Accreditation Scheme

Criteria

Introduction

The aim of accreditation is to enable clients to make contact with competent, qualified practitioners who are experienced in working with a range of sexual minority clients and who have demonstrated their commitment to continuing professional development and staying abreast of progress in this emerging field.  Such therapists are ethically aware, understand some of the specific issues facing sexual minority clients and have a broad knowledge of the social context.

It is planned that there will be two tiers for accreditation: Accredited Sexual Minority Therapist and Specialist Practitioner (Sexual Minority), This paper pertains to Accredited Therapist criteria.  The Specialist Practitioner criteria will follow at a later date.

The scheme accredits people who work with sexual minority clients.  Pink Therapy defines these groups as including (and not limited to) people who identify themselves as: lesbian, gay, bisexual, intersex, trans (-gender, -vestite, -sexual) and other gender variant identities, queer, questioning, celibate, fetishists and other members of the kink community, and people in non-traditional intimate relationships (i.e polyamorous).

Accredited Therapists need to satisfy the examiners that they are competent in three broad areas:

• knowledge and understanding
• skills and abilities
• attitudes and values

Accredited Therapists will need to show knowledge and understanding of:

• sexual and gender minority subcultures, including multiple, overlapping identities, and an ability to work across genders. A recognition that sexual minorities, whilst sharing some things in common, have many things that differentiate them from each other.
• different psychological and theoretical perspectives on working with sexual and gender minority clients – (i.e. different developmental theories, the role of stigma and oppression on the self structure)
• the historical context of psychological therapies and their relationship to sexual and gender minorities.
• the dynamics of oppression (internalised and externalised).
• an awareness of sexual minority cultures which they know little about and a willingness to develop their knowledge base as part of their CPD.

We believe that sexual and gender minority people have often developed a hypervigilance to being perceived as ‘mad, bad and dangerous to know.’ Accredited Therapists will need to demonstrate these skills and abilities:

• the ability to work with hypervigilance in a non-defensive manner and be alert to the clinical implications for the therapeutic relationship.
• the ability to distinguish to what extent sexuality or gender variance might be relevant to a client’s presentation and when it is not.
• how they have used supervision and CPD  as ways to develop themselves as practitioners with sexual minority clients.
• that they are able to extend themselves outside of their familiar cultural and social reference points as they engage with clients from diverse communities and backgrounds
• that they are able to work from the client’s values and beliefs, and help clients develop personalised plans, choices and solutions for their lives,

Attitudes and Values

Accredited therapists will:

• hold non-pathologising attitudes to variant sexual and gender identities
• be aware of, and committed to managing, particular boundary issues which may emerge when working with sexual minority clients, in an ethical and reflective manner.
• be committed to anti-discriminatory values
• embrace an openness to a range of approaches and solutions to human dilemmas, both conventional and non-conventional.

Evidence for Accredited Therapist status:

It is expected that much of the above will be demonstrated by a Personal Statement of up to 1500 words (typed), which will be signed and commented upon by the candidate’s clinical supervisor.

In addition, we would like to see evidence of 30 hours formal training in issues directly relevant to sexual and gender minority issues, ideally achieved over the last five years.  This maybe in the form of attendance certificates (stating number of hours attended) for courses, workshops, seminars and conferences.  If you don’t have attendance certificates then a letter from the training provider confirming your attendance will suffice.

Evidence of relevant reading and engagement with keeping abreast of current literature and the social context in the form of a CPD log.  This may include professional journals and books read, relevant TV programmes watched, LGBT media (newspapers, magazines, etc), cinema and theatre, arts and culture.  Basically we’re looking for an ongoing commitment to staying in touch with issues affecting both sexual minority therapy and the social context for sexual minority people’s lived experience.

Client contact hours – a minimum of 150 cumulative hours of therapeutic counselling work with a minimum of five sexual minority clients in total. As this scheme is about accrediting therapists to work with sexual minority clients we would expect there to be some diversity over the gender and sexuality of the clients.

Fees

A fee of £65 will be payable. Accreditation is renewed every two years. A simpler form listing CPD will be used for reaccreditation.

Candidates will be accredited, declined or deferred and the assessors as grounds for declining or deferring accreditation will give you specific feedback.  If you are deferred and want to reapply within a month, then a lower reassessment fee of £35 applies.

Assessment Process

On receipt of two hard copies (or one digital copy sent via email) of your application, your form will be sent by us to a member of the Assessment Team who will consider the application against the criteria outlined above. They will then fill out a report form and forward it to Pink Therapy's Director, Dominic Davies who will act as second assessor on all applications. Any discrepancies of opinion between first and second assessor will be discussed and further clarification may be sought from the candidate in the form of a deferred result.

The applicant will then be written to with the result. In all cases, applicants will get a copy of the assessment feedback and where applicants have been accredited, they will also receive a copy of their accreditation certificate.

External Moderation

The accreditation scheme is externally moderated by Carmen Ablack who is a Director of the Centre for Integral Relational Training, She is an experienced trainer and is Chair of the Standards Board and the Training Standards Committee, which is one of the major sub committees working to the UKCP Standards Board.  The Training Standards committee holds the responsibility for the specific development of training standards and their regulation  across the UKCP.  All Sections are represented on this committee. Ms Ablack is also available to applicants and assessors in cases of appeal.

To download an application form, please click here.