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UK Council for Psychotherapy

The UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) is a professional membership body for psychotherapists and psychotherapeutic counsellors. We have over 7,000 individual members and 75 organisational members, making us the leading professional body for psychotherapy in the UK. We maintain a national register of fully qualified clinical practitioners, who meet our high standards of training and practice. You can access this register online at www.ukcp.org.uk.

We work to improve public access to psychological therapies for all sections of society, to support research, to improve standards of practice, and, as part of our commitment to protect the public, we facilitate complaints against clinicians on our register.

UKCP also provides resources for practitioners by producing publications, running meetings and conferences to inform and consult on issues of concern, supporting practitioners' continuing professional development, publicising research and raising standards.

Psychotherapy

Psychotherapists help people deal with mental or emotional distress, which can be experienced in many ways including:

• Anxiety or an inability to cope or concentrate
• Inability to deal with stress or recover from stressful situations
• Lack of confidence or excessive shyness
• Feelings of depression, sadness, grief or emptiness
• Extreme mood swings
• Difficulty making or sustaining relationships, or repeatedly becoming involved in unsatisfying or destructive relationships
• Sexual problems
• Difficulties in coming to terms with losses such as bereavement, divorce or loss of employment
• Eating disorders
• Self harm
• Obsessive behaviour
• Panic attacks and phobia
• Addiction

Psychotherapy describes a wide range of psychological therapies. No one type of psychotherapy can help all individuals, or is necessarily right to deal with all of the problems above. Psychotherapists and psychotherapeutic counsellors may focus on one or more areas of specialism or modality, ranging from body psychotherapy to Jungian analysis, family therapy to psychoanalysis.

For more information on psychological therapies, a glossary of commonly available psychotherapy and psychotherapeutic counselling modalities in the UK, or to find a therapist or counsellor, visit the UKCP website at:

If you would like to find out more about joining UKCP, click here

http://www.psychotherapy.org.uk/public.html

UK Council for Psychotherapy

UK Council for Psychotherapy

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