02 October 2025 – The Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, representing more than 6,500 counsellors and psychotherapists across Ireland, has raised serious concerns that CORU’s new standards will undermine client safety, destabilise training, and damage access to mental health services across Ireland and is calling on Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill and Minister for Mental Health Mary Butler to intervene so that these serious concerns can be addressed.
On 11 July 2025, CORU published its final Standards and Criteria for counsellors and psychotherapists. While Level 8 on the National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ) was retained for counsellors, the entry requirement for psychotherapists was raised to Level 9. The IACP is deeply concerned that this higher threshold, combined with restrictive scopes of practice, will deter new entrants, reduce the pool of professionals, and further limit timely access to care.
In addition, the new standards cut back on clinical supervision, remove personal therapy as a safeguard, and introduce an artificial divide between counsellors and psychotherapists. These changes weaken professional training, risk producing underprepared practitioners, and threaten client safety at a time when mental health services are already under severe strain.
Lisa Molloy, IACP Chief Executive Officer said: “The IACP urges Minster for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill and Minister for Mental Health Mary Butler to intervene with the CORU process so that our serious concerns and those raised by other professional bodies can be addressed. The IACP fully supports fair regulation and has been calling for state oversight for many years. But these new rules risk shutting people out of therapy, making waiting lists even longer and leaving the most vulnerable without the help they need.”
The IACP is particularly concerned about following points:
1. That the revised standards reduce the requirements for clinical supervision of therapists which is an essential component of safe practice.
The IACP sees clinical supervision as vital to the process and ongoing maintenance of a Counsellor/Psychotherapist’s competency and its removal compromises the quality and safety of client care, diminishing professional accountability, and undermining public confidence in therapeutic services.
2. The removal of personal therapy as a safeguard during training.
The IACP firmly believes that personal therapy is essential for the ethical and professional development of therapists, fostering self-awareness and ensuring psychological resilience to effectively support clients.
3. The addition of narrow and restrictive definitions of scopes of practice for both professions.
The IACP calls on CORU to abandon the misleading and clinically inaccurate division that portrays counsellors as treating only “mild to moderate” issues and psychotherapists as addressing “moderate to severe” presentations. This false distinction risks confusing the public, undermining the profession, and damaging access to safe, effective care.
Self-triage burden on the public
· Members of the public may feel they have to ‘diagnose’ the severity of their
own mental health before seeking help.
· This can deter people from accessing support early, for fear of “not being
distressed enough” for psychotherapy, or conversely, “too unwell” for counselling.
· Those in crisis may delay treatment while deciding where they “fit.”
Missed or delayed detection of severe problems
· A client may present with what looks like a mild issue (e.g., stress at work, low mood), but over time deeper or riskier symptoms emerge (e.g., trauma, suicidal ideation, psychosis).
· If a counsellor is designated to work within a limited scope, there is a risk of not being able to access onward referral in a timely manner, compromising safety for the client.
Risk of patients “falling through the cracks”
· Patients may be told their presentations are too severe for counselling but not yet accepted for psychotherapy (long wait lists, strict thresholds).
· This creates gaps in continuity of care, increasing risk of deterioration or harm to the client.
Potential stigma and invalidation
· Clients labelled as “mild” might feel their struggles are being minimised, discouraging them from continuing care.
· Clients labelled as “severe” may feel stigmatised, reinforcing hopelessness or shame.
4. The introduction of a higher entry threshold for psychotherapy
The IACP supports maintaining the minimum threshold qualification for psychotherapy at NFQ Level 8. It sees the roles of counsellors and psychotherapists in a holistic way that keeps the needs of the client at the forefront. During the therapeutic process, a client often needs a continuum of care that moves in parallel with the training therapists have received that encompasses elements of both the counselling and psychotherapy disciplines.
The IACP is calling for the threshold qualification for psychotherapy to remain at NFQ Level 8. This reflects the current training landscape in Ireland and is essential to maintaining fair access to the profession and in turn to therapeutic supports.
To reflect this client-centered approach, the IACP accredits 23 courses at Honours Degree (Level 8) in both counselling and psychotherapy and a substantial number of its members practice as both counsellors and psychotherapists.
Lisa Molloy concluded, “Mental health care in Ireland is already under huge strain. Despite existing standards being at a high level and appropriate for safe and effective care, CORU has decided to push them even higher, creating needless barriers. If these new standards go unchallenged, it is clients — especially the most vulnerable in our communities — who will pay the price.”
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