There are a lot of abbreviations and acronyms used in the world of psychology and counselling. Sometimes, you may encounter these when looking at therapist profiles or doing some research about psychotherapy.
Abbreviations can be a problem. Not just because there are a lot of them but because the same abbreviation can have different meanings. This isn’t such a common occurrence within counselling (at least not that I am aware of). Generally the acronyms encountered within the world of psychotherapy are to describe professional or governing bodies (such as the BACP) or a particular type of therapy (like CBT).
However, within other domains of health and well-being it occasionally comes under the scrutiny of researchers because of the risks the same, or undefined, acronym may pose to an individual (1,2).
I thought it would be helpful to list out the ones that I know about below. As I encounter more, I’ll continue to update this list.
If you know of any other acronyms used in the area of mental health, please share them in the comments.
A
ACT – acceptance and commitment therapy
ACTO – Association for Counselling and Therapy Online (website)
ADHD – attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
AFAB – assigned female at birth
AMAB – assigned male at birth
AOP – anti-oppressive practice
APA – American Psychological Association (website)
B
BACP – British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (website | what is the BACP?)
BDI – Beck Depression Inventory
BPS – British Psychological Society (website)
BSFT – brief solution focused therapy
C
CAMHS – child and adolescent mental health services
CAT – cognitive analytic therapy
CBT – cognitive-behavioural therapy
CCBT – computerized cognitive-behavioural therapy
CCT – client-centred therapy
CMHT – community mental health team
CORE – Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation
COSCA – Counselling and Psychotherapy in Scotland (website)
D
DBT – dialectical behaviour therapy
DIT – dynamic interpersonal therapy
DSM – Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
E
EAC – European Association for Counselling
EAP – employee assistance provider (of counselling/psychotherapy)
EBP – evidence based practice
EFT – emotional freedom techniques
EMDR – eye movement desensitization and reprocessing
F
FTM – female-to-male transgender individual
G
GAD – generalised anxiety disorder
GAT – gender-aware therapy; gay affirmative therapy
GSD – gender and sexual diversity
GSM – gender and sexual minorities
GSMT – gender and sexual minority therapy
H
HPC – Health Professions Council
I
IACP – Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (IACP website)
IAPT – Improving Access to Psychological Therapies
ICD – International Classification of Diseases
IPT – interpersonal psychotherapy
L
LGB – lesbian, gay, bisexual
LGBT – lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender/transexual
LGBTQIA – lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender/transexual, queer/questioning, intersex, and allied/asexual/aromantic/agender.
M
MBCT – mindfulness based cognitive therapy
MBSR – mindfulness based stress reduction
MCT – multicultural counselling and therapy
MH – mental health
MTF – male to female transgender individual
MSM – men who have sex with men
N
NICE – National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (website)
NLP – neurolinguistic programming
NZAP – New Zealand Association of Psychotherapists (website)
P
PACFA – Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (website)
PCA – person-centred approach
PCP – person-centred psychology
PCT – person-centred therapy
PFT – problem-focused therapy
PHQ – patient health questionnaire
PTSD – post-traumatic stress disorder
R
REBT – rational emotive behaviour therapy
S
SGL – same-gender loving
T
TA – transactional analysis
U
UKCP – United Kingdom Counsel for Psychotherapy (website)
UKAHPP – United Kingdom Association of Humanistic Psychology Practitioners (website)
W
WHO – World Health Organisation (website)
WSW – women who have sex with women
In summary
There are a lot of acronyms and abbreviations used in counselling, perhaps too many! However, knowing what they are can be a helpful way of navigating the world of psychology and psychotherapy.
References
1. Cheng TO. Medical abbreviations. J R Soc Med. 2004 Nov;97(11):556. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1079661/
2. Kuzmina OD, Fominykh AD, Abrosimova NA. Problems of the English Abbreviations in Medical Translation. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences. 2015 Aug 3;199:548–54. Available from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042815045565