Why not UKCP or BACP regulated?
Dramatherapists, like talk therapists, are psychological professionals. Most of the talk therapists are regulated by different bodies such as the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy and the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy - these two in particular have worked hard to set the standards for a wide range of talk therapies. Sometimes we are asked why we are not regulated by the same bodies.
Let's take one step back from HCPC and the other bodies who regulate psychotherapy.
The Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care has two main roles:
- Reviewing the work of the regulators of health and care professionals: They oversee the 10 health and social care regulators, like HCPC. These regulators register health and care professionals working in occupations that Parliament has said must be regulated. For example, doctor, nurse, pharmacist and paramedic are all regulated occupations.
- Accrediting organisations that register health and care practitioners in unregulated occupations: They accredit organisations holding registers of health and care practitioners not regulated by law, to give the public confidence in their services." Their Accredited Registers include: Association of Christians in Counselling, British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy, British Association of Play Therapists, British Psychoanalytic Council, British Psychological Society, CBT Register UK, Human Givens Institute, National Counselling & Psychotherapy Society, Play Therapy UK, Registration Council for Clinical Physiologists, UK Association for Humanistic Psychology Practitioners, UK Council for Psychotherapy
Regulators and Accredited Registers have codes of conduct, standards, and guidance that set out all these details, addressing both the 'what' and the 'how' of professional practice.;
Which professions are or are not regulated is a matter for parliament. If dramatherapy was not state regulated then we would want to maintain professionalism and enrol with one of the voluntary registers to maintain standards. We believe there is a strong argument for all of the psychological therapies to become state regulated as currently, there is nothing to stop a talk therapist from being removed from their voluntary register and still continuing to practice without regulation.
Dramatherapists are, by law, regulated by the HCPC. Anyone who qualified as a dramatherapist but has not maintained their HCPC regulation is not allowed to practice dramatherapy or use the term dramatherapist to decribe their role.
Our regulation is not the same as out talk therapy colleagues but it is an equivalent and valid form of regulation. There are standards which we follow to ensure our practice is safe, ethical and professional.