Obligations of Practising Members

All ANZACATA members who are practising – that is, engage directly with clients or students, must commit to continuing professional development and supervision. This is to ensure that they retain their capacity to practice safely, ethically, effectively and legally. It is expected that practising members will be engaged in creative arts therapy for payment at a minimum of 150 hours each year (or 450 hours averaged over the last 3 years if a break has occurred). If you are unwell or not working to this level, you may move to the membership category of Affiliate. Please let us know if your circumstances change by emailing member.services@anzacata.org.

A key element of professional practice is regular, ongoing clinical supervision and Continuing Professional Development activities (CPD). Practising members bear the cost of this currency of practice in order to become members and to maintain their membership each year.

If members let their membership lapse and want to renew ANZACATA membership sometime later, they will be required to provide evidence that they have kept up CPD and Supervision before we can re-admit them as a practising member. If you have been ill and not worked, then exemptions may apply. ANZACATA cannot allow people to join or re-join after significant absences without checking that they can work competently and ethically.

Clinical supervision

Practising members must undertake 1 hour of clinical supervision for every 15 client hours.

Clinical supervision is a formal relationship with an experienced clinician, someone that you pay for each session and the supervisor should have no direct relationship to your workplace or to overseeing your employment. There must be no dual relationships between you and the supervisor such that you are not able to be perfectly candid (without repercussions at work). Your supervisor can be either an approved ANZACATA supervisor (or experienced ANZACATA member working towards approved supervisor status) or one approved by APS, ACA or PACFA or similar counselling or clinical supervision bodies in other countries.

The purpose of clinical supervision is to monitor your clinical work with clients and ensure their welfare is always paramount in your one-to-one work with clients and to promote your own personal professional competence as a therapist. 

Continuing Professional Development

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is defined by ANZACATA as: "A range of professional learning engagements through which creative arts therapists maintain life-long learning".

Practising members must undertake 25 hours of Continuing Professional Development activities (CPD) annually and keep a log of both these activities. As competent professionals ANZACATA Professional members are to determine for themselves in consultation with a clinical supervisor the areas in which CPD is required and to keep a log of the CPD undertaken.

All CPD activities must be logged and ready to be audited.

Appropriate CPD activities may include undertaking further CAT related specialist training, publishing a peer-reviewed article of peer-reviewing for a journal; attendance or participation at an industry relevant workshop, presentation or conference; attending online webinars; involvement in LRGs with a formal workshop or presentation; and publicity and promotion of creative arts therapies.

Further details of these requirements and an electronic logbook are available in the member only pages once you join.