The British Psychoanalytic Council (BPC) is a UK-wide umbrella association of training institutions and professional bodies providing psychotherapy services to the public, mainly in the private sector.
The formation of the BPC dates back to 8 March 1992, when it broke away from the United Kingdom Standing Conference for Psychotherapy, currently the UKCP, as the then British Confederation of Psychotherapists with its firm allegiance to a psychoanalytically oriented understanding of the mind and of human behaviour.
[citation needed] The British Psychoanalytic Council is one of a number of bodies which exist to protect the interests of the public by promoting standards in the selection, training, professional association and ethical conduct of psychotherapists.
[citation needed] The BPC, together with each of its member institutions, aims to protect the public by setting out the appropriate standards of professional conduct through a Code of Ethics, which describes the responsibilities of psychoanalytic psychotherapists.
[citation needed] There are also comprehensive complaints and disciplinary procedures, which include the sanction of striking a practitioner off both from their parent organisation's membership list as well as from the BPC Register.
[3] [4] An undated and unsigned response by the BPC was released online to the investigative journalist, Patrick Strudwick,[5] in the matter of the inadequate regulation of psychotherapists.