Obligations of Practising Members

All ANZACATA members who are practising - that is, engage directly with clients or students, must commit to maintaining regular practice hours, clinical supervision and continuing professional development (CPD). This is to ensure that they retain their capacity to practice safely, ethically, effectively and legally.

Practising members bear the cost of this currency of practice 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 Supervision and CPD 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.

Practice hours

It is expected that practising members will be engaged in creative arts therapy for 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 'On leave'. Please let us know if your circumstances change by emailing member.services@anzacata.org.

Clinical supervision

Clinical supervision is a formal, collaborative relationship with a qualified supervisor. Your supervisor may be external or workplace-based, but must not be your direct line manager, and must not be a family member, close friend or intimate partner - this is to ensure you're able to be candid in supervision without repercussions at work.

The purpose of clinical supervision is to support you to reflect on your clinical work, ensure client safety and wellbeing remain paramount, and develop your ongoing professional competence as a therapist.

Professional members must undertake regular clinical supervision.

The minimum requirement is:

• Experienced practitioners (with 960+ post-qualification client contact hours) - 1 hour of supervision for every 24 client contact hours
• Early-career practitioners - 1 hour for every 18 client contact hours.

Supervision must occur monthly, and at least 50% must be individual (one-to-one) supervision - the remainder may be group supervision.

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 prctitioners, ANZACATA Professional members may 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 specialist training in creative arts therapies
• 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 ANZACATA LOCAL Regional Groups (LRGs) with a formal workshop or presentation; 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.