Governing principles and practices of EAIP

1. Title

The name of the company is European Association for Integrative Psychotherapy Company Limited by Guarantee (hereinafter referred to as the “EAIP”).

2. Aims

The EAIP was founded in February 1993 and has the following aims:

(I) To promote and extend the practice and development of Integrative Psychotherapy in Europe and to consolidate its position within the profession of psychotherapy.

(II) To promote and assist in the promotion of post graduate training and post qualification training in Integrative Psychotherapy.

(III) To promote the highest standards of clinical and ethical practice.

(IV) To promote research and education in the theory and practice of Integrative Psychotherapy.

(V) To provide accreditation of training courses in Integrative Psychotherapy for member organisations of EAIP.

(VI) To promote the training of Supervisors and Trainers in approaches in Integrative Psychotherapy.

In furtherance of the above objectives but not further or otherwise, the EAIP shall have the following powers:

(a) To represent member organisations to National, European and International Associations for psychotherapy and to other professions, institutions and governments.

(b) To encourage the exchange and understanding of different theoretical and practical approaches to Integrative Psychotherapy.

(c) To do all such things as shall further the above objectives.

3. Membership

Membership is open to organisations which support the aims and objectives of the EAIP. There are five categories of membership:

• Three forms of Organisational Membership: Full membership, Provisional Membership and Associate membership;
• Two forms of Individual Membership: Individual Practitioner Membership and Ex Officio Individual Membership.

Forms of Organisational Membership

1. Full membership:Full membership shall be for organisations having significant commitment to Integrative Psychotherapy (and who comply with conditions for membership under 4(II) a,b,c,d,e).
2. Provisional  Membership:Provisional  membership shall be for organisations which do not yet fulfil all the conditions for full membership but should be able to remedy such minor failure/s as to be able to fulfil all the conditions within two years of the commencement of provisional membership.
3. Associate Membership: Associate membership is for organisations with an interest in Integrative psychotherapy or having relevant links with Integrative Psychotherapy but who are not eligible for, or wanting full membership.

Forms of Individual Membership

1. Individual Membershipis open to Individual Integrative Psychotherapistswho do not belong to an Organizational Member of EAIP, and who fulfil the accepted standards required of practitioner members of Organisational Members.
2. Individual Ex Officio Membershipis for trusted individuals who have a valid and essential non-psychotherapy contribution to make to EAIP
3.  Holders of ECIP automatically become individual members of the EAIP, providing they continue to pay their annual fees.

Individual Members are non-voting but otherwise may access all relevant aspects of membership of EAIP.

4. Application for membership of the EAIP

(I) All applications for Full, Provisional or Associate, Individual Practitioner or Individual Ex Officio membership shall be submitted to the Registrar of EAIP.

(II) An organisation applying for Full membership of the EAIP shall fulfil the following conditions:

(a) It shall support the aims and objectives of the EAIP.

(b) It shall possess an accountable administrative structure, such as a constitution or the equivalent, which is comparable with the constitution of the EAIP.

(c) It shall possess a membership, of any standing, of no fewer than 30 persons.

(d) It shall have been in existence as an integrative psychotherapy organisation for a minimum of three years.

(e) It shall have a code of ethics that is comparable with the Ethical Guidelines of the EAIP.

(III) An individual applying for Individual Membership of the EAIP shall fulfil the accepted standards required of practitioner members of Organisational Members, regardless of whether or not they belong to such an organisation. Those who are practitioner members of a full organisational member are deemed eligible by virtue of that membership and may receive the ECIP and become an individual member. Others follow the application procedure and are assessed by the membership committee.

5. Selection to Membership

Applications for Full Organisational Membership shall be as Training Organisations or as Accrediting Organisations. Applications for this standing as Training Organisation will comply with the criteria below for Training Organisations. Applications for this standing as Accrediting Organisations will require to show that their procedures ensure an equivalent quality and competence in accredited practitioners as will be accomplished through trainings in Organisations accepted as Full Members as Training Organisations.

(I) Applying for Full Membership

(a) Organisations making application for full membership will describe, in writing, their practice and their selection and training procedures, and/or accreditation procedures, which shall be congruent with training criteria for Training Organisations,  including length and frequency of training, requirements for personal therapy, and methods and standards used to evaluate trainers.

(b) EAIP requires that trainees of member organisations must have personal psychotherapy congruent with their training.

(c) The EAIP requires that in the final assessment of the trainees at least one person must not be one of the candidate’s primary trainers, supervisors or therapists and should come from outside the organisation.

(d) The applicant organisation, if a training organisation, is required to supply the assessor with copies of all its literature, training brochures, details of the extent and breadth of the training modules, recommended reading lists, details of who is teaching what, samples of its written training material, requirements for completion of training, and details of its accreditation requirements and procedures. Should the applicant organisation be an accrediting body, they will be required to show that they have considered the above in the recognition of training courses.

(II) Assessing Applications for Membership

(a) All applications are initially considered by the Registrar to assess their general suitability.

(b) The Membership Committee, as authorised by the Executive Committee, will appoint assessor/s to process the application. This may be a senior member of a member organisation which fulfils the criteria for full membership.

(c) Applicant organisations are expected to pay for the reasonable travel costs of the appointed assessor, at the discretion of the appointed assessor.

(d) The assessor will complete the assessment against the relevant criteria; compile a written assessment report; and make recommendations to the Executive Committee. Having considered the report, the Executive Committee will vote on whether, or not, to make a recommendation for acceptance into membership to the Voting Membership.

(e) Election to Individual Membership shall be at the discretion of the Executive Committee on the recommendation of the Registrar. In assessing the suitability of those who apply for individual membership, the Registrar shall make such relevant enquiries as they believe appropriate. If the individual fulfils the conditions, they will be considered at the next meeting of the Executive Committee.

(III) Approving new Organisational Members

(a) Organisational membership (Full, Provisional or Associate) will be granted only if agreed by a two-thirds majority of the Voting Membership on the recommendation of the Executive Committee. 

(b) The decision of the Voting Membership will be final. Organisations not admitted to full membership may re-apply the following year, but not more than twice consecutively.

6.Composition of the Executive Committee

No person shall be a member of the Executive Committee unless they are a representative of an organisation that is itself a full member, or eligible (by suitability) as an Individual Member.

The Executive Committee will consist of Officers and Company Directors as follows:

The President, Vice-President, General Secretary, Chair of the Membership Committee, Registrar and the Treasurer as elected by the voting membership at AGM, and the Company Directors as registered with the Companies Registration Office. Company Directors may or may not overlap roles with some Officer’s role. 

7. Duties of the Executive Committee

The Executive Committee shall carry out the decisions and policies of the EAIP agreed by the Voting Membership at the Annual General meeting.

(I) A quorum of the Executive Committee shall be one quarter of the membership of the Executive Committee plus one.

(II) The Executive Committee may, normally, co-opt up to three persons from among Full member organisations, either for a specific task or to fill a casual vacancy until the next Annual General Meeting.

(III) The Executive Committee shall normally meet face to face at least once a year. It shall liaise by teleconference, e-mail or other appropriate means during the year. The Executive Committee shall convene the Annual General Meeting and such other meetings as are required.

(IV) The Executive Committee may appoint from among its members such other Officers as it deems appropriate such as Minutes Secretary, Public Relations Officer, etc, in order to carry out its business. The elected and appointed officers of the Executive Committee shall be responsible for the executive processes of the EAIP.

(V) The Executive Committee may appoint such sub-committees, working parties or other groups as are needed to further the aims and objectives of the EAIP, provided always that such bodies report back their actions and proceedings to the Executive Committee promptly. At each meeting the Executive Committee shall review the proceedings of any working parties so appointed.

(VI) The Executive Committee shall have the power to adopt and issue standing orders and/or rules of procedure which shall be subject to review by the Annual General Meeting and which shall not be inconsistent with the provisions of the constitution.

(VII) Tenure of office of the Executive officers of the Executive Committee:

Officers are elected for a term of two years. Elected officers who have served their 2 year term, may offer themselves for re-election except that normally no person may serve in the same role in the Executive for more than six years consecutively. Where relevant, shadow Executive Officers’ posts may be designated and filled by election.

8. General Meetings

(I) General meetings shall be called by giving at least thirty days’ notice in writing to all member organisations. The notice shall include the date, time and place of the meeting and the agenda, and may include such other information as necessary. Items, other than items on the agenda can only be raised for discussion at the discretion of the Chairperson.

(II) No decision shall be taken at any general meeting unless there is a quorum of 25% of the member organisations plus one.

(III) Member organisations may submit items for the agenda by notifying the Registrar in writing at least 8 weeks before the date of the meeting, and such properly notified items must appear on the agenda. A general meeting shall be called within 20 weeks if six member organisations notify the President in writing of their wish for such a meeting. A General Meeting may also be called by the Executive Committee.

(IV) All organisations, whether Full, Provisional or Associate members, are welcome to send representatives, either elected or nominated by the organisation concerned, to General Meetings of the EAIP. They will be entitled to speak and be eligible to one vote per Full member organisation. Any such organisation unable to be present at a meeting may arrange with another organisation, or representative of another organisation to represent it. Individual Members may attend but not vote unless Members of the Executive Committee.

9. Annual General Meeting

(I) One general meeting each year shall be the Annual General Meeting, and this shall take place within 15 months of the previous Annual General Meeting.

(II) The meeting will consider reports from all members of the Executive Committee who are Chairs of committees and sub-committees, and elect or appoint auditors.

(III) The Annual General Meeting shall set the level of subscriptions to the EAIP, and other changes where necessary.

10. Voting rights and procedures

(I) Voting rights will be reserved for Organisations in Full membership on the basis of one vote for each organisation.

(II) Provisional and Associate members and Individual Members will have participant non-voting rights but may stand (if deemed eligible by suitability), nominate, second the nominations of others or be elected to the Executive Committee, the Committees or Offices of the EAIP.

(III) A Full member organisation unable to be present at a meeting may arrange with another organisation to vote on its behalf whether at its discretion or as specifically directed, but this vote shall only be valid if the organisation that is unable to be present notifies the Registrar in writing 10 days before the meeting of its intention to be absent and specifies the organisation or representative of the organisation authorized to vote and if this organisation notifies the President of its agreement to act at the beginning of the meeting.

11. Withdrawal of Membership of an Organisation

(I) Any complaint about a member organisation made in writing to the President shall be notified to the next meeting of the Executive Committee.

(II) If the Executive Committee has reasonable cause to believe that an organisation has ceased to meet the criteria of membership of the EAIP, it shall require the representatives of that organisation to discuss the matter with the Executive Committee or one or more members of the Executive Committee appointed for that purpose.

(III) If the Executive Committee come to the opinion that the criteria for the relevant category of membership are no longer met, it shall draw this to the attention of the representatives and require the organisation either to take action to meet the criteria or to withdraw from the EAIP.

(IV) If the organisation shall not satisfy the Executive Committee and shall not resign, the Executive Committee will propose a motion at the next General Meeting (which may be called for the purpose) that the membership of the organisation be withdrawn. The motion shall be carried if it receives a majority of two-thirds of the votes cast.

(V) No organisation may be deemed to be a member organisation of the EAIP unless it has been granted membership by General Meeting, nor may organisations whose membership has been terminated by a vote at a General meeting continue to claim membership of the EAIP. In such a case the matter will be reported to the EAP.

(VI) If a member organisation fails to pay its annual membership fee by the decreed time and is thus not a fully paid up member, then the Executive Committee may declare that the member organisation has forfeited its right to vote at the next Annual General Meeting. If it continues to be in arrears of its membership fees after such an Annual General Meeting, then the Executive Committee will propose at the next Annual General Meeting that the membership of the organisation be withdrawn.

12. Review of Full Organizational Membership

The Membership Committee may review full members of the EAIP once every seven years and report the outcome of such reviews to the next Annual General meeting, with reference to the EAIP evolving standards and criteria.

13. Amendment to Governing Documents

Notification of proposed amendments to the Constitution, the Governing Principles and Practices of EAIP, and other motions is to be given to the membership at least 14 days in advance of the General Meeting. Amendment to the Constitution or the Governing Principles and Practices of EAIP can be made only if the motion proposing it shall receive a two-thirds majority of the votes cast at a General Meeting.

14. Termination of EAIP

The EAIP may be terminated at a General Meeting only if the motion proposing it shall receive a two-thirds majority of the votes cast. Following such a decision any money, goods or property owned by the EAIP shall, after the satisfaction of all proper debts and liabilities, be transferred to an organization with similar aims, then to the World Health Organization.