COSRT: an incomplete timeline
Fifty years of milestones, remembered and told by the alumni — from a founding meeting in 1976 to the association COSRT is today. It is deliberately incomplete: the story grows as more memories and material are shared.
-
A group of interested professionals formed the Association of Sexual and Marital Therapists. Each of the three conferences a year attracted more members, and numbers grew rapidly. May Duddle was chair from 1976 to 1978, then David Clegg to 1980, and Alison Clegg chaired to 1982. Links to the World Association of Sexology, the European Federation of Sexologists and the British Association for Counselling were forged early on — the fields needed to learn from each other.
-
The first five training courses launched: Rugby, Edinburgh, Sheffield, London (Maudsley) and London (St George's). Trainers learned from each other, sharing experiences of this new discipline from differing perspectives. Membership grew.
-
ASMT was represented by Mike Crowe at the Rugby conference, the precursor of UKCP — a link retained today in the College for Sexual and Relationship Psychotherapy. Geoff Macabee was chair at this point, followed by Mike Crowe from 1984 to 1986.
-
The Code of Ethics and Practice was launched — the only therapy organisation in the field to have one at the time. When it was presented to the European Federation of Sexologists, many European organisations hastened to follow the lead.
-
The journal Sexual and Marital Therapy was first published, edited by Alan Riley and Paul Brown — a journal that remains an internationally recognised source of excellence today.
-
Liz Stanley was chair from 1986 to 1988.
-
Big advances: a constitution was created, a new level of Accredited Membership was introduced, and ASMT became the British Association for Sexual and Marital Therapy (BASMT), registered as a charity. Grahame Cooper was chair, and suffered a head injury during his term; Marj Thoburn provided support and followed him into the role from 1992 to 1994.
-
Supervisor Accreditation and a Fellowship scheme were being developed, although neither launched at that time. More training courses had been developed and were running successfully, so membership expanded again.
-
Alison Clegg stepped into the chair at short notice, and was succeeded by Margaret Ramage.
-
A robust complaints procedure was launched. Up to that point no complaints had been received, but they soon followed.
-
Brian Daines was chair, and had to deal with a very complicated complaint as well as playing his part in the ongoing innovation and growth of BASRT.
COSRT went online for the first time, with a website created by Kevan Wiley
-
Anne Buggy was appointed secretary — a paid part-time role, and the association's first employee. Until then everything had been voluntary: administrative support from Honorary Treasurer Alan Ingram and Honorary Secretary Faye Cooper, with a number of committees chaired by members and expenses funded by membership and conference fees. In the same year the organisation was renamed the British Association of Sexual and Relationship Therapy (BASRT), and the journal became Sexual and Relationship Therapy.
-
The first chief executive joined, funded by a grant from Pfizer obtained by Tricia Barnes, who chaired from 1999 to 2001.
-
A change in the length of term for chairs: Marj Thoburn returned for three years to 2004, followed by Sally Openshaw, 2004 to 2009. It was she who steered the association through a changing relationship with UKCP — a restructuring that required another name change, to the College of Sexual and Relationship Therapists (COSRT).
-
Peter Bell made it clear that he was Chair of the Board of Trustees, changing the emphasis of the leadership into the one COSRT has today.
-
Trudy Hannington's term as chair, during which the relationship with UKCP was clarified. In 2012 the UKCP College for Sexual and Relationship Psychotherapy finally became the entity it is today, currently chaired by Duncan Branley.
-
Peter Saddington followed Trudy Hannington, then Andrew Galliford-Yates, who appointed John Dodd as chief executive. Andrew was followed by Steve Johnson, and now in 2026 Simon Wilson leads COSRT into a new era.