Joining FAQs

Please see our membership joining fees webpage.

A list of benefits available for each membership grade is available on the page for that membership category: Student, Trainee, Full Clinical, Full Non-Clinical, Affiliate, Retired.

For information on becoming a UKCP member, please visit the web page relating to the membership grade you are looking to apply for.

UKCP has categories of membership to support individuals, whatever stage of their career they are at. We also welcome organisations into UKCP membership. Please visit this page for links to each category of membership that we offer, for more information.  

We welcome new members. Please visit the Join us page for more information. Once you have registered an account with us, please complete an application form online.

Our membership year runs from 1 October to 30 September. If you join part of the way through the year, you will be charged a proportion of the annual fee.

For example, if you join in October you will pay the full 12-month fee but if you join in March, you will pay a 7-month fee.

For people joining in July, August and September, your first fee covers more than a year so that you don’t have go through the renewal process again soon after joining. People joining in July will be charged a 15-month fee, August joiners will pay a 14-month fee and those who join in September will pay a 13-month fee.

See our membership fees page for more information.

Almost all UKCP members pay by Direct Debit. Full clinical and full non-clinical members also have the option to pay in four instalments or to pay in a single payment by debit or credit card. Single card payments will only be accepted for international card payers only. 

If you are a full clinical member, you will be sent an email with your certificate when you renew your membership. You can also download your certificate from the members’ area of the website. To do this:

1. Log in to the members’ area
2. Click ‘My Profile’
3. In the dropdown that appears, click ‘UKCP Certificate’
4. Click ‘Membership Certificate Download’ button to download the pdf certificate.

If the certificate download button is not active, it may be because we have not yet processed your payment. If this is not the case, or the problem persists, please contact our membership team.

If you don’t have software on your computer which will allow you to open and read PDF files, you can download Adobe Acrobat Reader for free here. Click ‘Download Acrobat Reader’ and follow the steps to install it on your computer.

If you’re not sure how to open and print a PDF attached to an email, this video explains it step by step. Depending on what type of computer you are using, which email software you use, and what type of printer you have, what you see might look a little different from what you see in the video, but the steps you need to follow should be almost identical.

If you find that your certificate doesn’t fit well when you print it out on an A4 sheet of paper, follow these steps to adjust the size.

Receipts are available through the Members’ login area of our website. Look for the ‘My transactions’ menu on the left-hand side of the page. Receipts are generated up to four working days after a payment is collected.

Our membership year starts on 1 October. You will receive your renewal notice towards the end of August each year. This will tell you how to renew. If you have a Direct Debit in place, the payment will be collected on the first working day in October.

To check your membership grade, log in to the members’ area of the website. Your membership type is listed at the bottom of your ‘My profile’ page.

If you are a full clinical psychotherapist or psychotherapeutic counsellor, you will receive an annual membership and registration certificate, and you will be listed in our National Register.

Trainee members will appear on our List of Trainee Therapists.

In order to change your membership grade, please log in to the members area, click the ‘Apply Now’ button and complete the relevant application form for the grade of membership you wish to transfer to. 

Visit the UKCP Members page via the link in the top right hand corner of the website, on that page you'll find a link to your Member’s area login. If you already have an online account, please sign in with your username (the email address we hold for you) and password.

If you have forgotten your password, you can reset it using the ‘Forgot Password’ link.

If you have forgotten your username, please contact the Membership Team on 0207 014 9955 (Option 1) or membership@ukcp.org.uk.

As a member of UKCP, you are expected to follow the UKCP Code of Ethics and Professional Practice. You will also be expected to meet standards relating to things such as client hours and supervision arrangements – these are set by your organisational member. If you no longer belong to an organisational member, please check your UKCP college standards.

UKCP has standards of practice and guidelines. We encourage our colleges and organisations to build on these with additional requirements for each type of psychotherapy. We would therefore recommend that you speak to them directly.

To maintain the integrity of our register and high standards of regulation, registered individual members undergo reaccreditation with their organisational member or UKCP college and we undertake annual random audits.

We offer full clinical members the option to take a sabbatical. For more information please email the membership team at membership@ukcp.org.uk

We send regular email news bulletins. To make sure you are receiving emails and updates from UKCP, log into your Member Area and select the tab ‘My Mailing Preferences’ from the ‘My Profile’ menu at the top of the page. Here you will be able to see and update your contact preferences.

We encourage members to remain with their organisational member because of the peer support and guidance they can offer, especially in relation to ethical questions. However, there is no requirement for full-clinical members to stay with their organisation after their first year of UKCP membership. Please contact membership@ukcp.org.uk to discuss Direct Membership terms of eligibility. If a member prematurely lapses with their organisational member, then we cannot transfer them as per the terms and conditions of Direct Membership.