Developments in infertility counselling and its accreditation

Infertility counselling was placed in a unique position by the passage of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 and the requirement that couples being treated should be offered counselling. However professional counselling was, and largely still is, at a stage at which there was no universal agreement on the knowledge, standards or qualifications required for practice. Nevertheless, infertility counselling became the first example of counselling to be required by statute, beyond the more generalised requirement in adoption birth records access. Counselling is intended to describe skilled talking therapy offered by a professional with specific training and qualifications directed to helping individuals and couples to achieve goals they own themselves. The therapeutic intervention of counselling is primarily directed to helping clients in a stressful situation to deploy their own coping skills effectively and thus make the difficult choices inseparable from ART. Counselling outcome research consistently demonstrates the effectiveness of the sort of counselling delivered in assisted conception units with mild-moderate anxiety and depression delivered by skilled and experienced practitioners. This article reviews the role of counsellors as members of the assisted conception clinical team and the status of regulation and accreditation in this very new profession.