Can I Legally Counsel Clients In South Africa Without HPCSA Registration?

The question in the title gets asked as often now as it did in 2023, usually by psychology graduates weighing up what an honours degree allows them to do. The short answer is yes: you may legally counsel clients in South Africa without being registered with the HPCSA, provided you do not call yourself a Psychologist or a Registered Counsellor, do not claim or imply HPCSA registration, and do not perform the acts the Health Professions Act reserves for registered health professionals, such as psychological diagnosis and psychotherapy. Within those limits, counselling is lawful without any registration at all. Whether it is also competent, ethical and accountable is a separate question, and that is where professional bodies come in. What follows sets out what has stayed the same, what is new, and where to verify it for yourself.

What has not changed

Counselling is not a regulated profession in South Africa. Anyone may practise counselling without joining a statutory register, holding a protected title or completing a minimum period of training. What the law does protect is a set of titles and activities reserved under the Health Professions Act. A person who is not registered with the HPCSA may not call themselves a Psychologist or a Registered Counsellor, may not claim HPCSA registration, and may not carry out acts the Act reserves for registered health professionals, such as psychological diagnosis and psychotherapy.

That is the whole of the legal test. It has not moved since 2023, and it is not affected by which voluntary bodies a counsellor chooses to join.

Where voluntary professional bodies come in

Because the law does not require it, the question of standards falls to voluntary professional bodies. The ASCHP, which the original 2023 article below describes, is one such body and remains active. Since 2026 there is another, HICS. Neither is a statutory council, and the same limits apply to both: membership of either is voluntary, is not a legal requirement to practise, confers no statutory authority, and is not equivalent to registration with the HPCSA. Members of neither body may use a title the Health Professions Act reserves, and neither body carries any authority derived from the HPCSA.

What a voluntary body can do is publish a standard, admit only people who meet it, hold members to a code of conduct, and give clients, employers and referring professionals a way to check who has done so.

The ASCHP

The Association for Supportive Counsellors and Holistic Practitioners (ASCHP) is a SAQA-recognised professional body (ID 984) with four designations listed on the National Qualifications Framework: Supportive Counsellor (NQF level 4), Holistic Counsellor (level 5), Wellness Counsellor (level 7) and Specialist Wellness Counsellor (level 8). In its own words, it:

provides membership to counsellors who work in the non-statutory domain, i.e. who are not psychologists.

Its rules, designations, scope of practice and CPD requirements are published at aschp.org.za.

The Humanitas Independent Counselling Society

The Humanitas Independent Counselling Society, known as HICS, is a registered non-profit company established as a professional-standards body for counsellors. In its own words, it is:

A voluntary, non-statutory, membership-based quality-assurance body for counselling practitioners in South Africa. Practice standards, supervision, CPD and an enforceable Code.

It publishes its entry criteria, its scope of practice and its code of conduct openly on its website, together with a set of limitations that its members undertake never to cross. It offers three membership designations: Accredited Counsellor, Accredited Senior Counsellor and Accredited Supervisor.

Entry is not automatic. HICS sets strict qualifying criteria, and an applicant must meet all of them before a designation is awarded. The minimum academic requirement is a qualification at NQF level 7 or above in psychology, social work or a counselling-related field, from a recognised South African higher education institution. Beyond that, an applicant must have completed counselling training that HICS has recognised against its published outcomes standard, must have logged supervised practice hours signed off by an approved supervisor, and must pass a written board examination that HICS sets and marks itself. Nobody is accredited without passing that examination, whatever training they hold and whichever provider they trained with.

The reasoning behind the examination is worth stating plainly. Good intentions and a completed training programme are not the same thing as competence. A certificate shows that a person attended and was taught; it does not by itself show that they can apply what they were taught when a real client is in front of them. The board examination is HICS’s way of testing that independently of any training provider, with the safety-critical questions at its centre: the limits of the counselling role, the recognition of risk, when and to whom to refer, and ethical conduct. An applicant who cannot demonstrate that is not accredited, however well-meaning and however well-trained. The full criteria are published at hics.co.za/membership/apply.

Anyone considering HICS should read its published standards directly at hics.co.za and form their own view.

How Humanitas Training relates to HICS

Humanitas Training is a recognised training provider of HICS. That means HICS has assessed Humanitas Training’s programmes against its published outcomes standard and found that they meet it. It does not mean the two organisations are one and the same. HICS states the relationship as follows:

HICS and Humanitas Training are distinct bodies. Humanitas Training is not SAQA-accredited and awards no NQF qualification. Training is recognised by standard, not by provider, and there is no exception: no provider holds a reserved position, a preference or a mandatory gate. Humanitas Training is one recognised provider among any that apply.

Completing a Humanitas Training programme does not make anyone a HICS member. Membership is applied for separately, on HICS’s own criteria, through HICS’s own process, and every applicant sits the same board examination, Humanitas graduates included. The relationship between the two organisations, and the rules that keep them separate, are set out on the HICS website.

What this means for a Humanitas graduate

When this article was first written it described one route to a professional designation after the Humanitas Counselling Course: the ASCHP. In 2026 there are two. A graduate may apply to the ASCHP, may apply to HICS, or may do both. The law does not require either, and a person may practise within it without belonging to any professional body. Humanitas Training’s position on that is settled, and we state it openly: we believe that belonging to a professional body is a professional and ethical responsibility for anyone who counsels other people. Membership places a practitioner under a published code, keeps their supervision and continuing development accountable to someone other than themselves, and gives a client somewhere to turn if something goes wrong. Which body to join is a different question. Each sets its own entry requirements, fees, continuing-development rules and code of conduct, and each publishes them. Two questions are worth asking of any body you consider: how it decides who is admitted, and whether its full standard is published for anyone to read. That choice belongs to the practitioner, and it should be made on the published requirements rather than on anything a training provider says.

What we said in 2023, and repeat below, still holds. Know your scope. Know when to refer, and to whom. Tell your clients plainly what you are and what you are not. Keep your supervision current. Those obligations exist whichever body you join, and whether you join one at all.

Where to check for yourself

• Health Professions Council of South Africa: hpcsa.co.za, including the register of Psychologists and Registered Counsellors.
• Humanitas Independent Counselling Society: hics.co.za, including its scope of practice, limitations and membership pages.
• Association for Supportive Counsellors and Holistic Practitioners: aschp.org.za.
• South African Qualifications Authority, for professional bodies and designations recognised under the NQF Act: saqa.org.za.

Questions about the Humanitas Counselling Course itself can still be sent to info@humanitas.co.za. Questions about HICS membership should go to HICS directly.

What follows is the article as first published in June 2023, with two statements that are no longer accurate removed. It describes the position at that time and is kept as a record. Requirements set by the bodies named in it may have changed since; check their websites for the current position.

There is a common misperception among psychology graduates, that they can do absolutely nothing with an honours degree in psychology – nothing but apply for Masters and pray for the best. So when they then come across something like the Humanitas Counselling Course information, it is completely understandable that many are sceptic and that both legal and ethical concerns are raised.

Through this short article, we aim to educate and reassure you that; you can legally and ethically live out your passion through counselling.

The HPCSA and the ASCHP (SAQA registration ID 984; NQF registered designation) operate in two very different fields; the HPCSA in the field of psychology and the ASCHP in the field of wellness.

Therefore, people registered with the ASCHP cannot register as Registered Counsellor’s (RC’s) or Psychologists; both of which are HPCSA designations, but can register as:

• supportive counsellors (NQF Level 4),
• holistic practitioners (NQF Level 5),
• wellness counsellors (NQF Level 7) or
• specialist wellness counsellors (NQF Level 8 )

All four of these designations are listed on the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) as true occupations in South Africa.

The HPCSA is fully aware of the ASCHP. Before the establishment of the ASCHP as a professional body, the CCSA (Counsel for Counsellors in South Africa; from which the ASCHP originated), consulted with the HPCSA , their scope of practice was submitted and the HPCSA was satisfied that the two bodies can co-exist harmoniously and that they complement one another.

The Humanitas Counselling Course aims to bridge the enormous gap between theoretical knowledge and practical experience. We assist people with additional theoretical and practical training, offer them over 200 hours of practical experience as well as supervision, guidance and mentorship throughout, before they then apply for ASCHP registration.

We also encourage psychology students to continue applying for Masters should they wish to. However, if they are unsuccessful, as so many students are, they can still do a world of good in the wellness field and live out their passion while counselling confidently, ethically and legally.

Supervision is one of the most important components of the Humanitas Counselling Course, as we firmly believe that it is crucial to guide individuals, to learn from one another, to keep each other accountable and to remain firmly within our scope of practice.

The HPCSA and the ASCHP have two different scopes of practice. As wellness counsellors, we often have to refer to other professionals in different fields, therefore we really strive towards good collaboration with Psychologists and Registered Counsellors in the field. We believe that it is of the utmost importance to know when to refer and who to refer to.

Our clients are also well aware and regularly informed of the fact that we are not psychologists and that most are not registered counsellors.

We encourage enquiring students to fully research all the options available to them. There are always pros and cons to any direction that one might pursue.
If you would like to read more about the ASCHP, please visit their website: www.aschp.net, or the HPCSA www.hpcsa.co.za.

You are also welcome to contact us on info@humanitas.co.za we will gladly assist where possible.

Disclaimer: This article is published by Vita Nova Training (Pty) Ltd, trading as Humanitas Training, in response to questions commonly asked of us. It is general information, not legal advice, and it is not a formal statement by the HPCSA, the ASCHP or HICS. Each of those bodies publishes its own requirements, which take precedence over anything written here. Humanitas Training is a recognised training provider of HICS; the two are separate organisations.