For Criterion 9 we want you to provide case material to demonstrate your way of working in practice. You can either write about one client or two different clients. The client's story is not significant - the purpose is for you to illustrate your work as a practitioner.
Criterion 9 has six sub-criteria, with a total word limit of 3,000.
For previous criteria, you may have written a paragraph for each individual sub-criterion but case study material may not fit so neatly. A single sentence or paragraph may provide evidence for more than one of the sub-criteria. This is quite acceptable but indicate where you believe you're meeting the individual criteria at the end of a sentence or paragraph.
However don't over-reference, as you're unlikely to write one sentence or paragraph that meets all six sub-criteria. Clearly signposting us to where you believe you're meeting the individual sub criterion will help us to pass your application.
Choose case material that is typical of your current work. You should have worked with the client in the last six months and the work does not have to be finished.
Don't provide transcripts of client sessions or present your case material as an academic essay. For example, you don't need to fully reference published works, authors or theories unless you're directly quoting someone else - but it's your own words we really want to read.
It’s up to you if you ask for consent from a client you're going to write about, but you must do so if required by the agency or organisation you're working for. It's not a BACP requirement because we ask you to completely anonymise any case material you send us in accordance with the Ethical Framework, but the onus is on you to protect the confidentiality of the client. We delete everything once you've been awarded your accreditation.
You may want to use case studies you've written for other purposes in the past, such as a diploma assignment. We're interested in your current practice so it's unlikely you'll meet all the criteria with an old case study, especially one written while you were a student.
All your case material must be verified and commented on in your supervisor’s report.
9.1 How your practice is consistent with your described way of working (as described in 8.1)
All the interventions and approaches you describe in your case material must be included in and consistent with your rationale for your way of working described in criterion 8.1.
Don't reference criterion 8 in your case material, but whenever you feel you're demonstrating how you use your rationale and the theories which underpin your practice, reference this to 9.1. Tell us how you worked, what you did and why you made the interventions described.
9.2 How you use your self-awareness in the therapeutic relationship
Show how you used your own reflective awareness of yourself - your own thoughts, feelings and responses to the case material - in the work undertaken. Remember we're assessing your self-awareness, not your awareness of the counselling process or whether your client gained self-awareness.
9.3 How your practice demonstrates your awareness of issues of difference and equality and the impact they have upon your counselling or psychotherapy relationships
Explain how your awareness of these issues impacted on your work with the client or clients in your case study. You may be able to draw on some of the considerations you discussed in 8.3, but keep the information case specific rather than general.
How did your awareness of issues of difference and equality between you and your client affect the way you worked? How did your client perceive themselves in relation to others?
What about similarities? How did you guard against being seduced into over identification by similarities between yourself and other client groups, and so on?
9.4 Use of the BACP Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions
Explain what ethical considerations you encountered in your work with this client and how you made use of relevant elements of the Ethical Framework. For example you may have had an ethical dilemma or found maintaining boundaries challenging.
You don’t need to reference every section or guiding principle but select specific examples which you feel demonstrate your ethical awareness and thinking.
9.5 Describing the awareness you have gained through reflection in and on supervision
and
9.6 Showing how you apply that awareness in your practice
Preferably using the same case study, show how reflecting upon the work with your supervisor facilitated enhanced awareness about the work as it unfolded.
Don't just write about your supervision in general terms, or say you took a case to supervision, but demonstrate your use of supervision in practice.
For 9.5 tell us what awareness you gained through reflection on the case material in supervision.
For 9.6 explain how that awareness was applied in practice in subsequent sessions with the same client.
Check Criterion 9 on our common reasons for deferral page