The British Psychoanalytic Council is an association of training institutions and professional associations which have their roots in established psychoanalysis and analytical psychology. They bring together approximately 1500 practitioners of psychoanalytic and psychodynamic psychotherapy who as individuals become registrants of the BPC. The BPC was formed on 8 March 1992, emerging from the United Kingdom Standing Conference for Psychotherapy as a specifically psychoanalytically-oriented organisation.
Annual register
It has an annual register of those practitioners who meet its continuing professional and fitness-to-practise standards. Promoting professional standards and acting as a voluntary regulator of the profession is a key role of the BPC. The BPC accredits the trainings of its member institutions, ensuring that they meet published training standards. Some of these are member organisations of the International Psychoanalytical Association.
Practise requirements
An individual who qualifies from one of these trainings is then eligible for entry into the BPC's register. BPC registration then continues to be governed by a range of fitness to practise requirements:
The therapist must be a member of good standing of their own professional institution
They subscribe to and are governed by the BPC's published Code of Ethics
They are regulated by the BPC's Complaints Procedure
They must maintain an annual programme of continuing professional development, monitored and approved by the BPC, which includes consultation on their clinical work, attending lectures and courses and a broad range of professional activity.
Training and qualifications
The preparation and training for becoming a psychoanalytic psychotherapist involves undergoing analysis.
The individual organisations that train psychotherapists have always been self-regulating. Over the last twenty years, however, there has been an increase in the number of institutions and range of psychotherapies on offer to the public. The British Psychoanalytic Council is one of a number of bodies which exist to protect the interests of the public by promoting standards in the selection, training, professional association and ethical conduct of psychotherapists. It is the primary body for psychoanalytic psychotherapy in the UK. The BPC, together with each of its member institutions, aims to protect the public by setting out the appropriate standards of professional conduct, and a Code of Ethics, which describes the responsibilities of psychoanalytic psychotherapists. There are also comprehensive complaints and disciplinary procedures, which include the sanction of striking a practitioner off both their organisation's membership list and the BPC's Register. The detailed fitness to practise policies are all published on its website or are available from the BPC office.
