UK counsellors and psychotherapists call for statutory regulation in a 'watershed moment'

Ministers should introduce statutory regulation for counsellors and psychotherapists to protect the public from abuse, according to a report that has been hailed as a 'watershed moment' for the profession.

Unlike most other healthcare roles, including doctors, midwives and osteopaths, 'psychotherapist' and 'counsellor' are not protected titles nor statutorily regulated professions in the UK.

This means anyone can call themselves a therapist without a qualification, and can continue to practise even after an episode of misconduct, under a system that is poorly understood by the public.

For the first time, the professional bodies that represent counsellors and psychotherapists, and which run the current voluntary accreditation scheme, are calling for statutory regulation to boost confidence in the profession and protect the public from the growing number of cases of abuse and malpractice.

The report is the culmination of an independent review launched in October 2025 by the Commission for the Future of Counselling and Psychotherapy. It argues that counsellors and psychotherapists are an untapped resource that could fill a mental health treatment gap estimated at about 1.8 million people on waiting lists. Practitioners told the commission they had extra capacity, which the report estimated could cumulatively provide more than 370,000 hours of additional therapy appointments every week.

The commission's co-chair Phil Hope, a former Labour minister for care services, said: 'For me, the report became a bit of a watershed moment for the profession, a real landmark of the opportunity there is for the government, and all its departments really, to unlock that potential.'

Ella Janneh, who successfully sued her therapist in the high court for rape and sexual assault in 2024 and has campaigned for regulation with the support of the law firm Leigh Day, welcomed the 'collective call for regulation'. She said it had taken 'years and a lot of honest and difficult conversations between victims, other campaigners and conscientious professionals'.

'Statutory regulation would lock abusive and unethical people out of the system. The current lack of centralised regulation allows for repeat offenders to continue practising with no oversight. That is reason enough to bring in regulation,' Janneh said. The report cites her testimony as an illustration of the 'devastating, ongoing impact' the absence of statutory regulation can have, since her therapist is still able to practise despite the outcome of her civil case.

The report's co-chair Andrea Sutcliffe, the former chief executive of the Nursing and Midwifery Council and an expert on regulation, said the coalition government set its face against statutory regulation in 2011. 'We heard some really powerful testimony about the risk and the fact that people have been harmed... but as independent co-chairs, we feel that a compelling case exists,' she said.

Regulation was especially important for counselling and psychotherapy because they are complex interventions requiring years of training to practise, Sutcliffe said. Therapy takes place in a one-on-one setting, most practitioners are independent, meaning there is no employer oversight, and their patients are typically vulnerable people.

The Labour MP Sojan Joseph, chair of the all-party parliamentary group on mental health and a former nurse, said he supported the case for statutory regulation and would raise the issue in parliament. Jon Levett, the UK Council for Psychotherapy's chief executive, said he would welcome statutory regulation that 'protects the public, sets clear standards and preserves people's choice of therapy'.