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Psychotherapy Access Programme
The Psychotherapy Access Programme aims to remove financial barriers so people can access specialised, longer-term treatment, helping them to start their journey towards improving their mental health and wellbeing.
The programme offers fully funded and subsidised psychotherapy places for low-income adults who are ready to engage but they cannot afford longer-term psychotherapy sessions.
Many of those who come to us for support live with complex trauma, chronic anxiety, depression, or relationship difficulties. They need longer-term psychotherapy, yet this is rarely available through public services. This leaves a significant gap for people who need more than short-term interventions but are not in immediate crisis. Without appropriate treatment, their mental health often deteriorates further.
Over 12 months, the programme will:
- Support up to 20 adults to receive psychotherapy with a Senior Practitioner
- Provide a mix of once weekly and more intensive treatment, based on clinical need
- Deliver up to 600 therapy sessions with qualified practitioners (assuming an average of 30 sessions per person)
By donating to the Psychotherapy Access Programme, your gift is ringfenced, your donation goes directly to widening access to psychotherapy within our existing clinical services. Together, we will ensure cost isn’t the reason vulnerable people go without support. When access becomes possible, the benefits can be significant and extend beyond individuals, often strengthening family life, relationships, work, and community wellbeing.
“Having a longer-term therapy helped me by giving me time to see the difficult patterns in relationships being played out again and again. It meant that I could have time to understand why I was repeating something that wasn’t helpful to me” bpf patient
Our goal is to raise £43,500, an average investment of £2,175 per person per year enabling 20 people to access subsidised psychotherapy who would otherwise be unable to afford treatment.
If we raise more than our target, any additional funds will be used to provide subsidised psychotherapy places for further individuals in need. If we do not reach our target, all funds raised will still be used to provide as many subsidised psychotherapy places as possible and to support access to psychotherapy for those experiencing financial hardship. Thank you.
Psychotherapy Bursary Fund
With your support, we can remove immediate financial barriers to training and develop highly skilled clinicians working across NHS, voluntary and community settings, and in private practice, widening access to specialist mental health care at a time of unprecedented pressure.
Across ten trainings, more than four hundred trainees are enrolled on rigorous, multi-year professional programmes. These programmes prepare trainees to become psychotherapists equipped to work with a diverse range of people, including adults, couples, adolescents, children, and parents with infants, who may be experiencing emotional distress and difficulties. Our charitable mission is to provide high-quality psychotherapy training and to advance public benefit through the development of skilled, ethically grounded clinicians who contribute to mental health provision across the UK. At a time of sustained pressure on mental health services, maintaining a strong pipeline of trained clinicians is both an educational priority and a matter of public benefit.
Why Bursary Support Is Needed
Psychotherapy training spans 3-6 years and combines intensive theoretical study, supervised clinical practice and mandatory personal therapy.
Bursaries remove one of the greatest barriers to becoming a therapist, the financial strain. By easing the burden at any stage, whether starting out, midway through, or struggling to complete the final year, bursaries not only help trainees see their training through, but also ensure that our future therapists reflect the true diversity of the communities they will go on to serve.
Trainees are self-funding adults and are not eligible for maintenance loans. Many trainees are mid-career professionals balancing mortgages and caring responsibilities alongside reduced income as they retrain. As clinical placements begin, earning capacity often reduces while their costs increase. This includes personal therapy, supervision, travel, and course materials.
Even short-term financial strain can jeopardise continuation in training, and a hardship bursary can be the difference between remaining in training and withdrawing.
The Bursary Fund has no fixed fundraising target. All donations received are added to the Fund and used to provide bursary support for people who would otherwise be unable to access psychotherapy.
The amount available for bursary awards depends on the level of donations received. As additional funds are donated, we are able to award more bursaries and support more people. If fewer donations are received, the amount available for bursary awards will be reduced and fewer individuals may be able to benefit from the Fund.
All bursary awards are made in accordance with the bpf charitable objectives and bursary criteria.
Building Improvements Fund
When people think about supporting mental health, they often picture therapy rooms and clinical services. But before a psychotherapist can support a patient, they must first be trained, supervised and sustained within a professional community.
Our headquarters, based at Mapesbury Road, is not simply a venue. It is the professional home in which future psychotherapists start their journey to become some of the most highly qualified mental health specialists.
At the British Psychotherapy Foundation, our training house is the heart of that work.
Each year, more than 400 trainees alongside members, lecturers and visiting professionals pass through its rooms. Over their careers, they will collectively support tens of thousands of individuals across the NHS, charities and in private practice.
Within these walls, future psychotherapists develop the clinical skill, ethical grounding and emotional resilience that will shape thousands of therapeutic relationships over the course of their careers.
We need funds to complete urgent upgrades to our toilets and kitchen facilities, ensuring they meet the needs of our growing community of trainees, members, staff and visitors. Modern, accessible and well-maintained spaces are vital to sustaining the high standards expected within a professional and inclusive training environment at the British Psychoanalytic Foundation.
Investment in our facilities is an investment in the future mental health workforce.
The Building Improvement Fund supports the ongoing maintenance and development of the Foundation’s premises. There is no fundraising target, and every donation contributes directly to improving the facilities used by our community.
The extent of the improvements that can be delivered depends on the funds received. Additional donations enable more substantial projects to be undertaken, including kitchen and toilet refurbishments and other major improvements to the building. Lower levels of funding may mean that fewer projects can be completed or that planned works are phased over time.
All funds will be applied to building improvement and maintenance projects that support the Foundation’s charitable activities. Budgeted costs for planned works are available on request.