The Institute of Counselling was founded in 1985 as a Christian based, not for profit independent educational charity. It is committed to promoting pastoral care throughout the services it provides.

The Aims of the Institute of Counselling are:

A to promote the training and development of counselling skills,
B to provide opportunities for continuing professional development,
C to produce and distribute counselling skills training resources and
D to provide a counselling service for individuals needing counselling.
The Institute provides a wide range of counselling and related courses. Students enrol with assurance and confidence on our quality courses, which are fully backed by the experience and resources of the Institute of Counselling.

In its early years the Institute offered only courses in Clinical and Pastoral Counselling, within a pastoral context. Since 1985, over 26,000 students from the UK and overseas have enrolled on these courses.

In recent years the Institute has also produced a selection of further courses which follow the clinical person-centred approach developed by Carl Rogers and others.

The Institute is committed to providing counselling skills training to all who will benefit from the courses. On this basis a non-discriminatory policy is operated with regard to students' background, culture, ethnic origin, gender, age or creed.