The Forum of Body Psychotherapy Organisations

The Forum of Body Psychotherapy Organisations is a separate pillar of the EABP and is developing its own goals and aims related to the needs of its member organisations...

In 1999 the EABP General Assembly gave a mandate to the Forum to accredit body psychotherapy training courses according to the EABP Training Standards by a process of self-assessment and mutual recognition.

Forum Members

Members participating in the Forum include 23 training institutes and three professional associations, which are involved in the training and practice of professional body psychotherapy in Europe. More are in the process of joining.
Twenty-one institutes are currently accredited.

IFCC (France) was the first EABP Forum body psychotherapy training institute to be accredited by the EAP as an EAPTI in 2007 after receiving Forum accreditation.

The Forum meets two times a year in a city hosted by one of the Training Institutes.

The one-day symposia organised to coincide with its twice-yearly meetings have become quite a feature of the Forum meetings.

Status of the Forum

Legal Status: The Articles of Association of EABP, Article 4.1. states that:

Members may be natural and corporate bodies. Reciprocal membership agreements may be concluded with corporate bodies that have identical objects.

The original proposals for the Forum of Body Psychotherapy Organisations were passed at the General Assembly in Pamhagen, Austria in May 1997 and were subsequently endorsed at the General Assembly in TravemŸnde, Germany in September 1999.

These motions also defined Organisational Membership of EABP and the role of the Forum in accrediting training organisations on behalf of EABP and according to the EABP Training Standards. It has since been clarified by the Board of EABP and in meetings of the Forum, that all Forum members must first be an organisational member of EABP and that Forum membership and annual Forum fee is supplementary to this.

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Mandate to accredit training institutes

The Forum has been mandated by the EABP General Assembly (TravemŸnde, 1999) to accredit body psychotherapy training organisations according to the current EABP training standards. This mandate is reviewed regularly. A full written report of the activities of the Forum (about the training organisations assessed and the process of assessment) is presented to each General Assembly and the Forum representative attends and reports to the EABP Board meetings. The EABP General Assembly reviews the Forum mandate for accreditation regularly and endorses the accredited institutes.

Training Standards

The Forum works together with the EABP Training Standards Committee to ensure that the training standards are up-to-date and relevant. The Training Standards were updated last by the EABP General Assembly at Askov, Denmark in September 2006. The EABP Training Standards Committee also has an overview and monitoring function of the work of the Forum, reporting to the EABP Board and to the General Assembly.

• EABP Training Standards
• Training Standards Checklist

Who can join the Forum?

A corporate body or organisation in body psychotherapy, such as a training institute, a professional association in a particular country or city, or a European-wide organisation (such as a collection of institutes or one representing a whole modality) needs to fulfill the following criteria:

• A Training Institute should have been in existence for about four years and have a minimum of one crop of graduates. It should have a legal organisational or corporate structure with an appropriate code of ethics and complaints procedure, so that there is a level of professional accountability. At least ten people should be involved.
• In the case of a Professional Association of practicing body psychotherapists (as in a particular country or city), all, or most of the practitioners involved should be able to fulfill the full membership conditions for EABP.
• European-wide Organisations (from a particular modality within body psychotherapy) with a large membership of their own should have membership criteria, ethics and professional standards compatible with EABP. Individuals, within this institute membership, should be able, by-and large, to become full individual members of EABP, if they so wish, without doing any more professional training.

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How to join the Forum

There are three steps to joining the Forum.

1. Individual Membership

At least one person in the organisation, must be an individual EABP member. They must apply to the National Association in their own country or if there is not one, directly to the EABP.

The individual membership fee is currently 190 Euros per year.

• List of the National Associations.
• Individual membership details.

2. Organisational Membership

Then the organisation must join the EABP as an organisational member - also through the National Association of their country, if there is one.

Organisational members are properly constituted organisations that:

• recognise the EABP definition of body psychotherapy and the work of a body psychotherapist
• basically support the aims and objectives of EABP
• are actively working in body psychotherapy.

They can then attend the biannual EABP General Assembly, put motions to the General Assembly on behalf of their Institute or Association and carry the vote for that organisation.

Other members of the institute or association may also attend the EABP General Assembly even though they are not full EABP individual members. They must identify themselves as such and during discussions of matters directly pertaining to institutes or associations may be invited to speak by the Chairperson of the Meeting.

However they have no voting rights.

The organisational membership fee is currently 190 Euros per year.

• More about becoming an organisational membership.

3. Forum Membership

Once the above formalities have been completed the organisation can then contact the Forum through the Secretariat and is invited to attend at least two Forum meetings.

• At the first meeting introductions are made. A prospective member usually brings copies of their literature and describes the type of body psychotherapy that they are involved in and something of their training and organisational structure. Essentially this introductory process is to see whether the organisation fits generally within the field of professional training in body psychotherapy.
• At the second meeting, the organisation's membership is voted on by the Forum. A significant majority of votes is needed.

There are two different Forum memberships: members and accredited members.

• Training Institutes that teach Body Psychotherapy and do not fulfil the criteria of the EABP Training Standards may be a member of the Forum if they fulfil the membership criteria (organizational membership of EABP, at least one individual member, practising Body Psychotherapy, pay their fees and fulfil their attendance obligation in Forum)
• Training Institutes that differ from the Training Standards and can explain this sufficiently can obtain Forum accreditation.

Institutes that aim for an EAPTI status have to fulfil the training standards in order to be supported by the Forum in that process.

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Fee Structure

The annual Forum membership fees current for 2005 are structured as follows (Fees are over and above the €190 for the EABP organisational membership fee):

Training Institutes:

• For up to 25 trainees/members - €80
• For 26-60 trainees/members - €180
• For 61-100 trainees/members - €270
• For more than 100 trainees/members - €360

Professional Associations:

• Up to 25 trainees - €80
• From 25 - 100 trainees - €120
• More than 100 - €160

In return for their membership Forum organisations receive copies of minutes of Forum meetings, EABP mailings, Newsletters and invitations for delegates to take part in the Forum meetings.

Fees for Forum membership are adjusted periodically to reflect the real costs of the Forum.

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Forum Accreditation Process

Once an organization has been accepted as a Forum member it can start the process of having its organization becoming accredited by the Forum.

There are five steps to this process:

1. The organization must complete the process of self-assessment and mutual recognition. The organization uses the self-assessment form to assess whether it is ready for EABP accreditation.
   • See Process of Self-Assessment and Mutual Recognition and Self-Assessment application form
   • See the EABP Training Standards
2. The report is distributed to Forum members and subsequently discussed by a Forum Meeting. Two assessors from different institutes and different countries are chosen Ð including one who can speak the local language if possible.
3. The assessors visit the institute and meet with their trainers and trainees. The training institute to be assessed covers the cost of the visit.
4. The assessors report back in writing. The report is also sent to the institute and they have the right of reply. The reports are sent to the members of the Forum at least a month before the next meeting.
5. After discussion at a Forum meeting with assessors and training institute present, a decision is taken whether to accredit that institute or not. The meeting can also give an accreditation with the proviso that certain requirements are met within a certain time limit.

The Forum has accredited 22 schools by this system since 1999 of which 19 still retain their accreditation.

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Reaccreditation

The Forum is currently re-assessing those training institutes accredited in 1999-2001.
The process is as follows:

1. Training Institutes complete a new self-assessment form giving information about changes and developments in their Training Institute since their previous assessment.
2. They fill in the Training Standards Checklist
3. Both of these are emailed into the Secretariat a week before the meeting where their re-assessment will be treated so that it can be emailed to the Forum Members.
4. At the meeting the TI is assessed by a small group of 5-6 Forum members.
5. The TI representative gives a short presentation of their Institute, and indicates how they fulfil the EABP Training Standards, or perhaps differ from them.
6. The small group comes to a conclusion and presents this to the full meeting.
7. The full meeting votes on the re-accreditation.

Accreditation is for a five-year period.

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How to become an EAPTI
(European Association of Psychotherapy Training Institute)

Once an organisation has become a fully accredited EABP Training Institute it can apply to the EAP European Association of Psychotherapy to become an EAPTI European Association of Psychotherapy Training Institute. Training Institutes with EAPTI status can award the European Certificate of Psychotherapy (ECP) to graduates of their trainings.

This means that newly graduated body psychotherapists, emerging with an ECP, will be eligible for EABP Membership, and possibly even for national registration as a psychotherapist in their country.

The first EABP FORUM body psychotherapy training institute to be accredited as an EAPTI was IFCC (France), which had their EAPTI status accepted in 2007.

To achieve EAPTI status a training institute must first:

• Be accredited by the EABP FORUM and have completely fulfilled all EABP Training Standards. Since 2007 EAP has accepted that EABP Training Institutes fall under the EABP Modality and therefore under EABP Scientific Validation.
• Be accepted as a recognised training institute by the National Awarding Organisation (NAO) in their own country.

Then they can apply to the EAP and go through an assessment process.

Contact the EAP.

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