We, the undersigned, write to urge governing and awarding bodies to consider their responses to the collapse of the counselling and teaching organisation known as Supporting Minds on March 7 2023. The business saw clients at a number of sites across the UK and provided tuition pathways to becoming qualified counsellors. The business ceased trading on the same day as clients and students were notified of its closure from an email address to which they could not reply. This has left numerous students from several national cohorts without any obvious means of continuance to complete their qualifications. 

The ethical, emotional, practical and financial implications of this abrupt and unprepared-for ending are devastating for students, staff and clients of the now defunct organisation. This unprecedented organisational collapse to nothing has left students stranded at different stages of their courses. There are those who were only weeks or a few units away from completion; others had just started, or were about to start, their studies. All now face trying to recover thousands of pounds in course fees to be able to continue elsewhere. 

You can appreciate the devastating effect this has had on a great many people, a lot of whom were working on placements with organisations offering counselling services to the public, accruing hours of valuable experience for themselves. These placements have had to be suspended and therapeutic alliances with clients terminated without the closure clients and students deserved. As student counsellors, we cannot emphasise enough how concerned we are about the effect this situation could have on clients we have been working with. It is incumbent upon those working in counselling and psychotherapy to always strive to put our clients and ethical practice at the forefront of everything we do.

This appalling situation shows there is a very real and urgent need for the profession to implement measures to support students and protect them while they study from professional and personal harm. We implore you to lend your demonstrative, active and vocal support to this cause.

We ask that professional bodies be open to discussing options as to how we may be able to complete the remainder of the units required to finish our qualifications. Since the collapse of Supporting Minds, individual students are reporting that they are finding it extremely difficult to access meaningful support and clear guidance. We believe it would be extremely helpful if a line of communication could be opened up, collaboratively between teaching organisations and representative bodies, to help us move forward in this matter. We would be extremely grateful for your help.

As a group we are in agreement that the Pearson BTEC course content and received teaching from tutors to date has been invaluable in helping us grow and develop as counsellors. What we are desperately seeking with urgency is the opportunity to finish our training so that we can go on to work in the profession at the earliest opportunity. Thank you for engaging with us in seeking workable solutions for all those affected.