About

Our relationship with Humanitas Training.

The Humanitas Independent Counselling Society was founded by Anri van den Berg, who also owns Humanitas Training, a counselling training provider whose programmes HICS recognises. This page sets out where the two organisations meet, the rules that govern it, and what you can check for yourself.

Two organisations

What each one does.

HICS and Humanitas Training are separate legal entities. HICS is a registered non-profit company. Registration number: 2026/694642/08. Humanitas Training is a for-profit training provider operating under Vita Nova Training (Pty) Ltd. They have separate boards, separate finances, separate bank accounts and separate purposes. Humanitas Training develops and sells counselling training, and has students. HICS exists to publish a standard, admit members against it, maintain a public directory and hold members to a code of conduct, and has members. It sells no training: what it charges are membership, application, provider and assessment fees, and no surplus may be distributed to any director or member. A standards body that also sells the training it assesses is not a standards body.

The shared name

Why HICS carries it.

The obvious question about two separate organisations is why they share a name. HICS grew out of Humanitas Training’s work in this field, and the name carries real standing with tertiary institutions and in the profession.

HICS uses it under a written licence from the training company, on terms that do not give the licensor any influence over HICS’s standards, admissions or disciplinary decisions.

We recognise that a shared name is the weakest part of the separation, and that no amount of legal structure makes two organisations with the same first word look entirely distinct. The rule, therefore, is that nothing else is shared: the two identities must be visibly distinct, HICS material never carries the Humanitas Training logo, Humanitas Training material never carries HICS’s identity beyond the recognition mark, and the two marks are never placed together, because two logos side by side read as one organisation whatever the accompanying text says.

A mark that only ever appears on one provider’s materials is a logo. A mark that could appear on any provider’s is a standard.

Where the two meet

Three points of contact, and a licence.

The name licence is dealt with above. These are the other three, listed rather than left to be found.

  1. 01

    Humanitas Training is a recognised provider

    Its counselling programme, its advanced practice programmes and its supervisor training programme were assessed against the adopted outcomes standards as the founding provider, before the route opened. The Standards and Admissions Committee was not yet constituted, so the Board took that decision with the founder recused; the Committee takes over from its constitution, and the same standards apply to every applicant once the route opens. The standards are adopted and HICS will publish them. Its programmes will carry the recognition mark once it exists; it is not yet designed.

  2. 02

    Humanitas Training is contracted to deliver the CPD core

    HICS owns the CPD content it includes in the membership fee: the core, drawn from its own standards, being the Code, the scope of practice and its limitations, the duty to refer and the annual regulatory and legislative updates, and the ethics points. Humanitas Training is contracted to deliver that content, not to write it. The contract is for defined work, benchmarked against external rates and approved only by directors with no financial interest in it, and the amount paid is disclosed in rand in the annual report. It is not a per-member charge and it is not exclusive: any suitable provider may be commissioned.

  3. 03

    The founder is a director of HICS and owns the training company

    She takes no part in any decision concerning Humanitas Training, including its recognition as a provider and any payment to it.

The rules that govern it

Six rules, and where they sit.

They are recorded in HICS’s founding decisions, its Recognition of Training and CPD document and the draft of its full Memorandum of Incorporation. The Memorandum registered at CIPC is the short standard form and does not carry them: they are given effect by Board resolution and the Committee’s terms of reference, and may later be written into the Memorandum by amendment.

Recognition is by published standard, never by provider

Training is recognised against an outcomes standard, not by who the provider is. Any provider may apply, and no provider holds a reserved position, a preference or a mandatory gate. The route, the standards and the appeal

Assessment is made by people who are not connected to the provider

On the Standards and Admissions Committee, a majority unconnected to the provider under assessment decides. A member connected to that provider, or to a competitor, discloses it, takes no part in the discussion or the decision, and has the recusal recorded in the minutes; recusals are reported in aggregate in the annual report. Connected means owning or controlling the provider, being employed or engaged by it, or deriving material financial benefit from it, including from the sale or delivery of any programme it offers. Having completed Humanitas Training’s training, or holding a qualification or membership obtained through it, does not by itself make a person connected.

The Board takes no part in individual recognition decisions

Once the Committee is constituted, recognition decisions are the Committee’s alone. The founding-provider decision, taken before the Committee existed, was the Board’s, with the founder recused.

A refused provider may appeal

The appeal is heard by three people appointed by the Board, none of whom took the original decision and at least one of whom is external to HICS. How the appeal is heard

No student data passes between the two organisations

HICS receives no records in bulk from any training provider, including Humanitas Training. Every enquiry HICS makes about an individual is made on that individual’s own authorisation. What HICS collects, and from whom

Members are never required to buy from Humanitas Training

The twelve points a member earns each year beyond the included ten may come from any HICS-accredited course or recognised activity, from any provider. Nothing obliges a member to buy anything from Humanitas Training. The CPD requirement, and who pays whom

Raising a concern

We would rather hear it than not.

If you believe a decision of HICS has been influenced by the founder’s interest in Humanitas Training, write to info@hics.co.za.