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Most UK Therapists Think the Nation's Mental Health Is Getting Worse

BACP's 2025 Mindometer, a survey of nearly 3,000 therapists, found that almost two thirds think the public's mental health has deteriorated over the past year. This includes practices like yours.

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When most of a profession says things are getting worse, practices in that profession would do well to plan for busier waiting rooms, not quieter ones.

Original ResearchBACP's annual member survey on the state of the nation's mental health, this time with a fairly grim consensus.
Sourcehttps://www.bacp.co.uk/about-us/about-bacp/bacp-mindometer/
OverviewBACP polled 2,980 of its members on UK mental health trends, publishing the results as its 2025 Mindometer.
Year2025
PublisherIndustry body, BACP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy)
Relevance to WellbeingDirect read on how the UK's own therapists are experiencing demand and severity right now, from inside the room.
Our VerdictToo early to tell A large, current sample of therapists' own opinions, which is valuable, but it is still opinion, not diagnosis.
Our Summary
  • Nearly 3,000 respondents is a proper sample, not a hunch dressed up as a headline.
  • It comes straight from the professional body therapists themselves belong to, so nobody had to go hunting for relevance.
  • It measures therapists' perception of the public's mental health, not the public's mental health directly.
  • Self-reported survey data from members of an association is not the same as independently verified clinical evidence.
Our Geo ViewUK-specific. BACP surveys UK-based members about the UK public, so this does not travel well to other health systems.
Abstract of wellbeing niches and revenue flow
Recognise how this might impact your practice

Why this might matter to you

  • Coaching: This matters because if therapists are seeing more distress, coaches downstream of them will likely meet clients further along that same slope.
  • Therapy: This matters because it is your own colleagues confirming what your appointment book has probably already told you.
  • Training: This matters because a workforce under more strain needs more people trained to support it, not fewer.
  • Alternative Healing: This matters because rising distress tends to widen, not narrow, what people are willing to try.
  • Clinical: This matters because clinical referral pathways get busier when the public's baseline mental health drops.
  • Retreat/Centre: This matters because centres offering respite are exactly what people reach for when everyday coping starts to wear thin.

Where this came from

BACP asked its members what they were seeing in the therapy room, and most of them said it was getting worse out there.

British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, Mindometer 2025, published on the BACP website.

Methodology: annual member survey, sample size 2,980 therapists, publisher type is a professional body reporting on its own membership.

How we scored this

A relevance score out of 100, built from three things: how well it fits the six practice types, how recent it is, and how solid the methodology behind it is.

93%
Practice fit, 100How new, 100How solid, 75

Marked down slightly on how solid the method is, since this is self-reported perception from a professional association's own members rather than independently verified data, though it scores well on practice fit and recency.

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It's worth considering changes to your marketing practices

What this means for your marketing

  • Put a line on your website acknowledging that demand for support has been rising, not falling.
  • Say plainly on your booking page that longer waits reflect wider pressure on the profession, not your own disorganisation.
  • Brief front-of-house or admin staff so they can mention this context calmly if clients ask why availability is tight.
  • Use the 2,980-therapist figure, not vague phrases like "many therapists say", if you quote this stat anywhere.
  • Review your waitlist messaging so it reads as capacity management, not a sign something is wrong with your practice.

Who this is most useful for

Practice typeRelevanceRecommended action
CoachingMediumNote rising baseline distress when framing coaching versus therapy referrals.
TherapyHighUse the stat directly in waitlist and demand messaging.
TrainingMediumReference workforce strain when marketing CPD or new practitioner courses.
Alternative HealingLowMention broader context sparingly, without borrowing clinical authority you don't have.
ClinicalHighAlign intake messaging with expected referral pressure.
Retreat/CentreMediumPosition respite offerings against rising everyday strain.

Best before

Best before: BACP runs Mindometer annually, so treat this as current until the 2026 edition lands, then swap the figures out.

What next?

If your own diary has been busier and heavier this year, you are not imagining it, and neither are the 2,980 therapists who said the same thing.

Talk to us about Whole-practice Marketing

Therapy Space

Well. Here We Are At The Bottom.

The best practitioners always find their way here. We have a story garden, a listening wind and a visual river waiting to make sense of themselves - they do, beautifully, in a twenty-five-minute conversation over a good coffee. How do you take it?

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