ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the progress of counselling provision in primary care against the backdrop of the history of the National Health Service (NHS) and the rapid changes which have occurred over the last two decades. The rapid changes over the past twenty years have put counselling and counsellors in primary care in a tenuous position, since they are frequently in the firing line when financial cuts have to be made in order to balance budgets within this part of the NHS. With the NHS moving towards becoming a commissioning service, where there will be commissioning of existing "private" agencies, companies, and individuals to provide identified services, counsellors and psychotherapists could become extremely professionally vulnerable. Regulation for psychological therapies is an imminent reality, and the reader would do well to take steps to ensure that they are suitably qualified for future employment in the primary care setting.
