Welcome to the SHTC & the Register of Independent General and Holistic Therapists


We are a UK Based professional association of therapists and life coaches formed to represent those therapists and coaches who have externally accredited qualifications to appropriate standards. We exist to enable the public to contact appropriately qualified therapists, and to provide professional support and registration for our members.

We are commencing a re branding process and will be changing our brand to the Register of Independent General and Holistic Therapists over the course of 2018. SHTC and RIGHT remain legal entities that are part of Scotlandtherapy Partners.

Types of therapy our members provide

Our members have trained in a wide range of complementary health therapies, solution focused therapies, holistic therapies and models of Life Coaching and Cognitive Behavioural Coaching. These include massage and physical therapists, cognitive behavioural coaches and trainers, holistic health therapists, life coaches, NLP practitioners, Hypnotherapists and aromatherapists. 

Basic standards expected of all our members
  • All practitioners registered with the SHTC must carry professional insurance at a minimum level of £1 million.

  • Associate and Full level practitioners will hold a Level 3 or above externally accredited award in an appropriate subject. This includes awards externally accredited by QCA / SQA approved awarding bodies, NQF approved appropriate courses, University courses, University Degrees and University Post Graduate awards. Some known colleges and professional bodies are permitted Associate or full status for their members without external accreditation, and full membership is permitted for graduates already registered with a PSA AR or SR. (exceptions see below).

  • All members must adhere to appropriate National Occupational Standards for therapies used.

  • All members must adhere to the Society codes of conduct and ethics and use logos and letters according to the code.

  • Members must adhere to other legal requirements in the UK including child protection, data protection, health and safety, trading and advertising standards, tax registration, statutory registration if required by certain professions.

  • International members must adhere to the appropriate laws and legislation of their Country / State.

  • We do not accept graduates of Stonebridge Associated Colleges (although graduates who have other appropriate awards from elsewhere are welcomed, on the basis of those awards ONLY. This includes ALL of their other names used by SAC and their related bodies including Online academies). If you are a Stonebridge Graduate, your SAC awards are not considered in any application. Please note that Online Academies and SAC are aware that we do NOT accredit them (since 2015). All potential applicants are warned that SHTC written courses sold by Stonebridge or any of their other names are NOT accepted and are not sold under any valid copyright agreement. If you have been sold any of our courses by these colleges, you are advised to ask for your money back, and to report them to Trading Standards for selling courses without permission, and with false claims of accreditation.

  • We do not accept graduates of "Ofcourse" automatically since some of their course graduation levels are not in adherence with our standards. We will consider graduates on individual merit. 

  • If we are not satisfied or content with applications we reserve the right to refuse membership as a private company.

  • If you are not 100% sure of your qualification to join, do NOT sent payment. Ask first. Payments made without prior certainty of adherence to our rules are not refundable outside of normal trading standards.