Are you a member yet? Membership is open to all and is the first step towards accreditation.
Reaccreditation Guidelines
This information will give you guidance to help you make sure your CBT practice, clinical supervision and CPD will meet the standards for Reaccreditation.
All the documents mentioned can be downloaded from the Reaccreditation Audit page within the Accreditation section.
Country of Practice
You should be in CBT clinical practice in the UK or its territories, or Ireland.
CBT Clinical Practice Minimum Caseloads
To maintain your CBT accreditation, at least 50% of your psychotherapeutic practice must be acceptable forms of CBT, as defined in the following section.
For Reaccreditation, there is no specific requirement for a minimum number of clinical hours. However, the minimum caseload for maintaining Accreditation is two CBT clinical contacts or equivalent per week.
Example One - a part-time CBT therapist who provides CBT clinical supervision and training in a specialised trauma service. Clinical work consists of seeing one patient a week for a two-hour session.
Example Two - a full-time NHS manager in CBT service, who has no opportunity for clinical work in this role. Has a CBT private practice on Saturday mornings seeing two patients for one hour each.
Accepted CBT Practice
You can count practice with all relevant areas of mental health disorder and client groups towards your practice for Full Accreditation and Reaccreditation.
Examples of client groups include adults, children and young people, older adults, learning disabilities, autism. You can work exclusively or partially with any of these groups.
You should ensure appropriate training and supervision in these areas and that you are working within the Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics.
Other cognitive and/or behavioural approaches
Accredited therapists can practice exclusively, specialise in, or include other cognitive and/or behavioural therapies in their therapeutic work.
CBT is an ever-evolving model, and consequently there will be developments and emerging approaches in CBT. You must be able to demonstrate that you practice according to an evidence-base which builds upon cognitive and behavioural principles and interventions.
Formats of CBT Therapy
You can provide CBT in different formats. For example, face to face individual, video conferencing, online, telephone, group. You can use these exclusively or in conjunction with other formats.
Supervision should be appropriate for the format used, and supervisors should also be trained and experienced in delivering CBT in this format.
Qualifications of Supervisors
Supervision should be provided by a BABCP Accredited Practitioner or a practitioner who is trained and qualified in CBT to postgraduate diploma level or equivalent (or would meet Minimum Training Standards). They should be currently practising CBT as a dedicated practitioner (ie at least 50% of their own psychotherapeutic practice is CBT) and also be receiving specifically CBT supervision.
Amounts of Supervision
If you are accredited, you should be receiving regular specifically CBT supervision appropriate to your caseload and level of expertise. You can't count professional supervision or case management as clinical supervision (although these may be provided by the same person).
Full-time therapists must have a minimum of one and a half hours of supervision per month. This can mean an average, providing the contact is regular.
Part-time therapists can reduce the amount of supervision, this may be reduced on a pro-rata basis. The minimum should be 45 mins a month.
Group supervision - 90 minutes of group supervision alone is not enough - arrangements should be made for additional supervision, possibly to facilitate live supervision. You can count all time spent in group supervision provided the group has no more than six members.
Keeping Supervision Records
We advise you to keep up to date records of all supervision sessions - possibly using the downloadable Collaborative Supervision Summary. We will ask for this if you are invited for Reaccreditation Audit - when you will also have to provide a current Supervisor Report.
Types and Methods of Supervision
Types of Supervision may be individual, group, video conferencing, messenger, telephone, email or peer review. However there should be some face to face sessions - this includes video conferencing.
Live supervision should take place regularly (audio or video recording or in vivo observation). This may be a whole session reviewed through a competency measure such as CTSR, or sample sections of a session.
Amounts and Type of CPD You must complete five activities from across the wide range listed in Acceptable CPD Activity and Evidence List Download. This is available in the Reaccreditation Audit section as well as the CPD Guidance page. Within these activities, you must complete at least six hours of CBT skills practice per year. This may be through one six-hour workshop, or a number of shorter ones. These should be provided by trainers with CBT qualifications and experience. We recommend doing a number of different types of CBT-specific CPD activities appropriate to your practice development. Your CPD can include activities which develop your knowledge of and skills in fundamental CBT interventions. You can also include learning and development in newer cognitive/behavioural approaches provided they have an evidence base
Non-CBT specific activities
One non-CBT activity may be included as one of the five activities per year after Provisional Accreditation. You should justify on your Reflective Statement how it is relevant to your CBT practice. These may not be counted as a part of the six hours CBT skills training. Examples include:
• EMDR training/CPD to enhance the skills of a therapist working in a trauma service • CAT (Cognitive Analytic Therapy) workshop or reading where it used widely by other members of a practitioner's MDT (multi-disciplinary team) • A play therapy workshop for a therapist working in CAMHS • Reading on the autistic spectrum for a therapist working with a patient with Asperger Syndrome
Evidence your CPD
You must provide a Reflective Statement if you are selected for Reaccreditation Audit. In each case, you will provide details from the previous twelve months in practice.
Reflective Statements are best completed shortly after completing each activity.