CPC Requirements for Individual Accreditation for Membership
1. Background:
The Child Psychotherapy Council (CPC) is a membership organisation, which enlists Child Psychotherapists from all modalities and theoretical approaches.
CPC accredited Child Psychotherapists have:
a. undergone a thorough training as specified in this document.
b. are engaged in Continuous Professional Development (CPD) as set out in CPC guidelines and
c. practice to the highest standards and ethical guidelines of CPC.
Standards for membership are not modality specific, however we require the awareness of other modalities in members’ training and practice. Inclusivity is of primary importance to CPC.
Child Psychotherapists are specifically trained to work with the clients age 0-18. CPC takes into account neuroscience and contemporary theories of development and recognises that young people aged 18-25 are still not adults and should be regarded as young people or young adults and could be part of a Child Psychotherapist’s clinical practice as long as all other requirements for such practice are met.
2. Purpose:
CPC endeavours to ensure that every accredited member meets the highest standards of professionalism for Child Psychotherapy.
3. Guidelines:
CPC offers the following category of membership:
1. Individual Accredited Member (IAM)
2. Trainee Member (TM)
3. Student Member (SM)
4. Accredited Training Organisation (ATO)
5. Non-Clinical Member (NCM)
6. Co-opted Member (CM)
7. Honorary Member (HM)
For categories 2 – 6 please CPC Membership Categories.
This document must be read in conjunction with the following:
i. CPC Supervision Policy
ii. CPC Ethical Guidelines for Therapeutic Work with Children
iii. CPC Continuous Professional Development (CPD) Policy
iv. CPC Guidelines for Private Practice with Children
v. CPC Sabbatical Policy
vi. CPC Appeals Procedure
4. CPC Minimum Standards for Accreditation for Membership to the CPC:
Training and Qualifications:
The training leading to the qualification as Child Psychotherapist (or Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist) must include:
i. Minimum of 4 years part-time training focused on child and adolescent psychotherapy theory and practice
ii. Training with a recognised child and adolescent psychotherapy training organisation, delivered at least at the level 7 of competence (UK level of MA)
iii. Appropriately supervised clinical practice and observation studies.
The training must include the following subjects:
i. Child development across all its domains: physical, cognitive, motor, emotional and spiritual
ii. Neuroscience, neurobiology and neurodiversity
iii. Child mental health and psychopathology
iv. The role of unconscious processes in a modality-specific mode. This would normally include transference and countertransference and other modality specific unconscious dynamics
v. Systems around the child including family and the position of the child within different contexts. Impact of issues within the family on a child, e.g. parental mental health, poverty and racism
vi. Impact of external and changing circumstances on a child e.g. peer group, socio-economic, cultural and environmental influences
vii. Transitions and their impact on the life of a child and young person
viii. Trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)
ix. Research-based practice and practice-based research
x. Safeguarding
The training led to the following competencies:
i. Therapeutic skills in working with children across all ages
ii. Therapeutic play
iii. Non-verbal forms of communication with children of all ages, creative media and the use of metaphor relevant to clinical practice
iv. Talking therapy skills
v. Working with parents and carers
vi. Ability to formulate a treatment plan, assessment and risk assessment
vii. Ability to work in multidisciplinary settings
viii. Remote working with children, adolescents and families, where relevant.
Clinical practice must include:
i. At least five hundred clinical hours in supervised clinical practice. This includes clinical hours conducted as part of the training requirement
ii. At least 60 % of the above hours have been conducted in face-to-face setting
iii. At least 30% of the above hours have been conducted with children younger than twelve
iv. Clinical practice conducted in at least two different settings
v. Safeguarding training completed every 3 years
Observation studies
i. Observation studies of an infant for at least 18 months in duration
ii. The observation was supervised by a qualified child psychotherapist or parent-infant psychotherapist
iii. Personal therapy was concurrent to the observation studies
Personal therapy
i. Experience of personal psychotherapy for the minimum period of the duration of training (four years)
ii. Personal therapy was provided by a psychotherapist who was accredited by a recognised body
iii. At least 50% of personal therapy was received in a face-to-face setting
Ongoing Post-qualification Supervision:
i. All child clinical therapy hours must be supervised by a suitably qualified child psychotherapist, as stipulated in the CPC Supervision Policy
ii. If your supervisor is not a qualified child psychotherapist, please refer to point 4ii in the CPC Supervision Policy
iii. The ratio of supervision must be relevant to the complexity of the presenting issues and the case load
iv. Peer supervision is acceptable after six post-qualifying years and only in addition to one-to-one supervision requirements
Ongoing commitment to CPD:
As stipulated in CPC CPD Policy
Professional Practice Requirements:
i. Enhanced DBS
ii. Updated child safeguarding training (at a minimum of every three years)
iii. Professional Liability insurance
iv. Professional will and an executor
Professional character, suitability for clinical practice and personal integrity:
i. No current nor previous upheld complaints
ii. Evidence from two professional referees
