Who are you?

The British Infertility Counselling Association (BICA) is the only professional association in the UK for infertility counsellors. We represent the interests, views and needs of members actively involved in infertility counselling and of professionals in related research. We support our members in a variety of ways, and through doing so we support the total well-being of people with fertility problems.

Why, and how, were you founded?

Jennie Hunt, who had been working as a counsellor in the assisted conception field in Australia, returned to the UK in 1985. She was astonished to find that it was difficult to identify counsellors in the 25 UK infertility clinics at that time, and that little networking was happening between those who could be identified. Jennie set about trying to contact counsellors by writing to each clinic. Twenty of the 25 clinics responded and over 60% said that they offered counselling; however, this was usually delivered by a clinician or nurse, with only five clinics using a specifically trained counsellor.

Jennie and the founding committee she gathered around her were concerned that there was no support for, or networking between, infertility counsellors. They also argued against the appointment of non-counsellors to counselling positions and fought for a high standard of training and guidance for …