Get involved

There are many ways to get involved in UKCP and help shape the psychotherapeutic profession – from sharing your views in our surveys and consultations, to joining a committee, speaking to the media, or standing for election as a trustee.

Board, panel, and committee roles

You can help shape our work by joining one of our committees. You’ll share your experience and expertise alongside other psychotherapeutic professionals or lay members to develop specific areas such as standards of education, training and practice.

If you’re interested in ethics and complaints, you might consider joining our team who sit on Adjudication Panels at complaints hearings, where your expert knowledge and support will contribute to making decisions on members’ suitability to practice.

Or you could consider becoming an elected member of our Board of Trustees and contribute to setting our overall strategy and policy, defining our goals, evaluating performance and ensuring that we comply with our governing documents and charitable objectives.

Look out for vacancies on our committees or adjudication panels, and the call for nominations for our Board elections, on our website and our regular emails.

Sharing your views

You can also contribute to shaping our work by responding to our surveys and consultations. We survey members from time to time to understand what’s important to you professionally so that we can best support you.

We also seek your feedback through consultations on proposals such as revised of standards of education and training which will influence psychotherapy training.

Look out for invitations to share your views on our website or by subscribing to our email news updates.

Alternatively, you can join our Members Forum – a regular meeting which any member can attend and participate in discussions about UKCP’s work and strategic direction with other members and representatives from UKCP’s leadership.

Contact Governance Manager Alex Crawford on alex.crawford@ukcp.org.uk to find out when the next Forum is being held and register your attendance.

Connecting and networking

We encourage members to get together to discuss practice issues and developments within the profession by forming special interest groups and psychotherapy clubs, which we promote to other members.

Special interest groups usually arise from informal peer groups of members who share a professional interest in a particular area. There are currently two active special interest groups:

• Higher education special interest group
• Transpersonal special interest group

Psychotherapy clubs are run by members for members. They can take many forms, from more formal talks for a larger group to informal get-togethers where members can network, have fun, drink, eat, learn, socialise, supervise, create. We currently have active Psychotherapy Clubs in Hampstead, Liverpool and Norfolk.

If you’re interested in finding out how to set up your own group or club, please contact us at communications@ukcp.org.uk.

Share your expertise and raise the profile of psychotherapy

To raise the profile of the profession with the public and policymakers, we regularly collaborate with members to create content on topical issues which we publish in a variety of ways. Input from members is a vital part of this work.

• Media spokespeople. You might be interested in getting involved by becoming a UKCP media spokesperson, helping us improve the presence of psychotherapy and UKCP in the media. We are regularly contacted by broadcast news outlets, and consumer and trade press for expert commentary on current issues.
• Psychologies podcast. We also have an arrangement with monthly consumer magazine, Psychologies, whereby we publish an article and podcast featuring a member interview, covering topics as varied as loneliness, workplace wellness, cybertrauma and becoming body positive.
• Psychologies LifeLabs blog. Full clinical members can also publish blogs by joining the UKCP channel on Psychologies’ blogging platform, LifeLabs, giving them the chance to reach a potential audience of 1.9 million people with promotion on the Psychologies Facebook and Twitter profiles.
• Membership webinars. If you have an area of expertise relevant to the profession that you would like to share with fellow practitioners, you could send in a proposal to speak in our popular webinar events. Members have shared their expertise on remote working, the financial impact of COVID-19 on practices, lockdown anxiety, research and the role of psychotherapy in addressing systemic racism.
• Website and magazine. We also welcome letters and ideas for blog posts on UKCP’s website and articles for UKCP’s official magazine, New Psychotherapist, which, as well as being sent to all UKCP members, is also sent to politicians and influencers. Our aim is that, through thought-provoking content, the New Psychotherapist demonstrates the overarching benefit of psychotherapy and how it can transform lives by unlocking potential.

To register your interest in becoming a media spokesperson, please complete our short online form.

To suggest or pitch a topic, or find out more about getting involved, in:

• Psychologies magazine, email communications@ukcp.org.uk
• a member webinar, email events@ukcp.org.uk
• writing an article or letter for New Psychotherapist, email editor@ukcp.org.uk
• contributing an article to our website, email communications@ukcp.org.uk.