The Association for Psychological Therapies offers the following levels of accreditation for practitioners of Positive Behavior Support, intended to provide a clear and transparent record of the level competence you are maintaining and to be of high relevance to employers.
The accreditation is given weight by over 150,000 professionals having attended APT courses and thereby gained APT accreditation in their course-subject at levels ranging from 1 to 5, from introductory to advanced.
You might consider levels 1 to 3 as being where you are acquainting yourself with Positive Behavior Support. At levels four and five you might reasonably describe yourself as specialising in Positive Behavior Support. Always assuming that you have a relevant underpinning professional qualifications such as psychology, psychiatry, mental health nursing, occupational therapy, or social work.
The Levels below refer to the accreditation you acquire by attending APT training, or by submitting a record of equivalent training you have received from elsewhere for verification by the APT (note, the training must have been completed within the last 3 years).
APT Accreditation, Level 1 in Positive Behavior Support is the level of accreditation you obtain by attending APT's Positive Behavior Support course.
Your accreditation currently lasts for 3 years, and is renewable by submitting evidence of practice, and your reflections on that practice, and the prevailing fee. (There is a form available for this, click here.)
APT Accreditation, Level 2 means you have received training as in Level 1, and also passed the APT's online exam in PBS.
Your accreditation lasts for 3 years from the date you completed Positive Behavior Support or equivalent, and is renewable by sitting and passing the online exam again and paying the prevailing fee.
APT Accreditation, Level 3 means that you have Level 2 accreditation and
- EITHER have attended at least a further 3 days training in PBS or a qualifying subject (qualifying courses from the APT include: Motivational Interviewing, and Solution-Focused Therapy Essentials).
- OR can submit evidence of having undertaken formally supervised practice of PBS for at least 6 months since attending Positive Behavior Support or equivalent.
Level 3 accreditation lasts for 3 years, and is renewable by submitting evidence of practice and reflections on that practice, with the prevailing fee. (There is a form available for this, click here.)
APT Accreditation, Level 4 means you have Level 3 accreditation and have attended a minimum of at least 3 additional days qualifying training, which will probably be APT's PBS Masterclass or equivalent.
Level 4 accreditation lasts for 3 years, and is renewable by submitting evidence of PBS practice and your reflections on your practice, with the prevailing fee. (There is a form available for this, click here.)
APT Accreditation, Level 5 requires you to have Level 4 accreditation in PBS and additionally submit a set project to an acceptable standard. The purpose of the project is to illustrate that you can effectively apply the knowledge and skills gained from your training to a clinical situation. The pass level for this is demanding, in that the project needs to be at a standard that could be published on this site as an example of APT's Level 5 accreditation in PBS.
Level 5 accreditation is renewable by submitting evidence of practice and your reflections on it, with the prevailing fee. (There is a form available for this, click here.)
The APT Accreditation System ❯
Motivational Interviewing Accreditation ❯
Solution-Focused Therapy Accreditation ❯
Trauma-Focused CBT Accreditation ❯
The majority of our mental health training courses are provided this way - we come to you and train a group of up to 15 people for an all-inclusive fee.
Obtain APT-quality input at a time that is convenient to you and minimizes the need for 'cover' normally associated with training.