"Psychologist" is not a protected title and anyone can use it. "
Clinical psychologist"
is a protected title, and one that requires an extremely high level of training and very strict professional standards. I imagine that the overwhelming majority of the population are completely oblivious to this distinction.
The BACP's standards really aren't very high, as you can qualify for membership after a one-year part-time course and a few weeks of work experience. Their disciplinary procedures are, in my opinion, almost entirely ineffectual. They undertake no meaningful monitoring of accredited members, relying solely on complaints from members of the public. Out of tens of thousands of registered members, only a single-digit number are subject to disciplinary action every year. The findings of the few disciplinary hearings they do actually conduct suggest to me that they are perfectly happy to allow lazy, feckless and incompetent practitioners to remain on their register, with only a perfunctory slap on the wrist.
BACP membership is of course entirely voluntary and in no way necessary in order to practice as a counsellor or psychotherapist.
https://www.hcpc-uk.org/news-and-events/blog/2023/understand...
https://www.bacp.co.uk/about-us/protecting-the-public/profes...