27/10/2025
We’ve entered a new era of recognition for counsellors, psychotherapists, and creative and experiential therapists. Proud to see PACFA’s leadership and to reflect on CCET’s five-year journey that helped bring us here:
A New Era for Counsellors, Psychotherapists — and Creative and Experiential Therapists
It’s wonderful to see the National Standards for Counselling and Psychotherapy now formally published — a milestone that marks a new era for our profession.
For those of us PACFA registered therapists who work through creative, experiential, and relational ways of knowing and healing, this moment is especially significant. It affirms Creative and Experiential Therapists (CETs) as part of Australia’s nationally recognised counselling and psychotherapy workforce — something that many of us have been steadily working toward for the past five years.
Through PACFA’s College of Creative and Experiential Therapies (CCET), we have been laying the groundwork for this moment since 2020.
• ✨ Our journey so far:
• 2020: A group of 40 PACFA-registered Creative and Experiential Therapists came together, with PACFA’s support, to propose forming a new college that could represent our ways of working.
• 2021: PACFA’s Board unanimously accepted the proposal and established the College of Creative and Experiential Therapies (CCET). I was honoured to be elected as the inaugural Convenor.
• 2022: Our Leadership Group developed CCET’s values, purpose, membership criteria, and education standards — including a transparent, ethical assessment pathway aligned with national benchmarks.
• 2023: We prepared for opening for membership and contributed policy submissions to national reform campaigns.
• 2024: We opened for membership, launched our online community, developed standards linked to digital badges, and began our monthly CPD webinar series.
• 2025: We tripled our membership, contributed to the consultation process for these new National Standards, published a peer-reviewed response to the NDIS changes, and launched our community networking series, CCET Exchange.
As PACFA celebrates this new era, I also want to acknowledge the dedication, vision, and collaboration that have brought Creative and Experiential Therapies to this point of national recognition.
To my colleagues across the field — now is the time to make sure your voice is part of this future. If you’re a PACFA-registered Creative or Experiential Therapist, I warmly encourage you to apply to join CCET. Together, we’re shaping the evolving landscape of psychotherapy and counselling in Australia.
Find out more about CCET and how to join here:
https://pacfa.org.au/portal/Portal/About/Colleges/creative_and_experiential_therapies.aspx
