ACC is a professional body set up in 1992 to facilitate quality counselling, psychotherapy, pastoral care and related training.
ACC is also a membership organisation for 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.
Benefits
• ACC offers ways to help you to develop and grow in your ministry of caring for others, whether it be counsellor accreditation or pastoral skills training.
• ACC offers a fellowship community of belonging through local networks and groups, and by regular communication through for example the website, e mail and social media postings
• ACC is the only Christian and faith based organisation to hold a register of counsellors accredited by the Professional Standards Authority for Health & Social Care
• ACC provides the facility for clients to search on-line for counsellors & affiliated counselling agencies, for counsellors to search for supervisors and for you to advertise your services using our “Find A Counsellor” facility
• ACC’S office team also take calls from people looking for Christian counsellors and training organisations and we aim to connect them with our counselling members and affiliates.
• ACC provides advice and guidance to counsellors, affiliated organisations and pastoral carers on ethical and professional issues
• ACC offers a complaints management process for resolving issues. Uniquely we provide impartial support for both counsellors and complainants for the duration of the process
• ACC runs and facilitates regional and national training events and conferences. We offer exceptionally high-quality training, at very reasonable costs, which may be further discounted for members.
• ACC membership includes a quarterly copy of our flagship Accord magazine so that you can stay up to date with the world of Christian counselling and pastoral care and benefit from the expertise of practitioners in the field
• Being a member of ACC provides counsellors with significant discounts on professional insurance from all the leading insurers in the field eg Oxygen, Towergate & Howden