British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy

In the therapeutic relationship, you are in effect entrusting a complete stranger with your thoughts and emotions that you may not have shared with anybody else before.

Dr Lisa Morrison-Coulthard is the Chief Regulation and Standards Officer at the British Association for Counselling Psychotherapy, or BACP.

you have a potentially very vulnerable client that is responding to the advice and guidance they're being given by the practitioner.

And in the same way that people would be taking advice from a teacher or an employee might be taking advice from a senior employee, there very much is that sense of wanting to follow instruction.

Yeah, it does.

And in previous podcasts, I think over the last six episodes, we've discussed the BACP ethical framework.

And one of the things we've actually discussed is the fact they removed the duty of candour from the old framework, the 2018 framework, and they never replaced it.

However, I think what's really, really interesting is in the new framework, There is a real separation of supervisory responsibility now, and particularly the relationship between clinical supervision, line management and case management.

That is a massive piece of work for one person.

It's huge.

And I really do welcome that the BACP have now separated these off.

And I do think that a councillor We were talking about students, but I think any therapist might need to discuss feelings of inadequacy, mistakes, uncertainty about competence, difficulties with clients or strong emotional responses.

I'm Josephine Hughes, counsellor and creator of Therapy Growth Group, helping you get the clients you want and create the practice of your dreams.

So welcome to all my lovely listeners, and I know this is going to be quite a popular podcast episode because many of us are members of the BACP.

And the BACP have kindly agreed to supply a couple of people who have come onto the podcast to answer some questions about the ethical framework and a little bit more about what why it's changed and the background and what it's all about.

So I'm really delighted to welcome my two guests here, Nicola and Marita.

So Nicola, can I start with you? Tell us a little bit about yourself and what your involvement with the ethical framework is.

Yeah.

And then got into teaching and taught quite a few students in different contexts and then some research and writing.

And now I'm working at BACP as the deputy head of professional standards, which gives me contact with the ethics service and all things ethics.

And I'd like to introduce you to our guest, Cal.

People may know you as a BACP registered counsellor, but you also have a long standing career as an optician.

And we'd love to hear a little bit about how that lens, pun intended, impacts how you see the world today.

So welcome and over to you.

We all know social media can be a minefield for counsellors wanting to promote their private practice.

How can you navigate what the algorithm's like, such as the outrage and the call to bear your deepest, darkest secrets whilst maintaining boundaries and being ethical? In this episode, I explore guidance from the new BACP Ethical Framework and how it applies to your social media use.

Welcome to Good Enough Counsellors, the podcast for growing a private practice without the pressure to be perfect.

I'm Josephine Hughes, counsellor and creator of Therapy Growth Group, helping you get the clients you want and create the practice of your dreams.

So I would encourage you to take a look at it and read it.

It's not quite as difficult as I'd expected it to be.

And also later in the month, I'm going to be interviewing someone from the BACP Ethics Department and someone who was involved in actually creating it as well.

So they'll be able to explain a lot more about it.

What would be the impact to your p- practice or your client if your phone or tablet or laptop, the computer you use for your practice, broke, was lost, or got stolen? And I think that's a, that's a, a, a scary thing to think of, and what would the vulnerabilities of that be.

And I guess the reason you're bringing this topic, Rory, what does a digital counseling room look like, it's, it's, it's on the dawn in real time of the, uh, BACP ethical framework update, which kind of really does shine a light on these topics, specifically digital tools, AI, informed consent, that kind of stuff, and we've spoken about that, um, uh, for, for a number of, uh, episodes already.

But this one more around what would that impact be, and I think that it might be quite considerable, and you wouldn't want to be thinking about what you'd do within that moment if... once it's gone.

You know, you'd wanna have a plan beforehand and think about what do I do, how is it protected, can I access the clients, their details, their records if I don't have, uh, my phone, my tablet, my laptop, whatever it may be that you're using, Rory.

Well, it could be through anything that you're a part of.

So I think, you know, as, as a boundary-setting, um, exercise, it's really useful to say, "I only respond to emails." They're secure, and just explain to the client.

And of course, you know, we will be into the new BACP ethical framework, [coughs] and the practice point 55 requires practitioners to actively protect clients' information from unauthorized access and disclosure, and to explain how personal information will be used, uh, and who is within the circle of confidentiality.

Oh, yes.

You know, tre- you know, listen to...

Oh, you know, the BACP says one to eight, or UKCP.

If you follow those...

Well, that's fine to follow those, that thinking, if you like, but that's the minimum.

A very warm welcome to episode 387 of the Counselling Tutor podcast with Rory Lees-Oakes and Ken Kelly.

Rory and I are taking you on a journey with three stops today, starting with ethical sustainable practice, where today we're speaking about supervision, the competencies and the 2026 BACP ethical framework.

What do we need to know? what's changed or is changing, if anything.

We're then going to practice matters.

Now, that is no different than the ethical framework I studied in 2012.

When I graduated, it was the 2012 framework.

However, what has changed is the BACP states that practitioners must ensure they have confirmed their supervisor has the necessary qualifications, experience, and competence to supervise their work in accordance with the BACP supervision framework.

Now, in the 2018 ethical framework, if my memory serves, Ken, It was really just have adequate supervision that enables us to reflect in depth about all aspects of our practice.