BACP, NCPS and HCPC: what the letters mean

These three sets of letters refer to organisations connected with counselling and related professions in the UK. They are not promises about outcomes, and they do not tell you what a counsellor will do in therapy.

Broadly speaking, the BACP and NCPS are professional associations and membership bodies. The HCPC is a statutory register for some health and care professions. Each body keeps public information about people who have joined or are listed with them.

The BACP is a long-standing professional association for counsellors and psychotherapists in the UK. It maintains a public register of members and uses terms such as "registered" and "accredited" for people who meet particular training and practice standards.

Membership commonly involves agreeing to an ethical code, meeting training or qualification requirements, and engaging in continuing professional development. You can search the BACP register on their website to check a name or registration status. If you want more detail about what different membership levels mean, look at our /license-types/ page or the BACP site itself.

The NCPS is another professional body that keeps a register of counsellors and psychotherapists. Like other associations, it sets out expected standards of training, ethics and practice for its members.

If a counsellor lists NCPS after their name you can check the NCPS public register for their entry. The register will show whatever the NCPS chooses to publish - for example a membership status or professional record. For general guidance about different kinds of registration on this site, see /license-types/.

The HCPC maintains a statutory register for a number of protected professional titles in health and care. Some people who work with mental health or therapeutic approaches may be on the HCPC register under a particular title that the HCPC regulates.

If a practitioner shows HCPC after their name you can use the HCPC public register to check their registration entry. The HCPC entry will describe the title under which the person is registered and any conditions or lawful restrictions that apply to that registration.

Across these bodies, membership or registration typically means the person has agreed to an ethical code and to certain standards of training or experience. It commonly involves some form of continuing professional development and a complaint or fitness-to-practise process.

Those are organisational standards, not guarantees. Membership or registration tells you that the person has joined or been listed with a body that sets out standards. It does not say how a counsellor will work with you, or what outcomes you can expect.

To check someone, go to the relevant organisation's public register on their website and search by name or registration number if you have it. The register entry is the organisation's own record and is the best source for their published details.

If you are using this site to find someone, you may also see paths such as /therapists/ that list practitioners. This directory does not verify the details that appear on other sites or on public registers. If you need certainty, use the organisation's register directly.

This directory lists counsellors who are registered with a UK professional body as described above. This directory verifies none of it. A listing here is not a recommendation, endorsement or a guarantee of availability, client groups or session formats.

This page is not advice or diagnosis. A clinician who is actually talking to you is the person who can say what applies to your situation. If you are unsure about any entry you find here, contact the organisation that issues the letters shown after a counsellor's name, or speak to a GP for medical or clinical questions.

If you are in immediate danger, thinking about self-harm or are very distressed, call 999. You can also call Samaritans on 116 123 any hour, or NHS 111 and press 2 for mental health in England.