As the profession of Counselling and Psychotherapy is currently not state-regulated there is a bewildering variety of qualifications and labels to choose from.

When choosing a therapist these are some of the things you may want to consider:

- are they accredited with a recognised and respected organisation?
- what is their length and variety of experience?
- and lastly, when I sit in the room with them do I feel comfortable and able to talk to them about my problem?

A brief guide to the organisations I am accredited with:

- The BACP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy)
This is a long-standing professional body which was originally for Counsellors. They have fairly recently incorporated Psychotherapy too.

If someone describes themselves as a 'Member' of BACP, this means they have completed a training course which included some supervised practice.

If someone describes themselves as 'Accredited' by BACP then they have been through a rigorous process to determine that they have sufficient training and experience "to demonstrate the capacity for independent, competent, ethical practice". This Accreditation has to be renewed annually.

- The UKCP (United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy) is a long-standing professional body for Psychotherapists. If someone describes themselves as 'Registered' then this is equivalent to accreditation by this body. They will have been through a Psychotherapy training (usually longer and more extensive than Counselling) and will have had a lengthy experience of working directly with clients, whilst being supervised. They will also have undertaken personal therapy themselves.

- The BABCP (British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies) is the professional body for CBT therapists. Anyone with an interest can join and become a member. To be 'Accredited' means that they have undertaken an extensive training in CBT, have experience of working with clients and have been supervised in that work.

A note about CBT: this is a very popular form of Psychotherapy at the moment. It is available free on the NHS in many areas of the country. If you have a particular interest in having CBT then you could ask your GP to be referred.