Psychotherapy in the UK: Results of a survey of registrants of the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy

Abstract

The United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) was formed to provide a professional body for all psychotherapists in the UK. It maintains a register of trained practitioners who abide by the ethical standards ratified by UKCP, which includes psychotherapists working in all the modalities recognized by UKCP irrespective of their primary professional training. In the absence of statutory registration, there is no fully representative list of UK psychotherapists, but the UKCP register is probably the nearest thing to it. The UKCP board recognized that a survey of registrants would provide a snapshot of the state of UK psychotherapy, which would be valuable in understanding the contribution of psychotherapists to health services in the UK.

A questionnaire was designed, and sent out to all 4005 practitioners registered by UKCP in December 1997. One thousand three hundred and thirty-one questionnaires were returned, a response rate of 34 per cent. The respondents were representative of all registered psychotherapists in 1998 in those characteristics that are published in the paper register, or that can be inferred from it. The respondents were aged 51 years on average, predominantly white (97 per cent described themselves this way) women (69 per cent) practising in London and the South East of England (55 per cent). All the respondents described themselves as being influenced by psychotherapeutic approaches rooted in psycho-analysis. Ninety-five per cent of respondents had another profession previous to psychotherapy. This was most commonly teaching (27 per cent), social work (22 per cent) or counselling (21 per cent). Only 11 per cent of respondents were psychologists.

The contribution of UKCP registrants to the National Health Service has never previously been estimated. A breakdown of the diaries provided by respondents in this survey suggests that UKCP registrants may contribute as many as 44,760 hours of psychotherapy per week to the British National Health Service and other health sectors. Assuming that a whole-time-equivalent psychotherapist works 37 hours per week, this means that UKCP registrants may provide the equivalent work to health service organizations, both public and private, of more than 1,311 full-time psychotherapists.

Keywords:

• Psychotheraphy
• psychotherapists
• counsellors
• long-term therapy
• UKCP

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the members of the Research Special Interest Group of the UK Council for Psychotherapy (Petruska Clarkson, Tirril Harris, Georgia Lepper, Hilde Rapp, David Smith and David Winter) for their interest in and comments on the research, and for suggestions and modifications to the questionnaire. I am also grateful to the Executive and Governing Board of UKCP for supporting the research and for authorizing the publication of the data, and to the registrants who completed the questionnaires. Particular thanks go to Pam Howard and Andy Oliver for practical help in preparing the questionnaire and in data analysis. Finally, I am indebted, as ever, to Emmy van Deurzen for support and wise counsel.