Read the article What is Counselling and Psychotherapy? To find out more about the range of different titles and specialisms within the counselling professions

Take a look at these links to find out more about the main counselling and psychotherapy organisations in the UK and Australia:

• British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP)

• United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP)

• British Psychoanalytic Council (BPC)

• British Association for Cognitive and Behavioural Psychotherapies (BABCP)

• Australian Counselling Association (ACA)

Read Chapter 3: The Trainee Experience for an engaging account of what it is like to undergo training.

Find out more about counselling training and the main awarding bodies:

• ABC Awards 

• BABCP Training Information 

• BACP Training Information

• Counselling and Psychotherapy Central Awarding Body: CPCAB 

• UKCP Training Information

Read these articles for more information on the long term effectiveness of psychodynamic therapy:

• Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: An Effectiveness Study

• Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: A Quantitative, Longitudinal Perspective

Read this article for an outline of the history and basic principles of CBT: 

• Cognitive behaviour therapy: its evolution and basic principles

Have a look at these articles to further your understanding of the broader applications of humanistic counselling and psychotherapy:

• Gestalt Therapy Introduction

• Conceptions and Misconceptions of Gestalt Therapy

• What Is Transactional Analysis?

• 'Wild Women Don't Have the Blues': A Feminist Critique of `Person-Centred' Counselling and Therapy

Read this chapter for Stephen Palmer's take on multimodal counselling and psychotherapy:

• Chapter 11: Multimodal Counselling and Therapy

These articles will introduce you to solution-focused therapy, dynamic interpersonal therapy, EMDR and compassion focused therapy:

• Solution-Focused Therapy 

• Solution-Oriented Questions: An Analysis of Key Interventions in Solution-Focused Therapy 

• Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy: Working With Perceptions of the Self and Other 

• EMDR: Taking a Closer Look

• ‘Finding the person you really are … on the inside’: Compassion focused therapy for adults with intellectual disabilities

​This website provides the UCL competence frameworks for the delivery of effective psychological interventions

Find out more about Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT)

Read these articles for more information on therapeutic relationships

• The Five Therapeutic Relationships

• Therapeutic Relationship as a Change Agent in Psychotherapy: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

Read these articles to introduce yourself to some broader issues surrounding counselling skills online and in lifeskills:

• Chapter 10: Lifeskills Counselling, Richard Nelson-Jones

• Chapter 1: The Foundations: A Framework for Practice When Using Online Counselling Skills

Read Assessing Counselors’ Self-Efficacy in Suicide Assessment and Intervention for more information on the Counselor Suicide Assessment Efficacy Survey (CSAES)

• Depression UK

• Mind (Depression)

• Students Against Depression

• BACP Counselling for Depression

• Rethink Psychosis

• NHS Psychosis

• MIND Psychosis

• Anxiety UK

• MIND - Anxiety and Panic Attacks

• NHS Self-Help for Anxiety Disorders

• Mind (Suicide)

• The Samaritans (Mental Health and Suicide)

• CRUSE Bereavement Care

• Mind (Bereavement)

• Royal College of Psychiatrists (Bereavement)

• Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: 5th edition

Read these articles to become more familiar with counselling in primary care, IAPT and counseling for depression:

• Counselling in primary care: a systematic review of the evidence

• Choice of therapies in IAPT: An overview of the availability and client profile of step 3 therapies

• The competences required to deliver effective Counselling for Depression (CfD)

Read these articles for more information on ethical frameworks:

• Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions

• Code Of Ethics and Practice of the Association for Counsellors in Australia

• Ethics in Pastoral Care and Counseling: A Contemporary Review of Updated Standards in the Field

If you want to look in more detail at relevant legislation, visit these websites:

• UK Parliament

• Welsh Assembly Government:

• Scottish Parliament

• Northern Ireland Assembly

• Office of Public Sector Information

• Statute Law Database

• NICE

These articles introduce you to some of the ethical issues around managing professional responsibilities: 

• In Recognition of Dual Relationships

• About the Ethics of Professional Touch

Read these articles for practical information on developing your practice:

• Ethical Guidelines for Researching Counselling and Psychotherapy

• Supervision in the helping professions: Making the case for support and supervision for career counsellors

Take a look at these Ethical Guidelines from the British Psychological Society and British Association of Counselling Professions:

• BPS Human Research Ethics

• BACP Ethical Guidelines for Researching in Counselling and Psychotherapy