The Australian Counselling Association (ACA) is a National progressive professional peak association of counsellors and psychotherapists with over 11,000 individual members

Membership

Online Membership Application

Thank you for your interest in joining the Australian Counselling Association, Australia's largest individual registration body for counsellors and psychotherapists.

You can apply for ACA membership online. Please carefully go through each step in this application in sequence as incomplete applications will not be sumbitted and this may cause unnecessary delays.

What do I need to apply for membership

Qualifications – Mandatory – Step 2

  • Certificate or Testamur of qualification certified by a JP (Justice of the Peace)
  • Full Academic Transcript of qualification certified by a JP (Justice of the Peace)

When uploading your evidence to the application online be sure all files are PDF or JPG format and do not exceed 2MB in size. Once you have selected the file to upload, be sure to click the upload button on the right hand side so the file will upload.

The ACA Scope of Practice page 15 states: https://www.theaca.net.au/documents/ACA_Scope_combined.pdf

ACA does not accept qualifications in psychology, social science, social work, welfare, mental health, education, theology, genetic counselling, financial counselling, rehabilitation counselling, or hybrid qualifications.

Additional Evidence Supervision and Client Contact Hours – Step 3

  • Level 2, 3 and 4 Supervision – If you are applying for level 2, 3 and 4 membership, please provide an original letter from your supervisor/s if you have evidence of post qualification superivsion hours. If you have just completed a Bachelor or Master of Counselling a supervision letter wont be required. If you have received post qualificaiton superivsion please see below.

    Supervision evidence can not be provided in a statutory declaration. Evidence of post-qualification supervision hours must be a letter from your past or present supervisor.

    1. Provide evidence of how many hours of post qualification supervision you have completed.
    2. For level 3 & 4 only - How many hours of client contact time you have achieved and in what period of time.
  • Level 3 and 4 Statutory Declaration – If you are applying for membership level 3 or 4, please provide a statutory declaration stating how many client contact hours post qualification in Counselling you have attained and in what period of time. https://www.ag.gov.au/sites/default/files/2022-02/commonwealth-statutory-declaration-form.pdf

Note: Applications cannot be processed without attaching the above documents.

If your qualification is more than 5 years old, you will need to provide evidence of working in the field or previous supervision hours to meet the ACA recency clause.

Recency Clause 1.4

Applicants to the Association with counselling qualifications older than five (5) years and no evidence of clinical supervision, professional development or work experience in a relevant industry may not be suitable for ACA membership.

Applicants holding formal counselling qualification older than ten (10) years without professional development, clinical supervision and relevant professional practice may not be eligible for ACA membership. New applicants with qualifications over ten (10) years old with no supervised practice, professional development or practice in a related field must complete current formal counselling qualifications.

All applicants facing recency matters will be examined on a case-by-case basis by the ACA Membership Manager – please email the Administration team at [email protected]

Recognition of Prior Learning and Qualifications (RPL)

In instances where an applicant has used recognition of prior learning (RPL) to gain credit towards their qualification, ACA will accept a maximum of 40% RPL otherwise the qualification will not be recognised by ACA for membership.

Membership Requirements

Additionally, once you are approved as an ACA Registered Counsellor must complete at minimum 10 hours of professional supervision and 25 points in Professional Development (OPD). SUPERVISION AND OPD IS MANDATORY FOR ALL ACA PRACTISING MEMBERS PROVISIONAL, LEVEL 1, 2, 3, AND 4.

I have read, understood and agree to all the relevant documents and policies such as the ACA Scope of Practice, ACA Code of Ethics and Practice, Supervision Policy, Suicidal Clients Guidelines and ACA Terms & Conditions which can be found on this website under Documents*.

A $50 one-off, non-refundable, administration fee is charged to join the Australian Counselling Association Inc

Please do not hesitate to contact ACA if there are any points that need clarifying or do not fully explain to your satisfaction what is required. You can call ACA on 07 3356 4255 or email [email protected]

Member Association

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