membership Faqs

Student Membership = £21 per year

Trainee Membership = £45 per year

Clinical Membership = £75 per year

Associate Membership =£21 per year

Membership fees must be paid by online bank transfer. In exceptional circumstances we can accept payment by cheque but you must clarify this with the administrator first.

If you are going to take a Break in Practice you must inform UPCA and complete a Break in Practice form.

UPCA is an organisational member (OM) and accrediting body of University Training Colleges (UTC). UTC is one of 10 UKCP Colleges, all UKCP members have to belong to a college. The purpose of UPCA is to provide a route to UKCP membership, an ethical framework for trainee therapist’s work and to offer a community of peers.

This category of membership is open to all current students and trainees of a university-linked, UPCA approved programmes in psychotherapy or psychotherapeutic counselling. It is a requirement of UPCA programme approval, that students studying on a UPCA accredited programme, maintain UPCA student membership for the duration of their training and thereby agree to abide by the UKCP Code of Ethics and Professional Practice.

This membership category is open to current student members of UPCA who have been approved to begin clinical practice by their accredited UPCA counselling/psychotherapy training programme. Trainee members have not yet graduated or met the full requirements of their training programme and are working towards fulfilling the criteria for registration.

There are 2 categories of clinical members;

Accredited Clinical Members are graduates who have fully completed all the taught and practice elements of an UPCA approved university training programme in either psychotherapy which is set at a minimum of Masters or Doctoral level, or psychotherapeutic counselling which is set at a minimum of undergraduate level.

Non-Accredited Clinical Members have graduated the taught part of their training programme but have not yet completed all the practice elements of their training. Non-Accredited Clinical Members can normally remain in this category of membership for up to 5 years whilst they accumulate the required supervised client hours.

UPCA requires its clinical members for the protection of the public and as part of being professionally accountable to demonstrate that professional development has been maintained and that clinical practice is up-to- date. An annual renewal reminder and form for recording a minimum of 50 hours CPD annually will be sent out to members each year.

Clinical members are required to submit evidence that they have maintained a minimum of 50 hours of CPD per annum. This information is also required for a 5-yearly re-accreditation audit. Please download our CPD Resource to help you keep track of your CPD.

Accredited clinical members have to undertake an re-accreditation audit every 5-years, and are required to submit detailed evidence of CPD and supervision. Your supervisor(s) will also be asked to provide a report. 20% of clinical members are selected at random every year for this audit.

While there’s no single agreed definition of what neurodiversity is, it does help as an umbrella term to identify specific needs of therapists and clients. UPCA wants to encourage its members and so if there are specific issues we can support you with related to membership, audit or accreditation please contact Helen Fisher the administrator. With a more detailed knowledge of your specific needs, we could then tailor-make a more enabling process.