Useful acronyms and abbreviations used in counselling and psychotherapy

There are many abbreviations and acronyms used in the world of psychology and counselling.

Every so often, you may encounter these when looking at therapist profiles or when 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. This is due to the risks that the same, or undefined, acronym may pose (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 mental health, please share them in the comments.

Jump to a section

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

A

AA – Alcoholics Anonymous

ACT – Acceptance and commitment therapy

ACTO – Association for Counselling and Therapy Online (website)

AD – Adjustment disorder

ADD – Attention deficit disorder

ADHD – attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

AE – Adverse effects

AFAB – assigned female at birth

AMAB – assigned male at birth

AMHP – approved mental health practitioner

AOP – anti-oppressive practice

APA – American Psychological Association (website)

ASD – Autism Spectrum Disorder

ASPD – Antisocial personality disorder

AvPD – Avoidant personality disorder

B

BACP – British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (website | what is the BACP?)

BDD – Body dysmorphic disorder

BDI – Beck Depression Inventory

BED – Binge eating disorder

BN – Builimia Nervosa

BPD – Borderline personality disorder

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

CFT – Compassion focused therapy

CM – Care management

CMHT – community mental health team

CORE – Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation

COSCA – Counselling and Psychotherapy in Scotland (website)

CPTSD – Comples Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

CPN – community psychiatric nurse

CRSD – Circadian rhythm sleep disorders

D

DBT – dialectical behaviour therapy

DIT – dynamic interpersonal therapy

DSM – Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

E

EAC – European Association for Counselling (website)

EAP – employee assistance provider (of counselling/psychotherapy)

EBP – evidence based practice

ECT – Electroconvulsive therapy

ED – Eating disorder

EFT – emotional freedom techniques

EFT – Emotionally focused therapy

EMDR – eye movement desensitization and reprocessing

EQ – Emotional Intelligence

ERP – Exposure and response prevention

F

FAAB – female-assigned at birth

FAP – Functional analytic therapy

FTM – female-to-male transgender individual

FST – Family Systems Therapy

G

GAD – generalised anxiety disorder

GAT – gender-aware therapy; gay affirmative therapy

GNC – gender non-conforming

GP – General practitioner

GSD – gender and sexual diversity

GSM – gender and sexual minorities

GSMT – gender and sexual minority therapy

GSRD – Gender, Sex and Relationship Diversity

H

HIPAA – Health insurance portability and accountability act of 1996 (USA only)

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

IFS – Internal family systems model

IOP – intensive outpatient programme

IPT – interpersonal psychotherapy

ISTDP – Intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy

L

LSCSW – licensed specialist clinical social worker (USA)

LGB – lesbian, gay, bisexual

LGBT – lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender/transexual

LGBTQ+ – lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender/transexual, queer/questioning, plus the wide array of identities and orientations beyond those explicitly named

LGBTQIA – lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender/transexual, queer/questioning, intersex, and allied/asexual/aromantic/agender.

M

MAAB – Male-assigned at birth

MBCT – mindfulness based cognitive therapy

MBSR – mindfulness based stress reduction

MCT – multicultural counselling and therapy

MDD – Major depressive disorder

MDE – Major depressive episode

MH – mental health

MHA – Mental Health Act

MHS – mental health services

MI – Motivational interviewing

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)

O

OCD – Obsessive-compulsive disorder

OPMH – older people’s mental health

P

PACFA – Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (website)

PCA – person-centred approach

PCP – person-centred psychology

PCT – person-centred therapy

PE – Prolonged exposure therapy

PFT – problem-focused therapy

PHQ – patient health questionnaire

PICU – psychiatric intensive care unit

POMHuk – National Prescribing Observatory for Mental Health

PPD – Paranoid personality disorder

PTSD – post-traumatic stress disorder

Q

QoL – Quality of Life

QTPOC – queer and trans people of colour

R

REBT – rational emotive behaviour therapy

RCT – Randomised Control Trial

REM – Rapid Eye Movement (sleep)

S

SAD – Seasonal affective disorder

SAD – Separation anxiety disorder

SAD – Social anxiety disorder

SFBT – Solutions focused brief therapy

SGL – same-gender loving

SMART – Specific, Measurable, Acheivable, Relevant, Time-bound (goal setting)

SMI – serious mental illness

SPD – Schizoid personality disorder

SSRIs – Selective Serotonin Reuptake INhibitors

STOPP – Stop. Take a breath. Observe. Perspective. Proceed. (used in CBT)

SZA – Schizoaffective disorder

T

TA – transactional analysis

TF-CBT – Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

U

UAAB – unassigned at birth

UKCP – United Kingdom Counsel for Psychotherapy (website)

UKAHPP – United Kingdom Association of Humanistic Psychology Practitioners (website)

UPR – Unconditional Positive Regard

W

WAIS – Wechsler adult intelligence scale

WHO – World Health Organization (website)

WSW – women who have sex with women

In summary

In summary, acronyms are a good way to take the sometimes complicated jargon of psychology and break it down into something manageable, memorable – and quicker to write!

Many counsellors and psychotherapists may use acronyms instead of long and complicated jargon. Acronyms help professionals avoid jargon, though as mentioned earlier, this may also mead to misunderstandings if the acronym has multiple possible definitions.

There are many acronyms and abbreviations used in counselling, perhaps too many! However, knowing their meanings 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

Photo by Amador Loureiro

Page last updated: 24/12/2021