UKCP policy on use of our logo in advertising

Yellow Pages and Thomson Directories

To help people seeking a professionally qualified psychotherapist to find a UKCP registered practitioner more easily, and to help raise the public profile of UKCP, the Vice Chair has negotiated a Corporate Advertising Scheme with the Yellow Pages and Thomson Directories.

The UKCP Yellow Pages and Thomson Directories teams will contact all Registrants and Member Organisations, initially by post, and subsequently by telephone, to offer them an advertisement in a UKCP branded box, under the category of "Psychotherapy and Analysis" in their regional edition. If you wish to contact the team directly about joining this advertising scheme, the telephone number is 01753 553311 (for Yellow Pages), and 01252 390901 (for Thomson Directories). All advertisements are checked by the UKCP Office to ensure that, at the time of going to press, all advertisers in the UKCP box are currently UKCP Registrants or Members.

This is an optional scheme for all Registrants and Member Organisations.

The Internet and Advertising
There has been a number of enquiries from those who are establishing web sites and from those who object to the web sites of colleagues. The growing use of the web as a form of communication and promotion/advertising causes us to need to address this issue. While at the same time the nature of communication on the net means that the second paragraph of our ethical requirements is challenged.

The UKCP Ethical Requirements for Member Organisations' states:

"Advertising: Member organisations of UKCP are required to restrict promotion of their work to a description of the type of psychotherapy they provide. Psychotherapists are; required to distinguish carefully between self-descriptions, as in a list, and advertising seeking enquiries"

Web pages need to be seen not as advertising but as giving information. Our first reaction was that the web is ethically the same as any other medium, but that there were special considerations. We first thought about what we saw as acceptable to use on a web site and these were:

Descriptions of style, modality or specialism of the psychotherapy
Descriptions of location of the practice
Qualifications of practitioner/s
Any relevant or current training or CPD of practitioners
Mention of relevant Codes of Practice would be desirable

And as not acceptable:

Claims to cure
Claims to be better than others.

The special considerations specific to web sites are that it is acceptable to use the following as long as the Ethical Requirements are kept in mind:

Use of different font sizes
Use of different colours and blocks
Using motion in graphics
Links to colleagues and member organisations - with their consent
E-mail address outward i.e. provides the e-mail address of others, as a link
E-mail address/phone number inward i.e. providing author's own address and phone number for further contact.

There have also been a number of enquiries regarding UKCP's position / policy when it comes to our member organisations and registrants being allowed to advertise themselves as such on their own websites and in their own marketing material.

Therefore we have commissioned our creative agency to produce the following three marks which MO's and registrants can apply to use to establish themselves publicly as UKCP Registered.

In order to apply to use one of these marks please contact:

or call 020 7014 9955

MO Logos