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Our vision, mission, and values

Our Vision

The bpf’s vision is a society where psychoanalytic thinking has improved the functioning of the mental health and wellbeing of society. 

Our Mission

Our mission is to provide the public with access to psychotherapists who have undertaken academically and clinically rigorous psychotherapy training.

The charity aims to educate the public about psychoanalytic theory and practice and have influence over social policy to increase access to intensive, psychoanalytically informed psychotherapy.

It is working to increase accessibility to its trainings and membership, so that a wider range of the general public is represented in its membership. It is also striving to make its clinical services more widely available to the general public, geographically and economically

Our Values

Our values are an expression of our identity – and our identity is defined by our core values:

The importance of the unconscious mind

We understand that people’s distress is often a result of the unconscious mental efforts we make to cope with painful feelings, experience and conflicts. We understand that people’s behaviour is sometimes driven by unconscious processes and that an opportunity to be able to understand our inner world can be transformational.   

Reflectivity

Psychoanalysis is embedded in the idea that thinking and reflection can offer space for creativity and work. We aim to hold a space for reflection especially in the face of stress, fear or disagreement.  

Equity

People from different backgrounds, races, ethnicities, faiths, sexualities, socio-economic structures, neuro-diversities are welcomed, and difference is acknowledged and celebrated.  

Accessibility

Barriers to joining our trainings and membership will be acknowledged and work will be done to minimise barriers as they arise.  

Integrity

Our trainings are informed by rigorous academic application and evidence-based clinical experience clinical experience. We act with honesty, will self-reflect, acknowledge when we have got things wrong and encourage each other to speak up when things need saying.

Inclusivity

We aim to include all our stakeholders in our future plans, including potential service users, members, trainees, our members of staff, our volunteers, our academic a clinical partners and wider social institutions.

Our commitment to improving diversity in the profession

IThe British Psychotherapy Foundation (bpf) has been re-accredited with the Investors in Diversity Silver Award by the National Centre for Diversity (NCD). Find out what the award recognises, what we have achieved since 2024, and our inclusion priorities for the next two years.