UKCP Scotland Group – a community for UKCP members

UKCP members forum representatives for Scotland Margot Kirkland and Mary MacCallum Sullivan, alongside other members of UKCP Scotland Group, outline their experience of being part of the group, what it means to them and why others should consider getting involved.

As UKCP members forum representatives for Scotland, we’re keen to help build a strong, connected community of members in Scotland. In this piece, we share why we got involved with UKCP, what Scotland Group is working on and why representing the specific context of practice in Scotland matters. We also talk about the opportunities the group offers – from influencing policy to networking, CPD and Scotland‑specific events – and how other members can get involved. 

Margot Kirkland, members forum representative for Scotland

I got involved with UKCP as the members forum representative for Scotland after I spoke to Mary MacCallum Sullivan and the members forum moderator at the time, Maura Sills. Meeting these two strong women, I thought I might like to be moderator but realised I didn’t have enough UKCP organisational knowledge, so decided I wanted to be one of two representatives, speaking on behalf of members in Scotland.

I attend short meetings with the other representatives from across the UK. We have meetings with members across Scotland most months, meeting for an hour. I also attend the members forum (MF), whether in person or online.

I enjoy being a representative, working with Mary, and engaging with Scotland members to find out what they need us to feed back to UKCP on their behalf. Also, as a member, I feel a responsibility in terms of engaging with the organisation and trying to understand and make sense of what is going on – keeping updated. I also get CPD hours, which is very useful. The most important part of being a representative, though, is that I get to meet other representatives from around the UK and lots of UKCP psychotherapists at the MF meetings.

The reason there are two representatives in Scotland is because it’s good to share the load. We bounce ideas off each other! For example, when we write to UKCP or prepare notes for Scottish member meetings, representative meetings and members forum meetings, the notes fly backwards and forwards until we agree on what has been written or going to be discussed.

Mary and I spend a lot of time talking about the context of the Scotland membership. For example, working out how, as members, we can influence both policy within UKCP and the Scottish Parliament in relation to psychotherapy and psychotherapeutic counselling. Each nation has different agendas in terms of the profession, and we are looking to bring the Scotland agenda back to UKCP along with members’ questions. The idea is that UKCP should be informed by the reports from representatives and that members are active in policy and other developments.

Part of our role is to make a difference. Here are two recent examples of change that we have contributed to:

• We planned to have a network/meeting day event and found out there was no budget for it. As representatives, we took this to the members forum and asked why money was not put aside for national and regional events. The outcome from the discussion led to an agreement that staff would get in touch with us to talk about the above and work out a budget to include such events. This has now happened, and we will be hoping to organise a UKCP Scotland event in the autumn.
• UKCP is a partner in Scotland's Mental Health Partnership (https://www.smhp.scot/) (initiated by the Scottish Mental Health Foundation (SMHF) and the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland ‘to offer new perspectives and a progressive vision for mental health in Scotland’). As representatives, we hope that this might provide us with a positive opportunity to work with UKCP in their engagement with this group by feeding in and sharing our expertise where we can. 

We talk about our own work and experience in psychotherapy and psychotherapeutic counselling in Scotland, feedback from the members forum and the UK-wide representative meetings, hosted by the MF moderator. We are also planning Scotland-specific events. My experience of such meetings in the past is that they are heartening and invaluable in just meeting new colleagues and for networking. 

Mary MacCallum Sullivan, members forum representative for Scotland

I was delighted that Margot wanted to get involved in this way – it is so heart-warming to be in a partnership of two rather than a lonely voice. And Margot’s previous union experience on the shop floor is very welcome, and, for UKCP, refreshing – it foregrounds individual members’ interests in a robust way; I think we’ve all been a bit too polite in the past, and Margot speaks out loud what has been muttered from the back stalls over past years!

I served as UKCP members forum moderator before Maura Sills and then stepped forward on an interim basis until a new moderator could be found. I am delighted to welcome Helen Windsor into this much-needed role.

Margot and I had met back in 2023, but it was good to catch up at the June 2025 Birmingham MF meeting in person – we get too few chances, particularly here in Scotland, to meet up ‘in the flesh’, and we are both determined that that really must change.

As is often a feature in UKCP, Margot and I are very different in our modalities. I was chair of Human Development Scotland (HDS) – the successor organisation to the very highly-respected Scottish Institute for Human Relations (SIHR) for a good while, but have been effectively retired for some years now. I mention this because I have also been part of UKCP since the early 1990s when I represented (then) Regent’s College to (what was then) the Humanistic and Integrative Section (now Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapy College), participating in meeting, committees and policy development. My ambition in Scotland was to continue to participate in training to ensure a ready supply of good-quality psychodynamic practitioners in Scotland, even before HDS came into being.

Margot and I share the belief that UKCP needs a community of registrants/members in Scotland. We’re not a naturally gregarious species, perhaps, but we do value the re-creation that is networking and sharing CPD-related activities, particularly those that take into account the particular conditions we face here in Scotland, which is, after all, a devolved administration (a different country!), with some key differences in our conditions of practice.

I have been delighted to meet the enthusiasm and determination of our current grouping of UKCP folk who want to build support for psychotherapy in Scotland.

We also hear from Dr Carol Remfrey Foote and Linda Vickers, members of the wider UKCP Scotland Group, sharing why the group matters to them and how it supports practice in Scotland.

Carol Remfrey Foote, UKCP Scotland Group member

I’ve been a member of UKCP since 2015 as a student then a full member in 2019. I very much enjoy the group’s collegiate discussions and getting updates on the work of UKCP. Mary and Margot, the UKCP’s MF Scotland representatives, are so welcoming and warm. When I attend, I feel a part of UKCP and can talk about what it’s like to be a private psychotherapist and have my experiences validated and heard. They have been so encouraging while I have been completing my research.

Working in private practice can be lonely and isolated sometimes and it's important to be part of a group who understands this perspective. Being a member of UKCP can feel that I am quite remote in the organisation as it’s so large and distant at times, whereas the Scotland group is very relational, friendly and comfortable to be a part of. As a member of UKCP, I do want to contribute from the grassroots of the organisation. I also like to attend the members forum, the Practitioners Research Network meetings and UKCP’s CPD events.

The group has helped me to meet other UKCP members from different colleges and find out about how other modalities share some of the same stressors and challenges. In the Scotland group, I feel my perspectives and ideas are important and welcomed. I also feel I have something to offer the group, and I like to think this might find its way into the wider UKCP. I had hoped that UKCP would see the group as being a key part of the organisation, but I feel there is some way to go to ensure this is the case.

Linda Vickers, UKCP Scotland Group member

After completing my psychotherapy training and working in London for over 10 years, I moved to Scotland 25 years ago. The group is a good way of connecting with other psychotherapists who work across Scotland and to receive feedback from the Scottish representatives, Mary and Margot. Having worked in many settings, both in London and Scotland, I have observed and experienced the commonalities, as well as the particularities, of the two cultures. The group is a place for lively exchange of ideas between practitioners from diverse backgrounds.

I believe it is an important forum for UKCP members who work far and wide across the Scottish regions, sometimes remotely, where we can share common interests and concerns, as well as share special interests.

It has given me the impetus to reconnect and build new relationships with practitioners across Scotland. It is also an opportunity to remind ourselves of the rich tradition of psychotherapy in Scotland.

In our recent discussions and proposals for a Scotland-based networking and CPD day, we discussed important figures in the development of psychiatry and psychotherapy in Scotland: Laing, Suttie and Sutherland among others. This led to a reconnection with a colleague who has previously given an interesting talk on Fairbairn to the now defunct Scottish Association of Psychodynamic Counselling (SAPC), and to invite her to contribute to a CPD event we hope to offer in Glasgow.

The group is welcoming, consisting of practitioners from a range of backgrounds and training. I enjoy its sense of community for those of us working across Scotland, often in isolation, to share interests and concerns; and to look at ways in which we might broaden our access to many more UKCP members.

UKCP Scotland Group moving forward

The UKCP Scotland Group is open to all members in Scotland, and we would welcome anyone interested to come along to the group. To contact the representatives, please email membersforumrep.scotland@ukcp.org.uk.

Interested in becoming a representative?

If you are interested in becoming a UKCP members forum representative for your region, please check vacancies in your area. You can register your interest by emailing Alex Crawford, UKCP board and committees secretary, at alex.crawford@ukcp.org.uk.