About Us
ACC is a professional body set up in 1992 to facilitate quality counselling, psychotherapy, pastoral care and related training. We are the only Christian UK-wide counselling organisation holding an Accredited Register with the Professional Standards Authority. We offer membership to individual counsellors and psychotherapists; organisations, agencies and Churches concerned with counselling/psychotherapy or related activities; and pastoral carers.
Individual counsellor membership consists of people who are employed by agencies offering counselling/psychotherapy (e.g. counselling centres, doctors’ surgeries, schools, etc.) or in private practice and others who offer their counselling/psychotherapy work as volunteers in counselling centres, churches, GP practices etc.
Pastoral Care UK was launched as part of ACC in 2013 to further the aims of developing training and support for pastoral carers throughout the UK and beyond. More about Pastoral Care UK
ACC has a Board of Trustees that ensure the charity to best carry out its purposes.
Vision
ACC aspire to help sustain and support our members in the work they do for the benefit and care of individuals and communities.
Our values
- Everyone has value for who they are regardless of their background, beliefs and lifestyle
- Everyone needs meaning and purpose
- Everyone has the right to personal respect
- Everyone needs to experience acceptance and love that strengthens their sense of person
- We aspire in everything we do to be ethical, clear and transparent
Mission
- Promote safe, competent, ethical and accountable practice for counselling and pastoral care
- Empower individuals and communities through resourcing and connection
- Encourage exploration of psychological and theological insights into wellbeing and growth
- End the stigma that surrounds mental health in our society
What informs our ethos
- ACC draws its distinctive ethos from the Christian traditions of pastoral care and the conviction that pastoral care together with professional and independent counselling and psychotherapy is an important service to the public
- Hope and faith underlie the identity and work of our practitioners, who make no assumptions nor place any expectations or requirements about clients’ beliefs, values or lifestyle. We believe that to know that we are loved, and to love one’s neighbour as oneself is an expression of God’s love for humanity demonstrated in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. This love is expressed to people of all faiths and none, with full respect for the diversity of human experience; and for the freedom and autonomy of the person.
- ACC practitioners seek to learn from the vital insights of sound psychological theory and practice and from the wider psychotherapeutic community. ACC supports Christian counsellors and psychotherapists in reaching and maintaining high standards of professional care for members of the public as evidenced through our accredited register. ACC believe our professional insights can contribute to the practice of pastoral care in churches and other settings, and we train, equip pastoral carers, church leaders and organisations.
- ACC aspire to be a one-body fellowship to help sustain and support our various members in the work that they do for individuals and communities.
See ACC Membership for detailed information on what we offer.
Join ACC
