The following sections outline the details of each area of ethical infrastructure, alongside external resources that you may find useful when reviewing and developing the ethical structures for your practice.
You can also sign up to our platform to record and maintain the status of each of these areas, facilitating more effective reviews with colleagues and supervisors, and helping you prepare for professional membership audits.
Please note that these links are provided for your information only. Such links should not be interpreted as approval by us of those linked websites or information you may obtain from them.
An essential foundation for any private practitioner is membership of a professional body such as BACP, UKCP, NCPS, BABCP, BPC and others. These bodies set standards for training and practice as well as publishing ethical codes and guidance for their members. By joining or being accredited by a professional body we make a formal commitment to working in accordance with the guidelines it sets. Membership of a professional body communicates our commitment to ethical practice to prospective and current clients. It also gives clients the opportunity to raise a complaint where an issue can't be resolved directly with their counsellor or therapist.
At a practical level, being a member of a professional body can mean discounted professional indemnity insurance, and many also offer continuing professional development (CPD) and peer support, which are also important for working ethically. Requirements for membership vary from one organisation to another. Some are linked to specific training routes, modalities or qualification levels, while others have broader membership criteria. Some bodies, such as BACP, offer student membership for counsellors and therapists in training.
You may find the following links helpful:
As members of professional bodies we commit to working in accordance with the ethical and professional standards they set out in their ethical frameworks. Understanding and working within these guidelines helps us to work ethically in various ways. At a fundamental level, ethical codes remind us of the core principles of our work as counsellors and therapists, including the primacy of our clients' wellbeing and autonomy, and the importance of boundaries in creating a safe, effective therapeutic relationship with them.
Beyond this, ethical codes often lay out more specific details about what is required or expected for ethical practice – in particular with regard to requirements relating to supervision, CPD, insurance, and confidentiality and record keeping, especially where we need to take data protection regulations into account. As well as preparing us for work with clients, these codes can be used to help us think through ethical dilemmas as and when they arise. Most ethical codes are largely focused on clients but might also provide guidance for conduct with colleagues, supervisees and trainees, and how we might appear in more public spaces, including online, which now seems more important than ever.
You may find the following links helpful:
Arguably the most important part of ethical practice is making sure you have the right amount of supervision, and that your supervision is appropriate to your modality, experience and the kind of clients you are working with. Supervision is a requirement of membership with all professional bodies such as BACP, and for good reason.
As well as helping us process challenging client material and manage risk and safeguarding responsibilities appropriately, supervision is a space where we can think out loud, helping us to process our own thoughts and feelings about our work. Supervision is essential to helping us think through and manage ethical dilemmas by accessing the experience of our supervisor, applying professional standards and creating accountability. Supervision can be done one to one and/or as part of a group. Beyond the formal individual clinical supervision from which I benefit, I have found being part of a peer-supervision group to be a great way to gain extra perspectives on my work and career as a counsellor and, more broadly, how this affects me on a personal level.
You may find the following links helpful:
Ongoing CPD is another formal requirement for ongoing membership of professional bodies. It is based on the idea that, alongside supervision, continued learning is crucial to maintaining ethical standards as well as building our skills and competence as counsellors and therapists.
Many activities count as CPD, including joining courses or workshops, attending or presenting at conferences, conducting research, or reading journals, articles or books related to our work. CPD can also include creating content (for example, writing articles for Therapy Today) as well as reflective practice and other forms of personal development. In my experience, CPD has been one of the most enjoyable parts of my career development – I love the challenge of taking in and integrating new ideas, theories and perspectives, and enjoy the opportunity to make connections with colleagues.
You may find the following links helpful:
Membership Body Guidance
General CPD Resources
Third-Party CPD Platforms
Another formal requirement for membership of bodies such as BACP is having adequate professional indemnity insurance. Given the nature of the work we do, having insurance is an essential financial protection in the case of a complaint or claim made against us for negligence or malpractice, covering potential defence or compensation costs. As well as giving peace of mind to counsellors and therapists, being insured is part of how we communicate our professional competence, trustworthiness and commitment to ethical practice to our clients. Some professional insurers will provide legal advice as part of their service.
You may find the following links helpful:
Guidance from Professional Bodies
Insurers
Clearly written agreements or contracts are a key structure of ethical work, helping us to set expectations and establish boundaries in our work with clients. By being transparent about what we are offering to clients (including details about our qualifications, fees, session length and frequency, cancellations, breaks and endings, confidentiality, details of record keeping and our clinical will arrangements) we create a transparent framework for clinical work, reducing the likelihood of confusion or disputes between us and our clients.
More than this, a good contracting process, including what we say to clients about the information contained in our agreements, embodies the core ethical principles of respect, autonomy and trust that we commit to as counsellors and therapists. If you are unsure about what to include in a written agreement, speak to your supervisor or peers, and make use of resources provided by professional membership bodies – for example, BACP's template for private practice contracts.
You may find the following links helpful:
Data protection regulations such as the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) apply to counsellors and therapists in the same way they do to anyone who collects and stores personal data. Understanding what this means in practice is fundamental to maintaining clinical confidentiality.
A good place to start is the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) guidance on understanding our clients' rights with regard to any information we keep about them. As part of our legal obligations under the GDPR, we are likely to be required to register as data controllers with the ICO, and give our clients and supervisees clear information on what data we collect about them and why, including clinical, contact and invoicing information. Apart from helping us stay legally compliant, communicating our understanding of data privacy laws builds confidence in us as competent, trustworthy professionals.
You may find the following links helpful:
ICO Resources
Professional Body Guidance
An extension of our understanding of data privacy is the need to think carefully about what information we store about our clients and why – and, on a more practical level, how this will be stored. Deciding what clinical records to keep will vary depending on the way you work and the specific requirements of your professional membership and insurance policy. All private practitioners are required to keep financial records for tax purposes and, as these also contain personal information, storing these needs to be thought about as carefully as any other information we keep about our clients.
Apart from thinking about our responsibilities under the GDPR, keeping records securely is also fundamental to maintaining client confidentiality. This means making sure that information is kept secure by password-protecting digital files, accounts and devices, or locking away physical records. When any information is shared for any reason this is always done with the limits of confidentiality in mind. For example, you will need to think about how you share information about clients in supervision or with your accountant if you use one – for example, by anonymising accounts of your work or accounting records such as bank statements.
You may find the following links helpful:
A clinical will is a document we share with a trusted, appropriately qualified colleague (usually called a clinical trustee or executor) setting out how our clients can be contacted in case of our sudden illness or death. My work on ClinicalWill.app developed as a result of my own need for a clinical will that was fit for purpose, and through the many conversations I have now had with colleagues on this topic I have come to understand just how important this part of ethical practice is.
A clinical will ensures our clients are properly supported in the event of an unplanned break or ending in their work with us, and thinking about this in advance means we can make provision to share the relevant details with our clinical trustees if necessary without compromising client confidentiality or our duties under the GDPR.
You may find the following links helpful:
While taking care of our physical, mental and emotional health might just seem like a common-sense thing to do, it is an important part of maintaining fitness to practise and is therefore an important part of ethical practice. Not only are counsellors and therapists as human as anyone else but in my experience we can too easily underestimate the impact of our work on our own wellbeing. Staying healthy, taking regular breaks and seeking support when we need it ourselves are not luxuries but an essential part of how we maintain the personal resources we all need to work safely and ethically.
You may find the following links helpful:
Apart from needing to give careful thought to how we might interact with clients we meet accidentally outside the consulting room, it is important to remember that the way we appear in public is also part of a wider ethical duty to represent the counselling and therapy profession as a whole. This means we need to consider how we maintain boundaries in everyday life, including online, where views we express publicly, or networks we are part of, need to be thought about carefully. For this reason most professional membership bodies now encourage us to pay attention to the way we appear online and more generally in our personal and professional lives.
You may find the following links helpful: