Mapping the demographics of the counselling and psychotherapy profession
The Partnership of Counselling and Psychotherapy Bodies (PCPB) has published its first shared dataset that helps to map the demographic profile of the profession.
The data provides a clearer picture of who currently makes up counsellors and psychotherapists and will help inform how we collectively support greater equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) across the profession.
The data shows that the members and registrants of PCPB partners are primarily:
- aged between 45 and 64
- white
- female
- heterosexual
- do not consider themselves to have a disability.
Independent PCPB chair Paul Buckley said, ‘This is the first time in the history of the counselling and psychotherapy profession that data across the six PCPB partner organisations has been published.
‘This important milestone is part of PCPB’s plans to support greater diversity across the profession and better access to trained counsellors and psychotherapists for potential clients and patients from all backgrounds.
‘More comprehensive data, including additional protected characteristics, will be published in future years as partners further align their systems and approach, but the data we are publishing today will, among other things, inform the work of the independent Commission on the future of the profession.’
Why has PCPB created a shared dataset?
This initiative stems from the 2022 SCoPEd framework impact assessment, where partners agreed to compile a unified demographic dataset of therapists registered with PCPB partners, with the aim of better understanding the profession.
Understanding who makes up the counselling and psychotherapy workforce is vital to promoting EDI. Collecting and analysing this data allows us to identify where under or over representation exists, track progress over time and take informed action to make our profession more inclusive and representative of the communities our members serve. Having this data will help to measure and track success in this area and highlight any significant areas for development.
Capturing diversity data offers a window into understanding who we represent as a partnership and how things are changing.
What data has been collected?
Each PCPB partner has contributed anonymised, aggregated data from its own membership.
This combined dataset includes information across five protected characteristics – age, disability, gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation. These five were selected as they are the areas where all partners currently collect comparable data.
In future years the partners aim to extend this work to include additional protected characteristics and further align data collection methods.
The Equality Act 2010 identifies nine protected characteristics that are covered by legislation. They are:
- age
- disability
- gender reassignment
- marriage and civil partnership
- pregnancy and maternity
- race
- religion and belief
- sex
- sexual orientation.
The partners will also make sure data captured in relation to sex and gender aligns with the Supreme Court ruling in April 2025 on the term ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010 referring to biological sex.
How has data been collected?
Each partner has gathered demographic data relating to its own membership. While the timing of data collection and the exact wording of questions varied slightly, partners have worked together to ensure the combined dataset aligns closely with Office for National Statistics (ONS) reporting.
How will the data be used?
An anonymised, aggregated dataset has been published on the PCPB website and will be updated over time. The data is benchmarked against ONS Census figures to help understand how representative our profession is of the wider UK population.
The PCPB partners will use these insights to identify areas of under and/or over representation and work collectively to discuss and agree on actions that support a more collectively diverse and inclusive profession.