Professional associations should act ethically and professionally. Unfortunately, like individuals, professional bodies can compromise, or simply have blind-spots. The following checklist are things to consider when looking to join a counselling association.

Organisational interests

• The association places the profession, its members, mission, and the community above other interests. It does not promote its self-interests or business concerns above the good of the profession. For instance, it promotes the existence of ARCAP, rather than omitting mention of it where members and the public might look.
• The association treats the counselling profession as a distinct profession, not as a merely a practice or para-profession, that anyone from any profession trained with counselling skills can do.
• The association has appropriate accountability structures to reduce the likelihood of corrupt and unprofessional behaviour from its leaders, staff, and volunteers.
• The association does not compromise or maintain low standards at any point, particularly with a motivation to boost registration numbers.
• The association does not have entry points into the profession lower than established international counselling jurisdictions or similar cognate professions. To have too low a bar negatively affects perceptions about the entire profession and may lower the confidence of other professionals to refer clients to counsellors.
• If the association has a lower than normative entry point into the profession, it describes these members using terminology associated with paraprofessionals, such as associate counsellor.

Professional honesty and respect

• The association doesn’t use competitive language to highlight its achievements. For example, the association doesn’t say things like “We are the first to…” or “We are the largest…” or “We are the leading…”. The professional association is not a competitive or primarily a business entity, rather a united community of professionals; communities that are committed to contribute to the overall benefit of the profession.
• The association does not mislead others. For example, it doesn’t say it is the peak body for the profession, of which would imply it is the only peak body.
• The association does not use deception, by commission or omission.
• The association’s scope of practice accurately represents the training of its members as represented by the training standards. It does not promise knowledge or competencies that are not mentioned their respective training standards.

Quality

• The association follows its own written procedures and requires evidence of the meeting of the accreditation standards by the applying institutions. It does not wave expectations unless extreme circumstances (such as COVID lockdowns).
• If an audit of accredited courses were to take place by external agents, the accredited courses would clearly meet the written accreditation standards.
• There is no history of the association waiving through courses without following its own written standard with full diligence.
• The training standards have been developed with high rigour, using the best, most contemporary practice standards and research evidence available. It has also consulted with key stakeholders.
• The Recognised Prior Learning entry pathway is clearly documented. Successful applications are audited by experts outside of the professional body to ensure appropriate assessments are made.
• The association has a moderately low percentage of RPLs. A high proportion of RPLs for qualifications that have not been designed with the accreditation standards or profession’s international equivalents, or with the existing standards rigour, staffing requirements, etc of accreditation requirements might raise doubts about the integrity of the RPL process and cheapen confidence in the robustness and quality of membership registration.
• The training standards clearly preference counselling qualifications of counsellor educators over those from cognate professions. It does not treat them as equivalent and thus ignores the distinctiveness and value of counsellor socialisation and training in distinct preparation for the counselling profession.
• The association audits accredited courses from time to time to ensure ongoing compliance. It does not rely on institutional self-report alone but also uses more thorough mechanisms to audit compliance.
• Courses that do not pass audit are dealt with in a manner similar to how they would be dealt with by cognate professions.

Conflicts of interest

• The association does not have any individual or business interests that might have, or be perceived as having, a conflict of interest with the association. Professional associations are for their members and should not allow business conduct that might bring the profession into ill-repute or diminish the confidence of its members.
• Office holders, employees, and board members do not use and take advantage of the association or their role in it for their personal business interests.
• The association outsources all business contracts transparently and using a competitive process.
• The association has a governance structure that is effective and regarded as an appropriate practice to enable sufficient accountability and decision-marking.
• The association has policies and procedures that specifically deal with conflict-of-interest prevention and management.
• Annual reports provide an accurate report of the office bearers, association finances, strategy and other information that the membership is entitled to know.
• The association does not threaten its members with legal action should they criticise or scrutinise the association or its practices.
• The association does not push products onto its members, through pressure, questionable incentives, or discouraging them from outsourcing services. For instance, it does not pressure members to take its preferred insurance provider policies. Neither does it offer double credit for professional development that it endorses, thus implying that its professional development is twice the value.

By Nathan Beel 2025