How therapy is regulated in the UK
"Psychotherapist" and "counsellor" are not protected titles in the UK. Which titles are protected, why the statutory route was abandoned in 2011, and …
Creative Leaps
Creative Leaps is an independent reference on psychological therapy in the UK: how talking therapy, mindfulness and movement-based approaches work, what the evidence does and does not show, and how to find and check an accredited practitioner.
Notes on therapy, mindfulness and movement
Finding and checking a therapist in the UK
The most practical thing on this site. In the UK, “psychotherapist” and “counsellor” are not protected titles, so the useful question is not what somebody calls themselves but which register they are on, who oversees it, and what happens if something goes wrong.
Accredited registers and the Professional Standards Authority
What a PSA-accredited register is, which counselling and psychotherapy bodies hold one, what accreditation does and does not guarantee, and how it …
How to check a practitioner
A short, practical procedure for verifying a UK therapist: which register to search, what an entry proves, the traps that make a check look reassuring …
NHS talking therapies in England
How the NHS talking therapies service for anxiety and depression works in England: who it is for, how self-referral works, the waiting-time standards …
Therapy across the four nations
England's self-referral route is not the UK-wide arrangement. How access to NHS talking therapies differs in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and …
Who pays for therapy in the UK
NHS treatment is free at the point of use. The other routes — employer schemes, universities and colleges, charities and private practice — differ in …
What a first appointment involves
The first meeting is usually an assessment rather than therapy: history, goals, risk questions, and the limits of confidentiality. What should be …
Getting help now
Where to go in the UK if you need mental health help urgently: NHS 111 option 2 in England, Breathing Space in Scotland, and the national routes in …
Approaches
What the main approaches actually are, where they came from, and what the trial evidence does and does not establish.
Psychotherapy and counselling: what talking therapy is
What talking therapy actually consists of, the difference between counselling and psychotherapy, the formats it comes in, and what the research says …
The main schools of therapy, and how they differ
CBT, person-centred, gestalt, psychodynamic, existential and transactional analysis explained plainly — what each believes the problem is, what a …
Dance movement psychotherapy: what it is
Where dance movement psychotherapy came from, what happens in a session, how it is trained and registered in the UK, and how it differs from a dance …
Dance movement therapy: what the evidence does and does not show
The Cochrane reviews of dance movement therapy for depression and for schizophrenia both concluded the evidence was too thin for firm conclusions. …
Arts therapies in the UK, and the protected titles
Art therapist, art psychotherapist, dramatherapist and music therapist are protected titles regulated by the HCPC. What that means in practice, and …
Mindfulness: origins and what the word now means
Mindfulness came out of Buddhist contemplative practice and was reworked into secular clinical programmes from 1979. What the practice is, what was …
MBSR and MBCT: the two clinical programmes
Mindfulness-based stress reduction and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy are eight-week structured programmes with different origins and purposes. …
Mindfulness: what the trials support, and where claims outrun the evidence
Moderate effects for some conditions in structured programmes, weaker effects elsewhere, and a long list of claims with nothing behind them. Also: …
Groups and workplaces
The non-clinical side: group work, facilitation, and what employers are actually expected to do about stress at work.
Team development, and what it can and cannot fix
Psychotherapeutic ideas travel well into team work — and badly when they are used to treat a structural problem as an interpersonal one. What UK …
Personal development training and workshops
Confidence, assertiveness, communication, stress management, self-care: what this kind of group training is, what it borrows from therapy, and the …
Group work and facilitation
Group analysis, group psychotherapy and the organisational traditions that grew from them: what a therapy group actually does, and how it differs from …
Glossary
The vocabulary, defined plainly and cross-linked.
- accredited-register6
- clinical-supervision6
- stepped-care6
- protected-title5
- therapeutic-contract5
- cognitive-behavioural-therapy4
- embodiment4
- mbct4
- mindfulness4
- dance-movement-psychotherapy3
- group-analysis3
- integrative-therapy3
- mbsr3
- gestalt-therapy2
- psychodynamic-therapy2
- transactional-analysis2
- existential-therapy1
- person-centred-therapy1