About the National Counselling Society
The National Counselling Society (NCS) was first established in 1999 by a group of counsellors, psychotherapists, hypnotherapists and psychologists. Since our foundation we have been acknowledged as having an important role to play in counselling in the UK. We have a cooperation agreement with the Royal Society for Public Health.
Our belief is that counselling (and related therapies) should be seen as a vocation and that the relationship between counsellor and client is important for the outcome of therapy.
We support and promote counselling and counsellors, offering a wide variety of benefits to our members and training organisations. We also play a role in ensuring that the best interests of the clients of counselling are protected. We acknowledge we have a duty of care to the public.
Partner Organisations
The National Counselling Society has an exclusive partnership with the Police Firearms Officers Association for the recruitment of Counsellors to work with police officers who have been involved in critical incidents (and with officers' families).
Organisational Membership
We welcome membership applications from charities, voluntary groups, agencies, clinics and not for profit organisations as well as commercial organisations.
We are a Not for Profit organisation bound by appropriate rules of governance including a Constitution, Codes of Ethics, and various sets of standards of training and membership.
Our Ethos is that counselling is a unique vocation and that this should be reflected in all our policies. We act to protect counselling from inappropriate regulation where we feel it could harm our vocation and the diversity, creativity and range of training options that currently exist in our profession. We were instrumental in ensuring the previous Government's inappropriate plans were dropped.
We ensure that all our members have a say and respect a wide variety of views, modalities and training routes. We acknowledge and support counsellors who work in the voluntary sector and part time as well as in full time employment or in private practice. We also acknowledge and support the diversity of approaches in counselling, including faith-based approaches and alternative approaches. Unique among counselling associations in the UK we also recognise hypnotherapy as a counselling modality. Instead of employing a "top down" approach to our members we seek to involve, encourage and work in partnership with them at all levels. We believe this is the only appropriate way of running a counselling organisation.
The NCS continues to play a significant role in all aspects of counselling and related therapies and to welcome members, trainers and members of the public seeking the services of an appropriate professional.