About WhatCounsellor

Why this site exists

For 20 years my team and I have built websites for UK counsellors and therapists. Hundreds of them. Twenty years of sitting with practitioners who are brilliant at their work and invisible online, and of watching where their clients actually come from.

Two things about this field stayed with us. First, choosing a counsellor is one of the most personal decisions a person makes, and the information available at the moment of choosing is remarkably thin: adjectives, stock photography and "contact for rates". Second, almost nobody knows that "counsellor" and "psychotherapist" are not protected titles in the UK. BACP's 2026 survey of 5,000 adults found 48% believe otherwise. The overwhelming majority of practising counsellors are trained, insured and belong to respected professional bodies, but the websites where people look cannot show you which ones, or when anyone last checked.

That gap has a cost, and it is paid by two groups we care about. Clients, often reaching out at a low point, who cannot tell evidence from marketing. And counsellors, who spent years qualifying and cannot prove it where it counts.

WhatCounsellor is our answer: an independent find-and-compare site where every counsellor's qualification and insurance documents are checked by a person, where the date of the check is public, where stated professional body memberships are confirmed against the bodies' own registers, where fees are published so you can compare real costs, and where anyone can look up any member in seconds, free.

Rick, Founder