A profile your clients can check
WhatCounsellor shows your qualifications and insurance checked by a person with the date in public, your professional body membership confirmed against its register, your fees and availability presented fairly beside your peers, and a founding price that never rises while your membership stays active. Built by a team that has spent 20 years making websites for UK counsellors and therapists.
Founding pricing covers the first 300 members or runs until 31 December 2026, whichever comes first. 30-day full refund, and an automatic refund if your documents never arrive.
Trained, insured, on the record
You know what the directory bills have become
The monthly fee creeps up and the enquiries drift down. One large directory has just moved from £19.50 to £24.99 a month, and members who queried the value were told they were free to leave. Another gives six months free, then £19.95 a month for listings its own members describe as drying up, and makes cancelling a fight. Pay-per-lead sites charge the price of a session to answer a single enquiry that usually goes nowhere. Most counsellors in private practice are paying two or three of these bills at once, out of a part-time income, and wondering why.
Meanwhile the way clients choose is shifting under everyone's feet. Nearly half the public still believe "therapist" is a legally protected title. It is not, and as more people learn that, more of them will check before they book. Today there is nowhere good for them to do it: the big directories checked a membership number at signup and rarely look again, and none of them shows when, or whether, anyone verified anything.
An independent comparison site built around one idea: show the evidence
WhatCounsellor is a find-and-compare site for counsellors and psychotherapists. Independent means exactly that: we are not owned by, or connected to, any professional body, training provider or insurer, and we are funded by member fees alone. We take no commission on anything.
Every member's counselling qualification and current insurance document is checked by a person before the profile goes live, and the date of the check is published on the profile. If you state a professional body membership, we confirm it against that body's public register on the same date and show it. Insurance expiry is tracked continuously, with a suspended profile the consequence of a lapsed document. Members confirm they are taking new clients on a rolling cycle, so the site never fills up with ghosts. And there is a free public Check a Counsellor page where any client can look any member up in seconds.
We are equally clear about what verification is not. We check documents; we do not assess clinical skill, and we say so publicly. Counselling is not statutorily regulated in the UK, and the site says so wherever a visitor might assume otherwise. A site that overclaims embarrasses its members; this one never will.
What founding members are actually buying
We are new. There is no queue of clients on this site today, and we will never tell you otherwise. If any directory promises you enquiries, ask to see the numbers.
Founding members buy three things. First, a verification no incumbent matches: documents read by a person, the date in public, membership confirmed, insurance enforced. That is something you can point your own clients at, whatever else you are listed on. Second, a price that stays put: £99 a year including VAT, locked at £99 for as long as your membership stays active, while the incumbents' prices rise. Third, an early place on a site that is being marketed hard, with your profile and your town's pages in place as the audience grows, and a permanent founding-member marker on your profile. The 30-day refund exists so the risk of finding out sits with us, not you.
What £99 buys on the day you join
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A verified profile that reads like you. Photo, bio, qualifications with the check date shown, professional body membership confirmed and displayed, the issues you work with, your approach, in-person and online session options, locations, fees, and links to your own website and booking system. Your own URL: whatcounsellor.co.uk/counsellor/[your-town]/[your-name].
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Your place in the comparison. You appear in search results, on your town page, and on town-and-issue pages ("anxiety counselling in [town]"), presented fairly beside your peers, ordered by distance.
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The embeddable verification badge. A live badge for your website and email footer, in three sizes, linking to your entry. If a membership ever lapses, the badge stops working, which is exactly why it means something while it is live.
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The Check a Counsellor entry. Any client, GP or agency can confirm your checked status in seconds, free, on the public Check a Counsellor page.
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Published fees, your call. You set your fee field yourself; showing a fee gets you into the fee filters and the local cost pages where cost-conscious clients are actually looking.
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A dashboard you control. Edit anything instantly, see your 30-day profile stats, manage billing in your own Stripe portal, export your data, cancel in one click. No emailing an admin and waiting.
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Enquiries straight to your inbox. Messages go directly to you; we keep a delivery log and never touch the client relationship or charge a penny per enquiry.
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A printable membership certificate and your listing number. For your practice room and your paperwork.
What "verified" means here, and what it does not
Verified means: a counselling qualification checked by a person on the date shown; a current insurance document checked on the date shown, tracked to expiry; any stated professional body membership confirmed against that body's public register on the same date. Verified does not mean: that we have assessed your clinical skill, that you are endorsed by us, or that counselling is a statutorily regulated profession in the UK (it is not regulated by statute, and we say so). The full standard is published, because a standard you cannot read is not a standard.
Founding membership: the rate you lock now is the rate you keep
| Tier | Founding price (first 300 members or until 31 Dec 2026) | Standard price afterwards |
|---|---|---|
| Verified Member (annual) Renew at your founding rate for as long as your membership stays continuously active. Lapse and rejoin, and the standard rate applies. | £99/yr, locked while you stay | £149/yr |
| Founding 3-Year One payment of £229 covers three full years, against £297 at the founding annual rate. Not sold after the founding window. | £229 one-off (three years for less than the price of two and a half) | Not available after the founding window |
| Featured Member (annual) Everything in Verified, plus top town-page placement, an enhanced profile and homepage rotation. Same verification as every member; featured placement is always labelled. | £179/yr | £249/yr |
| Newly qualified (first year) For counsellors qualified within the last 12 months: first year £39, full verification, everything above. Still training? Join now, go live when your certificate arrives. | £39, then the founding rate | £59 first year |
Listed this week, in five steps
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Complete the two-minute form: name, contact details, town, qualification and insurance basics.
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Pay by card. Your founding place and price are locked from this moment.
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Finish your profile and upload your qualification certificate and insurance schedule from your dashboard, whenever suits you. Phone photos are fine.
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A person reviews your documents within two working days of them arriving, against the published standard. If anything is unclear we tell you exactly what and why, and you get 14 days to sort it.
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Approved: your profile is live, your badge is ready to install, and your checklist walks you through the profile details that matter most.
If your documents never arrive, your payment refunds itself automatically after 30 days. If we cannot verify them, you get the reason in plain English and a full refund if it cannot be resolved. There is no way to lose money by applying.
30 days, full refund, no questions, no forms
Join, build your profile, install the badge, see how it feels. If you decide within 30 days that it is not for you, one email gets you a full refund and we part as friends. After that, you can still cancel any time in one click in your own billing portal, and your membership simply runs to the end of its year. Renewal reminders arrive 30 days and 7 days before any renewal. No dark patterns; trust is the whole point of a register.
Why the founding window is real
Founding pricing ends at 300 members or on 31 December 2026, whichever comes first. That is not a marketing countdown; it is the point at which the site has the coverage density to stand on its own, and the point at which the price rises to the standard rate for new joiners. Founding members keep their rate for as long as their membership stays active and carry a permanent founding-member marker on their profile. Whether you join today or next year, the verification standard is identical. The only thing that changes is the price and the founding marker.
Fair questions, straight answers
I already pay Counselling Directory and Psychology Today. Why add this?
Keep whatever is working for you; this does a different job. Neither of them shows a verification date, re-checks documents, enforces insurance, confirms you are still taking clients, or lets clients compare fees. WhatCounsellor is the checkable, comparable version of you, at £99 a year including VAT rather than £20-25 a month, locked at that price while your membership stays active, and you can leave in one click if it earns nothing.
Do you guarantee me enquiries?
No, and please be wary of anyone in this industry who does. The site is new and the audience is being built; what we guarantee is the work (verified profiles, town and issue pages, structured data, the Check a Counsellor tool, honest stats in your dashboard so you can judge for yourself) and your money back: a 30-day full refund on every new membership, and an automatic refund if your documents never arrive.
Is this just a paid directory with a badge?
A fair challenge, and the answer is in what you can inspect: a published verification standard, documents checked by a person with the date shown publicly, a live Check a Counsellor tool, a published Code of Conduct and complaints procedure, and a badge that stops working the day a membership lapses. Most directories list whoever pays and check a membership number once. We check documents, publish the date, and keep checking.
Who is actually behind this?
Rick, founder of Truly Empowered Ltd, whose team has spent 20 years building websites for UK counsellors and therapists. WhatCounsellor is founder-led, self-funded, and independent of every professional body and training provider. The long version is on our About page.
Are you connected to BACP, UKCP or any professional body?
No. WhatCounsellor is independent and has no affiliation with, or endorsement from, any professional body, training provider, charity or the NHS. We confirm stated memberships against the bodies' own public registers because that is evidence a client can trust, not because of any relationship with them.
What about client reviews? My professional body has rules.
So do we, and they are built in. Review collection through VerifiedPractitioner is coming to the Featured tier, and it is designed body-aware from day one: invitations are sent by the platform rather than by you, clients consent and stay anonymous by default, every consented review is published rather than cherry-picked, and the feature stays switched off for UKCP registrants, whose code does not allow client testimonials in advertising. Nothing launches for your account unless your body's code permits it and you opt in.
What if my application is rejected?
You get the reason in plain English, 14 days to provide anything that was missing, and a full automatic refund if it cannot be resolved. Rejections are rare because the standard is published before you apply: a counselling qualification from a recognised route plus current insurance.
I am newly qualified and not yet with a professional body. Can I join?
Yes. Body membership is displayed and confirmed where you state it, but it is not an entry requirement, because it is not a legal requirement to practise. Your qualification and insurance are. The £39 newly qualified rate exists precisely for your first year, and your profile shows exactly what was checked, which is more than a directory listing shows for anyone.
I'm not technical. How hard is the badge and profile stuff?
Signing up takes about two minutes, completing your profile about ten more, and the badge is one copy-paste, with instructions for every major website platform.
What happens to my documents?
They are stored securely, seen only by the verification team, and never displayed publicly. Your profile shows the outcome (route, level, dates), not the documents. Full details in our Privacy Policy.
What does renewal look like? Will the price creep?
Your membership runs 12 months from your join date. You get reminder emails 30 days and 7 days before renewal, cancelling is one click, and if you joined at a founding rate, that rate is locked for as long as your membership stays continuously active.
Why should I trust a new site?
Do not trust it; check it. Read the verification standard, look up a member, read the Code of Conduct and the complaints procedure, and note what we refuse to claim. A site earns trust by being inspectable. We have made every part of this one inspectable from day one.
Claim your founding place
£99 a year including VAT, locked while your membership stays active, for the first 300 members or until 31 December 2026. Two minutes to start, a 30-day full refund, and an automatic refund if your documents never arrive.