the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy.

I'm planning to try out a little course they have on complicated grief at $20 to see how their system works. But I have a book to finish writing by the end of November so must defer until then. I will write more about this when I've checked it out. Meanwhile, if you're up against a CPD deadline you could do a lot worse than explore what they have to offer.

Link to this resource

10 opening questions therapists ask

The always useful PsychCentral blog has an article by US-based therapists Dennis O'Grady listing 10 introductory questions therapists ask. Here are the short versions (for the longer versions use the link below):

1. What brings you here?
2. Have you ever seen a counsellor before?
3. What is the problem from your viewpoint?
4. How does this problem typically make you feel?
5. What makes the problem better?
6. If you could wave a magic wand, what changes would you make happen in your life?
7. Overall, how would you describe your mood?
9. What would it take to make you feel more content, happier and more satisfied?
10. Do you consider yourself to have a low, average or high interpersonal IQ?

Link to this resource