2 February 2026
In counselling and psychotherapy, professional development is not just a box-ticking exercise. It’s a core mechanism for ensuring safeguarding across clients, strengthening confidence in practitioners, and ensuring this profession evolves in line with the evidence, ethics, and community needs.
Over the past year, significant work has been undertaken at ACA to strengthen what it means for professional development to be “approved”. This has included the introduction of a new learning and Ongoing Professional Development (OPD) management platform, embarking on clearer benchmarks for quality and relevance to counselling, and a more robust assessment and evaluation process across the activities and those who provide training at ACA’s approved status. These changes were a deliberate and evidence-informed response to what the research tells us actually improves practice.
What research tells us about effective professional development
In his book Personal and Professional Development for Counsellors, Paul Wilkins (Wilkins, 2017) emphasises that meaningful professional growth occurs when practitioners are encouraged to critically reflect on their work and values, rather than passively consuming information. Similarly, McLeod and McLeod (2011) highlight that OPD is central to ethical practice, particularly when it integrates reflection, supervision, and the refreshing of core therapeutic skills.
Systematic review in psychotherapy training demonstrate that active learning methods lead to stronger clinical outcomes, more than lecture-based approaches. Adult learning theory further supports this, showing that professionals learn best when learning is contextual and connected to real-world application.
How ACA is lifting the quality of approved OPD
Approved professional development plays a critical role. When a peak body sets clear standards for content, practitioners can trust that their professional development is evidence-based, ethical, and aligned with industry standards. Together, we create a shared language of quality across the profession, strengthening public trust and professional identity development.
At ACA, we want to ensure the activities listed on our Learning Hub are centred in counselling-specific topics; learning for counsellors, by those who know counsellors. Having re-launched our OPD framework in late-August 2025, we currently have over 200 approved OPD activities that are directly related to counselling, by providers who are focused on counsellor-focused learning and development activities.
Ultimately, approved professional development is about raising the bar so that learning supports competent, reflective, and resilient practice, for the benefit of practitioners and the clients they serve.
For further information or to learn more about Approved OPD at the ACA, please visit our Learning Hub or read our OPD Policies. Feedback is welcomed and can be sent to learning@theaca.net.au.
By Jess Pitschke, Professional Learning & Development Lead.
#Article
#Feature
#News