British Psychoanalytic Council

The British Psychoanalytic Council (BPC) is a professional association and voluntary regulator, representing the profession of psychoanalytic and psychodynamic psychotherapy. The organisation is itself made up of 14 member institutions, which are training institutions, professional associations in their own right and accrediting bodies. Individual psychotherapists are members of these organisations and are ‘registrants’ of the BPC. There are around 1450 registrants of the BPC, working across the public, voluntary and private practice sectors. Many of our members are senior consultant psychiatrists, clinical psychologists and leading figures in the field of mental health. We publish an annual register of those practitioners who meet our fitness to practise standards. This is in line with the recommendations made by the Government’s report "The regulation of the non-medical healthcare professions". The BPC is working towards a future where psychoanalysis is acknowledged as a theory of mind that can support policy development to tackle society’s ills; and psychoanalytically informed work is routinely made available as a treatment to anyone in emotional distress, whatever their gender, ethnicity, sexuality, disability or income. The BPC exists to promote excellence in psychoanalytic thinking; safeguard the public; promote training and research; and make psychoanalysis accessible to all in society. Our key objectives are- Protecting the public - Leading and supporting the psychoanalytic community - Promoting the profession - Facilitating informed debate and leading edge thinking - Building a sustainable and professional organisation. CPD, therefore, is also important to the BPC and we are proud to host and promote many events, incl. seminars and conferences, to support those operating in the profession. For example, we were one of the co-organisers of the annual conference, Psychological Therapies in the NHS.