To maintain our high standards, current PACFA members are required to complete Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and Supervision each year in order to renew.
Continuing Professional Development Requirements
CPD activities must be directly relevant to clinical practice in counselling and psychotherapy and/or the research evidence base for counselling and psychotherapy.
Annual CPD requirement - minimum 20 hours
There are 2 categories from which the 20 hours may be accrued:
Category A (mandatory): Minimum annual requirement – 10 hours
Category B (optional): Maximum annual allowance - 10 hours
The annual requirement of 20 CPD hours may all be accrued from Category A, as Categories B is optional.
CATEGORY A: minimum requirement of 10 hours per year.
Category A CPD requires you to be an active participant, in things such as:
- Attendance at in-person courses, workshops, seminars and conferences;
- Participation in online facilitated learning.
For online facilitated learning, the presence and contribution of an online facilitator is required, providing interaction between the facilitator and the participants, either during the event, or after via forums or email. This involves interactive learning where participants carry out a number of learning activities, rather than passively listening to a lecture or presentation. Examples of online facilitated learning can be Zoom webinars, conferences, workshops, or Q&A sessions, that include facilitated discussions or forums, and may also include assessment components.
CATEGORY B: A maximum allowance of 10 hours per year.
Category B CPD is classed more as 'passive learning', examples including watching a recorded webinar, and reading journal articles or books related to your practice. It can also include any supervision hours done in excess of the annual requirements, any teaching or formal presentations, and peer learning groups, who meet to discuss and explore counselling and psychotherapy topics or resources, without a formal facilitator.
A reflective journal should be used to record any notes on journal articles, books, or recorded webinars, to reflect on the learning activity undertaken and how it relates to and enhances professional practice.
Annual Supervision Requirements
The annual requirements for Provisional and Clinical members are:
- 10 hours of formal supervision (on client case load, not managerial supervision) in the last 12 months
- Where a practitioner has accrued over 400 client practice hours per annum, they must have undertaken 15 hours of formal supervision
Supervision may, for the purpose of PACFA Registration renewal, take the form of one-on-one or small group (6 or less supervisees) sessions. It is strongly recommended that practitioners with a full practice seek additional hours of supervision.
You can use PACFA's template to have your supervision and client contact signed off by your supervisor. Please note, you do not need to submit these form for renewal purposes, but just keep them in your files in case you are audited.
Peer Supervision
Members who are eligible to claim Peer Supervision may claim a maximum of 50% of the required 10 or 15 hours as Peer Supervision. Peer supervision is for senior practitioners only, who have been Clinical Members with PACFA for 5 continuous years. Please only undertake peer supervision if you are eligible to do so.
Where a Registrant has not been listed as a Clinical Registrant with PACFA for 5 years prior to the commencement of peer supervision, evidence of prior eligibility for clinical registration (i.e. evidence that the Registrant had completed 750 post-qualifying client contact hours linked to 75 hours of post-qualifying supervision hours) AND evidence of the 5 years supervised practice since becoming eligible for clinical registration is to be provided in order to be eligible to claim Peer Supervision.
Peer supervision is a formal process where therapists contract to provide collegial critiquing and enhancement of each other’s clinical client work. Colleagues or peers work together for mutual benefit, rotating the roles of supervisor and supervisee. Peer supervision can be undertaken as a dyad or within a small group of no more than 6 members.
PACFA does not specify the requirements for the training and experience of the other participants in the Peer Supervision arrangement, but they would need to be counsellors, psychotherapists or therapists of a similar kind. They may be from outside PACFA and its Member Associations.
Additional Requirements for Accredited Supervisors and Mental Health Practitioners
There are some variations to the registration renewal requirements for Mental Health Practitioners and Accredited Supervisors. For details go to the Accredited Supervisors page and the Mental Health Practitioners page.
The table below summarises the requirements for all registration categories.
| Registration Category |
Professional Development |
Supervision |
| Provisional or Clinical |
20 hours (minimum 10 hours from Category A) |
10 hours, or 15 hours for more than 400 client hours |
| Mental Health Practitioner |
20 hours (minimum 10 hours from Category A) of which it is recommended that 5 hours relate specifically to mental health practice |
15 hours supervision, of which it is recommended that 5 hours relate specifically to mental health practice |
| Accredited Supervisor |
20 hours (minimum 10 hours from Category A) of which it is recommended 5 hours relate specifically to supervision practice |
15 hours supervision, of which it is recommended 5 hours relate specifically to supervision practice |
Other requirements
As part of the annual renewal process, all Members and Registrants are also required to:
(i) Complete a signed agreement to adhere to the PACFA Code of Ethics
(ii) Retain evidence of current membership of a PACFA Member Association (if applicable)
(iii) Retain evidence of continuing professional indemnity and public liability insurance