Volunteers wanted
We have been listening to you and we would like to give the members more input. Over the next two months the website will be completely overhauled by a professional designer. We want to do this well, so we are forming a small website working group. It will be headed...
Mind joins ACTO as charity grows its online therapy services
As client & counsellor needs change, the Mind network seeks to develop its digital capacity, accessing ACTO’s ethical framework and standards ACTO, the Association for Counselling and Online Therapy, is delighted to announce that Mind are one of the organisation’s...
OLT4c joins ACTO as a new Online Training Provider
OLT4C is one of our profession’s longest established online training providers. ACTO is delighted to welcome the organisation as an Online Training Provider. One of the principal aims of ACTO is to ensure that it fully represents the rich diversity within our growing...
Maintaining boundaries when working online
As we have all been getting used to working online over the last few months, I have been conscious of a renewed focus that has been needed to create and maintain robust boundaries with our clients. Particularly given that for most of us this is new way of connecting...
Counselling Online In A Pandemic World – Emma West
We are proud to present the blog post that won the blog competition. There’s no doubt that those trained in online counselling were ahead of the curve when we entered the eerie world of Covid-19 lockdown. Suddenly face to face counsellors were struggling with the...
As demand for online therapy grows, self-care has never been so important
ACTO members Jan Stiff and Sarah Worley-James offer some practical advice to therapists and counsellors coping with increased workloads and the complexities of added stress caused by moving from providing face to face to online therapy Recently we shared to our...
Looking back over my role within ACTO – Jan Stiff
I remember the first moment I was drawn into the “world” of ACTO and the Board of Directors I was already an ACTO member. Sarah Worley-James, who was then the ACTO Chair, gave a talk at an OCTIA conference explaining the purpose and aims of ACTO and asking that, if...
Looking for an exciting new opportunity?
Looking for an exciting new opportunity? The world of online counselling and psychotherapy is changing – and you can help to shape it by joining our team of directors on the ACTO Board ACTO is always on the look-out for talent and energy to join the Board of...
It’s time to rethink the norms and face the new realities
ACTO patron Anne Stokes and champion of online therapy is challenging our profession to think differently Over the years many of you will have heard of, listened to presentations at conferences, read books or articles by or indeed spoken to Anne Stokes. Anne is a...
New ACTO Chair aims to raise the standards of online therapy
It is easy to do therapy online; but it is difficult to do therapy online well, Raising standards and making ACTO the go-to place for online counselling and psychotherapy. Those are the two principal goals of ACTO’s new Chair, Adrian Rhodes, who leads the volunteer...
ACTO Guidance on Security and Privacy for Therapists Providing Online Therapy During the COVID-19 Crisis
This current document supersedes all previous guidance on the same subject [pdf-embedder url="https://acto-org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/LATEST-ACTO-Guidance-on-Security-and-Privacy-April-2020-1.pdf" title="LATEST ACTO Guidance on Security and Privacy April...
Data Cleansing to comply with GDPR – Private Practice Hub
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance is important to us. But what is GDPR? In short, it is a legal framework which sets out guidelines for collecting, processing and storing any personal information about others obtained during the course of running...
Text, transition and transference
This article first appeared in the December 2019 issue of BACP Children, Young People & Families, published by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. BACP 2020©...
Can online therapy mitigate coronavirus?
There’s no getting away from the news that is dominating the press at the moment. We are experiencing a global pandemic of Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19), an illness that can affect your lungs and airways. It’s widespread and it’s a public health crisis. The UK...
ACTO clarification on use of platforms
This is ACTO's very short clarification on the use of platforms. We do not have the time or the expertise to say something about every platform. Another reason is that technology changes fast that what we say today may not be true tomorrow. We are pointing towards one...
COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Advice from ACTO for CLIENTS and NON-ACTO THERAPISTS
This text has now changed to our new updated guidance
Anne Stokes on how she became an online counsellor
Our new patron Anne Stokes was one of the first to provide online counselling training in the UK. We asked her to share with us how she became an online counsellor. How were you introduced to online counselling? Just over 20 years ago, a good friend of mine, who I had...
Working online with an interpreter – is this even possible? Kate Thompson
I wanted to share some reflections on working with interpreters in online psychological work. This is in relation to a piece of work I did for an International NGO after three staff (all Afghani) were kidnapped and held for 24 hours by an unknown group in a remote...