Governing bodies! Which one??

Hi Jupiter

You can get your insurance through Towergate professional indemnity insurance, then the choice is open to you as to if you wish to join a therapy trade organisation or not 🙂

Hi ya Jupiter

Yes isn't it a bit of a minefield.

The largest two (to my knowledge) multi-therapy organisations are FHT and CThA (Embody) with reasonabiliy (cant spell) priced insurance. But like Paul says if you have a independant insurance policy you can pick and choose, though will cost a bit more. These associations (and others) are at the end of the day are businesses offering services to other businesses (ie therapists), so it is good to shop around.

Try:

Best Wishes

RP

Thanks Paul and Pixie, I hadn't thought of it that way! I'm already a member of Embody and I have student insurance through them but of course I can keep membership and get insurance elsewhere!
Thanks for pointing out the obvious to me! I've often been told that I can see the bigger picture but never the little one that is right in front of me!:confused:

So, just for interest, do you belong to a governing body? If so, which one and what do you think of them?

Thanks again!

J x

No I left mine when they decided to put us forward for voluntary regulation without asking the people who pay them, if we wanted to go down that road.

Hi Everyone,

I was just about to post a message along the same lines as Jupiter, although off on a bit of a tangent! I'm coming up to completing my Holistic Massage Therapy diploma with MTI and want to go onto to train as an aromatherapist.

There are only a couple of courses in Norfolk doing this, but they're not very holistic, so I'm looking at doing it by correspondance. This is a minefield, too!! I of course, want it to be accredited. I can't figure out if there's a governing bobd linked to aromatherapy -there seems to be lots. I've sort of settled on a course from <a class="go2wpf-bbcode" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="www.bsygroup.co.uk">www.bsygroup.co.uk , but would appreciate other people's opinions on this.

(this is the first post I've put on here, so hello!!) xx

Hi ya

Jupiter: I belong to Embody/CThA and the Association of Reflexologists. I not biased towards these organisations, it just my perceived convenience and personal choice. They are others, but organisations like Embody, AoR, and of course FHT do look after the interests (I hope) of us practitioners. But if they don't, fire them! Sounds like Paul has already has. One thing I would be positive about Embody is that the insurance policy is pretty good, and their therapist search engine is very good, much better than others.

reepicheep: I can understand that you wish to progress in your training, but a correspondance course in Aromatherapy is not the way to go, unless it has mountains of practical workshops and exceptable to associations and insurance providers. If you go the student and training forum, you will find many threads about such courses. Personally I wouldn't let anyone who has just studied a BSY aromatherapy touch me with a barge pole, let along give them money. There is nothing wrong in personal study and even distance learning, but there is no short cut in proper professional training. Even if the courses local to you are not very holistic, you can make them holistic with personal study and CPD training. As for governing bodies - who knows. The main aromatherapy organisation is the Aromatherapy Council and that has just closed and has become a therapy forum. Hardly anybody joined them. If a course isn't a minimum of a NVQ level 3 ie ITEC, VTCT, APNT and a few others I can't remember, you are pouring money down the drain. Welcome to HP and hope you enjoy yourself.

Best Wishes

Reiki Pixie

I am in the same posts. I am a newly qualified complementary therapist and am looking into insurance. Narrowed it down to FHT and Ctha but finding it difficult to understand what the fee covers- do I just become a member or do I have indemnity insurance?
My concern with towergate insurance when I looked into them is that they don't require you to send a copy of qualifications which doesn't sit well with me. I might have to go back to my lecturer and ask for help!
P.S love this web site and support network. Thank you to all who contribute.

Well, just because Towergate may not require you to send a copy of qualifications is little concern really.
As far as clients/customers are concerned, they are the ones that would want to know you are qualified, and as long as you've got insurance in case they make some claim against you, and you yourself know you are qualified in what you are doing, then it's not a problem...

The client can see you're qualified (display your certificates in your therapy room)
You know you are qualified.
The client can see you're insured (display your insurance certificate)
You know you are insured.
The Insurance company is happy to deal with any insurance claims (which are unlikely if you are doing things right)

It would only be an issue if you weren't qualified to do what you are doing.

Thankyou and good points energylz. Our lecturer at college said to be wary of insurance companies that don't need certified proof, and being a new start up I want to giveyself the best start. It makes sense that I have correct certificates then if there was a claim I could prove to insurance I'm qualified.
Totally agree that claims won't be an issue as I will be carrying out treatments correctly, but in this era of cold callers asking if you've had a car bump in the past 5 years, or if you've been ill on holiday encouraging claims; It worries me

Well, I know plenty of people who have used Towergate in the past (I did myself).
The other regulatory bodies that offer insurance typically want you to prove your qualifications so that they add you to their list of registered therapists, and the insurance they offer is actually done through a regular insurance company whereby the regulatory body is just acting as a selling agent (so they will get a referral fee back from the company - a way for them to make some money from it). I suspect (though can't be sure) that they don't pass on your prove of qualification to those insurance companies.

At the end of the day, the insurance company is interested in obtaining premiums for things, and basing the cost of those on standard risk assessments, so they know that e.g. something like Reiki is non-invasive and low risk, so are happy to give standard public liability insurance for such things etc. It's slightly different if you're doing something that's invasive, such as acupuncture as the risks and potential for claims is higher, so they may still insure, but the premiums would likely be higher, and they may want to see proof of qualifications for something like that (or may only offer insurance through recognised regulatory bodies)