The Professional Competencies of a European Psychotherapist

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• The Project
  • Project Outline
  • The Background of the Project
  • The Process of the Project
  • Rationale
  • Political Background
  • Scientific Background
  • Literature Review
  • Definitions
• The Domains
• Competencies
  • Overview
  • Core Competencies
  • Specific Competencies
  • Specialist Competencies
• Working Group
• Practice Analysis Survey
• Appendices
  • Appendix 1
  • Appendix 2
  • Appendix 3
  • Appendix 4
  • Appendix 5
  • Appendix 6
  • Appendix 7
  • Appendix 8
• Participate
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  • Participants List
  • Participants Comments

 

 

 

Appendix 3: The European Association of Psychotherapy (EAP)

• The EAP is a professional association for European psychotherapists. It is an independent body, legally registered in Austria, with a bureau (office), a set of statutes, appointed and elected officers, policies and procedures, and audited accounts. The EAP website is www.europsyche.org
• It was founded on the basis of the 1990 Strasbourg Declaration on Psychotherapy (see Appendix 1a), which is committed to establishing an independent profession of psychotherapy in Europe
• It was established to coordinate the national professional associations of psychotherapists in different European countries , and also the European-wide professional associations of psychotherapists in different psychotherapeutic disciplines.
• The EAP currently represents 128 organisations (including 28 national awarding / umbrella associations / organisations (NAO/NUO); 17 European-wide accrediting associations / organisations for psychotherapy (EWAO/EWO)) from 41 European countries, and by all that representing indirectly more than 120,000 European psychotherapists. Membership is also open for individual psychotherapists.
• The EAP holds a Register of European Psychotherapists who have been awarded the European Certificate of Psychotherapy (ECP). About 6,000 ECPs have been awarded to date.
• Meetings are held regularly across Europe, visiting nearly all the member states; and there are annual professional conferences.
• The EAP has a professional peer-reviewed journal, the International Journal for Psychotherapy (IJP) that is in its 15th volume. It is peer-reviewed, in English with some article also in their mother-tongue, and it has 3 issues per annum. Details here.
• The EAP has been recognised as an International NGO member of the Council of Europe and is informad and consulted on issues to do with mental health and psychotherapy.

The EAP's Projects and Progress to Date

• The 1990 Strasbourg Declaration on Psychotherapy (see Appendix 1a)
• An agreed set of quantitative training standards that establish the basis for the European Certificate of Psychotherapy (ECP), as a post-graduate professional qualification in psychotherapy, in accordance with the standards of the EU. (see Appendix 4)
• Developing a "Statement of Ethical Principles" for a European Psychotherapist. (see Appendix 6)
• Creating a Register of European Psychotherapists, who have all been awarded the ECP. The ECP has been awarded to over 6,000 psychotherapists in Europe.
• The ECP is being researched under SEPT: the Survey of European Psychotherapy Training, which is a European wide survey to assess the impact of the ECP: SEPT is A Leonardo da Vinci Project, funded by The European Commission.
• In collaboration with the EAP, the Sigmund Freud University (SFU) in Vienna has established a research programme dedicated to the historical, legislative and comparative aspects of psychotherapy in Europe: for more details, see here.
• The ECP has also been used as the basis for professional training in psychotherapy in several other countries (inc. Japan, Mexico, Lebanon, etc.) and as the basis for the Psychotherapy Certificate of the World Council of Psychotherapy (WCP).
• Criteria for Continuing Professional Development (CPD).
• Criteria for assessing a European Accredited Psychotherapy Training Institute (EAPTI), which trains people in psychotherapy to ECP level. Also criteria for a number of ‘International Experts’ capable of making an assessment of such a training institute. The EAP has already appointed about 18 International Experts and recognised about 54 EAPTIs in 19 different European countries;
• A Template for a National Psychotherapy Law: This is a template for a law for psychotherapy organisations in any particular country who wish to help promote a pluralistic framework for legal regulations about psychotherapy in that country. (see Appendix 5)
• EAP Migraton Study: On the recommendation of the European Commission a pilot study on the migration of psychotherapists in the European Union was conducted by the EAP in 2010. For more information: go here or for a copy of the survey, go here.
• The project to establish the Professional Competencies of a European Psychotherapist is the next major ‘task’.

Working Group on Professional Competencies: committee@psychotherapy-competency.eu

 

European Association for Psychotherapy (EAP) * Schnirchgasse 9A/4/410 * 1030 Vienna * Austria *
Phone: (+43) 1-513-1729 * Fax: (+43) 1-512-2604 * E-mail: eap.headoffice@europsyche.org

Page last updated: July 15, 2012