NCS | Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

We have officially changed our name to the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society!

Information for members

As of the 15th of May 2023, we have officially changed our name to the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society (NCPS).

Our new and improved website is coming soon!

Continuing Professional Development, commonly abbreviated to CPD, describes the ongoing learning that contributes to an individual’s knowledge and skills, and enhances their ability to perform within their vocation.

The National Counselling Society defines CPD for our members as ‘a range of learning activities through which professional counsellors grow and develop throughout their careers to ensure that they retain their ability to practise safely, ethically and legally within their evolving scope of practice’.

When you sign up for professional membership to the National Counselling Society you agree to abide by our Code of Ethics.

As part of that agreement, and with regards to CPD, all Practitioners undertake to:

1) Maintain or improve their level of skills and professional competence in an appropriate manner commensurate with their vocations.

2) Maintain a varied CPD programme and completed to current Society requirements for registrant members.

3) Ensure that their CPD enhances their professional practice and improves the service provided to clients. It is important to keep up to date with new developments relevant to practice.

4) Complete CPD in accordance with current Society guidance per 12-month period (30 hours +), keeping theoretical and practical knowledge and skills up to date by learning more about their discipline and learning more about how to work as a professional practitioner, including any new legislative requirements.

5) Complete CPD in a range of activities (e.g. seminars, conferences, workshops, reading, research, online training etc...)

Further CPD guidance can be found at https://nationalcounsellingsociety.org/members/continuing-professional-development-cpd

To support your CPD programme, and to enhance and refresh your knowledge about the Society’s Code of Ethics, we have an online course about Working Ethically. This course can be accessed via the following link:

https://www.counsellingcpd.org/product/ethical-practice
- This short online course will give you 4 hours of CPD.

As well as running a comprehensive program of CPD events across the UK, which members of the Society can access through the CPD calendar (available via the Members’ Area of our website), the National Counselling Society also runs various online courses which can be accessed via the following link: https://www.counsellingcpd.org/

  • Find a Counsellor

    Find the help you need...If you are a potential client looking for a counsellor, you may search our registrants by location or name and you can also check whether someone is on the NCPS accredited register. A member of the Society may be a Registrant or a non-registrant member.

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  • Train as a Counsellor

    Use our Find a Course tool to find the nearest training providers who offer National Counselling Society Accredited, Advanced Specialist, Quality Checked or CPD courses. These courses are currently run across the the UK.

    Find Out More