Australian Counselling Association


The Australian Counselling Association is a non-profit, professional organisation that is dedicated to the counselling profession. ACA represents over 4,000 professional counsellors in Australia. The Australian Counselling Association is one of the more active peak bodies for counselling and psychotherapy in Australia.

Mission

The mission of the Australian Counselling Association is to enhance the quality of life in society by promoting the development of professional counsellors, advancing the counselling profession, and using the profession and practice of counselling to promote respect for human dignity and diversity.

Government accreditation

The counselling profession in Australia is currently not government regulated. Therefore, clients are faced with the task of evaluating qualifications of various counsellors and psychotherapists. ACA is one of two industry associations that is campaigning for government accreditation of counselling in Australia. As of 2010, none of the federal or state jurisdictions are actively considering regulation of the counselling profession. The Council of Australian Governments have agreed that regulation of the counselling profession would only be considered if the public were at serious risk and that those risks could only be ameliorated through a regulatory framework.