Posts Tagged ‘BACP’

The BACP Guidelines for Online Counselling and Psychotherapy are now in their 3rd Edition (Anthony & Goss, 2009 – see also Goss et al., 2001; Anthony & Jamieson, 2005) and now the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy have revised and amended the main Ethical Framework to reflect this (the full link is below, with references).

This embraces the importance of recognising online therapy – and indeed the function of technology in general –  as a vital component of the profession.

The new Ethical Framework states:

Variations in client needs and the diversity of settings within which counselling and psychotherapyservices are delivered have also been carefully considered. Clients vary in their requirements in order tocommunicate effectively and to gain access to services. Ethically aware services strive to meet theseneeds and to avoid excluding someone from receiving a service or lowering the quality of that servicesolely on the grounds of a client’s learning difficulty or physical disability. Services may be provided bythe independent practitioner working alone, one or more practitioners working to provide a service withinan agency or large organisation, specialists working in multidisciplinary teams, and by specialist teamsof counsellors and psychotherapists. Most work is undertaken face to face but there are also a growingnumber of telephone and online services. Some practitioners are moving between these different settingsand modes of delivery during the course of their work and are therefore required to consider whatconstitutes good practice in different settings. All practitioners encounter the challenge of responding tothe diversity of their clients and finding ways of working effectively with them. This statement thereforeresponds to the complexity of delivering counselling and psychotherapy services in contemporary societyby directing attention to significant issues that practitioners ought to consider and resolve in the specificcircumstances of their work.

The Online Therapy Institute embraces this amendment, as the work of BACP remains the basis of part of our own Ethical Framework for the Use of Technology in Mental Health (http://www.onlinetherapyinstitute.com/ethical-training/).

Kate

http://www.bacp.co.uk/ethical_framework/

Goss, S., Anthony, K., Jamieson, A. and Palmer, S. (2001) Guidelines for Online Counselling and Psychotherapy. Rugby: BACP.

Anthony, K. &  Jamieson, A. (2005) Guidelines for Online Counselling and Psychotherapy 2^nd Edition, including Guidelines for Online Supervision. Rugby: BACP.

Anthony, K. &  Goss, S. (2009) Guidelines for Online Counselling and Psychotherapy ^3rd Edition, including Guidelines for Online Supervision. Rugby: BACP.

This conference was held at Leicester University on April 25, 2009 and was attended by approximately 35 delegates, with a further 40 online delegates who attended at various points remotely via a live feed, including both video stream from the face-to-face conference and remote chatroom debate concurrently.

 

The event was opened by Gill Jones of ACTO and Counselling Online Ltd – co-hosts of the conference.  An exciting and evolving programme emerged throughout the day, starting with a keynote from Jeannie Wright of New Zealand giving a remote presentation (pre-recorded) on “Only Connect”, covering some of the research linking expressive and reflective writing with online therapies.  A representative of BACP brought along copies of the Guidelines for purchase (see http://www.bacp.co.uk/publications/NEW%20PUBLICATIONS/onlinecounselling.php).

 

A change of programme meant that Dr. Stephen Goss, co-author of the recently published 3^rd Edition of the BACP Guidelines for Online Counselling and Psychotherapy, including Guidelines for Online Supervision (Anthony & Goss, 2009), stepped in at the last minute to explain the contents of the publication and the implications for the profession from a wider perspective regarding international ethical development of the field.

 

Due to further programme changes, the day evolved to include three workshops to run simultaneously – Anne Stokes on Online Supervision, Jane Evans on working online in HE and FE, and Gill Webb hosting a live online chat taster session.

 

Keynote speakers included Steph Palin covering the work of Relate with a live demonstration of how their chatroom support helps – a neat amalgamation of chat and website links within the same client screen.  Joe Ferns talked delegates through the work of the Samaritans online, with some stunning statistics and illustration of the exchanges the organisation receives through mobile texting.

 

The keynote in the latter part of the afternoon hosted a video interview with Audrey Jung (Pres-Elect of ISMHO) by Kate Anthony (Past-President of ISMHO) as interviewer about the state of play in the US, before going live to New Jersey to chat with DeeAnna Merz Nagel (also Past-President of ISMHO) as commentator on the interview and to answer delegate questions.

 

The panel of speakers, led by Anne Stokes, then answered questions from the floor for 50 minutes.

 

Although this was a small conference on a specialist subject, it is a great step forward for the profession in linking with people all over the world in not only observing the face-to-face presentations but also contributing from the OCTIA chatroom.  The chatroom, facilitated by the organisers, Kate Anthony and Stephen Goss – was projected onto the side wall of the conference suite so that the live chat and questions to the presenters emanating from it could be fed to the keynote speakers.  Furthermore, the conference will, with the help of OnlineEvents.co.uk, be available for download from the OCTIA website – including the pre-conference interviews with Gill Jones, Kate Anthony, and DeeAnna Merz Nagel – watch http://www.octia.org.uk.

 

Kate Anthony, MSc, FBACP

I am pleased, nay thrilled, to tell you that the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) now formally accept online counselling via e-mail, forums and IRC in support of: 

a.  the 150 hours of supervised practice post training (Criteria 4.1 and 4.2)

b.  Professional Development (Criterion 6.)

c.  Personal Development (Criterion 7)

Applicants who include on-line counselling will need to show: 

1.  that the activity was contracted counselling rather than any other activity involving the use of counselling skills.

2.  that they have undertaken some specialist training in on-line therapy and are competent to work within this specialised area.  Such training would normally take place after the applicant’s core practitioner training and would be admissible as Continuing Professional Development (Criterion 6).  It is not admissible as core practitioner training (Criterion 4).  

Online Supervision 

Online therapy is not normally recommended for novice or inexperienced practitioners or those in training without focused ongoing support and guidance from expert specialists in the field. 

The BACP counsellor / psychotherapist accreditation scheme currently accepts online supervision hours for giving and receiving supervision.  At present applicants submitting online supervision must demonstrate how they have met the 1.5-hour a month requirement.

As yet, BACP have no definitive means of calculating the time commitment, and so have invited me to consult with the Professional Standards Committee and Accreditation Assessors in May to thrash out those final details.  This will unfortunately not be in time to include those hours in the 3^rd Edition of the Guidelines, but links to updates will be included in the resource appendix.

 

I’ve been working towards this since the Guidelines were first published in 2001, so please join me in a big *YAY*!!

 

Kate

Kate Anthony has been awarded Fellowship of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy for her work in the field of Online Therapy.  If you would like more information about the award ceremony in Telford, UK, on the weekend of 17th/18th October 2008, please email us.