A shared framework for a real profession
Coaches, mentors, hypnotherapists, sophrologists, psychopractitioners, supervisors: skills that are learned and demanding, and no shared reference point to account for them. CARPEA produces that reference point, and releases it to the commons.
A framework that belongs to no one
The Competency Framework is made available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 free licence (first version). It can be used, cited and adapted without joining. A standard adopted beyond CARPEA is a success for CARPEA.
A plural table, not an owner
Schools, seasoned practitioners, unions and learned institutions sit together. No type of actor holds the majority, the initiator included.
Everything is published
Composition, declared interests, decisions, reasoned refusals, accounts, disagreements. Including the reports that go against us.
These occupations exist. As professions, they do not.
Every day, people are accompanied by someone who is neither a doctor, nor a psychologist, nor a teacher. These acts resemble one another more than we tend to think: a working alliance, a stance held steady, a reading of the situation before any intervention, the steering of a process over time.
And yet there is no protected title, no recognised pathway, no obligation of supervision. Nothing publicly distinguishes the person who has honed their practice for ten years from the person who took a weekend course.
This absence costs everyone. The public, who have no reliable reference point for choosing. Serious practitioners, who carry the burden of their own legitimacy alone. Schools, whose rigour goes unseen. Funders, who buy by the hour for want of a grammar of quality.
Seven strata, from the relational foundation to transmission
Nothing sound is done without a bond. Nothing is framed without a stance. No one intervenes without having read the situation. No one steers without method. And no one lasts in this work without reflexivity.
The foundation (S0) is common to every occupation within the scope; the summit (S6) concentrates on those who supervise and transmit. The three cross-cutting dimensions are not added on top of the strata: they accompany the whole ascent, from bottom to top.
Four readings, depending on where you come from
Check before you commit
Ten questions to ask, six warning signs that should give you pause. Valid for any professional, including one of ours.
Read the checklist →Have your path recognised
Three tiers, published thresholds, a peer interview. And a route open to those who trained in the field.
See the criteria →Make your rigour legible
Anchor your own framework to the Framework without giving it up, and publish what you cover, as well as what you don't.
Discover the Framework →What we publish
Composition, interests, decisions, accounts, disagreements, unfavourable reports. With the deadlines we set ourselves.
See our transparency →What signatories bind themselves to
A common language
Adopt the Framework as a shared reference, without giving up your method or your identity.
A legible progression
Publicly describe the level expected at each stage, from beginner to transmitter.
A written code of ethics
An enforceable code, known to the person being accompanied, with a real avenue of recourse.
Supervision as a condition
And not as a response to failure. No one should work alone over the long term.
The boundary of care
Understanding a situation is not diagnosing a disorder. Referring on is an act of competence.
Working in the open
Publish the texts, the criteria, the revisions, and the disagreements.
This table is being set now, and it is not yet complete
We are looking for seasoned practitioners from several families of practice, schools ready to make their rigour legible, professional organisations, and researchers willing to contradict us. The texts presented here are meant to leave your hands changed.