Public perception of the professional titles used within psychological services

Abstract

Background and aim: There have been several calls for adopting an empirical approach investigating public opinion concerning the differentiation between the professional titles ‘counsellor’ and ‘psychotherapist’. The present research makes a first step to addressing this issue. Method: Sixteen interviewers, recruited across the UK, interviewed 450 members of the public in 57 UK district codes. Age, gender and education were monitored for sampling purposes. Results: The findings indicated that around two thirds of the public perceive the professional title ‘counsellor’ to be distinct from the professional titles ‘psychotherapist’ and ‘psychological therapist’ and for these latter two titles to be almost identical. About one third of the public perceive the opposite trend, and one tenth is undecided whether these professional titles are distinct or indistinct. Conclusion: These results have implications for the debate concerning the structure of the Health Professions Council (HPC) Register in the regulation of counsellors and psychotherapists.

Keywords:

• counsellors
• psychotherapists
• statutory regulation
• Health Professions Council
• psychological therapists

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Kathryn Harper, Neena Ramful, Chantel Kilford, Rachel Mumford, Kate Collins, Kara Bagnall, Laura Marriott, Louisa Gilpin, Mairead Kelly, Jemma Tosh, Gemma Gilewski, Rosie Noyce, Beth Coleman and Hannah Dowling for their contributions to this research project as described in the article. Further thanks are also given to Chantel Kilford, Rachel Mumford, Kara Bagnall, and Laura Marriot for their comments on the research methodology and to Kathryn Harper, Neena Ramful and Kate Collins for their assistance in analysing the data.