Join PACFA

How do I join PACFA?
Individuals cannot join PACFA - it is an "association of associations". You need to join a PACFA Member Association in order to show that you meet the professional standards now required in the field. You will need to approach a PACFA Member Association and go through their normal membership procedures - you will have to prove that you meet their training standards, their supervision and experience requirements, and commit yourself to their ethical standards. All of these will have been ratified as sufficient by PACFA.
The benefits of joining a member association listed with PACFA are mainly for credibility in the profession because you have met the PACFA minimum training standards.

Join PACFA as a Member Association

If you are then eligible to be listed on the PACFA Register, you will be published on the PACFA website as an individual therapist. Listing on the PACFA Register will hold you in high regard by members of the public because you have met stringent standards of training, ethics and accountability.

Your course would also need to have met our minimum training standards. The PACFA 2009 Minimum Training Standards include the following criteria. The new Training Standards only apply to new applicants to member associations. Existing members do not need to meet these standards.

Postgraduate

  • Members must have completed a Postgraduate Equivalent qualification, over a minimum of two years, *200 hours of person-to-person psychotherapy and/or counselling training and
  • 50 hours of supervision relating to 200 hours of client contact.
  • A minimum of 10 hours of supervision relating to 40 client contact hours must have taken place within the training program (These 10 hours are part of the 50 hours of supervision).

OR

Undergraduate

  • An Undergraduate Equivalent qualification of 350 hours person-to-person training in counselling and or psychotherapy, this must be over a minimum of 3 years
  • 50 hours of supervision relating to 200 hours of client contact.
  • A minimum of 10 hours of supervision relating to 40 client contact hours must have taken place within the training program (These 10 hours are part of the 50 hours of supervision).

These training standards were developed in conjunction with our Member Associations and detail the minimum level of training required for an individual who wishes to join a PACFA Member Association. We suggest that you choose a Member Association who you feel best represents your modality, style of counseling and/or philosophy. Click here to view our 37 Member Associations

If you then wish to become listed on the PACFA Register of Psychotherapists and Counsellors you would then be eligible to do so. You can find information on listing on the PACFA Register here.

What are the benefits of joining a PACFA Member Association and listing on the PACFA Register?
In the long term, membership of a PACFA Member Association will mean the widest public recognition of your professional credibility. The PACFA National Register of Psychotherapists and Counsellors is available to members of the general public who are seeking information about Psychotherapy and Counselling. The Register, unlike a membership list, includes names of individual Psychotherapists and Counsellors who have been accredited through the National Register application process. Having your name listed on the Register, under that of your PACFA Member Association, will confirm that your level of training, your expertise, your commitment to a high standard of ethical and professional practice, have been verified.

PACFA Benefits ;

  1. PACFA provides a forum for professional counsellors and psychotherapists to gain recognition of members of a united professional association and management of queries concerning adherence with ethical educational training and compliance requirements for professional practitioners;
  2. Listing on the PACFA Register is a pre-condition for potential acceptance under the private health insurance (accreditation) rules 2008;
  3. Listing on the PACFA Register is a pre-requisite for entry into one of the ten special sections for professional modalities of psychotherapists and counsellors that are consulted on registration and recognition in those modalities;
  4. Key stakeholders including service organization, employers and government departments check with the PACFA Register to confirm professional standing;
  5. On-going professional development and staffing requirements by organisations seeking confirmation of continuing education requirements are confirmed only for PACFA Registrants as other queries are referred directly to Member Associations;
  6. Evidence of requisite knowledge, skills and experience for listing on the Australian Register of Counsellors and Psychotherapists (ARCAP) depends on holding prior standing on the national register of either PACFA or ACA;
  7. As PACFA and the ACA are negotiating to gain a quality of treatment with Allied Health Professions it is essential to maintain an up to date register of clinical and professional Counsellors and psychotherapists as there are more than 10,000 self-identified and uncredentialled claimants to this status (see Senate Committee Report 6.123);
  8. The PACFA Register is accepted as being endorsed by the 37 current Member Associations as proof of professional standing and peer acceptance for the provision of relevant information on qualified practitioners to the community and to government agencies through a National Register of psychotherapists and counsellors;
  9. Members on the PACFA Register are able to contribute to and develop policy and research proposals with respect to the efficacy of counselling and psychotherapists, skills development, theory and knowledge building and promote these by use of the PACFA logo as a seal of standing and post nominal in gaining employment and public standing; and
  10. Participation on the Register contributes to the provision of a united professional identity of the science relating to the art and practice of psychotherapy and counseling, including providing support, public accountability and representation of the professions where there is conflict over the standing of psychotherapy and counseling as legitimate Allied Health Professions.

How can I be listed on the PACFA Register?
First you will need to be a member of a PACFA Member Association. Once you have been accepted for membership, your Association will give you a Register Application Form. The Register has its own standards, which are higher than the standards set for membership of a PACFA Member Association. There may be some further eligibility criteria for listing within the Section of the Register to which your Member Association belongs (contact your Association for further details). Details of the procedures involved in applying to be listed on the Register have evolved, first by the Standing Conference of Educators and Trainers in Counselling and Psychotherapy, and then by PACFA, with a view to preserving diversity within the field, whilst at the same time creating an infrastructure for accountability and the maintenance of responsible professional standards within this diverse field.

If you are already a member of a member association, to be listed on the PACFA register, your association needs to complete an endorsement form on your behalf if you are deemed eligible by them. Your association must sign the endorsement form and provide your contact details to PACFA. If you are endorsed, PACFA would then send you a new application form and a contact details form for publication on the PACFA website. Once PACFA have received this information back, along with a copy of your professional indemnity insurance, then if everything is in order you would then become listed on the PACFA Register and sent a certificate and welcome letter.

If you do not submit your details to your association prior to December 2008, then you will be charged an application fee of $99. In January 2009, all new applications will also be charged.

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