Our History

The CPS continued to grow slowly but steadily throughout the early 2000s. In 2006 it was decided to incorporate the organisation formally as a non-profit company, and members chose at that time to change its name to the Counselling Society (CS). At the time it was felt that counselling was the best " umbrella term" for the talking therapies with which our members were concerned. During this period as well, members increasingly wished to have their professional progression marked through a membership grade system which more closely aligned with those of other organisations. The original CPS idea of a single membership grade ended around this time.

In 2010 there were huge shifts in the profession with the coalition government. Coming to power in May 2010, a few months later the Government announced it was to create the first “Accredited Voluntary Register” programme under the auspices of the Professional Standards Authority. The Society fully supported this development and accordingly began to make wholescale changes in our governance and procedures, improving all areas of our structures and processes in order to become an AVR holder. In November 2010 it was decided to change our name to the National Counselling Society, in view of our growing membership and in anticipation of becoming an AVR holder in due course. (Subsequently, the AVR programme became known as the Accredited Register, or AR,programme.)

Chaired by Dr Chris Forester from 2011-2020, the Society was awarded Accredited Register status in 2012 and successfully retained it throughout this period, growing to become widely recognised throughout the profession, leading to strong and sustained growth in members. Chosen by many counsellors and psychotherapists as their only professional home, and by many others as an additional home, the Society became noticed for its core ethos continued from its early CPS days.

Listening to members and offering them support has still been front and centre of the Society’s work as summed up in our phrase “Our members are our expertise” . Meanwhile, the NCS has been recognised by NHS IAPT (now NHS Talking Therapies), NHS Choices, and many well-known EAPs and employers; sponsored APPGs; and forged cross-party links within Parliament. By 2020 we also offered approval of one kind or another to 206 different courses and delivered 115 CPD courses in 2020 alone. In late 2020 we joined other Accredited Registers to seek to develop common standards for the profession, a decision over which our members had the final say.

In 2021, Liz McElligott took over as Chair, and we worked on expanding our vision to offer support to a much larger variety of talking therapies. From coaching to Person-Centred Experiential Therapy; psychosexual approaches to emerging modalities, we will become the home for the widest possible range of talking therapies in the future, offering support to all, with several new registers launched in 2022 and 2023.

In late 2021, the overwhelming majority of our members asked us by ballot to change our name to the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society (NCPS).

In addition, we will be returning to focus on our original founding principle of counselling as a vocation, not just a profession. As the profession could be moving towards common standards or regulatory framework changes in the future, we want to create and renew a space for the heart of counselling and psychotherapy: honouring professional freedom, the client relationship, the personal journey, and the unique nature of what we do.

A unique issue for 2022 was our members’ democratic say on adopting the Scoped framework, and the concomitant changes to our membership grades and standards that this entails.

We recognise that while counselling and psychotherapy encompass the very valuable work of mental health, they can never be reduced to mental health diagnosis and treatment alone. We will renew our foundational ethos to focus on our vocation, and to continue to offer a home for the widest possible range of approaches, modalities, individuals and organisations in the years ahead.