Find a counsellor

You deserve to know what your counsellor is trained to do.

Every counsellor listed by HICS has been assessed against a published standard, holds a recognised qualification, has completed at least 200 hours of supervised practice, and is in continuing supervision. You can see exactly what each one is trained to do, and what they are not.

If you need help right now

HICS is not an emergency service.

It does not provide counselling. Counselling is not a substitute for emergency care, and a counsellor cannot prescribe medication or treat mental illness.

Some things are never acceptable

Whatever you were told.

  • A counsellor listed here may never enter a sexual or romantic relationship with you, and may never engage in sexual contact, sexualised conduct or sexual communication with you.
  • There are no exceptions. It applies however long you have been seeing them, whatever they have told you about it, and regardless of who started it.
  • A member may not exploit you financially or emotionally, may not borrow from or lend to you, and may not accept gifts of cash.
  • A member may not simply drop you. If they cannot continue, they must give you reasonable notice, explain why, and help you find other support.

If this has happened to you, what you can do

Checking a member

The directory is where you check.

HICS publishes a directory of its members. There are no HICS members yet, so nobody is listed today: the first counsellors will appear there from the day they are approved. That also means nobody can truthfully claim to be a HICS member right now.

Once members are listed, the directory is the check: look the person up and see exactly what they hold. If a person is not listed as current, they are not a current member.

The member directory

Everything below is true of every counsellor who will be listed, and is worth knowing before you choose anyone, here or elsewhere.

[TO CONFIRM: the member directory, its search, and the route to check a single member's standing]

What a listing tells you

The facts are checked. The choice is yours.

What it tells you

That this counsellor met HICS’s published criteria when they were admitted, and that they are in good standing today. Standing is live: if a membership lapses, is suspended or is withdrawn, the listing changes immediately. There is no notice period. If a person is not listed as current, they are not a member, whatever their business card says.

What it does not tell you

A listing is not a recommendation. HICS does not match clients to counsellors, does not rank the people listed, and cannot advise you on whether a particular counsellor is right for you. We publish what we have verified. The choice is yours to make.

Everything we verify is checked: the training with the provider that ran it, the practice hours with the supervisor who signed them off, and the degree from certified documents, which we may confirm with the university where a document is unclear. The counsellor’s own account of it is where we start, not where we finish.

There will be no reviews and no ratings, and no counsellor will be able to pay to appear higher in the list.

A listing states that the member met HICS’s published criteria on admission and is in good standing on the date the listing is viewed. It is not a recommendation of the member, and it is not a warranty of their competence or conduct in any individual matter. HICS does not match clients to counsellors, does not rank members, and does not advise on the suitability of any member for a particular person or need. The choice of counsellor rests with the person making it.

HICS Scope of Practice, section 10: Verifying a member.

What every counsellor here can help with

All of them, without exception.

Everyday difficulties
Relationships, work, major transitions, stress, self-esteem, and decisions that feel too big to make alone.
Loss, grief and bereavement
Including the period before a death as well as after it.
Trauma-informed support
Understanding how trauma affects a person and working safely with that, including with adults who were abused as children. This is support and steadying rather than working through the traumatic events themselves, which needs additional training.
Recognising a crisis and acting on it
Including getting you to the right emergency help quickly.
Recognising when you need someone else
Every counsellor here is trained to notice when a difficulty needs a psychologist, a psychiatrist or a doctor rather than a counsellor, and is required to tell you so and help you get there.
Explaining how difficulty works
Stress, coping, sleep, boundaries, communication. One to one, or in a group.
First contact on more complex difficulties
Every counsellor here can respond safely at a first meeting on issues involving children, couples or substance use, and refer you to someone with the right training.

So if what you need is on this list, you do not need to look for a particular kind of counsellor. Any of them can help.

What some are additionally trained in

Beyond that shared foundation.

Some counsellors have completed further recognised training in specific areas. HICS verifies that training and shows it on their listing.

  • Children and adolescents

    Ongoing counselling with children and teenagers under 18. This work carries extra safeguards: additional consent and child-protection duties, and the counsellor must be supervised by someone HICS has approved for work with children.

  • Couples and relationships

    Ongoing counselling with two adults on their relationship.

  • Substance use and addiction

    Ongoing support alongside treatment for substance use or addiction, or as a bridge to it. It is not detox, and it does not replace medical or clinical addiction treatment.

  • Trauma counselling

    Working through the traumatic events themselves. This goes beyond the support and steadying every counsellor here can give, and needs this further training.

A counsellor may only keep working with you in the areas shown on their listing. If your difficulty is not one of them, they will refer you to someone whose training covers it.

A small number hold advanced practice

Which is different again. Training says a counsellor studied something. Advanced practice means they demonstrated it: assessed competence in that area, endorsed by a supervisor approved in that field, and maintained with continuing training every year. Only a counsellor currently holding advanced practice in the relevant area may use a reserved title such as Trauma Counsellor.

What a counsellor here cannot do

This matters as much as what they can.

Because it tells you when you need someone else. No counsellor listed by HICS, at any level, whatever else they have studied, may:

  • Diagnose any mental or psychological condition, or use diagnostic language about your difficulty.
  • Provide psychotherapy.
  • Give, score or interpret psychometric tests of any kind.
  • Advise on your medication, or comment on medication you are taking.
  • Prepare a report about your psychological state for a court, an insurer or a lawyer, or give expert evidence about it.
  • Manage a medical detox or withdrawal.
  • Use the title “Psychologist” or “Registered Counsellor”, or any other title the law reserves for registered health professionals, or claim to be registered with the HPCSA.

If you need any of those, you need a professional registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (the HPCSA). A counsellor here is required to tell you that and to help you find one, not simply to decline.

All ten limits, in plain terms

How to read a listing

A listing will show six things.

The first five are verified by HICS. The sixth is supplied by the counsellor.

Designation
How long they have practised, and at what level of standing. Accredited Counsellor is the designation every member starts with. Accredited Senior Counsellor means at least five years in good standing with an unbroken record, and a recognised contribution to the profession. Accredited Supervisor is not a further level: it means a senior counsellor is also approved to supervise other counsellors.
Qualification
The actual degree they hold and its level, for example BA Psychology at NQF 7, or BSW Social Work at NQF 8. We show you this rather than hiding it behind an abbreviation, so you can see what someone studied and judge for yourself.
Areas they are trained in
These come from training HICS has verified, not from what the counsellor told us about themselves.
Advanced practice
If they hold it in any area.
Supervision and standing
Whether their supervision is current, and whether they are in good standing. Every counsellor here discusses their work with a supervisor for as long as they practise. That is a condition of membership, not something they do while learning.
Where they work and how to reach themSupplied, not verified
Supplied by the counsellor and kept up to date by them, not verified by HICS. Members choose what to publish here: an area, a phone number, a website, social media, or a combination. Some publish none of it, and those counsellors will not appear when you search by area, though you can still confirm their standing if you already have their name.

Anything a counsellor publishes on their own website or social media is theirs, not ours. We do not review or monitor it. If you see a member claiming something this site says they may not do, such as a diagnosis, psychotherapy, or an HPCSA title, that is worth raising. The section If something goes wrong, below, explains where that route stands and what you can do now.

Choosing a counsellor

Meeting the standard is not the same as being right for you.

Being listed means someone met our standard. It does not mean they are the right person for you.

Worth asking on a first call

  • Have you worked with this kind of difficulty before?
  • What would the first few sessions look like?
  • What do you charge, and how many sessions do people usually have?
  • What happens if you think I need someone else?

It is reasonable to change your mind

If a counsellor does not feel like the right fit after a session or two, you are allowed to say so and to try someone else. That is a normal part of finding help, not a failure.

Every counsellor here is required to tell you what you are agreeing to before you start, to keep what you say confidential within limits they must explain to you, and to hold clear professional boundaries. If any of that does not happen, see below.

If you cannot find what you need

Other routes, and they are not second best.

If nobody is listed near you
Widen your search before assuming there is nobody available. Members choose whether to publish an area, so a search by location will not show everyone, and many counsellors work online in any event.
If what you need is outside what a counsellor does
Diagnosis, medication, psychological assessment, a formal report, or treatment for a mental illness. You need a professional registered with the HPCSA, which publishes its own public list of psychologists, registered counsellors and other registered practitioners.
If cost is the barrier
Ask about sliding-scale fees, and consider community and NGO counselling services, employee assistance programmes, and university training clinics, which are often free or low cost.

Membership of HICS is voluntary. There are good counsellors in South Africa who are not members, and the word counsellor is not reserved in law, so not being listed here is not a mark against anyone. What a listing gives you is something you can check.

If something goes wrong

Anyone may raise a concern about a member.

You do not need to be their client. A family member, an employer, another professional or a member of the public may raise a concern. HICS is not yet receiving complaints, so start with What you can do now, below.

When the route opens, a complaint will be decided through a set procedure: the member is told what is alleged, they have a fair opportunity to respond, an impartial panel decides, reasons are given in writing, and there is a right of appeal. Where a breach is established, the outcome can range from a formal warning, through conditions on practice, to suspension or removal from membership.

A member cannot escape a complaint by resigning. HICS keeps jurisdiction over conduct that happened while the person was a member.

Raising a concern with HICS does not stop you going to the police, or to any statutory body, and it is not a substitute for doing so where a criminal offence may have occurred.

What you can do now

That does not leave you without options. None of these wait for HICS.

  1. If a crime may have been committed, contact the police.

    Sexual assault, sexual contact with a child, threats and theft are criminal matters. That route does not depend on HICS, is not affected by whether a complaint is also made to it, and does not wait for HICS to exist.

  2. Write down what happened, with dates, while it is fresh.

    What was said, when, and by whom. Keep appointment records, messages, invoices and anything else that fixes the sequence. A record made at the time is worth far more than one reconstructed later, and it is what any complaint would rest on.

  3. Check whether the person is registered with the HPCSA.

    Some counsellors hold a statutory registration as well. Where they do, the HPCSA has its own complaints process, which is independent of HICS and is open now.

  4. Tell someone you trust, and get support for yourself.

    Being harmed by a counsellor is isolating in a particular way, because the person who caused it was the person you went to for help. The crisis lines at the top of this page are there for that, not only for emergencies.

  5. Keep your record for HICS’s own route.

    Complaints are not open yet: the procedure is drafted but not adopted, and there is no one appointed to receive them. When that changes it will be said here. A clear record helps whichever route you use, now or later.

How raising a concern works

HICS is a voluntary, non-statutory membership body. Membership is not a legal requirement to practise, confers no statutory authority, and is not equivalent to registration with the Health Professions Council of South Africa.

Humanitas Independent Counselling Society membership designation. Not a statutory registration.