Accredited membership of the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (IACP) represents a commitment to professional excellence in the field of counseling and psychotherapy.
If the core course you have completed is not an IACP Accredited Course, you may still apply for accreditation. However, it is at the discretion of the Accreditation Committee to evaluate whether it meets the criteria.
Please assess if you are eligible to apply for IACP Accreditation via BACP Accreditation, ACA Level 3/4 Membership or Licensure from a regulated country and select that route if so.
Before committing to apply, please consider if your qualification meets the criteria below:
A) Core course must be a minimum of NFQ Level 8 (or international equivalent) and a minimum of 4 years full or part time in duration and not less than 500 hours of student contact. The course must be awarded not less than 180 European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) for a Level 8 degree and not less than 120 credits for a Level 9 qualification.
B) Minimum of 120 hours of supervised individual client work. The student’s external supervisor must be accredited (IACP/ BACP/IAHIP) and not be a member of the course staff.
C) Minimum ratio of 1-5 individual external supervision hours to client hours during training.
D) The course must include group supervision once students begin client practice hours: Minimum 2 hours of group supervision per month, for two years of the course. Group size must be between 3 supervisees to max 6 (please check Course Accreditation Criteria for the details of external individual and internal group supervision requirements).
E) Minimum of 500 course hours of class contact, including skills, theory and self-development
F) A detailed study of one core theoretical model of Counselling/Psychotherapy with an introduction to other theoretical models of Counselling/Psychotherapy for comparison and contrast
G) Minimum of 50 hours of personal therapy during training - IACP/ BACP/ IAHIP accredited therapists
H) Assessment of applicants for suitability before being selected onto the course
I) Up to 30% of the course may be delivered online - this relates to training/supervision/client and personal therapy hours
As of 12 June 2015,
- courses may be combined to make up a core course.
- These two courses must be completed within 5 years of each other.
- You must provide documentation, a detailed course brochure and a course outline for the above:
- It is the responsibility of the applicant to state wherein the documentation provided, shows this requirement was met and highlight accordingly.
To apply for IACP Accreditation, an applicant must:
1. Be covered by professional indemnity insurance.
2. Have current IACP Garda Vetting in place. Please apply for the Garda Vetting at the time of submitting your documentation for First Time Accreditation, or contact 01 230 35 36 to check if your existing IACP Garda Vetting is current and valid.
3. Qualified for at least one year but no later than five from a non-IACP Accredited course that meets the criteria detaield above. Please include a cover letter with your application if you are applying outside of the accepted timeframes.
4. Have completed 450 hours of client contact work with an Accredited Supervisor (IACP, BACP* or IAHIP) post 100 trainee hours required on the course (post 120 trainee hours if the course began September 2020 or later). The ratio of supervision will be dependent on your membership category.
5. Have worked with the same Supervisor for at least 12 months post qualifying, and be working with this Supervisor currently. This Supervisor will sign off on your application as a whole. IACP, BACP* or IAHIP Accredited supervisors only.
6. A minimum of 45 hours of supervision is required to comply with the ratio of 1-hour supervision to 10 counselling hours. Within these 45 hours, 12 supervision hours can be met by group supervision.
Note that the 1:10 supervision ratio must be followed continuously, and there should not be more than 10 client hours in between supervision sessions. At the time of application, the Accreditation Department will require a yearly breakdown of client work, confirming that the 1:10 supervision ratio was followed annually prior to submitting for full Accreditation.
6. Commitment to Professional Development. The applicant needs to submit a minimum of 10 hours CPD activities completed 12 months prior to submission of their application, as per IACP CPD Policy (3 hours could be Supervision received).