In 2025, a group of counselling and psychotherapy academics formed a volunteer management committee to start a new network specifically aimed at supporting academics who prepare the next generation of counsellors and psychotherapists. 

Seeded by the NHCPE, we share the NHCPE independence from other professional associations, yet see ourselves as supporting their work. We decided to stay independent from both peak bodies so that our academics would not have to face a choice about which peak body they should be members of to participate.

We are different from the NHCPE in that the NHCPE represents the heads of counselling and psychotherapy education, whereas the ACPA represents all educators. The NHCPE is still fulfilling a vital role of supporting heads of counselling to lead their respective courses and speak into contemporary matters such as training standards.

Counselling associations such as ACA and PACFA play an important role in serving the profession by supporting practitioners and are much larger than this network will be.  We share the same purpose, yet our support and focus is for the educators. Therefore we are not a competitor or an alternatively but we serve a different audience with its own distinct characteristics and needs. In addition, people who connect with our network will for the most part, continue their membership with their current associations. 

As of April 2025, we are still forming and determining how best to serve the counselling educator community. We hope to offer one or more activities in the second half of 2025. Stay tuned. If you have any ideas that you think might benefit educators, please feel free to email nathan.beel@unisq.edu.au . Thank you.